The Selection

As part of my responsibilities as a BSA board member and Vice President of Administration, I was on the selection committee for a new Scout Executive of the Nevada Area Council. This week we made the selection. It all started a few weeks ago when we started screening resumes. We didn't feel we had a big enough sample so we had the national office send us some more to review. We had previously met to create a profile of what we needed in the council and the type of person we were looking for. We narrowed it down to four candidates that we wanted to interview in person.

Candidate One had worked for the scouts in Fort Worth Texas for 24 years. The Long Horn Council is very large, much larger than Reno. He had held pretty much every position in the council except the Scout Executives position. Most professional Scouters move around a bit and have different experiences in different areas. It is pretty unusual for an individual to have his whole career in one area.

Candidate Two had been working as the Scout Executive in El Paso for four years. There had been a lot of problems in El Paso. It had been discribed as one of the most difficult areas in the country. He turned things around and got things growing again. It didn't hurt his prospects any that he was a BYU grad and Return missionary.

Candidate Three was currently working in the National Training Center for BSA teaching classes in how to be a professional scouter. He had this position for two years. Prior to this he was the Scout Excutive for eleven years in Casper Wyoming. he is also a return missionary and BYU grad.

We had referrences to call on all of the individuals. All of them checked out very well with the references that were called. They all recieved glowing reviews. They all came into town with their wives and on Thursday night we had a brief reception and then a lengthy dinner. On Friday we divided the 12 members on the selection committee into three groups. Each group interviewed each candidate for 90 minutes. We then all got together and heard a ten minute presentation from each candidate. They were all highy qualified, capable individuals. It was going to be a very hard decision to choose just one. It is interesting to note the thing that really decided the thing was one of the candidates inability to find fault in himself and cite examples of being coached or corrected. It was a case of confidence versus arrogance. The ability to find fault in one's self to seek improvement, to humbly except correction, to find ways to become a better person was the deciding factor.