I just ran across this article in the National Post on the Wal-Mart response to Hurricane Katarina. A reminder for us all and we scouts in particular that decentralized emergency response rooted in knowledge on local conditions works best.
The article can be found at: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/world/story.html?id=405747
From the National Post:
Katrina made landfall on the U.S. Gulf Coast on the morning of Aug. 29, 2005, the chief executive officer of Wal-Mart, Lee Scott, gathered his subordinates and ordered a memorandum sent to every single regional and store manager in the imperiled area. His words were not especially exalted, but they ought to be mounted and framed on the wall of every chain retailer -- and remembered as American business's answer to the pre-battle oratory of George S. Patton or Henry V.
"A lot of you are going to have to make decisions above your level," was Scott's message to his people. "Make the best decision that you can with the information that's available to you at the time, and above all, do the right thing."
It's a great article to which I currently haven't much to add, more than perhaps that we should continue pushing L-ABCDE education within scouting (l-abcde is by the way a search phrase resulting in many visitors for Årsta scoutkårs homepage.
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