Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 3, 1995 TAG: 9504030015
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Some call Dan Clifton a Boy Scouts of America troubleshooter, traveling from Scout council to Scout council, dousing fires and repairing financial damage.
He had helped straighten out the Knoxville, Tenn., Scout council, which had lost a good portion of its board and financial backing after a massive bank failure and the failure of the 1982 World's Fair.
He also had turned around the Scout council in Wilmington, N.C., where leadership problems had led to financial difficulties.
Clifton's move to the Blue Ridge Mountains Boy Scout Council, based in Roanoke, was no different.
In 1989, the council hired him to clean up a mess.
The council, which covers a 21-county, nine-city region in Central and Western Virginia, had amassed huge debt, most of it tied to the construction of a service center near Valley View Mall.
Several staff members, unhappy with the council leadership, had quit. Morale was low. Membership was flat. The council's camping program was stagnant, lacking innovation to attract young people.
The former Scout executive - a position equivalent in private industry to a CEO - had been forced out.
"Everything was pretty much at a low ebb," Clifton, 46, said. "There had been a real history of staff turnovers and discontent among volunteers. It was a sad time in the council's existence. As a group, it wasn't nearly as strong as it should have been for what this area had to offer."
One volunteer who worked with the council during the problem years said morale was at an all-time low, fueled by pressure from leadership to increase membership as well as fund raising.
"People were afraid to walk, talk - afraid to do what they did best," said the volunteer, who asked that his name not be used. "When the attitude suddenly changed from program to money and numbers, something was going to sacrifice."
As the council's new executive, Clifton had his hands full.
Five-and-a-half years later, Clifton is credited with reorganizing the council, rebuilding its financial base and improving its tarnished community standing.
"We needed new leadership, someone with the expertise and background to take the council from where it was to where it needed to be," said Paul "Buzzy" Powell, president of the council's board of directors. "Dan provided that ability. I wish I had a handful of words to summarize what he's done, but that would be difficult."
His mission accomplished, Clifton is leaving the Blue Ridge Mountains Council to test his troubleshooting talents elsewhere. This month, he will move to Fort Worth, Texas, to head the Long Horn Council, an 11-county Boy Scouts council with a membership of 27,000, more than twice that of the Blue Ridge Mountains Council.
Like Clifton's other assignments, the Long Horn Council is suffering financially, hurt by Fort Worth's sagging oil industry and defense contract layoffs.
"I hate to see him leave," said Steve Wice, a former district executive with the Blue Ridge council who once worked with Clifton in Knoxville. "When Danny walked in, he had a considerable mess. A lot of people were mad, alienated."
Clifton "has done very well in bringing people back into the fold," Wice said. "He's probably one of the best fund-raisers I have ever met. And he had a real sincere dedication to the kids in the program and the program itself."
The council's operating budget has increased from $890,435 in 1989 to $1.4 million. The council also has retired $600,000 in debt and raised more than $1.5 million for camp projects. New fund-raising endeavors - a popcorn sale, comparable to the Girl Scout cookie sale, and a bowl-a-thon - have been launched.
"Just like any charitable organization that depends on the community for some of its funding, the funding was just not there," Powell said. "Methods deployed to raise funding for the council prior to Dan coming were just inadequate."
Youth membership has increased from 11,059 to 11,919. Given the increased competition from more "glamorous" youth programs, Scouting is doing well to maintain those numbers, Clifton said.
Camping remains the backbone of Scouting's program offerings. While there was talk before he came of trying to sell a portion of the council's 14,000-acre Blue Ridge Scout Reservation in Pulaski County, Clifton directed a lot of effort and expense into making it an attraction for Scouts in and out of the council region.
Clifton oversaw development of innovative programs that few other organizations could offer, such as high adventure and backpacking programs. Money was invested in building projects at campgrounds and in camp programs: a high ropes course, shower complexes, a dining hall, a climbing tower, a new amphitheater.
"We were mostly flat as far as camp innovations and new programs," Powell said. "We implemented different types of programs that stimulated involvement from within the council and outside."
And when involvement was stimulated, so were the council's finances.
Camp attendance has increased from 1,278 in 1989 to more than 4,000. Every Scout in and out of the council must pay a fee to attend the camp; those outside the council pay more.
"By additional funding and programming, we increased the usage, which has provided more financial income as a result," Clifton said. "Eighty percent of the Scouts who attend the camps are from other geographic areas."
Troops have traveled halfway across the country to visit the Blue Ridge Scout Reservation - from Iowa, Texas, Kansas. The bulk of out-of-council Scouts attending camps, though, are from Eastern Virginia and Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, Clifton said.
Clifton's Scouting roots go back to his birthplace of Ozone, Tenn., a tiny town of 200. He entered the Boy Scouts at age 11.
"It was a rural area with not a lot of kids," Clifton said. "We went through spells of not having a Scoutmaster. But I was Scouting from 11 up until the time I went to college."
Clifton started professional Scouting in 1972, right after college graduation, with the Great Smoky Mountains Council in Knoxville.
In 1985, he left Knoxville for the Cape Fear Council in Wilmington, N.C.
Clifton says he has no reservations about leaving the Blue Ridge Council and passing the mantle to his successor, Bruce Tuten, who is coming to the council from a Scout executive's position in Asheville, N.C.
"We wanted someone with [Clifton's] abilities in areas of fund-raising, fiscal management, expertise in programs and ability to expand our membership both in Scouts, youth and volunteers," Powell said. Tuten, "we hope, will fulfill that."
Powell said he's "absolutely, very happy" for Clifton.
"It's a tremendous opportunity," Powell said. "He is not motivated by the money. He wants to do a good job.
"His intent with this council was to make it top-notch. And he did that."
by CNB