Church Elders Prove to Be Pretty Good Scouts After All

No matter that I didn’t know a square knot from a timber hitch. I had the two main qualifications to be executive committee chairman of my son’s Boy Scout troop in Garden Grove: I showed up at the meetings and I wasn’t engaged in any feuds with any of the other adults. At least not then.

I quickly learned that not everybody in Scouting is always a happy camper. Wasn’t it Lincoln who said, “You can keep some Scout parents happy some of the time. . . . “?

But any infighting in the 18 months I’ve had the post has been far outweighed by the many parents with a genuine interest in the boys. They heartily pitch in for outings, fund-raisers and special ceremonies. They’re just a great bunch.

I was convinced, however, that this week would be my last. We were on the verge of a war I started and the biggest cannons were pointed at my head.

The blasphemy: When one of our three assistant Scoutmasters recently had to leave the job, I appointed a woman to replace him. Or tried to.

When my son joined the troop, I was told that women could not hold Scoutmaster positions because the boys needed male role models. (I thought they just needed good role models.)

I found out there were several women assistant Scoutmasters, and even a woman Scoutmaster in Orange County. So it wasn’t Scout policy; it was just our troop’s policy. I thought it was such an unbelievably silly rule it was time to shelve it.

Besides, my candidate was terrifically qualified. She was a veteran of our camp-outs and had a tremendous commitment to the troop. Our Scoutmaster was enthusiastic about my choice; so were his other two assistants. Our troop executive committee approval was unanimous. Everybody was for her.

But Scout troops have two masters: the Scout organization and their own troop sponsors. Our troop was sponsored by the local Presbyterian church where we met. And there was the rub: the church’s Scout coordinator said this one must go before the church’s Christian Education Committee.

Why? I’d appointed the other two assistants, who are males, and we didn’t have to go to the church for endorsement on them. But this time, I was told, our executive committee was trying to “change the complexion of the troop.” No doubt about that.

Last week, the church’s Christian Education Committee took its vote: 4 to 0 against me, I was told. I started writing my resignation letter. (You wouldn’t be a party to this either, right?)

Tuesday, the church’s Board of Elders met to consider the Christian Education Committee’s formal recommendation: that the church’s unwritten policy become a written one--specifically excluding women from Scoutmaster positions. One of the elders invited me to come speak to the group about it, which I did.

But I might as well have kept my mouth shut. What happened still has me shaking my head:

Two women elders I’d never met made my case for me. I sat there stunned. It wasn’t that I was surprised to hear eloquent speeches coming from a church board. What threw me was that they managed to say so magnificently in just a few sentences what it takes some people whole books to get across.

I wasn’t the only one impressed. The church elders unanimously voted down their own committee’s proposal. Then the elders went a step further. They adopted a written policy that made clear where the church stands: No gender discrimination in Scouting leadership, period.

5G & Bingo! Worthy causes need all the financial help they can get these days. When county supervisors cut the nonprofit Child Abuse Prevention Council’s budget by 25%, says executive director Barbara Oliver, “We knew we’d have to diversify our funding base.” How’s this for diversity: One recent check for $5,000 came from bingo players at the Elks Lodge in Santa Ana.

LEAPING AROUND: Did you know today is Leap Year Day? They can hardly forget it at Essence Entertainment in Costa Mesa, a small talent-booking agency. Co-owner Mike Steffens’ wife Lea and partner Tony La Bianca’s wife Karen were both born on Feb. 29. And so was Robin Saffery, a consultant in their office. “It was quite a surprise when we first found out,” says Steffens. “We joke about it quite a bit.”

ALL BY DESIGN: Coto de Caza is the site of this year’s House of Design chosen by the Philharmonic Society. Each year it raises funds by leading visitors through a tour of a big-bucks home where each room is furnished by a different local designer. The address is never given in advance, but this one’s a 12,560-square-foot English Tudor with a guest house bigger than a lot of nice homes. Tours begin April 20.

In case you’ve been wondering which is the most expensive home in the county, DataQuick Information Systems says it’s the mansion owned by developer William Lyon in Trabuco Canyon, assessed at $14 million--eighth most expensive in the state. (First is Aaron Spelling’s $37-million digs just west of Beverly Hills. He’s the junk TV producer. Or, if you’re a “Beverly Hills 90210” fan, he’s Tori Spelling’s father.)

Several miles of sandy real estate is being touted by the city of Huntington Beach. This week its Conference and Visitors Bureau sent out 75,000 full-color visitor guides boasting about the city’s beaches and entertainment. Most went to “potential or loyal clients,” it says.

WRAP-UP: Some might argue that the church’s action on that Boy Scout leadership issue was hardly heroic. After all, gender nondiscrimination is already everybody else’s policy in most instances. But I see those elders as courageous. It takes guts any time you overcome resistance to change. God bless ‘em.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or sending a fax to (714) 966-7711.