Selecting a DE

[CNYScouter]

If you had the chance to select a DE what would you look for?

 

What questions would you ask them?

 

What background do they need?

 

[Eagle92]

Here are my thoughts based upon being a former DE.

 

Background:

 

1) Some experience in scouting, preferably as an adult leader.

2) Older adult who is single or has no children at home and a

VERY understanding wife.

3) Prior military seem to work best form my experience, esp.

those who had recruiter duty

 

More to come.(This message has been edited by eagle92)

[Eagle92]

Ok back; here are some questions:

 

1) Do you know what a DE does exactly?

 

 

2) What experience do you have in scouting as a youth and as an adult?

 

3) What is the role of the district committee that you will be working with.

 

4)Do you realize that you will NOT be working with youth directly, but with adults that support the program?

 

5) What experience do you have fundraising?

 

6) What experience do you have recruiting?

 

7) What expereince do you have organizing and leading program activities?

 

8)Have you had a chance to review information about the council and area, i.e. reviewed council information on the website, looked at information on you area (chamber of commerce, city/county/state governement, etc)?

 

8a) If the candidate has some professional contacts, has he used them to find info about the council and leadership? May want to ask in private away from the pros.

 

9) Have you worked with any DEs, i.e. served on the district committee, shadowed a day in the liffe of a DE, etc?

 

And I am sure others will think of more.

 

I hope some of the questions are self evident. I'd ask #4 to make sure that the candidate doesn't think he will be working with youth, I've seen a few who thought that.

 

I'd ask #8 because I didn't do that. When I visited for the interview, I was in an urban area that was not going to be my district and I thought my district would be like it. WRONG! I was in culture shock for about 6 months. It took some time getting use to the area. EDITED: I grew up in a metro area where the greater metro area was divided into 5 districts. I went to a rural area where my district covered an entire county, and one coworkers covered 5 counties! Only thre urbanized areas: the coast, the former state capitol, and the university town. rest is highly agrarian.

 

I'd ask 8a in private and would go further in that I would recommend that the candidate have his scouting contacts do some asking around. I only asked what they heard about the council, and didn't ask them to ask around. They used the standard resources, i.e. PROSPEAKS, regional quarterly newsletter, etc. and the council looked very good. However if I would have asked them to ask around, I would have learned about some of the "leadership issues" and high turnover rate. Kinda bad when a SE you interviewed with in another council and see at a conference tells you he is sorry to find out you are in ABC's and XYZ's council and that "you need to watch your back with XYZ."

 

The best thing from that time was that I met my wife (This message has been edited by eagle92)

[Eamonn]

By far the best DE we ever had serve in the Council I'm in was a female.

Her only real Scouting experience was that her son had been through Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts ending up as an Eagle Scout.

What made her the best?

1/ She knew from the get go that she didn't have the hands on Scouting experiences. So she was cleaver enough to surround herself with people who had the know how and would get the job done.

2/ She was a first class administrator. She didn't allow things to pile up on her desk and was able to keep on top of things.

3/ She kept her word. When she said that she was going to do something, she did it.

4/ She was a Local. This meant that she knew the area and knew the people. This was great when it came to the community FOS and knowing people in the community that were willing to help and would do what was asked.

5/ She was very interested in the volunteers and what was going on with them both inside and outside of Scouting. Little things like a get well card or a phone call helped make the volunteers feel that she wasn't just using them to make her look good.

6/ She was very goal oriented. She seen what the goals were, was able and willing to share them and had a great way of making people feel that they needed to be part of reaching these goals.

7/ At times she played "Good Cop" while making her bosses seem like the "Bad Cops".

8/ She was (And still is!) A very warm and very likable person. Even though she is a very classy Lady (As a DE she still drove her Mercedes) She was able to communicate at every level with all the different people in the area. She knew that little things mean a lot and was willing to go the extra mile to do these little things. This didn't mean that she was a push over. She could be tough when the situation needed her to be. She pushed the Council Service Center staff to do their job, ensuring that reports were sent out to people who needed them, minutes of meetings were ready and they did what they were supposed to do.

Ea.

[ScoutNut]

Being a DE is basically a Marketing job. Some experience/education in that area would be helpful.

Some experience with fund raising, and procuring grants would be helpful.

Knowledge of Scouting is helpful, but should not be a deal breaker in any way.

Lots of enthusiasm, and energy, and the ability to bring that to the people, and activities around them.

Strong ability to multi-task.

Willing, and able, to work long days and weekends.

Organized, and able to follow thru on things in a timely fashion.

Ability to work well, and communicate with, all levels of people, from a corporate CEO to an uninterested parent.

Ability to interact with youth.

Willing to learn new things, and to stay on top of changes in the organization.

And to repeat, enthusiasm, energy, and the ability to communicate well.

 

One last criteria, which is for them more than you - Willingness to relocate. DE's who do a great job are usually promoted to a different council. Moving every 5-8 years is not uncommon.

[Eamonn]

"Ability to interact with youth." ?

Why?

Ea.

 

[BadenP]

As a former DE as well one thing I noticed was that many DE's and SE's suffer from severe Napoleonic Complexes where they feel the need to be in control of every aspect of what is happening in the district rather than trusting the district volunteers to do their jobs. I inherited two districts where this had been the case for the past decade so my first task was to reestablish the trust that had been lost during that time, thankfully after a few months I was able to do just that and had a very successful professional scouting career for about five years.

 

My list would include:

1) Great people skills, able to work with a very diverse group of people.

2) Excellent organizational skills and experience.

3) Knows the priorities for the district and how to use their volunteers to their full potential in accomplishing those priorities.

4) Lastly select a person who realizes that they can not do the job alone, values all their volunteers,and puts the district needs first and foremost.(This message has been edited by BadenP)

[Eagle92]

'Nut,

 

3-5 years for moves is the norm. Stay over 5 years, and other pros look at ya funny. Gotta have a very good reason for staying longer, i.e. my wife who supportsus has her medical practice here, my wife is in the school system administration here andsupports us, or this is my sunset post and I will be retiring when I step down.

 

Ea,

got to be able to interact with kids for recruiting, i.e. school nites and roundups, as well as for program activities you are responsible for. Grant you the contact is limited, but you still need to interact some.

[CNYScouter]

Thanks for the great responses so far.

 

The DE for my District was let go on Friday.

I just got the "offica"l notice

This has come as no surprise as he wasnt close to making his goals for the year.

 

The District Chair and I as District Commissioner were told that we would have some say in his replacement.

We have been told that his replacement will be coming from a preapproved list of qualified people (I think from the NE Region).

 

I would hope that anyone on the list has a good idea of what a DE does.

The District Chair and I have a meeting tomorrow with the councils DD and ASE.

 

Well see how things work out

 

[jhankins]

From a former pro:

 

Before you consider any new DE, take a hard look at your district with the District Self-Evaluation tool. Find out exactly where you are at. Look at the Journey to Excellence criteria and find out what you want/need to do for the coming year to be where you as a Key 3 want to be.

 

Then look to the applicants with an eye towards those goals.

 

Sales and marketing are a big plus. Selling the morals and values of scouting is an intangible project You have to have the buy-in of the community (outside sales) and the units (inside sales).

 

Be sure the person you're looking at works THROUGH the volunteers and not over them. You're looking for a collaborative person. They need to understand their role in the district as a resource and secretary, not stand-in key 3 member.

 

Ask and see if this person can go on a COR visit with you. Set up an appointment with an active COR and see what they think.

 

 

[Proud Eagle]

As someone who has been interviewed for a DE position (and who knows what might happen in the future?) and serves on a District Committee I find this discussion rather interesting.

 

I will say I have never seen a DE who is entirely ideal in all respects. All seem to have areas in which they are strong and others in which they are strong. I can think of one who is an excellent recruiter, makes good FOS presentations, and is good at the behind the scenes paperwork, but is terrible with maintaining good relations with volunteers. Another is good at recruiting presentations but makes FOS presentations so terrible it emberrasses people. Others I have known are great with program while some would quit before they ever spent a night in a tent.

 

In many ways it takes all kinds. According to our SE the BSA is trying to take these differences in abilities and inclinations into better account in its system and that it has not done particularly well doing this in the past.

[Eamonn]

Not to change the subject, but....

Can't help thinking that we really need to think about a more diverse group of DE's.

Ea.

[broken]

@CNYSCouter

 

Its not that your DE wasnt meeting HIS goals, it was the district wasnt meeting THEIR goals. While the DE lives or dies by their goals, they are directly impacted by the involvment of the district members. A DE cannot do it all, a DE who is highly successful has recruited a high speed crew of volunteers. I was in a council that went from 16 districts to 8, and you know why? because these districts REPEATEDLY weren't hitting their goals.

[Eagle92]

Broken,

Sometimes the goals set are not reasonable, and no matter what you do, say, show, etc, the PTB will not alter them.

 

Best example I can give is a district that had a number of "paper units". Those "units" and "members" directly affected the membership goals. PTB would not listen to the DE, or District Commissioner, would not read the reports that the DE sent to them after the DE visited IHs and the IHs knew nothing about a unit at their organization. The PTB's only focus was on the "numbers." They didn't care about anythign else: rebuilding the weak district committee, turning paper units into real units, converting "in school scouting" units to LFL units, etc, they only cared about increasing membership and FOS.

 

DE and DC actually kept track of the official membership numbers, as well as the "actual numbers." Officially the district barely met Quality District, try 2-4 scouts over the minimum. But realisticly the district grew over 10% in youth and approx 5% in units if memory serves.

 

When that DE left before the end of the year, the district committee decided start from scratch on a quality program and quality recruiting since it wouldn't affect any DE, as one replacement DE quit, and council took its time finding a second replacement. When the PTB left and a membership audit occured, I was told that all the districts in the council lost members, except for the one mentioned above.

[jhankins]

I've seen what Eagle describes, sadly.