Editing Scouting America (section)

===Local councils===
{{main|Council (Scouting America)}}

[[File:Boy Scouts of America Atlanta Area Council HQ.jpg|thumb|Boy Scouts of America [[Atlanta|Atlanta, Georgia]] Area Council headquarters]]

The Scouting America program is administered through {{scoutstat BSA|councils}} local councils, with each council covering a geopolitical area that may vary from a single city to an entire state. Councils receive an annual charter from the National Council and are usually incorporated as a charitable organization.{{r|ussspbsaorg}}

The council level organization is similar to that of the National Council. The council executive board is headed by the council president and is made up of annually elected local community leaders.{{r|bsarules}} The board establishes the council program and carries out the resolutions, policies, and activities of the council. Board members serve without pay and some are volunteer Scouters working at the unit level. Youth members may be elected to the council executive board according to the council by-laws.

The Scout executive manages council operations—including finance, property management, advancement and awards, registrations, and Scout Shop sales—with a staff of other professionals and para-professionals. Volunteer [[Commissioner Service (Boy Scouts of America)|commissioners]] lead the unit service functions of the council, help maintain the standards of Scouting America, and assure a healthy unit program.{{r|bsacommissioners}}

Scouting America charters two councils for American Scouts living overseas, largely on military bases in Europe and Asia. The [[Transatlantic Council]], headquartered in Livorno, Italy, serves Scouting America units in much of Europe, and the [[Far East Council]], headquartered in Japan, serves units in the western Pacific areas. The [[Direct Service]] branch makes the Scouting movement available to US citizens and their dependents living in countries outside these jurisdictions or in isolated areas. The [[Aloha Council]] in Hawaii also serves Scouting America units in the American territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and in the sovereign countries of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau.{{r|bsaaloha}}

The Greater New York Councils are unique in that they are divided into five [[Borough (New York City)|boroughs]] with each led by a borough Scout executive and each borough then divided into districts.

Councils are divided into districts with leadership provided by the district executive, district chairman, and the district commissioner.{{r|ussspbsaorg}} Districts are directly responsible for the operation of Scouting units and, except for the district executive, are mostly staffed with volunteers.{{r|bsarules}} The voting members of each district consist of volunteer representatives from each chartered organization having at least one Scouting America unit, plus annually elected members-at-large who in turn elect the district chairman. Boroughs and districts are subdivisions of the local council and do not have a separate corporate status.{{r|council}}
{{see also|List of defunct councils (Boy Scouts of America)}}
{{see also|List of council camps (Boy Scouts of America)}}