What purpose in life does a District Director Serve?

[ASM162]

As stated in the title of this post, I am wondering what are the duties of a District Director. As far as I know, the DD is not part of the Key 3. (I could be wrong.). It seems to me to be a position for someone who is perhaps too valuable to let go, but not "seasoned" enough for a Scout Executive position. YMMV

[Gold Winger]

In my experience, a District Director is a DE with more responsibilities.

[NeilLup]

I believe that very commonly, a District Director is the senior person in a District and has one or more District Executives report to him/her.

 

Not always, however. There is a progression from District Executive to Senior District Executive to District Director within the BSA. It is a person who has been around for awhile, is paid more, etc.

 

Remembering back to my Air Force days, it's a little like going from 2nd Lieutenant to 1st Lieutenant to Captain. Those were important steps but where I was did not necessarily mean that one was doing a different job. In some cases, a Captain would work side by side as an equal with a 2nd Lt. In others, a Captain might be a senior person who would have several Lieutenants working for him. But a Captain would be expected to know things and do things and, most importantly, not make the rookie mistakes that a 2nd Lt. would make.

[John-in-KC]

My District has 3 counties, 85 Packs, 55 Troops, 15 Teams (fair sized LDS presence) and about 15 Crews.

 

Our DD is the lead professional.

 

A senior DE and a DE report to him.

 

We're also a 300 series (pretty durn big) Council.

[infoscouter]

Like John's, mine is a large district in a large council. Two counties - 44 packs, 28 troops, 20? crews. We have a DD and a DE. Ours is one of two "training districts" in our council. The DD supervises the DE and prepares her/him to move on to a district of her/his own. In the last 9 years we've had one Senior DE and two DDs. The Senior DE moved to the Supply Division. One DD was promoted to Field Director (who reports to the Director of Field Service, who reports to the Scout Exec - told you we were big). There are four or five FDs in the council.

 

In that same time period we've had at least 6 or 7 DEs, they last 18 to 24 months (sometimes less!) and then we farm them out to another district. Our DDs spend a lot of time with the training. And, with a district this size, there's just more stuff to do - so they have split up the duties.

[infoscouter]

Oh, and our DD is part of our "Key 5"; District Chair & Vice-Chair; DD and DE; and District Commissioner.

[Eamonn]

When a District Director grows up he or she becomes a Field Director.

We said good-bye to our SE a little time back.

He went to the big metro Council, next door as a FD. Not such a nice title, but more money.

Last I heard he was on his way to Texas to work in the National Office.

It seems he is going to now work with LFL in the area of Homeland Security???

The guy he replaced is also working in the National Office, he is in charge of collecting bad debts !!

At this rate maybe moving the National Office to PA seems like a good idea.

Ea.

[John-in-KC]

E,

 

Would you settle on a return to New Brunswick?

 

BACK!!!!! To the FUTURE!!!

[ASM162]

Thanks for the info.

The Council that I'm in is not super large - 2 counties, 3 districts.

I was thinking that a DD was kind of a "make work" position for someone who wanted to move up the professional ranks,but the SE didn't quite know where to put him/her; but I do see it now as a position for a senior DE to move into, as his professional career progresses.

Thanks again - the info is greatly appreciated.

 

[Gold Winger]

"Would you settle on a return to New Brunswick?"

 

Canada?

[infoscouter]

New Jersey, I think. The headquarters was there at one point, I believe (before they moved to Irving).

[Eamonn]

Back in 1977 after spending the Summer working as an International Camp Counselor, for which there was no pay!!

The BSA provided a bus for all the ICC's and a tour of the East Coast.

The final stop was at the old National HQ. In New Jersey. It was great a lot of the Rockwell Painting were on display.

The idea of moving the HQ to Canada??

Does have some merit.

Bad thing is that our friends in Canada no longer sing God Save The Queen as often as they used too.

Eamonn.

 

[Bob White]

DD is not always the next step for a Senior DE. I have seen Sr. DEs go directly to a filed director's position. We recently had a senior DE become the council finance director. I was also in a council where the Sr. DE became a council property director in another council.

 

A District Director as stated before manages other DEs and Senior DEs within a district, and can be one of the positions that a Sr. DE is promoted to based on skills, educational background, and previous performance.(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[Narraticong]

BSA Headquarters was actually in North Brunswick, NJ. It's a suburb of New Brunswick, NJ. I grew up a few blocks from Headquarters during the 60's and 70's. My Aunt was secretary to one of the execs and one of my neighbors worked in the art department. My neighbor used my Cub Scout den as models for Scouting Magazine and many various BSA publications. As a Boy Scout I was in several merit badge books and the Fieldbook. Couldn't tell today that I was once a model!

 

Several of my friends were used as calendar models by Rockwell and then later by Csatari. It's kind of cool to point out those people to my Scouts today.

 

Greatest experience I had (didn't realize it at the time) was meeting Green Bar Bill. I knew he wrote for Boy's Life and that he was a cool old guy. But as a young Second Class Scout, I didn't realize just who he was and what he had done for Scouting.

[John-in-KC]

BTW, in our District, it is still Key 3. The Sr DE and the DE have limited speaking roles, in their particular lanes. The DD is responsibile/accountable for all professional service rendered.