Good to hear... The problem in my area was that too much influence was held by one particular family, with three area level officers coming from the same household! Unfortunately, I'm not the sort to suffer fools. Personally I think that although your public duty work is indeed an important service, SJAB has more to offer society in terms of it's Youth Movement... I personally came through as a cadet from a division in a run down former mining area, but I took a sense of values from my time there... How do you solve a problem like SJAB? Well, given free reign myself, I'd abolish the Area level - it's a layer of "management" that's not really needed, and seemed to cause more problems than it ever solved. I'd have divisions reporting directly to County - as the County staff are paid I would feel able to expect a higher level of professionalism from them - and how much time does it really take to organise the activities of 35 units, which for the most part run themselves anyway? Muppetman