Who does a DE work for?

[Apache Bob]

Who does the DE work for?

 

The Council or National. Or is it both? If it is the Council how is he/she connected to National. Is there an overlap?

 

[Nike]

Isn't the DE the first level of "Professional Scouter?" Someone who gets paid to wear the uniform by the Council. I would worry less about who the DE works for and more on with whom he works well. If he or she can't relate to the District Committee and thier folks and the unit leaders, he is sunk as an effective DE.

[Eamonn]

DE's are hired and can be fired by the local Council, who pays them. They report to the SE or his appointee to look over them.

Many of their benefits (Retirement, health) are laid down by the National Office.As is the pay scale.

The Region does have a list of what openings are available for someone looking for promotion and a list available to Councils of DE's who have placed their names on the transfer list.

Councils do send DE's to be trained by National. DE's are trained by National, the costs involved in this training is paid for by the local Council.

Eamonn.

[Eagle92]

As a former pro, I can tell you that Eamonn is correct. A DE works for the SE, not the region, not national. HOWEVER regional approves moves, and national sets the payscale, provides training, and provides benefit programs that local council pay for.

[Hawk]

DE's Should be working for all the scouts and scouters under their jurisdiction.

[Apache Bob]

I agree with everyone who said the DE should be working for the Scouts and the program.

My question about the DE was more of a technical question about who he/she works for in the job as a job.

Eamonn and Eagle92 - thanks for your help. I will pass it on.

Thanks again.

[Eagle92]

Hawk,

I wish that was the case, and believe me many a pro wishes it was so, especially with s "challenging" SE, but that is not the case. #1 reason I quit and became a volunteer again.

[scoutldr]

The DE works for the SE, who is the Chief Operating Officer of the Council. In large councils, there may be intermediate supervisors, such as an Asst SE, Field Director, District Director or Senior DE who give them their daily marching orders and monitor performance toward goals (more units, more members and more money).

[Eamonn]

I kinda think that Bob has the info he needed.

I don't know why he needed it.

 

So while maybe I should spin off.

I'm not going to!!

 

I have hear it said that a DE has become too close to the volunteers!

When I first heard this, I raised my eyebrows and was a little taken back.

My thinking then was that a good DE should be close to the volunteers. In fact the success of a District depends on this.

As ever I was guilty of hearing what I wanted to hear.

 

While of course the success does depend on a good working relationship between the volunteers and the professional staff.

A good DE never forgets who signs his / her pay check.

One big thing a District should be doing is supporting the goals of the Council.

As we have seen in the forum these goals might not always seem clear to all the volunteers.

For example. The Council wants as many youth as possible in as many units as possible.

Some volunteers might feel that there is enough units or maybe even too many units in an area.

This can place the DE between a rock and a hard place.

He or she might on a personal level agree with the volunteers.But membership plays a big part of why the DE is there.

Some volunteers see "The Council" as little more than a money hungry bunch of good for nothings, who are only there to sell popcorn and waste the money. (I heard this one about a week back from a new Den Leader who was telling me why her pack didn't sell popcorn) The volunteer who might say this might be a great unit leader who does a wonderful job serving the unit he is in. He might even be a good pal of the DE.

Again this places the DE between a rock and a hard place.

 

I'll admit that when I was District Chair. I was way too close to our DE. I at times went out of my way to get her out of doing stuff that the SE thought she should be doing.

We worked together really well but when it came to the "Council" we had a "US" and "Them" mentality. Something along the lines of "We'll show them"!!

At the time it worked well for everyone and "Them" (The Council) did well from our way of getting things done.

I wonder what might have happened if someone had told her that Eamonn had to go? What would she have done?

My hope is that she would have kept on keeping on.

DE's do at times walk a very thin line.

Eamonn.

[Eagle92]

yep I was one of those DEs who 'got too close to the volunteers." It was very easy to do since #1 they were the best bunch of folks I ever had the pleasure of working with, and #2 I saw some of the internal "challenges" of district membership and did not want to perpetuate that problem. Real interesting situation when at your first RT and you have a list of all your units and when you try to meet all the top unit leaders about a third of them no one has ever heard off.

[Eamonn]

I have at times been asked "Why don't you go and work for the Boy Scouts?"

My answer has changed over the years.

I used to say that "They just don't pay well enough!"

The truth was back then I needed more than what was being paid. So I couldn't afford to work for the Boy Scouts.

DE's in our area do fairly well, a new DE starts out earning about $7,000 more than a new teacher, in most of our local school districts. The cost of living in my area isn't that high when compared to other areas. (I don't know how anyone could make it on the starting wage if they lived in a big city.)

Over the past few years my answer has been that they couldn't pay me enough in order to take away my being able to tell someone who was being a pain to go take a hike.

In the Council I serve we have or seem to have had more than our fair share of wacky Field Directors (One is still in the big house!) and wacky SE's ((Two now are based in Texas, not because they did such a good job, but because no one else would hire them!)

As a knowledgeable volunteer I was able too in a very nice, very polite way (The accent helps!!) Tell them to go and pound salt.

Eamonn.