Regional Offices to be Closed?

[OldGreyEagle]

Anybody hear the Regional Offices are to be cosed by Dec 31, 2009? And there will be a boatload of new Assistant National Scout Executives?

[SR540Beaver]

I would find that hard to believe as a lot of stuff runs thru regional like Wood Badge and Jamboree. That being said, our council just laid off the Venturing DE. Like other places, Venturing just isn't taking off and they made a decision to pull support out fromunder the districts and create a Venturing "District" complete with a DE, Key 3, FOS, etc. FOS has been down across the board and it looks like cuts are being made. The Venturing DE......who happens to have been the summer camp director for the last several years will be history in 30 days.

 

Would closing the regional offices be part of a reorganization effort or because of budget problems like many councils are experiencing?

[OldGreyEagle]

I may have been too curt, the Regional Offices will be closed, the Regional people will relocate to Texas to offer better services...

[dancinfox]

I received an e-mail from Brad Farmer, the Central Region Director indicating that there are changes coming as of October 1. Bob Mazzuca will take a be leading the national dialogue about the BSA. Assistant Chief Scout Exec. Wayne Brock will take over the day to day operations. Brad Farmer will become ACSE for Development and Alf Tuggle will become ACSE for Resources and Strategy. All the Region offices will close as of 12/31/09 and be relocated to Irving. The Regional Directors will be relocated to Irving by November 1,

David Harrison

[BadenP]

Yeah, thats all we need more deadwood executives at National. I agree with SR540, regional handles a lot of volunteer and professional needs more locally then a centralized core of do nothing ACSE's would be able to do. Besides imagine all the massive travel expenses National would incur sending these bozo's all over the country to put out local fires. Not a very logical or well thought out plan, but again this is Mazzuca's standard MO, act first and worry about the consequences and costs later.

[BadenP]

OGE

 

How do figure the service will be "BETTER". All Mazzuca is doing is promoting some of his buddies and you watch the quality of service start to slide. FYI after meeting and talking to Wayne Brock he couldn't lead a den of Cub Scouts let alone National, lol.(This message has been edited by BadenP)

[SR540Beaver]

I don't know.....I'm in the Southern Region which is based in Kennesaw, GA and I live in Oklahoma City. Having my regional director in Irving, TX might be beneficial in my particular case.

[shortridge]

I don't know enough about the regional offices to comment on that... butas someone who works from home, two hours away from the main office, I'd just observe that service may indeed actually improve, despite the counter-intuitive nature of this move. When you're not "in the face" of your boss or other senior people every day, there's a definite disconnect and loss of efficiency.

 

E-mail, the phone, videoconferencing, online chat - it works decently enough, but there's still a lot to be said for in-person communication. When you're out in the field, you can fall victim to the out-of-sight, out-of-mind syndrome - you're either forgotten or taken for granted.

[scoutldr]

At my level, I didn't even know I had a Regional Director. Won't change my life one iota.

[Oak Tree]

I didn't know there were regional offices, either. Seems like it might save money by closing them - cheaper to have one location with lots of people than five smaller locations. Plus you don't have to pay moving expenses when you reassign someone from one region to another. Ok with me.

[John-in-KC]

Just because the Obama Kool-Aid being served is "Happy Days Are Here Again", does not mean I have to believe it.

 

Reality is the economy still sucks.

 

Yeah, it's not surprising to see the Regional offices close. You can lay off the secretaries, relocate the professionals to Irving, stop the leases on the buildings, and probably save money even in the first year.

 

If I were a betting man, I'd not be surprised to see 2010 FOS be lower than 2009 FOS. Too many people have drunk the Obama Kool-Aid.

[Twocubdad]

I don't really know who works out of the regional offices. Seems like a bunch of admin folks. The Area Directors, who I think do the heavy lifting of supervising councils, already tend to work out of their home or have an office in one of the councils they serve.

 

If camp school materials and registration, jambo registration and the like come out of Irving, I dont' think it will make much difference.

[BadenP]

Twocub

 

FYI, look up the regional office website for your area, look at the directory of the staff, and you will see that your assumptions are in error. In fact most of the paperwork for the events you describe and many others were actually processed at the regional level. The other problem will be getting regional events planned, like sea scout regattas, venturing rendevous, and others will now be much harder to organize. Is that a good thing, you tell me.

Yet National in its wisdom will create multiple higher level ACSE executive positions each with their own staff, watch your council FOS quotas go much higher next year, another well thought out plan by Bobby M.(This message has been edited by BadenP)

[eghiglie]

LOL on this one

 

As a SM for a small Troop I don't think this impacts me that much.

 

With the depression we are currently in if this saves the BSA money than so be it. With membership numbers down this cost cutting move sounds great.

 

What I would really like to see happen is for the folks at my local council to answer the phone and/or return the phone call more promptly. Quite often voice mail tag is played.

[nolesrule]

With only four regions, I'm not so sure having a "local" regional office is all that necessary. Geographically, the regions are so large that they aren't really all that local to begin with. It might work a little better in the smaller NE region, but for the other three, what's the difference between Atlanta, Phoenix and Chicago or Dallas?

 

I don't really see how event planning on a regional level would be affected, as it isn't local to begin with. If a regional event is held in Miami, does it really matter if the planning is done from Atlanta or Dallas?

 

As for processing paperwork, that can be done anywhere.

 

Regional offices, especially when there are only a few regions, are only necessary if you literally need an office full of feet on the ground in that particular locale.