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

Ethan’s Leadership Rules

1. Show your leadership and decisiveness by jumping to conclusions.

2. Only take credit for successes. When things go wrong, make sure you know who to blame.

3. Hire a plethora of directors of (field service, finance service, support service, assistant Scout executive, comptroller…). Require them to issue dictates that are mutually exclusive.

4. Have employees be responsible for something without giving them the authority to get the work done.

5. Just keep those pie charts and glossy presentations coming.

6. Keep people in the dark and then criticize them for not knowing what is going on.

7. Use initials to stand for information.

8. Give one of those quality seminars (Disney is nice). Then have your management make up a slogan like “spectacular customer service,” which they repeat mindlessly over and over.

9. Take insufficient time to pick the right people for the job.

10. Give big pay raises to your cronies, the folks at the top, and then lay off the low-level workers because money is tight. Don’t forget to pay yourself FIRST (like a 40% annual increase); after all you are the CEO.

11. Keep trying to implement a failing idea, or a series of past ideas, remember that is how you got here.

12. Tell your employees that quantity is a measure of quality.

13. Make ridiculous, nitpicky comments to show you have input and made a difference.

14. Sit on reports and projects requiring your signature, when you do give your approval make sure people know you have done them a favor and they owe you.

15. Tell your staff that it is quite possible to do the impossible with fewer people.

16. Remember that your special type of leadership is about creating your own reality and then selling it to the board. As long as they are in the dark about what is really going on – you have a job.

17. Capitalize on the ideas of others and then fire them.

18. Be cheap, not frugal.

19. Recreate summer camp everywhere you go – fire, demote, and transfer older employees.

20. When all else fails mount a smear campaign against anyone who disagrees with you – right? RIGHT?

Discrimination Claim Prevails

Former Scout exec wins lawsuit
Discrimination claim prevails

By Lee Hammel TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFFlhammel@telegram.com

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They treated me like a second-class citizen,

-- Kamal Aly, FORMER DISTRICT SCOUT EXECUTIVE
WORCESTER — A jury in U.S. District Court has found the Mohegan Council of the Boy Scouts of America discriminated against an employee born in Egypt who said he was forced out of the organization. The 8-member jury assessed punitive damages at $300,000 for Kamal Aly and $152,500 in lost pay. The civil suit alleging employment discrimination based on national origin was decided Thursday. Mr. Aly, whose wife sat beside him last week in a hijab covering her hair throughout the trial, said last night of the verdict, “I was really happy because that gave me the feeling that not all American people like discriminating against other citizens. “They treated me like a second-class citizen, which I didn‘t like especially in the Boy Scouts,” Mr. Aly, who lives in Vernon, Conn., said. “When we teach moral values I didn‘t expect we would have any problem like discrimination.” Asked whether the Mohegan Council will appeal, its lawyer, Andrew Neil Hartzell of Boston, said, “We believe the verdict was against the weight of the evidence. We are exploring all post-trial options.” Because the case is not over, he said he is limited in what he can say about it, but he said that the law limits punitive damages against an organization the size of Mohegan Council to $50,000. The case was heard before Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV. John T. Martin of the Framingham law firm Mann & Martin, which represents Mr. Aly, acknowledged the legal limit for punitive damages is under $300,000, but said there will be arguments in court on what the limit is in this case. Mr. Aly, an American citizen, was hired as district executive, an entry-level position, by the Mohegan Council in August 2001, and said he was forced out in 2005. At one point, he was camp director for Treasure Valley Scout Reservation in Rutland. He contends that for the first three years of his employment he was given good performance evaluations, but was not offered the same opportunities for training and promotion to senior district executive as non-Egyptian employees. Mr. Aly alleged that Scout Executive Jay Garee told him that Council Executive James Kennedy instructed executives at other councils not to hire him, and that District Chairman David Libbey and District Commissioner Don Bjorn did not want him there any longer. Mr. Aly resigned, but filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination and then a federal civil rights suit. Mr. Martin said Mohegan Council asserted that Mr. Aly wound up with poor performance evaluations based on a drop in scout membership, and what it said was a failure to respond to emails from volunteers. Mr. Aly's lawyer said such drops in membership were not unusual and not factored into the evaluations of other employees; other contentions did not stand up under cross-examination. The jury arrived at its verdict even though Mr. Aly offered no evidence that the defendants exhibited anti-Muslim or anti-Egyptian sentiments. The plaintiffs proved discrimination by showing “that Mr. Aly was treated differently than his non-Muslim, non-Egyptian colleagues” and “we were able to show the jury that the claimed nondiscriminatory business reasons for treating him differently were false,” Mr. Martin said. The jury found in favor of Mr. Aly on his federal law claim of discrimination, but in favor of the Mohegan council on his state law claims. The difference, Mr. Martin said, under state law, the discrimination has to be the determining factor behind the adverse employment action. Under federal law, the discrimination need only be a contributing motivation behind the action to be illegal, Mr. Martin said. “The Mohegan Council is extremely disappointed in the jury's verdict in this case,” Charles Thompson, president of the Mohegan Council, said, “and respectfully disagrees that any personnel decisions were made on the basis of race or ethnicity. The Council highly values diversity in its staff and participants. Indeed, the diversity of our staff and participants enhances the strength of the Council and its program.” He added, “Many of scouting's programs are registered in faith based institutions including churches, mosques and synagogues. “We do feel the jury was swayed by some of the emotional content instead of by the facts,” he said. Even if the verdict stands, Mr. Thompson said he believes it would be paid by the Boy Scouts of America's insurance policy and not from Mohegan funds. “We have thousands of people who support scouting here in Central Massachusetts and we want to assure them whatever the eventual outcome this does not come from their contributions.” Mr. Aly, who was a Cub Scout and a Boy Scout in his native Egypt, said he still loves scouting and wishes he could rejoin the movement.