What makes a good DE??

[LScott1218]

If anyone would like to offer an opinion, I was curious what traits and characteristics people feel are found in a good District Executive?

[Second Class]

A people person.

Accessible.

Able to teach volunteers what their jobs are, and what his ISN'T.

Balanced; home life, work, church, etc.

Patient.

Tireless.

Fun.

And since the perfect DE doesn't walk the earth, be glad for the one you have, and try not to undermine him. With one exception, all the DE's I have ever known were and are the hardest working, less appreciated job classification I know. It pains me to read about SP's troubles. It really does.

[Cito]

Not sure how to label it, but I think its also important to have a DE who wants to make a real go of it. I want someone who will stay long enough that we can build a relationship. I like them to have a vision.

 

Next up, being accessible. The current ones at least pretend they are interested in talking to me.

[Papadaddy]

From whose point of view?

[Eagle732]

I don't know but when we figure it out I'll forward the information to my DE!

[LScott1218]

Good question on point of view..

 

My initial inquiry was asking from the viewpoint of the volunteers, but other perspectives are more than welcome!

[LScott1218]

Also, as a new(er) DE myself, knowing the turnover rate and details of the job I was curious about what the "good ones" do to serve or build their districts. Volunteers here have had 5 new DEs in the past 4 years and I want to provide them with the best experience I can.

 

Here are some items i have read on these forums that people have commented about with regard to their DEs. What would you suggest a DE do regarding these items as a volunteer?

 

1. Visiting unit meetings - some have said they like to see DEs there, others have said they show up invited and unwelcome...any thoughts?

 

2. FOS - we all know it has to be done, what would a volunteer recommend to make it less stressful? Are there ways to make it better (easier for families?)

 

3. District officers - apaprently some interaction between the DE and district officers seems "stormy", how would a volunteer approach creating the "perfect" district committee? What about improving commissioners?

 

4. Fundraisers - without changing the products, like popcorn, how to get people excited and involved...what would you recommend?

 

Any insight would be great, alot of my local people have opinions but choose not to share them, I am hoping some posts on here might shed light as to how i can improve things on my end to help them work better in this district...

[BSA24]

Non-existent works pretty well.

 

DE's basically nag everyone for popcorn money, FOS money, recharter money, new recruit money, camp money, and event money.

 

Since DE's are basically there to ensure that BSA brings in money at the council level and district committees don't run away with it.

 

Our district had no DE for almost a year. It was rather nice, actually, and we didn't notice any degradation in our support from BSA until a new DE was selected and the nagging started again.

 

 

[ramblinrosey]

Just back from Commish week at Philmont-Just found out that The Payed Professionals are there to provide the financial resources,etc so we the the Volunteers can provide the program for the youth. Quote"the professionals work FOR the Volunteers not the other way around".

I would like a DE that is allowed to stay for more than 2 yrs, seems as tho just about the time DE and District is finally in a comfortable working together mode,Council see's fit to remove them and we start over again.

Also a DE shouldn't promise more than they can do-better to say "no" than to not follow thru and dissapoint. I second what second class said on requirements.

Good Luck- wish I had a DE....

 

 

[fred8033]

A good DE is humble.

 

A good DE is more concerned about doing what's right than making a quota.

 

....

 

DE is a schizoid role that, IMHO, is a no-win situation. Best a DE can do is move to the next position without getting too damanged. The issue is that the DE has conflicting roles.

 

---- From council view, a good DE creates more troops, recruits more scouts, raises more money, sells more popcorn and gets all paperwork submitted on time.

 

---- From a volunter view, a good DE is your friend, wanting to help and is truely concerned about helping you be successful. And they follow up as best they can without over promising or underfulfilling.

 

The trouble is that to serve the council, DEs can be easily tempted to give bad advice to the volunteers they serve. A few of my favorites: Your pack charter org should start their own troop too. Popcorn is a great money earner becaue you earn free rank advancements. Let's talk about spring cub scout recruitment.

 

Another problem is there is no performance metric for helping units. The council has no idea if our DE has helped us or not. If anything, the more a DE helps us, the more a DE is distracted from the performance review goals set for him by the council.

 

....

 

I've worked with six or seven DEs. All of them got it ... except one ... and I came to dread that DE.(This message has been edited by fred8033)

[SeattlePioneer]

As a district membership chair of vast experience (eight years), I've worked closely with three DEs so far.

 

Since my major task is to promote recruiting and retention of new Scouts, DEs have every incentive to support someone working to carry out one of their major tasks.

 

Since one of the DEs primary responsibilities is organizing spring and fall recruiting, I let the DE take that responsibility and let him know that I am ready and willing to help out with school visits, recruiting nights or whatever when he needs some help.

 

Secondarily, I take the primary responsibility for organizi9ng recruiting events for several packs and a troop in the spring and fall. That relieves the DE from spending time on those units and we don't have conflicts about who is doing what.

 

That works well.

 

My only gripe is being left out of the information flow of statistics and scheduling of recruiting nights and such. A year ago I discovered that the only recruiting events scheduled in the spring were the ones I had done. I wasn't happy with that, but I discovered it more or less by chance after the fact.

 

I'm not the DEs boss, but I keep the DE informed about what I do, and I want him to keep me informed about what he is doing about recruiting.

[Second Class]

1. Visiting unit meetings - some have said they like to see DEs there, others have said they show up invited and unwelcome...any thoughts?

 

NO. NO. NO. You have enough meetings during the week. This would be a big mistake IMHO. Just attending Eagle COH's will be a time bender. Limit those, too.

 

2. FOS - we all know it has to be done, what would a volunteer recommend to make it less stressful? Are there ways to make it better (easier for families?)

 

Not many. It's a [tough] job that has to be done. Understand and pass along any information your Council has for "matching funds" from businesses. This is a good way to get smaller donations from a troop's families.

 

3. District officers - apaprently some interaction between the DE and district officers seems "stormy", how would a volunteer approach creating the "perfect" district committee? What about improving commissioners?

 

This is all situational. If you've got some blow hards on the committee that will make trouble if they don't get their way, well, not much you can do about that. Best try to surround yourself with people that are in it for the boys, and a strong program, than a bunch out [silver] beaver hunting.

 

4. Fundraisers - without changing the products, like popcorn, how to get people excited and involved...what would you recommend?

 

Like SP, I don't see what the problem is with popcorn. A troop or pack can fully fund their year by using popcorn sales. Find a troop that does this, and get them on the Popcorn committee, and speak to Roundtable and other scoutmasters. This is simple in my mind. (as an aside, what gets me it the council keeps pushing other sales stuff, which gets me. We do popcorn, only popcorn, for 3 months. That's ALL we do).

[SeattlePioneer]

>

 

 

In my opinion, the main problem with unit popcorn sales is that most units have a poor business plan.

 

Units don't have a well thought out, effective plan to motivate Scouts and families to sell in effective ways.

 

A year ago I used our August Cub Scout Roundtable to bring in unit leaders who were doing an excellent job on the popcorn sale. I used several of those ideas last year and tripled our unit sales.

 

 

[Wëlënakwsu]

Visiting unit meetings ? Yes. Know the units in a way that if a friend or relative asked you for a recommendation for their child... you could say who is good and who to avoid. Unless you have a drop-in type relationship... don't go unannounced. Most leaders what to know you, especially when they have registration problems, liability issues, Eagle applications, etc. If possible liaison via the Commissioner.

 

Fundraising: It may be good fund raising experience for the DE, but for the money raised via FOS & product sales in many Councils it is not worth a professional's paid time. Concentrating on corporate, foundation and high net worth individuals gets a better return.

If your District has successful FOS and product sales in the past... keep doing it!

If thru various DE and volunteers over the years it's been a flop... what's different now?

If nothing is different... A council has all the potential parent & leader names in the data base, just send a FOS mass mailing and forget the presentations. For those Units who want to use popcorn sales as a fundraiser and share the proceeds with the Council... great, but analyze the effort vs potential return.

 

[LScott1218]

Thank you everyone, this has been VERY helpful!

 

So to sum up, a good DE is:

 

1. There to listen and help as he or she can without overpromising or underdelivering. He or she also knows what they can and cannot do and relays this to the volunteers.

 

2. Someone who will communicate with District level volunteers and unit volunteers about the status of relevant items (membership, FOS, charters).

 

3. Able to find balance between what is right at the district level and what is expected at the council level. This seems like a tough item.

 

4. Understanding that volunteers run the program and they are there to support them. Humble in their role yet honest enough to convey needs and expectations from council.

 

5. Committed and will do what they can to stay for at least 2 years to provide consistancy.

 

6. Often confused because the goals of the local units and the main goals of the council may not have the same sense of importance attached to them. One of these groups, the volunteers, influences how well the DE can do their job, and the other group, council, influences whether the DE has a job. This is another tough item to figure out as a DE if these two groups do not agree.

 

These posts are very enlightening, thank you all for posting and continuing to post.