District Reorganization - national decree?

[Abel Magwitch]

It has been announced in my council that there will be a reorganization of districts happening in January. I decided to google boy scouts district reorganization and found that the same thing is happenening in councils all over the country.

 

My council will be going from 8 districts (we used to have 9) to 3. And we have been told that there will be no downsizing of the professional staff. In fact, we have been told that additional professionals will be hired so each new district has multiple DE's. The council went on to say that they would be choosing (handpicking) the new district chairs and committees. No need for district nominations or votes. The hand-picked executive board of course is giving their rubber stamp to corporate BSA as they are hardly involved with the program at all.

 

Corporate BSA has slowly and effectively giving itself more power and to hell with BSA policies and procedures. I also foresee the mergers of councils coming very soon to my neck of the woods. It's next in a logical procession of national decisions.

 

In essence, there will be two thirds less of those pesky volunteers getting in the way of corporate BSAs doing their own thing.

 

Thoughts?

(This message has been edited by abel magwitch)

[SSScout]

 

The District is a creation of the Council. The Council is a franchise of the National BSA. If you are of a mind to, you can look up the incorporation papers of your Council, should be public record in your jurisdiction. The CORs are, by usual definition, the voting board of that corporation. That is where you have leverage, that is where the legal foundation of the Council lies.

 

There is very little you can do excpt raise stink where you can and make sure as many others know of this as you can. The hypocracy of the Council leaders (if any) when compared to the SLaw and SP/O should be noted. Is there a News item here? Could a local news reporter be interested in it?

 

Work for the boys. Forget FoS. Godspeed.

[GKlose]

Yes -- we heard the same thing when our five districts were reorganized into three, about two years ago. It didn't matter about the size of the professional staff. As attrition happened, slots were not refilled, and even then, there was turnover with the SE and with some of the DEs. So I've seen two SEs and four DEs in the last three years. It really isn't a big deal when you accept the transient nature of those jobs.

 

But, you know where it does hurt? FoS. My donations were based on a relationship with a DE, which has been missing for over two years. For me, a turning point was a month after a new DE started, and he sent out a letter to Scouters in the district that said, more or less, "Hi, my name is X, and I am your new District Executive. Your Friends of Scouting goal is...". Not exactly a great first communication from a new DE.

 

Guy

[Eagle732]

I look forward to the time when each Council is made up of one or two mega districts with each having one or two mega troops administered by a paid, professional Scoutmaster.

 

In the mean time we sell off camps to pay the inflated salaries of the "professionals"

 

 

 

 

[cbowe]

 

So, councils will be merged, districts will be merged....so what? I know my scouts don't care what district or council they are in. The only reasoin they know, kind of, what district they are in is because they have to write it on a blue card. As far as the council goes if they read their shoulder patch they will remember.

 

The district and council offer next to nothing the scouts in my troop are interested in. I can name them on one hand:

National Jamboree (1 or 2 are going)

Philmont (2 of our guys went this year, but with another troop, not council run)

Seabase (if our bid fails we might go with a council contingent, course any council would do )

 

Thats it, We don't really do camporees, our guys find them boring. They much rather, be snowshoing, mountain bikes, hiking etc.

 

Frankly I think adults are the ones who get all worked up over merger this and merger that. If they merge and dump camps and the remaining ones are insufficient, we will just do more high adventure trip to fill those voids. Personally I hate the whole summer camp merit badge mill anyway,

 

chris