DE - On the job training.

[Eamonn]

Many of us who have been around for a while and who have served at District, Council and maybe the Regional level? Have seen DE's come and go.

 

We know that DE's come in all shapes and sizes. Some new DE's take to their new job like a duck to water. Some seem to have a hard time and sadly some never seem to get it.

 

A good pal of mine who has served as a Council Vice President and District Chairman, holds fast to the opinion that young men who are Eagle Scouts make the worst DE's. His argument for this is that they have a hard time seeing the job for what it is and as he puts it "Want to play Boy Scout".

I really don't like generalizations. I'm sure that there are Eagle Scouts who have made wonderful DE's.

For a while our Council was blessed, we had two female DE's. Both had strong ties to the community, before and during their term as DE's. They really were not interested in advancement or promotion. One is still serving while the other (Who is one of my closest and dearest friends.) Took early retirement. She now serves as our District Finance Chair.

Since the one who took early retirement left the District has had a rough ride.

The young man we hired to replace her, while a very nice fellow, just didn't get it.

This was his first real job. I can't remember what his degree was in I think it was French! He had worked at his home council's Cub Scout Camp for a couple of summers.

He had no idea what he was doing.

To be fair to him.

At the time he arrived, the Field Director left to become a Finance Director in another Council.

I was District Chair. But soon after he arrived I had back surgery and to be very honest I just really didn't like him.

He wasn't from our area. For the first few months, everywhere he went he went with map in hand. He of course didn't know anyone.

There was no one in the Council Service Center to train him or take him under their wing. For the first 3 months he kinda hung out at the service center playing games on his computer.

In an effort to save money the Council decided it would be best if he worked from his home office. The end result of this was that I could never get hold of him.

Some of his opinions upset a good many of our faithful volunteers.

My term as District Chair came to an end. I was elated.

For some reason the nominating committee didn't go with the person I had trained and groomed as my replacement. (A local bank president.) Opting to go with a local attorney who had become a friend of the DE.

They also asked someone that I had removed from the District Commissioner position to serve as District Commissioner.

We ended up with 3 people who didn't know what they were doing serving as the key 3.

The attorney didn't serve for a year and just kinda faded away. (He has since been disbarred for embezzlement.)The District Commissioner took his District Chairman spot.

Membership fell to an all time low, units folded, the Commissioner Staff ran to the hills never to be seen again.

The DE was rarely seen.

In fact the Regional Director had to call him into the Service Center to issue him a formal warning.

By this time the District was in shambles, and the DE moved to another Council.

 

I'll admit to having the mindset that volunteers do know a lot more about the program and how things work far more than most new DE's.

While there are Field Directors in many Councils who do have the time to train and oversee new DE'S. Most DE's are taught and learn the ropes from the volunteers.

Of course when the volunteers are not there things get out of whack.

We now have a new DE.

A local guy who earned his Eagle in the District next door. This isn't his first job. He was employed as a fund raiser for a local theater.

The Council President seen how bad things were and asked a Board Member to serve as District Chairman, until such a time as the District Committee can be rebuild.

Things do seem to be coming around.

But the sad fact is that we have lost so many units and members along with losing a lot of community FOS contributions that how long we can afford to pay a DE is questionable.

For a District to function well and meet the goals, a lot of things have to mesh. Most of all there has to be a strong partnership between the professional staff and the volunteers.

There will be times when the volunteers do have to train the DE and there will be times when the DE has to train the volunteers.

Like most things in life we all do learn from each other.

It might be easy to quote from the "Book" but the truth is we do what is needed to get the job done. When we do this working within the parameters of the oath and law things will work out for the best and as they should.

Eamonn

[Lisabob]

When reading stories like these, I count myself among the lucky. When I started getting involved in scouting as an adult leader, I found a good friend in our DE. He ended up doing a lot of things for our unit's leadership that really weren't in his job description (though at the time I did not realize they weren't his to do), because somebody needed to do them. Basically he acted like a really solid unit commissioner ought to act. I learned a lot from him about the ins and outs of how to get things done in our district and council. This fellow stuck with our district for close to a decade, so many scouters now active in units and in the district and council aspect of things, learned a lot of what they know from him.

 

We now have a new DE. She's learning as she goes. She's probably learning more from her volunteers than from the other DEs, when it comes to getting people to do things and trying to manage other adult volunteers (which I think is really tricky under the best circumstances, and harder when the "manager" has no experience/knowledge, no local connections, and is 10+ years younger than most of the "workforce" to boot.) So the roles have reversed and here we are, teaching her what to ask, who to rely upon, and what to avoid like the plague. So far I'll grant that she is open to input and is certainly trying to do the job. I hope that continues.

 

 

[Eamonn]

Lisa,

We the volunteers have no idea where that new DE is going to land or end up.

Historically, because the District which I'm in is the smallest in our Council, new DE's started out with us.

At times some of the District Committee members felt a little cheated because of the investment that had been made training and get this new DE up to snuff, only to see them either move to a bigger District within the Council or move away to be promoted in another Council.

I was spoiled having my good friend serve for nine of the ten years I was serving as District Commissioner and District Chairman.

Our now District Chair. Is a super nice guy. He served as District Chair before when I was on the District Committee. He really does know his way around.

If he has a fault? It is that he is resurrecting a lot of the old timers like myself and not bringing new people on board. (He also serves as the Council Camping Chair and was asked to step Ina's District Chair until the new DE found his feet and a new Chairman could be found.)

The new DE is a super fellow. At one time he was going to be a Roman Catholic Priest.

I kinda got the impression that there was a move to try and bring me back. But to be very honest District Chair was the job I disliked the most. I did have fun and like to think that I did a good job!!

I think if I were to return and serve again I'd also be guilty of not trying to bring new people on board. As it is now I miss working with the people that were on the Committee, most of whom I recruited.

Eamonn.

[Lisabob]

Eamonn,

 

I have to agree that going back and trying to do the job again can be problematic on a number of levels and you're right that the temptation is not to bring in new faces (which is so hard, since it means you need to constantly be updating your pool to draw from). Here's what one fellow did after serving as district chair and council president. He "retired" and asked the new DC to appoint him to a committee where he could just help out from time to time - not run things. I'm so thankful, he ended up as a member of "my" committee. He has connections everywhere and will do most anything I ask him to do. Great guy, still really useful in his new role, still sometimes "training" me but only if I ask.

[infoscouter]

We are one of two "training" districts in our council. These districts are those to which new pros are assigned when they are hired. They are also the two largest districts in the council, in terms of numbers of units served.

 

The DEs are the junior of a two professional team. A DD or Senior DE is assigned in each district. They serve as a supervisor/mentor to the new pro. S/he usually serves 18 mos - three years in the district and then moves on to another district, if a position is open.

 

Consequently, over the years I have seen many DEs come and go. Some lasted as little as 4-6 months before moving on or moving up (mostly up). Our council seems to do a good job of retaining staff and promoting from within when we can. Several of the trainee DEs from our district are still part of the council staff, either as DEs or in other positions.