SCOUT HEADQUARTERS AND ITS WORK by Scout Executive C. A. Worden, Queens Borough, N. Y. EDITORIAL NOTE: Scout Headquarters exists primarily_to_RENDER SERVICE and PROVIDE INFORMATION. To do either of these intelligently necessitates RECORDS. Results can be measured only as results are KNOWN. Weaknesses can only be detected as records periodically reveal FACTS. What records therefore, must the effective Council maintain? 1-ACCURATE AND APPROVED AND PERMANENT MINUTES of all Council and Committee meetings. (These are the source of executive authority. This will include record of budget, reports, etc.) 2-LETTER FILES containing copies of all correspondence involving decisions, policies, purchases, relationships, including instructions to paid staff. 3-ACCURATE RECORDS OF ALL INCOME and EXPENDITURE items with original bills and receipts. (This is essential to protect the Executive as well as the Council. These should be professionally audited at regular intervals.) 4-TROOP REGISTRATION including man and boy personnel kept down to date. 5 COURT OF HONOR RECORDS OF SCOUT PROG- 7-TURNOVER records of boys and leaders, showing The time has passed when a desk, a chair and a telephone to say nothing of the proverbial hatform the business office. Even the modern country store, in the interests of efficiency has given up its old round stove, and its saw-dust box around which the village orators and gossips congregated on chilly days. "Efficiency," that more or less new and widely used word with which modern business has recently formed a speaking acquaintance has revolutionized that world and converted the slip-shod business man into the Executive of the present time. Progressive business today results only after efficiency methods have been adopted. The modern man is not fair to himself to say nothing of those whom he represents until he has become a student of efficiency. To the Scout Executive, his Headquarters presents the first problem to be dealt with along the lines of efficiency. One of the general criticisms heard regarding social and religious organizations is that they are not conducted on a business basis. Office organization is a problem to which Scout Executives frequently give very little heed. Many are prone to put time, thought and energy into elaborate troop, field and Council organization schemes, which may not reach beyond the paper stage, and ignore entirely the fundamentals of their own office organization. This is a grave short-coming. Office organization, no matter what the size of the field, will more or less naturally shape itself under three different heads, viz: 1. The office and its equipment; 2. The staff and its functions; 3. The systems used in carrying on the work. 1. The office and its equipment. The Scout Executive's office is the fountainhead of Scouting in the Community. As people are judged by the company they keep, so will the Scout organization be judged, in large measure, by the appearance of Scout Headquarters. In many cases, upon entering an office one is immediately confronted with a counter and show-cases, giving the impression of a store and its attending commercialism, rather than that of a dignified business office. Posters are placed hit or miss upon the walls. Packages and boxes litter the floors. Truly, the first impression is not one that would breed confidence. The effect upon the staff is as unwholesome as it is upon the casual visitor. The following, which are basic principles, should be borne in mind. 1. Locate the office as centrally as possible to the field covered. If possible, it should be in a prominent building with other well-established organizations or concerns. 2. Standardize the office furnishings, by having the desks, files, cabinets, chairs, and other furnishings of the same finish and style. 3. Instead of posters on the walls, framed pictures of Scout activities speak eloquently of the progress being made, and give a more cheerful appearance. 4. If conditions permit, have a general office, for the clerical force, and private offices for the Executives. 5. Arrange the desks and files so that the routing of the work is done economically and in an orderly manner. 6. Tidy desks vouch much for the efficiency of the ones using them. Remember that Scout Headquarters is a place of and for business and it should not be used as a club room, a "hang-out" for men or boys, a museum, a storeroom nor a store. It should stand as a SERVICE STATION to those engaged in the conduct and promotion of Scouting. It should be a place for inspiration and information. It should be the record office for the archives of Scouting in the Community. 2. The staff and its functions: Plan, and then state graphically, the functions of each one on the office staff. The plan will depend largely, of course, upon the size of the staff and the field covered. However, certain fundamentals are general. Form "A," on the preceding page, outlines the staff organization of one local Council. A copy should be in the hands of each employee. For the Scout Executive himself, a further development of this plan is necessary because of the many matters passing through his hands. Form "B" automatically calls up daily some particular subject which might otherwise be overlooked. The items shown on the chart are standard activities. Seasonal activities and those which arise occasionally may be noted as they arise. It is not intended, for instance, that the "Court of Honor" is to be convened on the day shown on the chart, but that on that particular day, the Executive has called to his attention automatically any problems arising which must be considered in connection with the Court. On the day assigned for "Accounting" the Executive checks back on this subject with the staff member who is assigned to that particular task. In large territories, the names of towns or Districts are inserted on the chart and on the designated day the Executive gives consideration to conditions in those sections, checking back if necessary with the assistant, in whose field they lie. It will be seen that the system is flexible and if the chart is placed under a glass mat on the desk, the entire out |