Jim K. joins Team Ethan

Those of us here at TruScouting are happy for Jim.  He might have thought to call Steve Bortz for an honest assessment of working for Ethan.

We don’t think this will last very long.  Both Jim and Ethan like to play “pin the tail on the donkey,” or the blame game, and sooner or later they will do this with each other and Jim will find himself out of another job.  Does anyone out there know of a Senior Executive Service member not retiring from the position?

When you run camps for the BSA, you should have a clue that your weekends will be tied up.  Poor Jim, he thinks he’ll be visiting Maryland on the weekends.  Good luck Jim, you're going to need it.    

It has been a year, how are you New York City?

Loving Ethan Draddy yet?  It takes Ethan a year to start to work his special magic.  Nothing all that special about it, cut programs he did not start to fund his “Big Ideas” which are rarely his to begin with.

·       Report to the State

·       Cultivation days for staff

·       Putting pressure on older staff members to leave

·       The BIG council event, normally with law enforcement

·       Outreach to minority communities to “show the flag” at board meetings

These were just few of his year one “Big Ideas” for Baltimore.  Baltimore, yes the place Ethan made the impression that he was God’s special gift to Scouting.  How is Baltimore these days?

The council is still in the audit process for the year.  The comptroller is no longwe with the council.  Being a "yes person" can get you ahead – it can also get you into trouble.

Summer camp numbers continue to decline.  The professional staff is below strength with prospects of recovering to pre-Ethan staffing levels dim.  Few of the “Big Ideas” Ethan Draddy implemented are around a year after his departure – outside of a few of his camp followers who are still with us.

At this point in his tenure, be on the lookout for Ethan bringing in these camp followers to New York to do the dirty work needed to make Ethan World possible.  For all his happy speak and Attention Deficit Disorder behavior Ethan has an agenda, to be the next Chief Scout Executive.  You can get with that agenda or find yourself on the outside looking in.                    

GOOD BYE ETHAN DRADDY

You and your career are the perfect example of the Peter Principle gone wild.  In a movement that needs each and every experienced, successful professional you allowed your misperceptions and prejudices to run crazy here in Baltimore.

You have violated the trust of volunteers and contributors by spinning every number to your advantage.  You move to New York City as the Great Financial Wizard of BSA, Inc. and you’re a fraud—taking credit for the work and planning of some outstanding Scouters.  Anyone can cut services and be penny wise and pound foolish, but to ask everyone on your staff to take cuts in their performance increases while you take a 45% pay increase—the degree of your sense of entitlement knew few bounds. 

Baltimore’s board of misdirection is to blame for allowing someone like you to serve young people.  The National Council is to blame for allowing you to continue in BSA, Inc.  All of us here in Baltimore Scouting should have done more to question your leadership style.

Scouting is a self-correcting organization and before too long the same old hands will be running everything on the volunteer side of the house.  It will take a long time to rebuild the capabilities of the professional / support staff.  The three major reasons the board hired you: finances, Broad Creek use, and city Scouting are already caving in on themselves.  Friends of Scouting is way down, summer camp attendance is so far off the mark that you closed one of the camps and city Scouting, after all the crap you forced down everyone’s throat is in the same shape it always will be in.  Great job Ethan; go get them in the Big Apple!                            

Count down to Ethan be gone day T+2

Let’s throw the rest of the surviving Ethan Draddy ideas into a pile for you to review.  There will be little support from the board once Ethan gets going on messing with the support and professional staff.  Honest to God, you will have less than a year to find a new job, prepare to do battle with Ethan or sit around to  pray that you’ll somehow make it past the reign of career terror that is about to come down on New York City Scouting.

The volunteers are not going to help much once things get going.  Ethan is a master of playing one group off against another.  At first, the volunteers are going to get everything they want, another Wood Badge course, not a problem.  Improvements at camp, sure -- we will make that happen – in the first 12 months.  Then Ethan will start replacing the volunteers with his people, no more improvements.  Actually, expect some serious cuts in service.

The National Council is too busy fighting political battles right now to pay attention to anything going on in the nation’s largest city.  Just remember, Ethan wants to be the chief, so negative social media out of New York City can be used to leverage his thinking (or what passes for it).

Clean out your desk now.  It will save on having to do this while Team Ethan is watching you.  Document everything and keep your documentation at home.  Team Ethan will be monitoring your computer usage.  Keep your records at home (including copies of business cards, personnel records (yours), rosters and phone numbers).  Keeping your personal items at home will send a message to Team Ethan that you are not too comfortable in your job.

There is no training after PD-III in Ethan Draddy land, so find ways to get to Philmont, Sea Base, or other training opportunities when you can.  Network while there with other professionals and tell them how Ethan is doing.  The best way to stop Ethan from being the next Chief Scout Executive is for the guys in Irving to realize that Ethan is a threat to their jobs and retirement plans. 

Ethan will work around you, over you, under you – know who you can trust.  Be guarded in what you say.  Sand bag membership and money to be used to help yourself or to help someone else.  Pool money and place an attorney on retainer.  Ethan is a bully, if you hit him hard the first time he attempts to start coloring outside the lines he’ll follow the rules (for a while).  Understand the council audit committee and be ready to file complains with them.  Nothing will happen; but it sends a message and builds a record. 

Ethan will centralize decision-making and create an authoritarian structure to support his leadership style, which is based on daily chaos, confusion and discord.  Reach out to Charter Organization Representatives and Institutional Heads build relationships of trust with these people.  They can help you to overturn Ethan decisions.  Stall and delay Ethan projects as much as you can.  Collaborative action is what can change poor future scenarios – like losing your job or having a pay cut so Ethan can hire more people to work in finance.

Start reading about employment law, both state and federal, tie Ethan up in complaints with regulators.  Do not wait to see how the wind is blowing or to discern whether Ethan is really breaking the law with his employment decisions, trust the folks in Baltimore the man is not honorable.

Good luck New York, we hope you will stop Ethan from ever being the Chief Scout Executive at a minimum.  If you are able to help Ethan find employment outside of BSA, Inc. Scouting will owe you all a big debt of gratitude.                                 

      

Rule # 5 for surviving Ethan: Sell out!

Hey, he is the boss.  The national organization vetted the guy and the board selected and approved him.  End of story, time to get to work.  The thing is working harder, even leading in money, membership and manpower will not save you.  If you are going to sit back to see what happens, good for you, it is an approach to the situation.  Whether you sell out to Ethan or sit on the fence please use the time to think about what you’ll be doing after Scouting.  Most of the people who sold out are no longer with the Baltimore council; they were not able to beat Ethan at his own game.  We would write that the majority of the sellouts are in sales positions now.  If insurance, real estate or office products are of interest to you now might be a good time to explore these options.

We know of only two senior professionals who were able to move to other councils, one was a female finance director (not a lot of those in Scouting) who took a lateral move.  The other was the director of field services, who was promoted to a Scout executive position.  It’s a little harder to side-line your number two, better to get him promoted.

There is a great deal of interest here in Baltimore in what happens to the guys Ethan brought in, especially Baltimore’s Late Night Bumper Car Champion.                                  

Rule # 4 for surviving Ethan: Become a camp counselor

Ethan’s career, at its foundation, is program.  Unlike the majority of Scout executives who built records on membership growth, or raising money, Ethan made his name in program related functions.  In a very real sense, he continues to view himself as a camp director.

How do you use this knowledge to survive Ethan?  The closer you are involved in council level programs the higher Ethan will evaluate your worth to the organization.  He still believes that professionals should always be the directors of summer camp programs – not an especially bad idea; but this worked when United Way funded the majority of a council’s budget, not so much anymore. When you’re out getting your hair colored, drinking your diet soda you need to start seeing yourself as a summer camp counselor.  Not only does Ethan need you to appear youthful, he needs you to think like a teenager.  Be eager to take on new tasks (while increasing your numbers for money, units, and membership).  Be willing to work for less than you are worth because it’s all about Ethan…we mean the boys!  Be adaptable to change, much like a teenager, don’t think about next month or next year (or your mortgage payment, family, life outside of Scouting).  Ethan will take care of that for you, don’t worry – be happy.

Once you have lost a few pounds, your hair is now an unnatural looking brown and you have signed up to be the next camp director, just remember this:  there have been few Baltimore staff members who survived Ethan by attempting to beat him at his own game, so be committed to being thought of as a camp counselor for next four plus years.                             

Rule # 3 for surviving Ethan: Be youthful and attractive (young and male helps)

Would you appear a few years younger if you lost a few pounds?  Is that grey hair all that important to your sense of self?  Now is the time to lose those pounds and color that hair.  Ethan likes everyone on his professional staff to look like camp staffers.  If you are young, attractive (height and weight appropriate), and male you’ll have a good chance of making it in Ethan Scouting.

If you are not height and weight appropriate, are a man or woman of a certain age, well…what did you think about being a DE?  It does beat not having a job at all.  We watched field directors and district directors demoted to DE positions, normally for no other reason than Ethan not liking their looks (or age).  If you thought this was going to be your retirement job think again.