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.

Rule # 2 for surviving Ethan: Protect your on-line information from the Cyber Stalker

Now would be a good time to change your security settings on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all the rest.  It’s actually a little late.  We would bet money that Ethan has already started his nightly troll through your on-line lives.  He would respond, we’re sure, with “just getting to know my future staff, good leadership, right? Right?”  It would be if he wasn’t looking for angles to leverage you to Team Ethan. 

Do you have a part-time job that is referred to on-line?  Do you own a business with any type of on-line presence?  Are there pictures of you missing articles of clothing at a party somewhere on the web?  Ethan is going to find all of this.  Close as many trap doors as you can.

It’s always better to have a seat at the table, rather than being on the menu.  We’re here to tell you, you are on the menu.  Don’t give Ethan knowledge about where to put the fork and knife.                   

Rule # 1 to surviving Ethan: Never Say You’re Sorry

Ethan got into his head that requiring employees to apologize to each another or to adult leaders that complain is a super trick.  It normally cools a situation down and he gets a written statement made by you that you did something wrong.  This will then get filed in your personnel file.   Don’t do it.  To meet his requirements, and keep your job, a simple statement of attrition should do the number. 

"Please forgive me for being a less than perfect creature / Scouter / executive." 

Just don’t get into specifics. Guard information about yourself.  Now we have never been able to find anything about this practise in any BSA human resources manual -- welcome to Scouting by Ethan.            

How to survive Ethan Draddy

It would be nice if you didn’t have to be concerned about this Scouting Wonder.  After all, you have chosen to work in an underappreciated, time consuming, underpaid position in Scouting.  The last thing you need (if you are hitting your objectives) is someone to come in to play games with your careers.  Sorry folks the games are about to begin.  Volunteers – the volunteers on the executive board – run Scouting and they don’t seem to care too much about the people doing the work. 

The same goes for those of us that volunteer on the council and district committees.  We love this organization, have given hours, days, weeks and years of our lives to it, but have had to face Ethan (or one of his cronies) asking us “what else would you like to do in Scouting?”  Done either to punish us for not joining Team Ethan or to reward one of his volunteer accomplices we were suddenly out of our Scouting positions.

We’ve come up with a list of actions you can take to survive Ethan.  We’ll start with the professional Scouters (as they will be the first to go) and then provide ideas to volunteers. 

There are two easy ways for professionals and support staff to survive Ethan right off the bat and not have to worry about a lot of what Baltimore and Ethan’s previous councils have gone through.  Organize yourselves for collective action.  Pool some money and place an attorney on retainer.  The first time Ethan goes after someone you’ll be ready.  Just make sure you have an understanding of employment law.  If someone is not making his or her numbers, life gets a little more difficult.  

If you are over 40 years of age we would highly recommend you reach out to other people within the council your age and older.  Ethan has a thing about people his age and older, he likes to demote and fire them. 

Hold on to your seat, we’ll be giving you some ideas to survive Ethan in the coming weeks, but remember – walk away power is the strongest medicine for the illness headed your way.                

     

The number one item to know about Ethan Draddy

At the number one spot on our list is something that we heard before Ethan ever got here to Baltimore, he is vindictive.  Sure enough, it turned out to be true.  This guy will make sure you are burned if he goes after you.  The sad thing is he will go after you for some of the most childish things imaginable – such as just not liking him personally or disliking one of his ideas.

Ethan was very careful his first year in Baltimore.  There was no big staff or volunteer committee changes.  All bets were off at the start of his second year.  The first people he when after were those who did not support him during his first year.

He’ll play this game of getting back at people while at the same time establishing his total control over the council.  To gain total control he starts with the professional staff.  Moving people around, changing critical tasks, placing pressure on supervisors to understand who plans to put up a fight and who is willing to join Team Ethan.  Once the professionals are in-line he can go after the chairs of the council committees.  He will start with the committees that are most important to him – anything that can communicate the dual brands of Scouting and Ethan.  Scouting for Food will be an easy target.  Council activities will be at the top of the list (he has to control the people running the coming Ethan Shows).  Camping and the OA will be in the top five to have Team Ethan members at their helm.    

Be on guard, don’t think Ethan wouldn’t remember you once the honeymoon period is over, because he will and he is one vindictive man.

             

Ethan’s Friday Evening Club

It’s Friday at the Baltimore Area Council.  Most of the professional staff has left for the day to get ready for Scouting events in their districts in the coming morning.  Ethan’s Friday Evening Club is getting ready with boxes.  The call has already been made to the IT folks to migrate files and information from your computer.  It’s not like you didn’t know this was in the works.  About a year after you were promotable Ethan and the boys moved you to one of the largest districts in the council, over 100 units, a district that had two full-time professionals before Ethan started cutting unit service to fund the expansion of the finance department.  Let’s face it, that is all BAC is anymore, a fund raising operation that occasionally puts on large Ethan events (that lose money, but make Ethan look good).  You’re a single father, veteran, over 40 and one of the few African-Americans on the professional staff.  You take the promotion, because not to will not work with Ethan.  Within a year, you’re on a work plan.  It’s an Ethan work plan, which means you have 90 days to get done what the last three DE’s were not able to do (yes, over three DE’s in the past four years). 

So you knew this was coming.  You thought you could out last Ethan, hell you’re about the last person over 40 who has been here since Ethan was hired who has not been fired, or demoted, you just needed a month, then no more Ethan.  Of course, that is not how Ethan works.  While you’re meeting with the late night bumper car champion of Baltimore the Friday Evening Club boxes up your belonging.  It’s after 5:00PM, no one is left in the office as the boys escort you out to your car.

Hell, it could have been worse.  You didn’t get a call during the weekend telling you that you needed to report to work on Monday to be fired because you should not have been fired on Friday.  You didn’t have to go through one work plan (successfully) only to be demoted and moved to another district (across the council) and placed on another work plan and when this work plan was not working for Ethan have the job eliminated.  Or told at camp on a Friday not to go back to the office while your co-workers call your cell phone asking why Ethan’s boys were piling all your belongings into the middle of your office.  The stories of Ethan’s Friday Evening Club are truly mind opening – yours is really pretty tame.

Your district chairman and commissioner have received calls, they most likely knew about Friday before you did.  Don’t expect any support from volunteers.  They really don’t care about the DE’s that work the districts.  You’re just like a person at McDonalds to them, “would you like popcorn with your order?”  You’re just another tree to the board of directors who can’t see the forest in front of them.  BAC’s board of misdirection has had three strikes in  a row with hiring Scout executives; John Maxwell got BAC into financial debt, Hugh Travis got BAC into membership debt and Ethan has gotten BAC into a program debt (with the closing of one of our camps due to attendance).  The best thing this board of misdirection could do is outsource the selection process for a new Scout executive to…the Girl Scouts?  The National Council will be of little use.  This same bunch recommended Ethan to us and now Greater New York Councils.

We wish you well and thank you for the work you did for Scouting and we're sorry that Ethan was your Scout executive.                        

                         

Getting to know Ethan Draddy

At number two on our list of things to know about Ethan is that he is very concerned about his reputation. 

The few staff members and volunteers that had meet Ethan before he become our Scout executive thought the world of him.  He was understanding, knowledgeable and friendly, all nice qualities for a Scout executive.  Ethan works hard on developing a positive reputation in the wider Scouting community.  Before social media, this was an easy thing to do.  Now some of you that are reading this blog will at least be watching for clues to the real Ethan.  You’ll have perhaps a six month head start on the Baltimore staff in understanding Ethan.  We’ll be writing more in the coming weeks about surviving Ethan Draddy – not an easy task.  Of the 23 professionals that were at BAC when Ethan was hired there are seven left.  We only know of one who was promoted out of BAC.

His reputation is vital to him, for many of the points we have made in getting to know Ethan.  He is emotionally insecure, self-centered, controlling, bullying and possibly has adult ADAD.  Ethan was a marketing major in college and has a good handle on how to control information to people that could affect him.  However, his reputation, and his need to control it, is also his Achilles heel. 

Ethan Draddy is a bully

Coming in at number three in getting to know Ethan is that he is a bully.

Ethan uses the strength and power of his office to harm or intimidate those who question his leadership, ethical standards or values. 

Ethan’s only priority is to look out for his own best interests, and if climbing the ladder of success means having few scruples and ignoring the welfare of others, so be it.  Ethan is always on the lookout for an opportunity to short-circuit legal and regulatory requirements when he thinks he can escape detection.  If you are an employee or a volunteer that Ethan has some privileged knowledge about (gossip, rumor, lies or innuendo), don't be surprised if Ethan attempts to leverage this knowledge to bully you into doing something for him.  If you don't aid him in his plans he'll use gossip, rumor, lies and innuendo to continue to bully you. 

There are two new open spaces on the staff roster.  Is Ethan forcing employees out right up to the end of his tenure or did someone make it out of BAC?

Ethan Draddy -- ADHD

At number four on our list is Ethan the adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder poster child.

As you get to know Ethan you’ll start to notice that he has difficulty concentrating.  He is addicted to his cell phone and normally is texting, twitting or playing with it.  He is impulsive – moving from one project to the next.  He likes to be on the go, attending meetings, visiting with board members and community leaders.  He has relationship problems with his staff.  If the economy was in better shape, he would be on his third rotation of staff members since 2008. He can be happy one movement and ready to fire people the next.  There is little capacity to tolerate frustration.  You’ll rarely see a written plan of how Ethan wants something done.  Organization of his plans is for other people to think about.  If you question him on any of the above he’ll question your value to the organization, because the organization is Ethan Draddy 24/7.

So we have:

·         Difficulty concentrating

·         Impulsiveness

·         Low frustration tolerance

·         Low self-esteem

·         Mood swings

·         Poor organization skills

·         Relationship problems

·         Addiction

All the above are symptoms of adult ADHD.  Why is Ethan the poster child for adult ADHD?  Because only in professional Scouting could someone like Ethan make it big.  You might say that someone with adult ADHD is a perfect fit for the modern professional Scouter. 

Concerted Protected Activity - Social Media

Facebook Criticisms Of Supervisor Protected, NLRB Finds

Share us on: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn By Abigail Rubenstein

Law360, New York (April 24, 2013, 2:46 PM ET) -- The National Labor Relations Board on Friday said that Facebook posts by employees criticizing the manager of a San Francisco clothing boutique's handling of employee concerns were a “classic concerted protected activity,” ruling the store had unlawfully fired the workers who penned the posts.

The NLRB agreed with an administrative law judge's ruling that the Facebook posts were part of the employees' efforts to get Bettie Page Clothing to close earlier in the evening based on concerns about working late in an unsafe neighborhood, and that as such, the store had committed an unfair labor practice when it fired the workers. But the board went a step further than the judge, saying the posts themselves — which included a discussion of bringing an employee rights handbook to the store — constituted protected concerted activity under the National Labor Relations Act.

“The Facebook postings were complaints among employees about the conduct of their supervisor as it related to their terms and conditions of employment and about management’s refusal to address the employees’ concerns,” the board's decision said. “Such conversations for mutual aid and protection are classic concerted protected activity, even absent prior action.”

According to the judge's decision, the workers had asked their manager if the store could close at 7 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. because other stores in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood were closing earlier and street people occasionally harassed the employees from outside the store, which had no security system. The manger said she would discuss it with corporate officials, but there was no resolution, the decision said.

One day when the manager was out of town, two of the employees who were later terminated, Vanessa Morris and Holli Thomas, were working together, and Thomas had telephone discussions with the store's owner and its human resources consultant about closing the store early, which led to angry phone calls with the manager, the decision said.

That night, Morris Thomas and Brittany Johnson — a third employee who was also eventually fired — posted several messages on Facebook critical of the manager, including one in which Morris said, “Tomorrow I’m bringing a California workers rights book to work. My mom works for a law firm that specializes in labor law and BOY will you be surprised by all the crap that’s going on that’s in violation,” according to the decision.

Another employee who was friendly with the manager showed her the posts, and the manager contacted the human resources consultant, who sent copies of the postings to the store's owner, the decision said. Six days later, the manager fired both Thomas and Morris, it said.

Johnson was fired afterward, allegedly because of chronic lateness.

The NLRB, like the judge, rejected the employer's argument that the posts were intended not for employees' mutual aid and protection but to entrap the employer into firing them.

The board found that the posts were protected by federal labor law and that as such Morris and Thomas should not have been fired because of them. As for, Johnson the board found that the store enforced its policy on lateness inconsistently and that she was actually unlawfully fired for her association with the other two workers.

The board ordered the store to reinstate all three employees and to give them back pay.

“This decision is indicative that if employers fire people for things they put on their Facebook accounts about workplace issues, that's unlawful,” David A. Rosenfeld of Weinberg Roger & Rosenfeld PC, who represents the workers, told Law360.

An attorney for the employer, however, said the store planned to appeal.

“Bettie Page Clothing disagrees with the ruling and intends to file an appeal both on the merits of the decision and the authority of the recess-appointment board members who rendered the decision,” David R. Koch of Koch & Scow LLC said. “Bettie Page Clothing looks forward to an objective venue before the appropriate appellate court.”

The decision marks the NLRB's third ruling on firings that stemmed from Facebook posts.

In the first decision, issued in October, the board concluded that posts by a salesman at Karl Knauz Motors Inc. regarding an accident at an adjacent Land Rover dealership also owned by the company were not protected by the law, and that his termination was therefore lawful.

The board's second decision on Facebook-related firings held that nonprofit Hispanics United of Buffalo Inc. ran afoul of the NLRA when it axed five workers for Facebook comments responding to a co-worker's criticisms of their job performance. The posts were protected because they were the workers' first step toward group action to defend themselves against accusations they could reasonably have believed the co-worker would make to management, the board found.

The employees in the instant suit are represented by David A. Rosenfeld and Nina A. Fendel of Weinberg Roger & Rosenfeld PC.

Bettie Page Clothing is represented by David R. Koch of Koch & Scow LLC.

The case is Design Technology Group LLC d/b/a Bettie Page Clothing, case number 20-CA-35511, before the National Labor Relations Board.

--Editing by Eydie Cubarrubia.

Email offtherecord@law360.com.

© Copyright 2013, Portfolio Media, Inc. | Home | About | Contact Us | Site Map | Site Index | Jobs | Careers at Law360 | Mobile | Terms

The Control Freak: Ethan Draddy

Coming in at number five in getting to know Ethan is that he is a control freak.  There is nothing and we mean nothing that Ethan won’t stick his nose in.  Maybe that’s a good thing in a CEO, except he will never tell you what he wants (because he really does not have a clue), so there is always a great deal of guessing going on.  This wastes time and resources as people attempt to make him happy. 

Do you run a program that is successful?  Don’t think that will prevent this control freak from wanting to put his special “Ethan stamp of approval” on it.  The first place he starts is the approval process for purchase orders.  Expect delays and many questions about every single purchase order you request.  He will then move on to the budget for the program, cutting without asking or understanding the requirements.  Finally, he will remove you for not cooperating with him.  Give it about two years and as your program starts to fail Ethan will return to the way it was before he messed with it.

What we have never gotten is why Ethan can’t focus on what is NOT working.  Could it be adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder?   

Ethan Draddy—Social Entrepreneur, not!

Ethan likes to think of what he does for the Boy Scouts as social entrepreneurship. Now Wikipedia would tell us that:

Social entrepreneurship means identifying or recognizing a social problem and using entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a social venture to achieve a desired social change.

Essential qualities of social entrepreneurs are leadership, management ability, and team building.  Qualities that come into question with Ethan, the more you get to know him.  Although the program and organization of the Boy Scouts of America can, and is, used to address many of our country’s social problems--one person does not set the program.  The national executive board determines and approves the program, quality standards and operating procedures for the Boy Scouts of America.

We believe, after years of observing Ethan, that he uses this concept to justify to himself and others doing things his way.  Not following the rules or making them up as he goes.  When questioned by the bureaucrats in Irving he just tells them he is being innovative. 

At number 6:  Ethan the great social entrepreneur.

Has Ethan really done anything very innovative here in Baltimore?

·         The report to the State of Maryland is an old idea.

·         The Big Ethan Shows are nothing more than Council Camporalls.

·         We covered money management in a past post. 

·         Signing up bulk membership in inner-city schools is nothing new.

·         His innovative ideas for our long-term camping program have resulted in one of our summer camps closing this year.

Be ready for a great deal of unnecessary disruptive change in the name of social entrepreneurship New York.

Ethan is a social media crack head

Here’s one you can check out for yourself, right there in New York – Google Ethan Draddy and see what pops up.  Now read maybe three of the sources and you’ll notice that the story line is pretty much the same from one site to another.  Ethan loves to write about himself (we understand, we love writing about Ethan too).  Hell, he had two Twitter accounts set up just before we all learned that Baltimore was delivered from this menace. 

So at number 7:  Ethan is addicted to social media (primarily promoting Ethan).

A clue that Ethan does not give a poop about you is when he is texting while having a meeting with you. Always remember that the texting never stops, the guy believes this gives him a competitive advantage.  What it really does is make people realize he has a problem.

Ethan Draddy is not your typical “family man.”

Coming in at number 8 is the fact that Ethan is not your typical “family man.”  We’re sure that he loves his family he just does not have empathy towards the families of others.  Don’t expect any understanding from Ethan about a child’s birthday or an anniversary.    

Open letter to Barry Williams

Barry F. Williams

Chairman of the Board

Baltimore Area Council

April 12, 2013

Dear Mr. Williams;

Those of us at TruScouting welcome the start of the third paragraph of your letter concerning Ethan Draddy.  “The process to replace Ethan begins now.”  What sweet words! 

Perhaps it’s time to NOT find someone to continue the “good work” of our past Scout executive.  That was the line used to find the replacement for Hugh Travis and, can we be honest here, the results have not come without a great deal of pain for many people. 

It is time for the board to do a bit of governing.  You might consider taking this time to go out and listen to unit leadership about what they need from a council.  Sitting down and talking with the Key 3’s of each of the districts would be a real eye opener for you (please do this after Ethan has left to save the job of the professional member of the Key 3).  Here’s idea, why not talk to a few boys / girls and their families?

We believe that most units have grown accustomed to doing their Scouting without the benefits of Baltimore Area Council (BAC), just look at your summer camp attendance.  Our troops would opt out of more BAC provided services if they could.

Do we really need another designer of Under Armour t-shirts as our Scout executive?  This type of innovation comes at a price.  The council office has seen quite a bit of innovation and energy for the past five years.  How much of this attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is needed in the future should be a question open to discussion.

Mr. Williams, Scouting is at a crossroad.  Do something different and LISTEN to your corporate stakeholders, Boy Scout Troops, Cub Scout Packs and Venturing Crews about what they want from a Scout executive.

Yours in Scouting,

TruScouting             

           

Getting to know Ethan Draddy

At number nine:  It’s all about the greater glory of Ethan Draddy.

The sooner you learn this the better you’ll be New York Scouting.  There will be days when you’ll ask yourselves “why are we doing this?”  Nothing and we mean nothing will make sense until you completely understand that it is all about Ethan, his career, his next move and more often than not, his ego.

The first few months Ethan will be taking mental notes, who is willing to serve him contrasted with who has their own agenda (or the mission of Scouting) foremost in their mind.  In the end you will have one of three choices to make; serve the dark lord of Scouting, go underground, or attempt to fight him.  Let’s be honest, fighting Ethan in the Scouting world is a losing proposition.  But how does that song go?  "If you can make it there you can make it anywhere."                                    

Getting to know Ethan Draddy

As a first step for the employees and Scouters of Greater New York Councils (GNYC) we here at TruScouting think you should get to know a little about your new CEO.  By the way, Ethan LOVES being a CEO.  We first want to give you a couple of Top Ten Lists; Getting to know Ethan Draddy and Ten Ways to survive Ethan Draddy.  We'll share these with you over the next few days.

Let’s get real New York.  Your council is in debt.  Your board, most likely, does not want to raise the money to repay it.  The old adage about why someone is on a non-profit board is to “get, give and govern.”  Most BSA board members don’t have a clue about getting money, here in Baltimore we’ve had a difficult time having board members give and outside of showing up for the dog and pony show board meetings at large councils are, there is very little governing.  Just how did your council get so far in debt?  It wasn't because the board was paying attention.  Why didn't the board do anything about it?

Well they have now.  Your board has just hired “Hi, I’m Ethan.”  Now Ethan has a reputation as quite the money manager.  During a recession, he was able to single handedly, repay 1.2 million dollars in debt while maintaining positive fund balances!  How?  Well the first part was easy – timing.  Ethan was hired just as seven years’ worth of getting money from the feds paid off.  The money was put into an endowment for our camps and Ethan (with board approval, it had been the plan all along) borrowed from this endowment to pay off the debt.  Now how did he maintain positive numbers for everything else?  He cut services.  However, you have to get to know Ethan to understand how this happened.  It wasn’t like there was a plan.  Ethan has some issues and coming into a council with debt helps cover his character flaws. 

So for today, at number ten:  Ethan is emotionally insecure.

It could be the messed up grill.  The height or the glasses he must have worn as a child; but Ethan is emotionally insecure.  One of the first questions he’ll ask about anyone outside of Scouting is, “does he/she like us?”  Look at his track record, Ethan likes to fire people.  Call around to his first two councils or talk to people that worked with him at the camps he ran – his first response is to fire people. Normally not for performance, there is always some other issue.  What we have found is when an employee shows any lack of support for an Ethan Idea that is when it starts – the guy gets hurt feelings and strikes back.   Anymore you won’t find him in the office when the people are escorted out.  He finds other places to be.  Volunteers that show any disapproval are quickly asked what else in Scouting they would like to do.

If you plan to live with Ethan for the next four years, just remember, in many ways you’ll be dealing with a 14 year old boy with a lot of power over your careers or influence over what you do in Scouting.                           

Ethan Draddy, before you go...

Ethan:  Earn your Baltimore pay for a few more weeks…

Before you leave us old friend how about actually making some numbers real?

Summer Camp

For starters, summer camp attendance – which is going to be lower this year, since you closed one of the camps.  It probably should remained closed for a good three years to allow the campsites to refresh (we sure don’t need trees falling on kids do we Ethan?).

Nevertheless, you could set a fire under the O.A. to promote camp.  The current numbers are not going to cut it.  Why don’t you recommend that BAC get out of the long-term camping business?

Alternatively, you could actually have Kevin Mac. doing what he is good at, working at camp.  Now that kid could turn your camp numbers around.

Membership

How about closing down Pathfinders District before you leave?  Don’t move those numbers into your districts, let them expire. 

Council Office

Let’s have one more party for Lil!

You can take Manny with you to New York.  The two of you together forever, like two Star Wars Sith Lords.  

That is what we have so far.  We’re working up an advice column for the employees of Greater New York Councils.  Item number one is:  Get out now if you can!       

National Board Member's phone numbers. Call and tell them how Ethan Draddy is doing.

There is no better way to express your views about Ethan Draddy than to call a national BSA Board Member.  We have finally found some of the key volunteer players on the national level and their phone numbers.  Give them a call and tell them how pleased you are with Ethan. 

There is probably no one better suited to be the first National Twitter Director than Ethan is!   

Select BSA Board Members:

• David L. Beck: (801) 240-1000
• R. Thomas Buffenbarger: (310) 967-4500
• Keith A. Clark: (717) 763-1121
• William F. "Rick" Cronk: (925) 283-7229
• John C. Cushman III: (904) 393-9020
• R. Michael Daniel: (412) 297-4989
• Jack D. Furst: (972) 982-8250
• T. Michael Goodrich: (205) 328-9445 ext. 200
• Earl G. Graves: (212) 242-8000
• Aubrey B. Harwell Jr.: (615) 244-1713
• Stephen Hemsley: (800) 328-5979
• Larry W. Kellner: (713) 468-4050
• Robert J. LaFortune: (918) 582-2981
• Joseph P. Landy: (212) 878-0600
• Francis R. McAllister: (406) 373-8700
• Scott D. Oki: (425) 454-2800
• Arthur F. Oppenheimer: (208) 343-4883
• Tico A. Perez: (407) 849-1235
• Robert H. Reynolds: (317) 231-7227
• Matthew K. Rose: (909) 386-4140
• Nathan O. Rosenberg: (949) 494-4553
• Roger M. Schrimp: (209) 526-3500
• Marshall M. Sloane: (781) 395-3000
• Rex W. Tillerson: (972) 444-1000
• David M. Weekley: (713) 659-8111
• Togo D. West, Jr.: (202) 775-1775