Re: National Bulletin - Selecting Leaders

At 07:15 PM 7/7/98 EDT, Merl Whitebook wrote:
[snip of a bunch of information about a letter from National to Unit
sponsors on how to select quality leaders. Merl then gives his interpretation
of what it means.]

>1. This seems to shift the screening responsibility away from Scouting (where
>I presumed it was, including criminal backround checks ect.) and places it
>upon the Unit.

This does not represent ANY change of policy. The responsibility for screening
leaders has always lain, and continues to lay, with the unit's sponsoring
institution. The only thing B.S.A. has ever done, to my knowledge, is to
check the name on an application against their own internal records of
people who have been accused of various offenses within Scouting itself.
However, if someone has never been guilty of improper behavior within
Scouting (anything from child abuse to running off with the unit's
treasury), they won't show up. The B.S.A. does not, and never will (I bet)
run criminal checks or any other checks of prospective leaders outside of
the B.S.A.'s own records.

This is why units are encouraged to approach people who have lived in the
community for a while, and to use people who have tenure in the community on
the screening/recruitment committee, and to beware of people who have just
moved into the community. If someone who was a child molester moved into
your town and signed up to be a Den Leader, the B.S.A. will never know and
will approve the application. This is the way it's always been, and it is
unlikely to change. The B.S.A. * cannot * accept responsibility for
determining the character and fitness of new leaders (which is why the
National PTA told their chapters to stop sponsoring units, they didn't want
to accept the responsibility either). The B.S.A. does not own the units,
the sponsor does, and thus the sponsor must take care of qualifying leaders.

mailto:ronfox@mindspring.com
Scoutmaster, Troop 69, Des Plaines Valley Council (W&SW Chicago Suburbs)
Pachsegink Lodge 246 | >>>------> |
"... and a good old Eagle, too" (C-19-96)

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