In
the first days of the new BSA, units were organized by someone simply
raising their hands or getting the materials from England and this
person would serve as the Scoutmaster of that Troop. After a few
months, several Troops would be formed in a community, each with
various levels of consistancy. The small National office, working from
New York City, was trying to manage all of these new Troops and also
working through a lot of inconsistancies...in uniforming (some were
using military uniforms, others were making their uniforms using
illustrations from the English Boy Scout handbook and other materials,
and still others were just "creating stuff which looked like something
a boy scout could/would wear". The position of National Commissioner,
first held by Daniel Carter Beard, was created to provide some
consistancy in uniforming, programming and field operation.
In 1914, the BSA appointed their first Field Commissioners. These men
would serve as "field representatives" of the BSA, a term the BSA still
uses to describe various professionals working directly with local
Councils and units. These Commissioners were given the authority to
form new units and to remove the commissions from volunteers if need
be. These Commissioners were also the BSA's representative for the
issuance of special awards like lifesaving and the new Life, Star and
Eagle Scout awards.
In 1916, the BSA looked at those Commissioners with proven "track
records" and asked them if they would be willing to serve as Scout
Executive. Several did take them up on the offer, and with this,
employed their first field executives.
In 1921, the BSA separated the role of the executive from that of the
commissioner and established both jobs as the "administrators" of the
Boy Scout program in America. This established the partnership between
volunteer and professional which continues to this day, with two
volunteers and a professional making key decisions at the Council
level. (the other volunteer being the Council President)
In the middle 40s, the BSA established the "Neighborhood" (now called
Unit) Commissioner as the BSA grew. The first Commissioners were
Council Commissioners and as Councils divided their large terrorties
into Districts, they also appointed Commissioners to serve those
Districts. Remember that a District would take in several countries and
typically would only have eight to 12 Troops).
The Neighborhood Commissioner would serve no more than four Troops.
In the late 60s, the term "Neighborhood" was changed to "Unit" and the
Commissioner structure changed. "Deputy District" and "Deputy Council"
Commissioners were out and replaced with "Assistant District" and
"Assistant Council".
In the 70s, the BSA experimented with several District organizations.
One experiment created something called a "Zone Commissioner" which did
not go over well. However, some Districts had a great deal of success
with "stovepiping" the Commisisoner work so that Cub Scouting Pack
Commissioners reported to an Assistant District Commissioner or a
Assistant District Cub Scout Commissioner and then to a District Cub
Scout Commisisoner; the same would go for Boy Scouting.
The BSA abandoned the "stovepipe" program nationally in the early 80s,
but there were Councils who still used it and the BSA provided the
emblems and materials until the first part of the 90s.
In the first part of the 90s, the BSA re-established the National
Commissioner position and attempted to place an African-American in
that role. Unfortuantly, the BSA did very little to provide guidance as
to what would be the role today of the National Commissioner other than
to serve as a national cheerleader for the BSA's field Commissioners.
He resigned and the BSA went without a National Commissioner for four
years. We are now into our third National Commissioner, whose role is
to develop national unit service programs and Commissioner training
programs.
This is a thumbnail...it's not complete and I am sure that I'm off the
dates a little bit...
Mike Walton