DE Performance

[broken]

I am trying to remember, but I think all we had to do was the fast start trainings for each program area, and youth protection.

[BadenP]

Hey Broken

If you went to National training in 2006 and are a former DE you only stayed in the profession a year or maybe two, not a very long time. Why did you leave?

[broken]

Three years, just left not to long ago to go back to school. The long hours, driving and all the BS got old. Was tired of no matter how hard I worked, people were there to cut me down. And I am not talking about the professional side of the house.

[BadenP]

Broken

 

I find it hard to believe that all or most of your people were there to cut you down as a DE, unless you maybe weren't doing your job. All of my volunteers in both of my districts and I had great respect for each other, even when we disagreed, same is true for the council staff and board. Yea you work your butt off but most of the time it was well worth it. Sounds like you weren't tuned in very well to the needs of your district and your volunteers, just an observation from your comments.

[broken]

Oh trust me Baden I was, but things like having someone refuse to help the district because district/council didnt give them money to buy a troop trailer, or insure a van they bought. Or the countless times I had volunteers flat out lie to my field director about me/my performance, luckily he knew what they were full of. Maybe it was better where you were/when you were a pro. But where I was, it was all about adult egos and not the kids. Thats what burned me out. To many people thought it was "man Scouts" that they let their kids tag along to.

 

*edit* Not all my volunteers cut me down, in fact some of them I consider friends now. It was some bad apples that spoiled it for me. There was no pleasing some people, even when I bent over backwards for them, it got to the point to where it wasn't worth it anymore.(This message has been edited by broken)

[Eagle92]

BP,

Different councils, different situations. In my council, volunteers were great, but the pros were a different story. We had a very high turnover rate.

[BadenP]

Broken and Eagle,

There will always be a small percentage of those volunteers and pros who may not like you in any council, the trick is how to turn them to your side. Remember your training at National?

We learned how to find that right spot for that problem volunteer in district to make them feel part of the team they had been bashing. As far as pro staff I had three SE's come and go during the almost five years I was there, but I had two districts, was OA Staff Advisor, JLT Staff Advisor, and Asst. Camp Director, so I was pretty busy most of the time. For me making friends was a lot easier than fighting with problem people.

[broken]

Eagle, what do you think is the root of the turnover rate? Why dont they want to stay?

[Eagle92]

In my situation, it was the SE and DFS. Let's face it when a family member calls in to say that a professional won't be able to attend a meeting b/c he's in the ER b/c of an accident, and the DFS doesn't care, he wants him in the meeting in 45 minutes. There's a problem. When a FiD gets a project dumped on him with about 6 weeks to plan and execute, and then the SE wonders why it wasn't successful, there is a problem. When A DE who had surgery, and is suppose to be on "light duties" fro several weeks is told by the DFS that he MUST sleep overnite at a district event about 4-5 days after surgery, there is a problem. When the DFS cancels training 2 days before the pro is suppose to leave, and tells hhim not only is he not going to training, but he has to cut the honeymoon short to attend a meeting AND work summer camp the week after the wedding, there is a problem.

 

Longest 1 pro worked under the SE and DFS was 5 years, and he was still there when they left. The shortest was 28 days, the guy in the ER called the office and tendered his resignation over the phone.

 

One good friend of mine who got all kinds of stuff dumped on him last minute returned the favor. When there was no FD above him amd he was reporting directly to the DFS, he told them that he quit effective immediately over the phone at his new job. This was the week after he scheduled all the Round Ups with the School system, and the DFS had to do the bilk of them.

[broken]

Good lord I would have hated to work at that council! Luckily I was blessed with a great "support" structure of upper mgmt.

[Eagle92]

And that was the professional side. Don't ask what the volunteers thought! I will give you a hint, a volunteer got a case of champaign, threw a party, and got a bunch of UCs registered, basically folks who sid no more to scouting until the SE left.

[SctDad]

Funny thing is, I read over this and until about 2 hours ago, I thought I had a pretty decent DE. She kept me in the loop and things were going OK.

 

That is until 2145. I Get a call from another CM in my county and he asks about our round up. I told him that accorrding to our DE, the last thing that I heard at the last RT, was it would be tommorrow 9/10 at 7pm at the local elem school. He called her and she said that she had postponed it two weeks. This is after the SE has sent out e-mails encouraging everyone to have Round up early. This is also after I asked her to have an early round up because the new boys are missing out on events because they are joining 2 weeks before the camping trip.

 

Now granted I still have not heard from the DE. But the other CM told me about the change in date. I had cancelled our pack meetings tommorrow night so that we could have good leadership representation at the round up. I am not cancelling the den meetings in two weeks. I will get the boys started on their project for the night, and have one of the other leaders there to observe while I run over to the Round up. If I am late than so be it. SHe knows that my meetings are on THursday nights and I cannot keep changing things.

 

So for right now, my DE's score has dropped down a notch or two.

 

So basically thanks for the venting.

[Eagle92]

SctDad,

Our SE is 110% better than the one I worked under, so the council is in good hands. heck my SY wanted to first harvest Camp Charles, then sell it. Also i beleive our DEs are much better off and don't have as much pressure, or other monkeys hanging on their backs.

[broken]

Sctdad... the DE tells you when YOUR units recruitment night will be? When I was a pro, it was up to the packs to schedule them, I would then make sure flyers were printed and approved for the schools, do boy talks (if the school system let us) and then be there the night of to offer any support I could. But I never told a unit when their recruitment was, unless they were really struggling.

[Lisabob]

Sctdad, a DE who tried to tell a unit when their round up would be, or who independently changed the date without permission from the unit leaders, would be in extremely hot water where I am. Units would tell the DE to suck eggs.

 

Most of the time, units just run their own round up anyway. If the DE or somebody from the district membership team is able to stop in (and if they've secured an invite to do so), that's one thing. But it isn't a district function, to schedule or run round ups for a unit.

 

Are you sure the other CM didn't misunderstand something? Call your DE to double check.