Curiosity: How large/small is your district & Council?

[moosetracker]

in the original thread, ScoutBox mentioned traveling for training.. I sent back that my trainers all live south will grumble to travel midway in our long district for training, and will not travel to the top north middway might be about 1.5 hrs, from north peak to south peak about 3 hours.. He returns indicating his travels to district things can be 8 hours, and council things at 11 hours some travel for training he indicates is a two day drive (That can't be a council training??).. Maybe Scoutbox is in the military or something and I don't recall hearing that, because he talks of someone in his troop flying from the Philipines to Japan for training.. So Scoutbox may be a rarity and not within the confines of a Council/district..

 

Still it got me to wondering.. How large is your Council & district??

 

I know the break up in distance of a council/district seems to depend on the density of the population. Like our council is pretty much our entire state of NH (a few token towns are in a MA council because they said the entire state was a monopoly for the council??). While the state is dense in the southern portion it is sparse in the northern portion, Massachusetts though has at least 3 or more councils for roughly the same square mileage (give or take).. Our district is the largest district of the Council because we serve the sparse Northern section, other districts serve an area of about 30 miles span..

 

[Nike]

Scoutbox is in Trans-Atlantic. We have districts that cover multiple countries. It can be hard to deliver training here since most training is located on military installations, but we have lots of troops in other large cities. It's very Germany-centric, even though the head office is in Italy.

 

Back in the states our district in CA covered the Monterey Peninsula part of a huge agricultural county. I never went to training there. I didn't even know there was training.

 

In NC, we had two districts covering one county--rather medium sized as counties go I believe, but with a huge Army post in the middle. The districts usually co-hosted, cross-publicized training.

 

In GA, Flint River divided up into one county districts, but my and the next over were the most populous being suburbs of Atlanta. It was nice being able to train in my council or drive in to Atlanta.

[Eagle92]

Well the council I grew up in was 10 parishes and 1 county large. It had a very metropolitan area, with several districts covering relatively small geographical areas ( one district was the size of a small city, three other districts divided a city), as well some very rural areas in the bayous, and some of those districts comprised 3-5 parishes. While the territory is not as large as the council I'm in now, it could take 4 hours to go from the southernmost point, Grand Isle, to the council office relatively in the center b/c of the roads and bridges. Heck you had to go through another council's territory to get to the council office.

 

Council I'm in now is 20 counties large, and is very low population as it is largely rural. My district is the smallest with 1 county and 2 towns in another county in the district. It can take some time to get to neighboring district's events, and I think that's why we still exist as a district. It's interesting in that I can get to two other council offices faster than I can get to my own.

[UCEagle72]

Well, Central Florida Council is one of the 10 largest councils in the BSA. It covers some 18,000 square miles (180 miles long by 100 miles wide) which is 7 counties total.

 

Our District is 312 square miles and contains 68 traditional units, 4 Explorer posts, and serves some 12,000+ scouts and scouters. (We cover 3/4 of Seminole County)

 

We try to hold training, roundtables, district committee, and commissioner meetings in the most central spot in the district. And because of this (and the fact that we regularly train most every course) we get a lot of folks from the other districts at our training sessions.

[eaglescout1996]

I now live in a council that takes up a Metro area all the way out to the suburbs and even to rural farmland. We have 19 districts (13 counties) and they all vary in size. From a county that has 7 districts themselves to a few districts that make up multiple counties. The district I am in now is about half a county with around 60 traditional units.

 

I moved from UCEagle72's council about 3 years ago, right before the SE consolidated Districts/Chapters. I still don't understand why they changed names of the Districts and Chapters, the one I served in had the same name even after they were split 15-20 years ago and had had those same names when my father was a scout and scouter from at least the early 60's.

[Jeffrey H]

Our council (Circle Ten Council) makes up 12 counties in the North Texas area including one county in Oklahoma. We have about 19 districts that represent urban, suburban, and rural areas. One district may represent one suburban city while another may represent 3 counties. The council office/headquarters is located in Dallas. We have four council-owned BSA camps spread throughout the council. It's my understanding that we are one of the largest in the nation, but I have not researched that assertion.

 

The Circle Ten Council was originally 10 counties that formed a circular pattern and that's where we get name "Circle 10."

[SR540Beaver]

The Last Frontier Council is more than 30,000 youth and more than 8,000 volunteer Scouters and adults in 24 counties across central, western, and southwestern Oklahoma. We have 12 districts. My district is just one quadrant of Oklahoma City and at last count, I believe we have 21 troops, 31 packs and 2 crews.

 

(This message has been edited by sr540beaver)

[shortridge]

For the most part, my council (DelMarVa) covers a very large, mostly rural area. We're the entire Delmarva Peninsula - a whole state (Delaware) and parts of two others (the Eastern Shores of Maryland and Virginia). It takes about 4 hours to drive from the northern tip to the southern edge, and two hours to drive across it at the widest point. It's about 5,900 square miles.

 

There are 14 counties and eight districts. All districts except one cover multiple counties - the single stand-alone county is the largest county, geographically speaking (takes a little more than an hour to drive from one side to the other).

 

We had 6,163 Cub Scouts, 3,120 Boy Scouts, 586 Venturers, 263 Explorers and about 1,200 LFLers in 2010. We also have 29 professionals, not counting Scout Shop employees. That includes eight DEs, DDs or SrDEs; one Scoutreach executive; one Exploring/Latino Outreach executive; two FDs; one DFS; seven program staff members, including camp directors and rangers; three development and marketing staffers; a finance manager; three customer service staffers; the DE and an administrative assistant.

 

After years of having the council office located in Wilmington, Del., at the very northern edge, it's now moving to Dover, Del., closer to the geographic center. Our two council camps are both located in Maryland - one in the north, one in the south.

[Basementdweller]

The Council is one of the largest councils in the nation serving 27,000 youth in 17 counties in central and southern Ohio, and Greenup county in northern Kentucky.

 

To drive to the distict roundtable it takes about 40 minutes. It is more than an hour drive to get all the way a crossed our district. we have 4 countys and 14 school districts.

 

Good new we have a new SE. so hopefully things will change.

[Oak Tree]

The council I grew up in was and still is one county, one district, one council. It was a sparsely populated rural county. Somewhere around 35 units, maybe 1000 youth. It's in a part of the country where there were historically small councils. When they run a Wood Badge course, it's a five council event. I realize that small councils can be inefficient, but they also have some real advantages. Communication gaps are less frequent - there's much less of a sense of "them", some mysterious powers-that-be. Even today, almost 30 years after I graduated from Scouting as a youth, I can look up their council leadership - executive board officers and members and advisory board members, and see that I know about a dozen of them. There's the guy who lived across the street from me when I was pre-school age and played with his son. There's the newspaper photographer who took several pictures of me and came to my house to have me write his union a quick computer program. There's the high school principal I talked with regularly, the high school physics teacher who was great, a guy from my church, my high school track coach, a guy that I ran track with, the owner of the local drug store, and a good friend's father.

 

My current council covers 12 counties and has 13 districts, but it's a very unequal distribution. My district is one-fifth of a county, and other districts cover multiple counties, and one is primarily a military base (might be the same district Nike refers to). I'd guess it takes 15 minutes to drive across the district east-west, and 10 minutes north-south. Area-wise, we're probably not even 10% the size of the largest district. The council serves around 20,000 youth.

 

I can't even find the list of executive board members for my current council on the web, and I doubt that I know any of them.

 

If my district hosts a training, it's no more than a 10-minute drive for anyone in the district. Sometimes we have to go to other districts to take training, and the farthest I've gone for that is a little over an hour. I did take IOLS in the next council over, because ours wasn't offered at a convenient time. That was about a two hour drive.

 

The Midnight Sun Council in Alaska seems like it has to be the largest council in the 50 states. Piedmont Council in CA lists themselves as the smallest council - very strong program, but just six troops and three packs, according to their web site. "Year after year more than 50% of our eligible youth participate in the councils many programsthis currently comprises more than 1000 of our young citizens. In support of these youth are some 300 adult volunteers and three full time staff members." It's not clear from their web site if the council exactly mirrors the town borders, but the town is 1.7 square miles, with a population of around 10,000.

[moxieman]

I asked a similar question about four years ago in:

http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=173585#id_173585

 

Pine Tree Council covers the western third of the state of Maine (10 of Maine's 16 counties). Kennebec Valley District, consisting of Kennebec, Somerset, and Franklin Counties, is one of the largest districts, area-wise, in the northeast US, covering roughly 6,750 square miles. We are larger than the states of Connecticut & Rhodes Island combined, and cover half of Pine Tree Council's total territory. Roughly the northern third of the district is wilderness, thus my location as "Maine Wilderness".

 

The district stretches from about 20 miles south of the state capital of Augusta northward to the Quebec, Canada border. Leaders in Jackman, our northern-most town in the district, travel 2 hours, one-way to attend roundtable and they do so every month unless there's a bad snowstorm, despite several close encounters with moose. US Route 201, the road they travel isn't called "Moose Alley" for nothing. They are 50 miles from the next nearest Maine town. They're so remote that you need a passport to go to the nearest McDonald's and you'll have to order your "Big Mac avec frits" in French, 'cause it's in Quebec Province 45 minutes north not counting time at the border. It's 90 minutes south to the nearest Wallyword. They just got cellphone reception in town last year. Prior to that, you had to drive up out of their valley 5 miles south to the "overlook" above the valley to get reception.

 

We have about 100 units spread over that area providing scouting to about 2,000 youth. Most of those units are located within 20 miles of Augusta as that's the "major" population center of the district.(This message has been edited by moxieman)

[oldisnewagain1]

How big is our council?

 

It depends on your point of view...

 

If you on the outside looking in, we are a small council.

 

If you are on the inside, it is too bleeping big...

 

The problem for me is all meetings (except at a district level)are held in the eastern most part of the council. For some districts, the travel time is not an issue (under 1/2 hour) but for the western most district the travel time is greatly increased. As a result, there is very little participation from Scouters in the council from that district. The upside (and downside) is this district is learning to function as it's own little island doing their own thing or along with other near-by councils.

[John-in-KC]

My Council:

 

2008 Annual Report (last one on the website):

 

Youth: 35,392 (+10,000 LFL participants)

Adults: Not reported

 

My District:

2 Counties

61 Cub Scout Packs

60 Boy Scout Troops

2 Varsity Teams

15 Venturing Crews

[acco40]

Mine is bigger than yours!

 

Clinton Valley Council and the Detroit Area Council were merged into a new council on October 1, 2009 creating the Great Lakes Council. Truthfully, I have no clue on membership numbers.

[Scoutfish]

I did alot of searching, digging and looking online.

 

And I found out nothing!

 

So I emailed my DE who sent me this reply:

 

"Council - covers all 8 counties in southeastern NC (Hoke, Scottland, Robeson, Bladen, Columbus, Brunswick, New Hanover, Pender)

 

District - NECF - All of Pender and Northern New Hanover (North side of Eastwood Road to Wrightsville Beach, down Market Street to about 23rd street. Everything 23rd to downtown is Coastal District)

 

We have 800 youth in our district, 3,589 in the council as of right now. That number will go up to around 5,000 by the end of the year.

 

 

 

WE total 5,816 sq miles. New Hanover is the smallest county, but has the highest population.