Scouting, Volume 62, Number 1, January-February 1974 Page: 17
96, [12] p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Exploring Executive Wendy Ward
raps with prospective members and
visits Washington State Highway
Director George Andrews.
in the council office, for she was a
kind of a Girl Friday. She kept the
books, ran the offset press, acted as
the receptionist and was the Scout
Executive's secretary. So it was no se-
cret to her that she was under con-
sideration and that she would be
busier than ever if she accepted the
change of assignments.
Whoever became the paraprofes-
sional Exploring aide would be re-
quired to recruit Explorers, dig up Ad-
visors, find sponsors and organize the
various parts into functioning posts.
Sounds simple, but Jim Phillips was
aware — from long personal experi-
ence — that the job was far from easy.
Before coming to the Tumwater Area
Council he had been the director of
Exploring of the Columbia Pacific
Council in Portland, Oreg;
"Doing everything right according
to the book, we still did not reach all
the high school-age young people in
Portland that we should have,"
Phillips recalls. "I felt that we needed
someone who could dramatically
demonstrate the differences between
the Scouting and Exploring pro-
grams."
Phillips was convinced that the
"someone" had to be a young woman,
although at the time he conceived his
plan in Portland there were no women
executives. When he moved to
Olympia — actually the council office
is in the suburban town of Tumwater
— he decided to test the plan. The
council officers approved, and the re-
gion wished him Godspeed. What real-
ly made it possible for Phillips to go
ahead was the Paraprofessional Em-
ployment Program, which was just
shifting into high gear when he
needed it. After he made the formal of-
fer to Wendy, Phillips let her come to
her own decision.
"I really had to search my mind and
my heart," Wendy explains, "to see if I
completely believed in the Exploring
program. Was I ready to dedicate my
life to it? Did I want to commit myself
to the Boy Scouts of America for a cer-
tain period?"
During a week or so of indecision,
Wendy had to make up her mind about
a lot of things. First and foremost, she
had to decide if she wanted to make a
long-term commitment to the Tumwa-
ter Area Council, because the council
officers wanted to know if she were
willing to recruit Explorers for from
three to five years. Secondly, was she
sure she could handle the challenge?
And finally, was she willing to shoot
for a career that was almost certain to
interfere with her personal life?
Wendy was able to say "yes" to the
Scout executive and the council, even
though she was aware that the de-
cision would dictate changes in her
life-style. She would be required to go
back to college, and she had been
only a so-so student. She had been
keeping company with a nice guy she
was fond of; (continued on page 54)
17
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 62, Number 1, January-February 1974, periodical, January 1974; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353642/m1/17/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.