Interesting from Scouting Wire

[skeptic]

Got an email reminder from Scouting Wire, and just noted the link for "careers".  So I looked at it.  Here is the page that came up.  The open jobs surprised me, as we are in a tight place and so found it interesting, especially the amount that appear to be executives.  https://www.scouting.org/careers/open-positions/

[1980Scouter]

I think many people are leaving LC's as they see the future is not good for job security. A few councils in my area have many open positions but are not filling them due to all that is going on with BSA.

[Sentinel947]

National and Local Council should hiring freeze all but truly mission critical open jobs. Hiring somebody into a job that has a decent likelyhood of not existing post bankruptcy is not very kind. 

[CynicalScouter]

9 hours ago, skeptic said:

The open jobs surprised me, as we are in a tight place and so found it interesting, especially the amount that appear to be executives

Of the 81 listed jobs, 58 are District Executives/District Associates.

[CynicalScouter]

1 hour ago, Sentinel947 said:

Hiring somebody into a job that has a decent likelyhood of not existing post bankruptcy is not very kind. 

There are a lot of people who are absolutely insistent that the LCs are fine and will come out of this AOK, as with National.

Either they are being cheerfully optimistic or naive.

Time will tell.

[RememberSchiff]

The SBA Paycheck Protection Program is processing payroll loan applications until May 31, 2021. The Federal government now allows PP loans for businesses in bankruptcy, note BSA National is in bankruptcy while local councils are not.

https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program

https://www.propublica.org/article/ppp-loans-bankruptcy

[T2Eagle]

3 hours ago, CynicalScouter said:

Of the 81 listed jobs, 58 are District Executives/District Associates.

You do know that DEs are low paid, entry level jobs , right?

[CynicalScouter]

Just now, T2Eagle said:

You do know that DEs are low paid, entry level jobs , right?

Right, and that's my point.

These are not really "executives" in the sense of C-level corporate office types.

So OP's assertion that there were a lot of "executives" was something of an inaccuracy.

[T2Eagle]

I took a quick look, there are very few listings for the states with new SOLs:, zero in CA, two in NY.  Weirdly there are 13 in MI, no idea what that's about.  For 250+ LCs this actually looks like a pretty low level of churn.  

There are lots of reasons to take a job that may or may not have a long tenure.  I once took a job with a company that was being bought and would likely eliminate my position when the merger completed, but I didn't like my old job, liked my new boss, and figured better is better while it lasts.  They paid me while I worked there, and when it was time to leave I left.  No job is guaranteed.  As long as everybody has their eyes open there's nothing in the least dodgy about bringing people on board today.

I suppose if you really believe that BSA is going away and all the LCs are going to burn down with it you would think we should bring it all to a screeching halt now.  I think the LCs in non SOL change states are going to pay what they can from assets they have today, but they're still going to be here tomorrow.  Much of their operating revenue comes in year to year from their own local efforts, so if they're paying salaries today they'll likely pay salaries tomorrow. 

Speaking of salaries, I know my council has received their share of PPP.  Don't know if others have.

3 hours ago, RememberSchiff said:

The SBA Paycheck Protection Program is processing payroll loan applications until May 31, 2021. The Federal government now allows PP loans for businesses in bankruptcy, note BSA National is in bankruptcy while local councils are not.

https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program

https://www.propublica.org/article/ppp-loans-bankruptcy

 

[grizzly702]

The attrition rate for DEs is north of 50% in the first 2 years in good times.

The pay translates to about $12.00/hour-( figure $36K divided by 60 hours of nights and weekends  a week times 50 weeks.) No home/ work life balance. If you do your job you might get 3% raise. When you get to Senior DE you might get 5% and a whole lot more responsibility like camp director or  fundraising or media director on top of your 40 +units.  Try doing that in a pandemic with 40% reduction in membership, businesses closed for a year and a bankruptcy. And for the councils in Eastern North Carolina add in 2 hurricanes in the last 3 years. 

Our council has 2 DE and 1 Senior DE open that are not being filled at this point. The Field director is overseeing the district that has the SDE slot. The other 2 slots were for districts that had a District director and a DE. 

So a lot of positions are not being filled or advertised at this point.  But the DE's that are there need better pay.  They are struggling now with no hope in sight. National needs to be transparent as possible.  It is pretty bad when I get more official information from this forum than my DE gives me. 

 

 

[CynicalScouter]

6 minutes ago, grizzly702 said:

It is pretty bad when I get more official information from this forum than my DE gives me. 

I cannot tell you how many times I've been the one to tell Council and District level professionals about things from National. BSA's communications apparatus is just horrible and it has not gotten any better over the years. I'd even say it is worse, but that might be overselling the point.

[grizzly702]

18 minutes ago, CynicalScouter said:

I cannot tell you how many times I've been the one to tell Council and District level professionals about things from National. BSA's communications apparatus is just horrible and it has not gotten any better over the years. I'd even say it is worse, but that might be overselling the point.

But it does reinforce the perception that a professional scouter is useless.  There are some DE's ( and some SE's) that are truly useless but after seeing what my favorite DE has had to go through the last 2+ years. I have a new found appreciation for the job.

[Eagle94-A1]

2 hours ago, grizzly702 said:

The attrition rate for DEs is north of 50% in the first 2 years in good times.

The pay translates to about $12.00/hour-( figure $36K divided by 60 hours of nights and weekends  a week times 50 weeks.) No home/ work life balance. If you do your job you might get 3% raise. When you get to Senior DE you might get 5% and a whole lot more responsibility like camp director or  fundraising or media director on top of your 40 +units.  Try doing that in a pandemic with 40% reduction in membership, businesses closed for a year and a bankruptcy. And for the councils in Eastern North Carolina add in 2 hurricanes in the last 3 years. 

Our council has 2 DE and 1 Senior DE open that are not being filled at this point. The Field director is overseeing the district that has the SDE slot. The other 2 slots were for districts that had a District director and a DE. 

So a lot of positions are not being filled or advertised at this point.  But the DE's that are there need better pay.  They are struggling now with no hope in sight. National needs to be transparent as possible.  It is pretty bad when I get more official information from this forum than my DE gives me. 

The council I was a DE in had 10 districts/Exploring Division, 2 Field Directors (FD), a Finance Director (FiD), Director of Field Service, and SE. In the 19-20 months I was a DE,

1. We never had 10 DEs at one time

2. One FD and the FiD left

3. 9 DEs, including myself, left. One was a Senior DE with 3 years in one council and about 1.5 years in mine, and had the longest career. Shortest tenure in my council was less than 3 weeks.  Guy had a medical emergency requiring his neighboring to take them to the emergency room and be admitted. When the neighbor called to tell the DFS what was going on, DFS said he needed to be at the office for a meeting or consider himself fired. Guy quit over the phone.

4. What is Work/Home Balance? Seriously, my wife, who dated me while I was a DE, gave me an ultimatum within 1.5 months of marriage: her or the job. Glad I left, and many of my coworkers either were going through divorce or were divorced.

5. 60 hours/week seems light. I cannot remember the exact number of hours averaged, not the exact hourly rate, but a friend calculated DEs in my council were paid under $3/hour. Minimum wage was $5.15 at the time.

Regarding  finding out info before the professionals give it to us, sometimes it is because we find out before they do. The membership survey that results have never been released got me in some hot water because some one posted the video online and I shared it before the SE even got the info apparently. There have been several things I have found out before the professionals between her and Facebook. And let's not forget the Churchill Plan that got out.

 

[grizzly702]

And let me guess the SE stayed the same and is probably still there

[RememberSchiff]

On 4/29/2021 at 8:57 AM, RememberSchiff said:

The SBA Paycheck Protection Program is processing payroll loan applications until May 31, 2021. The Federal government now allows PP loans for businesses in bankruptcy, note BSA National is in bankruptcy while local councils are not.

https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/paycheck-protection-program

https://www.propublica.org/article/ppp-loans-bankruptcy

Update 5/4/21:  Nearly 4 weeks before the May 31 deadline, the Paycheck Protection Program is now out of money . All $292B spent.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/04/business/paycheck-protection-program-closes.html

Edited May 5, 2021 by RememberSchiff
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