GOOD NEWS!

An organisation that has stumbled from (mostly self-inflicted) crisis to crisis for several years, over the summer saw a couple of very subtle signs that a return to something approaching the early stages of ‘normal’ might be dawning.

First came the monumental (and welcome) news that Dr Maire Fitzgerald had been appointed as Scouting Ireland’s International Commissioner. That Maire is a highly experienced scouter, particularly in matters international is well known. That she is a towering example of integrity and among the best of the organisation’s leadership was never in doubt. That a person with a mind of her own and an aversion to Kool-aid might find themselves in such a role, was perhaps less certain, given a very apparent preference in recent years, for seat warmers and sycophants to occupy such positions.

Maire’s appointment is good news for Scouting Ireland. She is well-known and highly regarded in International Scouting. Ireland’s Scouting reputation internationally has suffered in the face of endless travails at home. Ms Fitzgerald is the perfect ambassador to reassure the international scouting community that all is not yet lost in Scouting Ireland.

The timing of an award of the ‘Bronze Wolf’ – the highest award of World Scouting – to our International Commissioner is prescient. A well-deserved recognition of solid work undertaken, but was the timing a subtle recognition by World Scouting that Scouting Ireland’s board is on the right track if it continues and expands this new approach of choosing competence over cronyism for future key appointments?

YES… MORE GOOD NEWS…

A second piece of good news arrived in late summer with the announcement that Scouting Ireland now has a Chief Executive Officer, after a number of false starts on that front. Sean Sheehan exemplifies (on paper at least) what is needed in a CEO for Scouting Ireland. He has a long and distinguished career in the corporate world, where performance standards, performance indicators, stakeholder engagement and accountability are all entry level requirements. He is a Scouting volunteer, but not a ‘lifer’ and thus dodges the baggage and tribal affiliations that have afflicted previous unsuccessful appointees.

Mr Sheehan’s appointment appears to have been non-political, which if accurate puts him in an extraordinarily strong position to begin the long process of piecing back together a fractured organisation. Occupants of the CEO role for more than a decade have from day one been perceived as (or behaved as) partisan because of ideological detritus from their volunteer days, fellowship patrol affiliations or close association with predecessors. This exacerbated problems, caused by already questionable decision processes and undermined credibility and authority from the very start.

This time, at first glance, it looks like things might be different. Mr Sheehan will have his work cut out, although on the upside no large footwear to occupy.

Two significant pieces of news. Two competent appointments to key positions. The board leave themselves open to a lot of criticism, however on this occasion they deserve credit for what looks like two potentially very positive outcomes.

***

If one wanted to give things a positive spin (and who doesn’t?), one might say that at least now it seems like it’s ‘two steps forward, one step back’, as opposed to the other way round.

However, it is hard to put a positive spin on the recent announcement by the board of Scouting Ireland that membership fees will increase to €85 per person for the 2024/25 year. The “we told you well in advance” defence alas won’t wash, given the announcement was made on September 5^th, over a week into the new school term and long after most scout groups had issued communication to members and parents about subscriptions for the new year.

Most people accept that costs change over time. Invariably they go up. For example, many groups have seen overhead costs like electricity, gas and other utilities jump significantly recently. Simultaneously, rents have spiralled, and inflationary pressures have impacted beyond fuel. Families of members are not immune to these pressures.

Covid still looms large over volunteering in Ireland. Many people re-evaluated their voluntary involvement in the context of a radically changed environment. Some exited the sector entirely. Youth membership fell. Under a former CEO, Scouting Ireland National Office all but shut down for major parts of covid, yet there was still an expectation that groups would pay full fees – despite lockdowns severely curtailing Scouting activities on the ground.

This latest missive from National Office references COVID and giving members the chance “to renew and strengthen their membership in the post-covid environment”. Who writes this tripe? Hopefully not the (rather expensive) PR agency the board retain.

It sounds quite similar to the sort of corporate bullsh*t one gets in a standard letter from a bank or a utility business when prices go up and frankly, you have no choice but to suck it up, because there is no credible alternative to the ‘service’ on offer (and they know it).

Indeed, just like a utility company, the weasel words are not signed. Perhaps nobody on the board was willing to own this one.

Members have been grumbling about the democratic deficit around the imposition of fees. It is fair to say that if this was down to a vote, it would be a lot harder to implement. Possibly of greater concern is the financial difficulties it will impose on groups not expecting to have to pay (out of nowhere) an additional €1,000 for every fifty members.

The size of the increase is also not insignificant. Groups in middle class areas will struggle with this. Those volunteers working to deliver Scouting in more deprived parts of the community may have to simply hang up their neckerchiefs. Scouting is already widely seen (among the public, politicians and corporate types) as a largely middle-class pursuit. The fee jump, the sheer size of the jump and the really poor timing to the announcement will all conspire to exacerbate that.

A breakdown of the fees was recently shared with members (again, credit to the board where it is due). As a tentative first step towards better transparency around where we get our funds from and how they are spent, it was welcome.

Longer term, a much stronger link between the registration fee and tangible, visible services that members are aware of, see the value in and can easily engage with, will feed into a wider narrative that Scouting Ireland is indeed slowly making moves towards becoming a professionally run entity from which members feel they derive actual value. Who knows, genuine pride might follow.

In a strange way the fees question circles back to the good news appointments at the top of this article. If the right people are put in place by the board, based on competence and integrity rather than connections and malleability, some sort of move away from culture wars and tribal antics towards something approaching mutual respect and in time even some sort of grudging unity, could begin to happen.

This in time might radiate externally and sources of support and funding beyond just member fees could begin to crystallise.