It isn’t easy being a leader.

Just ask Scot Baikie. The North Riverside resident has been president of the Illinois Moose Association since August and since then he has traveled all around the state of Illinois putting more than 11,000 miles on a new car he had to purchase for the trips. This Sunday he will be in El Paso, Ill., visiting a new Moose Service Center and helping promote Moose lodges or family centers around the state.

“I will be there for the opening of the El Paso center,” Baikie said. “They have about 45 members but don’t own a building, so they will be meeting in a home or restaurant. They’ll try to build up the enrollment and get the information regarding the Moose out there to the people of El Paso.

“I have been a guest speaker at meetings around the state trying to figure out what (the Moose) can do best to increase awareness of the Moose fraternities as a whole,” he said. “Luckily, I don’t mind driving 100 some odd miles after work, speaking and then coming home. I will have been on the go at least 40 weeks of the year (when he steps down in August).

“The best part has been getting to talk to the people and visiting lodges I normally wouldn’t visit. The lodges up here are different from the lodges downstate but they do the same things like making sure we take care of our children at Mooseheart, our seniors at Moosehaven and the communities the centers are in.”

Baikie joined the Berwyn Moose Lodge, now called the Berwyn Moose Family Center, located at 7625 Harlem Ave., in 1976. He said there are about 950,000 Moose members in the United States and four provinces of Canada. About 34,000 of these members have their Fellowship degree, which is an honorary degree. Members must be nominated to the position and must donate time to the fraternity. However, the Pilgrim degree of merit, the highest degree awarded to Moose members, only has about 3,200 members in the whole fraternity and Baikie is one of them.

“It is the ultimate and highest degree of merit and is only conferred at the House of God at Mooseheart. I became one in 1999,” he said. “It is an honorary degree and you have to do quite a bit of work for it. You have to be nominated by other pilgrims and you have had to sign up so many members. It is very exclusive and ‘Aspired by many, but few are chosen.’”

In addition to his full-time job as maintenance manager for a townhome complex, Baikie will continue to travel and also be responsible for heading some Moose meetings.

“I ran the mid-year conference last month and called people in to give their reports so it was pretty easy for me,” he said. “I had to keep things in order and keep things flowing. I also will have to be at the International Convention in Orlando in June and the state convention in St. Louis in August.

“We are working on retention and increase of membership, and we want people to know that the Moose is a very good program for families. We have holiday parties, family picnics and weekly meals in the family centers. We also have kids’ rooms at the centers where kids can go to play video games, and since it is a private organization you know you are with good people in a happy, friendly atmosphere.”

Baikie also pointed out that the Moose works hard for a number of organizations and communities. He said the Moose donated $90 million worth of service and hours nationwide in 2005. They also are raising money for the Flight 93 fund, which would create a memorial at the site of the crash of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania that was taken over by terrorists Sept. 11, 2001.

“The Moose fraternity asked each Moose unit, and there are 1,900 lodges, 1,500 women’s chapters and in Canada and Great Britain 400 legions, to donate $93 toward the fund which would raise more than $350,000 toward the Flight 93 fund. The Berwyn Moose donated $593.”

Because of all they do and offer the Moose is an organization Baikie believes every family should look into. He suggested anyone interested stop by the Berwyn center after 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and after noon Saturdays and Sundays for more information.