Boy Scouts of America Reviews

Pros

It's a nice area and the volunteers are great.

Cons

Leadership, from the top down.

Advice to Senior Management

Time for some more people to retire.

Pros

Colleagues are fun, energetic and dedicated. The mission of helping turn boys into leaders and productive citizens I find worthy and more rewarding than working for profit.

Cons

At times management can be balky when presented with logical reasons for compensation changes. Mixed messages between performance reviews and salary increases.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more nimble and take more risks with the program. Scouting doesn't need to be cool, it needs to be hot!

Pros

work your own schedule, great health benefits...hmm think that is about it.

Cons

VERY political, old men working there that don't like change. Do NOT get paid enough for the amount of work and criticism DEs get. Work reviews are based on meeting numbers that depend on how good your district and volunteers are, it doesn't matter how hard of a worker you are or how much work you do to help them out. Promotions and opportunities are based on if they like you or not, basically if you question a process or state your opinion that they don't agree with, you are on their bad list. Rules apply on an individual basis, so if they like you, you don't have to follow them. They force you to donate to your own paycheck, and if you don't you are looked down on. Overall, DEs do all the work, get all the crap from volunteers and council, but we get paid the least!

Advice to Senior Management

Get to know your employees and what they are good at. Know who the hard workers are and offer them the opportunities, not the ones who have the good areas and volunteers but yet aren't team players, dont go to meetings, and don't really work. Trust your employees more and don't force them to go on vacations when it is not convinient for them. Answer questions back, if you expect to receive respect then give it!

Pros

Your work for a program that is bettering our youth. We need more good productive citizens and BSA is the last of youth programs to offer that for our future.

Cons

Great family organization. However, not so much when you work for them. Hence it being a non-profit organization.

Advice to Senior Management

You need to find a way to make the job less stressful and stop beating down DE's when they dont bring in the numbers you predict will come in for your Regional Boss. You cant control the economy and if kids want to sign up.

Pros

For a non-profit organization, compensation is better than average. Opportunities are provided to meet colleagues across the country. Program is strong, and the work is meaningful.

Cons

There is growth potential, but the best way to achieve growth is to relocate when you're up for promotion. If you're not interested in relocating, growth can be limited. Educational opportunities are available, but they focus on BSA-specific training.

Advice to Senior Management

Be open to experiences and training opportunities outside the organization. Make better use of current technology and be sure employees are promoted to appropriate positions based on demonstrated strengths.

Pros

- Exciting work. You're working with boy scouts basically every day. You get to help run campfires, play games, and teach interesting classes.

Cons

- Pay is definitely not that great.
- It can be very tiring, there is a lot of things that you need to do (read: not much free time).

Advice to Senior Management

Secure more funding for the camp so that there's better facilities. A lot of troops don't return to this camp because the facilities are simply inferior.

Pros

Decent pay and great perks.
Very liberal vacation days.
Volunteers are very helpful.
Great work environment and i loved the people i worked with!

Cons

The workload balance is way off. 2 people to handle over a dozen counties as well as being personal secretaries to 8 people.
Follow-thru doesn't happen.
NO Respect is given to non-management staff.
Pay for non-management is barely above minimum wage while entry level DE's start at $35,000 a year and Scout Executive makes over $120,000 a year.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus more on quality rather than quantity - if we had consistant quality programs the quantity would follow. Check to make sure management doesn't abuse hourly staff. This seems to be a big problem. The Scout Oath and Law is not followed by the management staff and management should be the standard others follow.

Pros

Respect from community, nice benefits, enjoyable environment. Enjoyed working with volunteers and kids. Excellent training if you can get it in a timely fashion.

Cons

Long and irregular hours, high expectations with little rewards, managers who yell at employees and lie to them. Way too much emphasis on fund-raising and not enough on the kids themselves. The most common way to move up is to move around. Very hard to live in one city and advance with the scouts.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop paying your execs so much and start paying your district execs what they are worth.

Pros

I do not have a scouting background, but I love the organization, and my job. I keep waiting for that feeling I've had with other jobs where you just don't like it anymore, but I don't get that with this job. I am more than willing to do things at night and on the weekends, because I love the organization and the volunteers.

Cons

If you do not have enough volunteers, it is difficult to perform well

Advice to Senior Management

I think that things are ran very well.

Pros

Working at a camp you get to be outdoors 24/7 and a vast majority of your time is spent smiling and laughing.

Cons

The pay is small, food is bland, and sleep quarters are no Marriott's if that is what you are expecting.

Advice to Senior Management

Councils need to honestly listen to what is being said by Camp Directors, they have the first hand knowledge to make things better.