I would argue that Dorthe having this authority can also be seen as the organisa-tion’s way of handling the integration necessitated by tension 2. The top-down perspective present in the structure of the local group could be seen as a way to create integration among all the leaders as part owners and workers of the group. When Dorthe decides to have a cleaning day, she is integrating vertically differentiated leaders.
The DDS association seems based on the co-existence of both mechanisms at both the local and national levels. In this case, on the local level, all of the po-tential objects of management have voting rights specifically regarding the areas where the management could exercise organisational pressure over these voters.
The formalised structure of the local groups seems to include both perspectives, and I will argue that this is one way the organisational structure differs from that of Dorthe’s paid work in the public library.
lucky [laughing], that is. So it isn’t really a crowd-puller; people are really afraid of being elected. (Dorthe, 2016, pt. 00:17:21-00:18:05)
So the annual general meeting is no crow puller. As Dorthe says, they might see four parents attending (sometimes a few more, though (Dorthe, 2017, pt.
00:18:05-00:18:24)). She ascribes the low turnout to the fear of being elected for something. The leaders, however, almost all attend, but if we look at the AGM as the supreme authority in which especially participating members or their parents also have a say, it does not in practice wield a lot of decision-making power over the local group.
The local group is required to have an AGM according to both the by-laws of the association (The Danish Guide and Scout Association, 2015) and Danish law, in the form of the ‘Act on Non-formal Education and Democratic Voluntary Activity’ (The Ministry of Culture, 2011a, secs. 3–4, 2011b, secs. 3–4), which en-sures municipal financial support for the local group as long as they meet certain criteria (one being that they are democratically organised, i.e. they need AGMs and elections).
It could also be argued that the AGM is needed to make sure there are enough people on the group supervisory board, which is both a formal and a practical necessity. I ask Dorthe about what the board does:
“Dennis: [W]hat does the group supervisory board then do relative to the group of leaders?
Dorthe: Actually decide on economy and overall things, so if the case is that there is a bigger thing we would like to buy, because we are in need of a gathering tent or something else, then it is the group supervisory board that is to decide whether we can afford that… And it is always a parent who is the chairman, and it is always a parent who is the treasurer and not a leader. And they are sitting in some of the heavier positions there in re-lation to being able to say whether one is allowed to do that or not. Then they are also part of doing many of the things that need doing during the year, where we perhaps are short on hands. But it is first and foremost kind of a safeguard, making sure that it happens the way it is supposed to, the scout work…
Dennis: In what way, I mean?
Dorthe: Well, if … there were irregularities one way or another in either something economical or if you had completely gone astray, with all scout
meetings taking place in, well, Tivoli … I mean that it had nothing at all to do with the scout work … Then their role is also a bit to be a kind of guard against that …
Dennis: Yeah, all right, so in that sense, they can influence specifics as well?
Dorthe: Yeah, I haven’t tried it, but that is part of what they are there for. If there is a group going down the wrong road.” (Dorthe, 2016, pt.
00:15:33-00:17:13)
According to Dorthe, the group supervisory board handles the finances of the local group. It is also members of the board who are legally responsible to the municipality for the work of the local group regarding funding requirements, although they are in most cases not personally liable (The Ministry of Culture, 2011b, sec. 5, 2011b, sec. 31, 2011a, sec. 5, 2011a, sec. 31). The board also has the important, but at the same time perhaps mostly theoretical, role of intervening if the scout work in the local group is not done the way it is supposed to be, i.e. is not meeting the overall goals of the organisation. She sees the board as a theoret-ical safeguard against this, but this is not something she has ever seen practiced.
Dorthe says that she also keeps an eye on the person who formally looks after the finances, even though this isn’t formally her task, as the group has previ-ously had a ‘bad experience’ with trusting a treasurer blindly (Dorthe, 2017, pt.
00:21:22-00:23:10). Finally, Dorthe also takes other issues to the board for dis-cussion. When the leaders are planning a summer camp, she will ask the parent members how they feel about the destination, because they will be asked to drive the children back and forth. She also tries to involve the parent members of the board in other things happening in the local group so they are kept in the loop, and so she can hear their perspective as parents on the local group’s work.
Dorthe also mentions that if she were to have a difficult situation with a leader, she would first go to the chairman of the board to discuss what to do (Dorthe, 2017, pt. 00:23:10-00:24:50).
Recruiting board members
So where do the parent board members come from, when so few parents show up at the AGM? I ask Dorthe about the role of the board members in relation to recruitment:
Dennis: So, in principle, they are at the top of the cake. And, by all means, just under the annual general meeting. In practice, I get this idea, that it really is more you and perhaps also some of the other leaders, who
actu-ally make sure to give someone a push onto this board. How does that work? …
Dorthe: Yeah. Well, yes and no, really. I do think that we take it on us, me and the leaders, to try and find some parents, who will stand for election.
Luckily, our current chairman, the elected parent chairman – she had her-self been out and talked with some. So at least one of the ones who were we elected this time, she had been tapped by the chairman. …. So that way the parent members, they can be a lot more active, the chairman can be very active and not very active, and that goes a bit up and down. (Dorthe, 2017, pt. 00:18:51-00:21:07)
Dorthe says that she and the leaders take on a certain responsibility for making sure there are parents on the board so that there is someone they can ask for permission when they wish to spend money, e.g. on a new tent. I interpret this as Dorthe seeing a need for someone to handle the finances and to have the overall responsibility for the scout work in the group. Dorthe would likely have to con-sider their role as controllers of the local group both legitimate and needed in order for her to take this initiative.
Dorthe feels accountable
From the top-down perspective, Dorthe has both the AGM and the group su-pervisory board above her in the hierarchy, but to understand how she experienc-es this in practice, I ask her if she feels someone is leading her in the local group setting. She answers:
Dorthe: I don’t have much of a feeling of being led. But I have the feel-ing of answerfeel-ing to – to the group supervisory board, but also to the scouts and their parents. So it is not the case that there are people who tell me what to do. But I know that the things I must – and the things I do, they must be approvable by the ones I sort of refer to. (Dorthe, 2017, pt.
01:04:18-01:04:45)
Dorthe does not experience others deciding over her, but she feels accountable towards the members of the group and their parents in the decisions she makes, as she also is formally accountable to them at the AGMs. She also says that she has a lot of influence in the Pine Trees local group:
Dorthe: On the entirely local level in the Pine Trees, I really have a lot of influence. Yeah, I do have that. And I am listened to and heard. I won’t say the old cliché that my word is law, but that is almost the case. There
also isn’t really anyone who does anything without asking for permission.
When our young scouts a few years ago wanted to renovate the hut, they came to me with the suggestion and needed permission for it, you see. … And it was their suggestion that came to life, but they started by asking me, and not the chairman and not anyone else. So in that way, I am a figure-head in the Pine Trees. That, I have to realize; that, I have to acknowledge [laughing]. (Dorthe, 2017, pt. 01:07:11-01:08:56)
What Dorthe here describes seems to match the idea of a vertical differentia-tion where decisions that others deem need approval are run past her. She does not have to be the initiator of a given effort, but she fills the role of approving these efforts. This seems similar to the role of the group supervisory board in approving money the leaders would like to spend, e.g. on a new tent or leadership training.
Dorthe does not always make the decisions
Dorthe explains how she can switch between being in charge and not being in charge, depending on the situation and her formal role in it, the following way:
Dorthe: For each branch, there is a branch leader, and it is actually the branch leader who has the overall responsibility for the individual branch, and who has a number of assistants or helpers under her. And in our case, there is a branch leader and an assistant, and perhaps a helper in the branches with the highest numbers or the youngest children. And it is of course rare in practice that you have to put your foot down and say, ‘Well, I am the one who decides’ … , as group leader, there it sort of seems as if, there they ask me about bigger things … Is it okay if we, Peter and I, borrow the trailer this coming weekend … and she does this automatical-ly; she might as well have asked the chairman, she asks me and I say ‘of course’, you see.
But on the other hand, I make sure, when I am an assistant for the Minis, then it is Hanne who decides what will be taking place in the Mini branch.
I mean, I take part and I contribute, and we decide an equal amount, when we are at the meetings, if there is someone who is unable to behave them-selves, then we are both able to handle them, you see, but it is her overall principles for how a Mini meeting is to take place that set the tone there.
So you could say that yes, that some decide over others. (Dorthe, 2016, pt.
00:32:29-00:35:01)
Dorthe says here, that she switches between making decisions herself and letting
others make decisions. But as the group leader, she does still have a lot of say.