Are you in a council that has a positive or toxic culture or something different?

[Ojoman]

58 minutes ago, SiouxRanger said:

Attacks on the SE, like getting the SE fired, well, that triggers HUGE pushback. Area and Region level folks rise up. SE's are paid huge amounts. And those at Area and Region levels,. who are paid even more, stand up and protect.

 

59 minutes ago, SiouxRanger said:

The SE is a paid employee. Yep. And paid well.  The COR's care not a whit. COR's are entitled to attend the Council ANNUAL meeting, but not the regular board meetings, which years ago, were held monthly, but now, apparently now only held quarterly (all to the dimunituon of the COR's level of control.

Attacks on the SE, like getting the SE fired, well, that triggers HUGE pushback. Area and Region level folks rise up. SE's are paid huge amounts. And those at Area and Region levels,. who are paid even more, stand up and protect.

I know these things.

And so, to amalgamate a voting winning body of COR's to unseat a SE? Good luck .(You will be hated,…)

Yet,

I have done these things.

 And, the price of doing so, is dear.

And I am-

Cincinnatus

Experience is a hard teacher... The Philadelphia board quashed the placement of a new SE when they merged with Valley Forge. Flip side, the COR's were unable to stop the merger of Cortland and Syracuse councils even though they voted down the merger. Win some, lose some... Best advice is for units (and districts) to not be dependent on council. That means staying strong in leadership and program. Sadly, too many units fail to stay healthy. It is the responsibility of the units leadership and chartered partner to keep the unit healthy but these days that responsibility is too often not taken seriously. Sad state of affairs. 

 

[Ojoman]

1 hour ago, scoutldr said:

A good leader would make sure his subordinates are not "dropping the ball

And a bad leader blames his subordinates for the balls he drops... experienced that first hand. Water over the dam now but I expect it still goes on. 

[Eagle94-A1]

I

12 hours ago, Ojoman said:

And a bad leader blames his subordinates for the balls he drops... experienced that first hand. Water over the dam now but I expect it still goes on. 

Tell me  about it. I had a DFS attempt to humiliate me by blaming me for something  that he did at a staff meeting. I kept telling him let's talk about it after the staff meeting, because I didn't want to publicly embarrass him, like he was trying to do to me. After about 5 minutes and me calmly saying let's talk about it after the staff meeting. He stopped.. When I showed him the documentation that he screwed up and not me, he got angry, told me "fine" and never said anything else to me about the topic.

As for repercussions for challenging SEs, most definitely. I know one volunteer who had their membership revoked. Yep he is in the IVF for questioning financial matters the SE was doing. Worse was he Pro I know. The pro found some financial irregularities, and it escalated to a criminal matter. For his efforts he was "promoted" from a Metro sized council to one of the smallest councils in the nation.

[OaklandAndy]

50 minutes ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

I had a DFS attempt to humiliate me by blaming me for something  that he did at a staff meeting.

My direct supervisor tried doing this to me when I worked at the council and put it right back in her face after I showed her the factual timeline of how things actually played out. That in itself was catalyst for me to look for another career. She was the sweetest, hardest working lady in the whole office and if the office culture turned her into that, I knew that it would happen to me. That's why I left and work for a community college now. 

 

[Ojoman]

Eagle 94-A1 and OaklandAndy: Sad for your experiences. There are good and bad 'leaders' in every profession. I've had some awesome leaders and some of the worst. I don't want to dwell on these types of experiences but more on how to fix or improve councils and districts. The program 'starts and ends' with the units. Strong units = strong districts and strong districts = strong councils. Just as cubbing is the 'root' system for scouts, districts are the 'root system' for councils. If we have strong, independent units the future will be bright. Sadly, for decades, field staff were given the spurs to organize new units rather than strengthen and keep the existing ones. Weak units were allowed to continue to fall apart while energy was poured into creating new units that often were not needed or in competition with existing units for leadership and members. Folks at national who hadn't been in a district for decades called the shots. The districts primary purpose should always be to support the units. Everything they do should be to engage the unit leadership and assist it in delivering a program that retains membership and engages and meets the needs of both kids and parents.