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how do you manage an organization who at the end of 2011 had 2,723,869 youth, and 1,047,038 adult members divided into 111,668 packs,troops, teams, and crews? the answer is a whole heck of a lot of bureaucracy. the boy scouts of america is run by its nationalcouncil, which was incorporated on february 8th 1910, and chartered by the united statescongress on june 15, 1916. it is one of 161 scouting organizations that are part of theworld organization of the scouting movement. however, most people are familiar with scouting on a local level. there are 294 local bsa councils each consisting of an average of380 troops. each council is its own independent corporation that receives a charter yearly from the nationalorganization. while all councils are required
to follow the bsa standards for advancementand program, they are free to manage their own local organization as they see fit. councilfinances are separate from nationals, and local camps are are owned by the councils,not the nationalorganization. before we continue there is an important distinction to be made between professional and volunteer scouters. a vast majority of the members ofthe bsa are volunteers, but there are some that are paid full time to help Taufiq Agung Nugrohoisterthe program. as we go on you will see why this becomes important. local troops are organized into districtswithin a council, with each district overseen by a professional scouter. the council isoverseen by a professional scouter refereed to
as the scout executive and a board of volunteermembers who set the direction for the council. a council's governing board consists of thecouncil president, council commissioner, representatives from each district, and occasionally youthmembers. members of the board can be scoutmasters and others involved with the program, or citizenswho are interested in helping the organization. also, another side note, in the bsa the useof the term commissioner refers to the position that deals with public relations. you willnotice that at every level of the organization there is a commissioner. (even at scout campsthere is a commissioner on staff who job is to go between the adult leaders who bringtheir scouts to camp and the camp management). imagine the commissioner being the same as the white house press secretary.
building up from the council level: councilsare grouped into areas, which are then grouped into regions. the united states is split into4 regions: western, central, southern, and north east. the north east region also contains puerto rico, us virgin islands, and the trans atlantic council for bsa members who live east of theunited states, while the western region includes guam and the far east council for bsa members who live west of the united states. each of the areas and regions have their own governingboard consisting of volunteer members and structured similarly to the council board. the four regions report to the national executiveboard, which directs the national organization. the national executive board consists of thepresident of the board and his vice presidents,
the treasurer and their assistants, the national commissioner, international commissioner, chief scout executive, regional presidents, chairman of the advisory council, chairman of the board of regents of the national eagle scout association, and up to 64 other members elected by the national council. at the moment there arearound 77 members of the national executive board who have to hold meetings at least 3times per year. i can imagine scheduling that would be challenging, given that all the peoplelisted above are volunteers with the exception of 3; chief scout executive, national commissioner, and international commissioner. you can think of the chief scout executive as the ceo ofthe boy scouts organization because he is responsible for the day to day operations and manages thestaff at the national organization, which
is located in irving, texas. so, to review, we have troops organized intodistricts organized into councils organized into areas organized into regions which areheaded by the national executive board, with each level having it's own board of directorswho are all volunteers. the big news from the bsa this past week wasthat the national executive board had decided to postpone a vote on allowing lgbt membersinto the organization until the meeting of the national council this may. so, withinthe layers of bureaucracy that make up the boy scouts, who is the national council? the national council is comprised of the members from the national executive board, regional
executive committees (including area presidents), the president and council commissioner from each council, plus one council representativeper 5000 youth members in that council. this brings the total membership of the nationalcouncil to almost 1,400. all national council members must 1) be citizens of the unitedstates (or in the process of becoming one), 2) volunteer members (professional scoutersmay not vote), and 3) present during the meeting on may 22-24th in grapevine, texas. what does this mean? it means that everyoneinvolved with the scouting program probably knows someone who will be voting on liftingthe ban on homosexual members this may. which means that we all can do something to effectthe vote just by talking about this issue
to everyone in our local councils. listento other people's concerns, reflect on why they might feel that way, and help them understand that all we are asking for is the same rights as everyone else. a little bit of dialogcango a long way, and in this case, all the way to texas. thanks for watching, and let me know in thecomments below if i made any errors in this video. also, be sure to subscribe to see more!
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