How to Upset your Volunteers

[Mrjeff]

I'm just the OA Advisor for the Council.   The SE is very supportive and helpful with our events, in fact over the past couple of years I've gotten to know him well and consider him a friend.  I am also blessed in that I have a good relationship with all of our professionals including our long time camp ranger who is also a friend.  I realise that I am very fortunate and I wish y'all could have the same relationship.  God Bless and Scout On!

[Mrjeff]

On another note I take the responsibility of being the OA Guy very seriously.  As far as the lodge goes the buck stops here.  If everything is great the Chief and the LEC have done a great job.  If something or anything goes sideways it is totally my responsibility and I accept that.  I am always happy to see our Scout Execytive at our events and I take pride in how well the pros and I work together and my focus is always on the kids.  I'm not bragging, I just know how fortunate I am to be in this situation.

[SiouxRanger]

I just find this thread so sad.

Us unpaid volunteers are treated so poorly.

 

[Oldscout448]

7 hours ago, Mrjeff said:

I'm just the OA Advisor for the Council.   The SE is very supportive and helpful with our events, in fact over the past couple of years I've gotten to know him well and consider him a friend.  I am also blessed in that I have a good relationship with all of our professionals including our long time camp ranger who is also a friend.  I realise that I am very fortunate and I wish y'all could have the same relationship.  God Bless and Scout On!

You  are fortunate indeed!  The last time I can remember seeing our SE was at a spring Lodge Fellowship in 2017.  Haven't  seen a DE at a day camp, ordeal, or camporee in even longer.  Glad to hear it's not this bad everywhere.

[ShootingSports]

What has happen to Volunteer run and Professionally advised? 

[BetterWithCheddar]

16 hours ago, ShootingSports said:

What has happen to Volunteer run and Professionally advised? 

I have a hunch that, at least in some areas, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find sufficient volunteer support to sustain programs from start to finish. Hence, the greater reliance on the professional corp.

Having returned to Scouting as a Lion Den Leader after a 15-year hiatus, one big difference I've noticed is that the Council runs a lot of multi-district events that used to be ran by the districts themselves.

[Eagle94-A1]

19 hours ago, ShootingSports said:

What has happen to Volunteer run and Professionally advised? 

The volunteers who have the knowledge, skills, abilities, and previous event budgets ten to know more about the events and what is involved, than the pros. Yet the pros are overruling and micromanaging without one iota of what is needed. I've listed examples on other pages. But one not listed was Cub family camp.  we asked for 10 bows and 120 arrows. Got 3 bows and about 50 arrows, some of which were not usable. Had to go to Walmart and buy extra bows, and all the arrows in stock to run the event. Oh and this event had over 600 people registered.

 

2 hours ago, BetterWithCheddar said:

I have a hunch that, at least in some areas, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find sufficient volunteer support to sustain programs from start to finish. Hence, the greater reliance on the professional corp.

In my neck of the woods, folks are tired of the abuse by pros, i.e. overruling, ignoring, yelling, screaming, and cursing. Also folks are tired of the mismanagement by the professionals. They sold a camp that supposedly cost more than it brought in. That was because they used stats from the year before covid, they shut it down for 6+ months, and covid year. However if you looked at the historic data, the camp was not only making enough  money to support itself, but also subsidize the other council camps.

As for pros running things, none of them have any Scouting experience in my area. They couldn't organize a PWD if their lives depended on it. If the volunteers do not run it, it does not happen.

 

Quote

Having returned to Scouting as a Lion Den Leader after a 15-year hiatus, one big difference I've noticed is that the Council runs a lot of multi-district events that used to be ran by the districts themselves.

Part of that is membership is drastically down nationwide. In my area 7 counties were merged together into a new district. 25 years ago one county had more than double the membership than all 7 counties combined have today.

Edited March 25, 2023 by Eagle94-A1

[SSScout]

I finally looked at this thread.   

The symptoms mentioned are visible  in other organizations. Lions clubs, Red Cross,  Rotary, etc. I have had conversations with friends about such organizations.  Many are reporting lack of interest, lack of membership. Older members age out (die !) and for some reason, younger folk  do not find the social milieu , or something,  attractive to them.  Oh, there are other groups forming, picking up, but the older, traditional groups seem to be faltering in some areas.  

[Tron]

On 3/25/2023 at 12:09 PM, BetterWithCheddar said:

I have a hunch that, at least in some areas, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find sufficient volunteer support to sustain programs from start to finish. Hence, the greater reliance on the professional corp.

Having returned to Scouting as a Lion Den Leader after a 15-year hiatus, one big difference I've noticed is that the Council runs a lot of multi-district events that used to be ran by the districts themselves.

In some cases councils are snatching up district events and turning them into council events, blowing them up in the process.

[Tron]

On 4/1/2023 at 10:09 AM, SSScout said:

I finally looked at this thread.   

The symptoms mentioned are visible  in other organizations. Lions clubs, Red Cross,  Rotary, etc. I have had conversations with friends about such organizations.  Many are reporting lack of interest, lack of membership. Older members age out (die !) and for some reason, younger folk  do not find the social milieu , or something,  attractive to them.  Oh, there are other groups forming, picking up, but the older, traditional groups seem to be faltering in some areas.  

A lot of them are faltering because they built out a huge annual process that requires dozens of volunteers is premised on a community need that no longer exists and then expect future generations to continue those processes even when they have no modern relevance. I am in many fraternal organizations and the hardest question any organization can answer to a millennial is "What value does your program provide to the community?" Scouting is different as the value to the community is easy to answer. 

[Scouterlockport]

38 minutes ago, Tron said:

A lot of them are faltering because they built out a huge annual process that requires dozens of volunteers is premised on a community need that no longer exists and then expect future generations to continue those processes even when they have no modern relevance. I am in many fraternal organizations and the hardest question any organization can answer to a millennial is "What value does your program provide to the community?" Scouting is different as the value to the community is easy to answer. 

Scouting needs to understand that ability to have a ton of willing volunteers, helping with committee, camproees, Fos, and volunteering in general is not possible anymore. A lot of this is tried to councils pissing off and damaging relationships with many scouters.

But the bigger part is that it was one of the baby boomer bubbles, ie there was a lot more people who could help out with everything because there was more people in the age bracket. But now that a lot of baby boomers are getting into their late 60s and early 70s they can't help with as much as they once did even 10 years ago. Many correctly are choosing to help out at the unit level were they can have the most impact instead of getting involved in bs at a higher level or what every pet project a career scout executive wants to waste funds and time on.

[Mrjeff]

Thats a great observation,  thanks!

[Mrjeff]

I just wish that the BSA would just leave the administration of the local councils alone.  They make up policies and rules that they really can't enforce, they have lost the trust and confidence of the members, they have over priced everything, and made it very hard to enjoy.  Get a grip people, if the BSA keeps heading in that direction a lot more people will just figure that the aggravation is not equal to the value and will just go support something else😞

 

[Eagle94-A1]

1 hour ago, Mrjeff said:

I just wish that the BSA would just leave the administration of the local councils alone.  They make up policies and rules that they really can't enforce, they have lost the trust and confidence of the members, they have over priced everything, and made it very hard to enjoy. 

Are the council's any better?  In all honesty, the only ones who are doing anything to support units at the council are the support staff; registrar, office manager, secretaries, and shop employees.

[AwakeEnergyScouter]

I don't have much experience with either BSA councils or national yet, but neither have responded to emails I've sent requesting information, offering help, or making requests other than when a CC started the conversation.

Maybe they're busy. Maybe not. Either way it's not clear that they are reachable.