March-April 1999March-April 1999
By Suzanne Wilson
Editor's note: For a look at one key level of Scouting leadership, that of local council president, Scouting magazine visited the Heart of America Council, in Kansas City, Mo., and the smaller Caddo Area Council, in Texarkana, Tex.
The two men we interviewed have much in common beyond serving as the top volunteer of their councils. Both are the third council president in their families, work in long-established family businesses, and are active in many community endeavors besides Scouting.
"We need to select effective leaders at all levels, volunteers and professionals, who represent our values and have influence, vision, commitment, and a focus on their role in Scouting."- The BSA National Strategic Plan, 1998-2002
In Kansas City, Robert (Bob) K. Green has recently finished his tenure as president of the Heart of America Council. He reflects on the call for quality, committed leadership as stated above in the BSA's new strategic plan.
"Leadership is critical," he says, "from a senior patrol leader on up to assistant Scoutmaster and Scoutmaster. These are the ones who are on the front lines delivering the product to youth. I tend to think they're the most important and doing the real work of Scouting."
In discussing council leadership, Green emphasizes the importance of having community leaders involved at the executive board and executive committee levels, "because they're the ones that can raise money and open doors and position Scouting for success."
However, leaders at this higher level must never lose sight of the youth they serve, Green says. To that end, at each executive meeting, "we try to spotlight a program, whether it's camp or Scouting for the disabled or the council's new Cub World facility. It's one of the things we started to help keep us in touch with why we're here. It's essential not to lose sight of the product you're delivering and the people you're affecting."
Heart of America Council is one of the BSA's largest. It serves 19 counties in Missouri and Kansas and includes metropolitan Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan.
Bob Green's father, the late Richard C. Green Sr., was council president from 1970 to 1971, and Bob's brother, Richard (Rick) C. Green Jr., held that office from 1991 to 1992.
The brothers head UtiliCorp United, an international energy and services company, with Rick as chairman and chief executive officer and Bob as president and chief operating officer. The business had its origins in 1908, when their great-grandfather bought an electric light plant in Kansas.
Richard Green Sr., a council board member for 19 years, was president when arrangements for consolidation of Kaw Council in Kansas and Kansas City Area Council in Missouri were under way. The two councils became Heart of America in 1974.
Dan Wheatcroft, then Scout executive, says the elder Green was "a key person in the community, the kind of president you always want. He was a great recruiter of other community leaders and was a good money-raiser, making sure the council had its financial house in order and had the money it needed to move forward."
Richard Green Jr. has been a board member since 1983. During his presidency, the council completed a successful $5 million capital campaign, increased its marketing efforts, and had tremendous growth in membership and units. Jere Ratcliffe, who is now Chief Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America, was council Scout executive then, and he and Rick Green worked together to develop programs to bring Scouting to more youth in urban areas.
Bob Green, who was only 8 years old when his father was council president, was not aware of his father's role until later, when his Scoutmaster mentioned it. His father didn't push him into Scouting, he says; he joined after a friend invited him to a troop meeting, and he liked the idea of camping and learning about the outdoors. His father, he says, "was obviously thrilled that I enjoyed it and got involved with it."
So involved, in fact, that he became an Eagle Scout. "The beauty of Scouting is you get so caught up at that age in doing something you like," Green says. "You're having fun, and maybe at the time you don't appreciate the important lessons you're learning."
Those lessons enable youth to meet today's challenges. "They have so many choices and difficult ones. The Scouting program can provide a moral compass, a code of conduct, a framework in which to deal with those tough choices."
When Green returned to Kansas City after completing his law degree, he knew that he "really believed in the power of the Scouting program and wanted to support it as a volunteer." He first became a district program chairman, then a member of the council board in 1993.
His father had set an example of extensive community service. "It was just embedded in the way we think about life in our community. You participate, you give back to the community. It's not even something you think about, because we were raised in an environment where that's what you did."
Green's commitment to community service involves areas other than Scouting. He has served on the boards of community organizations, including the Learning Exchange and the YMCA, and is currently on the board of the Kansas City Area Development Council. He's chairman of the Kansas City Advisers for the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City and is on its national organization's board.
One of his concerns in taking on the council presidency was whether the trend of growth could be maintained. But during his tenure, Exploring grew by 29.5 percent. Total youth membership continued to grow, reaching more than 51,000. In targeted areas of Kansas City's urban core, membership increased to include 26 percent of available youth, a percentage higher than in suburban Scouting.
The council had major success in its capital campaign, and endowment increased by $4.7 million. The Bartle Scout Reservation added three new swimming pools.
For all this progress, Bob Green shares credit with his executive board, boards of previous years, council Scout Executive David J. Ross, and the professional staff. Of the staff, he says: "They don't overburden the volunteers. They provide great support, know where they're going, and let the volunteers know how they can contribute."
Jerry Paul Fogel, longtime board member and past president, describes all three presidents from the Green family as exceptional leaders, "visionaries in the organizational sense."
He praises Bob Green for recruiting young, capable, well-educated community leaders to the board. "It's reassuring for our future. We're in good hands."
Like Bob Green in Kansas City, William Morriss in Texarkana, Tex., is the third member of his family to serve as council president.
"My father and grandfather have been great role models to follow in the principles of Scouting," says Morriss, "good examples in parenthood, civic-mindedness, helping others, and being prepared for what life throws your way."
Also like Bob Green, Morriss is an Eagle Scout. The troop in which he was a Scout was chartered to Offenhauser & Co., an insurance business started by his great-grandfather in 1882, and today Morriss is a vice president of the company.
Caddo Area Council is a medium-sized council serving two counties in Texas and eight in Arkansas. Morriss became council president last year, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Josh R. Morriss Sr., and his father, Josh R. Morriss Jr.
He became involved in the council "primarily because of all I got out of Scouting," Morriss says. "I've benefited greatly from growing up and living in this community and want everybody else to have as many opportunities to grow and thrive here as well."
His community involvement has included leadership in United Way, Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council, Texarkana Community Foundation, Wadley Hospital Foundation, and Sulphur River Basin Authority. He teaches Sunday school and has coached girls' softball. Yet as busy as he is, "My family comes first," he says.
"Anything that's going on in town, they want to try to get him involved," says Scout Executive Marcal W. Young. "He makes a lot of things happen."
A council board member since 1983, Morriss has served as Exploring chairman, risk management chairman, and vice president of administration. After making a presentation at Williams Memorial United Methodist Church and saying churches should have Cub Scout, Boy Scout, and Explorer units, he was asked to be Cubmaster of start-up Pack 100.
He said (what else?) "yes," and "it was nine and a half years of fun." The pack grew to 120 boys.
As council president, Morriss has clear goals: Improve the program, increase the number of youth participating, keep the momentum going for programs for youths at risk, finish fund-raising for the dining hall at Camp Preston Hunt in Texarkana, and make improvements at Camp Pioneer, near Mena, Ark.
With the resources available to the council, all youth who want to be in Scouting should be able to participate in "a program of the highest quality," he says.
His objectives echo efforts of earlier times. When his grandfather was president in 1947-1948, issues were finance, membership, and camp improvements.
In 1961-1964, his father says, "We were fighting financial matters at the time, trying to finance the kind of program we ought to have."
William Morriss is "a sincere, down-to-earth person," says Scout Executive Young. "I admire his honesty, integrity, and the vision to be able to see where we're going. He's been very involved in helping us put together our strategic plan for the future."
Morriss plans to be part of that future. "I'll probably be on the board forever, if they'll let me."
Contributing Editor Suzanne Wilson lives in Joplin, Mo.
Council President: A Job DescriptionIn each local Scout council, the president coordinates the efforts of volunteer members of the executive board and the executive committee - the individuals responsible for the overall planning and policymaking of the council. The executive board and committee, together with the council professional staff, form the network of support for the council's youth members, volunteers, and unit chartered organizations. Projects and programs a council president oversees can range from a new swimming pool or dining hall at camp, to special efforts to reach disabled youth and minorities, to fund-raising for all purposes. Typically, the president has been a board member for several years and has gained an understanding of area Scouting by chairing committees such as Venturing, health and safety, or strategic long-range planning. The president also has held offices such as vice president of administration. Above all, he or she fits this profile:
|
| The Boy Scouts of America |  |
http://www.scouting.org |