Cburkhardt

Ochoa's main point is that the court did not hold National BSA vicariously liable for instances when local units or councils errantly used the term "girl scout" during the early weeks implementing the new program. He thinks that is a potentially appealable legal issue. GSUSA would have to prove that the local actors were acting as employees of National when they took the actions, that the actions were a requirement of employment and that a tort occurred. I think it is fairly weak, in that the employment link is very distant, the action was not a condition of any employment and the facts al

Venturing enrollment has decreased significantly during the course of recent BSA challenges. This thread will focus on: What could or should be done now to increase the membership and prospects of the Venturing program as in independent BSA program unit? Feel free to comment on both administrative and programmatic elements of Venturing, including its advancement program. Please focus only on Venturing and not Sea Scouts or Exploring. Next week I will post a thread asking for suggestions on how Venturing might be structured as part of Scouts BSA – so please defer that discussion until then.

Few lawyers would “bank on” winning a fee petition. That said, I like the BSA’s chances in this case. I read the Complaint when it was first filed, the Dismissal Order and Fee Petition and a few things stick out. There was an overall lack of evidence of consumer confusion. Only a few copies of mixed-up local church bulletins or unit-produced fliers and some conclusory allegations that misuse of the GSUSA trademark had been encouraged. In the dismissal order the judge found that after many GSUSA witnesses, no single instance of confusion or brand tarnishment was proven. Not good. Th

BSA Seeking $16+ Million from GSUSA regarding dismissed Trademark Suit Below is introductory text of a BSA Motion to recover $16+ Million of attorneys fees and costs incurred by the BSA during the recently-dismissed trademark suit filed by the GSUSA against the BSA. The link to the full motion document, which provides granular information of what organizational moves GSUA was making proximate to the Scouts BSA announcement, is pasted below. It is worth the read. “Preliminary Statement By any measure, this trademark case is “exceptional” under the fee award provision of the Lan

Correction: My final paragraph about Lone Scouts was directed to "Scoutmaster Fred" cited in RememberSchiff's post.

I find some of the above postings about girls in Scouts BSA to be rather speculative and uninformed. As founding Scoutmaster of a now-50+ member Scouts BSA Troop for Girls, my experience and direct observation is that our girls are attracted to the program for the identical reasons as boys are. My experience is also that our Scouts successfully organize and lead our troop in ways that are different – playing to the things girls emphasize and strengths they have at the Scouts BSA ages. Our operation works supremely well as a single-gender organization. for reasons I do not need to fully unde

A different take. To the original post: I hope Scoutmasters come to experience that OA provides a means through which Scouts who have demonstrated skill in managing a Troop can experience managing larger projects and organizations with more-diverse personalities. This is not the express purpose of OA, but OA friends who have been with Scouting for 50+ years uniformly point to their OA experience as the first time when they stepped out of their early lives to manage larger challenges. I have always understood the cheerful service and Native American culture aspects of OA, but to me OA

Reconciling vile acts and tragic impacts with the potential beauty of experiencing life seems so unlikely – so impossible. And, questions which seem so distant to the bystander or uninvolved. The Holocaust was “long ago”; South African apartheid was “far away”; and child sex abuse happened “somewhere else”. As abused individuals turn to the aftermath of the bankruptcy I wish them comfort in however they continue processing their thoughts.

To focus the discussion, may I ask what your interests (if any) are for personal future BSA involvement? Would there be any particular focus to that activity and is there anything you would wish to accomplish?

Dear Friend: Because of professional obligations toward a client, I have not been able to comment on the bankruptcy proceedings and have largely been absent from the site since the filing. I posted these questions because I hope as a human being there is some potential for reconciliation as these matters continue to be processed by individuals. Everyone is welcome to comment. Here's to a splendid Easter weekend for everyone, Cburkhardt

Involvement of Abused Alumni Post-Bankruptcy? Other than persons appointed to serve on governance committees as a result of the bankruptcy settlement, do you think BSA alumni who were abused will return to serve youth in the BSA? If so, what do you think they should or will do as BSA volunteers? Is a sense of reconciliation or forgiveness likely or even possible? Will BSA volunteer parents of today’s daughters and sons and those who step forward to lead the BSA in the future be perpetually held to account for the negligent oversight and evil acts of the past? I ask commenters to be honest

YPT “Business as Usual” these days is “Hyper Vigilance” A principal reason the BSA will continue is that YPT is taken very seriously by today’s unit leaders. My personal YPT experience as leader of two units (Scoutmaster of Troop with 51, Skipper of Ship with 28), is that there is a highest-level of vigilance and enforcement in the YPT program currently in place. Everyone is watching everyone. The parents watch the unit volunteers. The unit leaders watch each other, the parents and anyone who walks near a meeting or campsite. The youth watch the adults and each other. National is w

I have “done it all” at every level and in every program in Scouting, but these past four years I focused only on forming two units and being a unit leader (Scoutmaster of a 51-member all-girl Troop and Skipper of a 28-member Ship). These are new units formed and grown amid the challenges of the BSA’s membership policy changes, bankruptcy and COVID. Because my focus has been only on the go-forward program, experience informs me the BSA and its programs will indeed be moving forward. You can view these units as two unscientific “focus groups”. When the youth, registered adult, parent and on

There are three purple national committee-oriented patches. The National Executive Board (a huge group) has its purple patch worn by its members. Just under them is the equally large National Advisory Council, which has its own patch. It is mainly comprised of either former National Executive Board members who no longer want to fulfill executive board responsibilities or people who are being considered for National Executive Board membership or are being honored for distinguished service or financial contributions. Finally, if a Scouter is formally appointed to the national committee syste

From your explanation, it seems clear that Bob is not adding value in delivering resources and constructive oversight from the CO. My prescription would be to have a senior Council volunteer officer meet with the executive officer of the CO (one is always identified on the Charter) and make a change. The unavoidable solutions are that either the CO steps-up and replaces Bob with one of the CO’s real members, or the Troop volunteers and CO sever the relationship and the Troop moves to a different CO. Trying to baby-around with the situation by working with Bob to accommodate his desires is g

Family Scouting: As I have understood the BSA's use of the term "Family Scouting", it means operating a linked-Troop concept and not the idea of having non-Scouter family members going along on monthly campouts. Our all-girl Troop is a stand-alone unit and is therefore not "Family Scouting". I do not support non-Scouter family members attending monthly campouts and offer the following experience as support. For the last two years we experimented by celebrating the end of the program year with a combined May campout and Court of Honor at a nearby location. The families were invite

Scoutmaster of 48-Girl Troop Responds Q: Does anyone have examples of successful new girl troops that are actually operating independently? A: In our Council, we have a number of unlinked girl Troops that are large, outstanding units. These Troops operate nearly identically to large, successful all-boy Troops. I am Scoutmaster of one of these. We have 48 girl members, 4 patrols a 9-person scoutmaster staff and an 18-person Troop Committee. The Troop is fully youth led. This summer we took 33 Scouts to our council summer camp and 14 to high adventure experiences. W

Dear Moderators and Friends, Last year some of you may recall that I actively hosted three lengthy postings in advance of the bankruptcy filing. My purpose was to prepare the way for a great reorganization filing that I believed would result in a plan agreement and approval within six months or so after the filing date. The discussions were serious and hundreds participated. COVID destroyed that possibility, leading some claimants Attorneys to smell blood in the water. They have gone in for the kill and Scouting as we know it could end. Several commenters joined claimants attor

Too many Americans have been staking out absolute positions and daring others to cross a rhetorical line. Sometimes the rhetoric on even this site has trended in a similar direction, with folks just not showing respect for reasoned but differing views. The divisions that evolve reduce our confidence in our nation's Constitution, and similarly in the fundamental approaches in Scouting. The WWII combat veterans who were the Scoutmasters and Skippers of my youth were not that way. They fought hard in a war to ease my way through life, and Boy Scouts and Sea Scouts helped make me what I hope i

Inquisitive: The point is that eroding the confidence of BSA professionals and volunteers regarding the post-bankruptcy future of the BSA by continuing to pound negative PR well after the claims filing deadline has rationality for the claimant attorneys -- at least the ones that favor liquidation. If the core of the BSA were to lose faith in its long-term future, the Judge could take that into account in determining whether to approve a reorganization or order a liquidation.

The future will largely be defined by the result of the private negotiations going on right now. Because it may be extraordinarily difficult to come to an agreement acceptable to all major parties, a principal determinant of BSA's future may be whether there can be a financial arrangement the Judge will deem acceptable to order as a cramdown. She is uniquely empowered to balance all of the factors commenters have posted to this string. She really has in her hands the discretion to make the call here. That is why bankruptcy judges are often thought of as one of the most powerful commercial

Here is the answer to the question regarding whether BSA professionals/retirees would have an economic incentive to favor liquidation over reorganization. If the pension benefit guarantee fund were to take over the account, the longer-time and higher-paid employees will have their monthly payouts significantly reduced. Some of the monthly checks would get cut from the 15K-20K/ month range down to $5K/month. So they overwhelmingly favor reorganization. For lowest-paid or short-term employees there is not much of an issue.

The claimant's attorneys want the largest possible amount placed into a Victims Trust Fund, so they have the economic motivation to file as many claims as possible and argue that, within the totality of claims filed, all are valid. The insurance companies want the lowest possible amount placed into the Victim's Trust Fund, so they have the economic motivation to uncover fraud and other facts that would diminish the value of the totality of claims filed. In a way, the BSA is somewhere in-between, because it wants to see justice done for victims via payments, but also wants to retain sufficien

Remember, the current process is that all parties are trying to negotiate an overall dollar amount that goes into a large trust. The existence of fraud at this point is a factor that the trustee and judge take into account in determining the overall amount necessary to pay valid claims. If the trustee/judge conclude that a percentage of the claims are likely to be fraudulent, they will order a smaller amount to go into the trust. The insurance companies are just trying to lower the overall dollar amount of the trust at this point. If their allegations prove true, the amount to fund the tru

Quick answer to CynicalScouter: I think a reasonable funding window could be 1-2 years. That is plenty of time to marshal assets and submit a trust contribution. Just my speculation though.