Cburkhardt

No press coverage today. Apparently the media was either not aware of or not able to access the online meeting yesterday, because there seems to be no mention in the media today of yesterday's revelations. Most articles are simply focused on generally covering the recent ramping-up of lawsuit filings against councils and the expectation that councils will be required to contribute to the Victims Trust Fund.

Yes we do. The re-branding as we come out of bankruptcy will either get the job done or we will just slowly fade into a small highly-specialized group.

Fred 8033: I agree with all you have stated. Plaintiff lawyers figured out that there would be support at the state level to eliminate the statutes of limitations for youth abuse. The big urban states passed those laws at their urging and that enabled all of this. The lawyers just pursued their economic interests, plain and simple. They will personally gain billions in the process. Events also drive outcomes and the corona virus has done that in this circumstance. It has put a choke hold on councils, National and unit operations at precisely the worst moment. The ceasing of cash flow greatly increases the risk that the BSA will not have the cash flow to effectively defend itself or arise after the case. The lawsuits will now expand geometrically against the councils and then the chartered organizations of the involved individual churches. Whew! Can’t believe how much all of this is cutting against Scouting. To keep positive, I suggest focusing on how units can come out of this unharmed. The key tools will be to maintain or rebuild a great relationship with the chartered organizations so that when the tough times come, the units of today are not turned out as a matter of liability reduction. I plan a posting some time in a few weeks that will center on what units should begin to do in order to emerge from all of this in reasonable shape.

What this means is that the volunteer in charge will ignore you and not get back to you and then you can figure it our on your own! Looks like it is the same thing.

I think the commenters who have urged this approach are going to get their wish. We are going to be a smaller, simplified organization after this with a dramatically slimmed-down cost structure. Few properties to fund, not many executives and on-line materials. Probably simple, inexpensive uniforms. Volunteers running most things. My Troop won't notice much change.

5th Gen: The Bankruptcy court will appoint a Trustee, who will be charged with marshalling and selling the assets that have been agreed by the parties to be liquidated to contribute to the Victims Trust Fund. If there is no agreement, the parties will litigate what is "essential" to continue the program, and the Judge will decide what can be kept. In that case the Trustee will sell everything else and deposit the cash in the Victims Trust Fund. The BSA does not own the Corps property, so it is not an asset. If there is personal property of the BSA on that land (vehicles, canoes, basketry kits), it is subject to being sold by the trustee. After the personal property sale, the camp can be restored by new contributions afterwards (as long as the Corps agrees).

Old Scout: It seems that the OA can evolve its culture to allow more adult active participation. Or, it can re-emphasize chapters, which are more manageable for 17 year-olds. There is not much fellowship at lodge activities when 2,000 people attend.

Extremely Simplified Timing of the Bankruptcy. In November the claims date passes and the total number of claims is calculated, including what the Bankruptcy court thinks they are valued at. In December the plaintiff attorneys get full access to the council financial information. In the spring the parties either (1) agree to the amount national and the councils will pay into the trust fund, or (2) the parties litigate what the "essential" national and council assets are, and the plaintiffs get everything else. I believe agreement is not possible, because the plaintiffs are out to liquidate the BSA. After the litigation, the national and council properties are liquidated by the court to make the required payments to the trust fund. Some councils pay less/keep more because they had lower numbers of serious claims filed related to their geographic territories. The BSA emerges from bankruptcy and re-brands itself.

Surely materials will get distributed after this week. There were over 2,000 people listening to the broadcast today and all council Key-3s discuss it tomorrow. There is no secret about any of this. I heard the following quote: "Everyone is going to become an adult at 18, and we are no longer going to have youth programming for 18 year-olds". So I think that means the ambiguous status of 18- 21's will be over. Did not mention this earlier, but not surprisingly, councils can grant advancement extension of 3 months in order for Scout to earn Life and Eagle.

When will changes be communicated? Remember the way national decision making works is that the Executive Committee (about 12 people) gets the research, "recommends" a decision to the Executive Board (about 120 people, including the National Advisory Council), which then adopts the decision. The Executive Board will meet privately in in early June. So the key changes are officially public then. However, all of this is going to be swept through the media by the plaintiff attorneys and somehow used to encourage additional men to file claims. NYLT seems to have a core of Scouts but in our council they seem to be high school aged. So, I don't this it will impact us as much.

Sentinel: Yes. 18 is the end of youth programming. There was no mistaking what was said. I think that it probably goes to focusing the organization on fewer things and doing them well. I was an active OA member and Explorer in the 70s-80s (back when Exploring was the "Venturing" program of the time). I don't think the change will gut either program. Venturing membership is imploding for reasons I am not entirely aware of. Freshman/sophomore Girls in my Troop want to earn Eagle and be Scouts. They are not particularly drawn to Venturing. I think the losses in Venturing are a function of professional and council volunteer time being sucked-away by all of the tough dealings we have been having. The teen program has never been a strong part of the BSA -- the exception being Exploring in the 50's and again from the mid 70's through mid 80's. OA folks who are over 18 are pretty-much acting in adult roles except for the chiefs above the council level -- and many of them are college aged. Frankly, those above-council youth structures will probably be downsized (no sections/areas/regions any more) because they are expensive to operate and require robust regional program volunteers and staff -- which will no longer exist. Probably a national Chief/Vice Chief and a few others to represent whatever structure they coe up with the be between the council and national. OA folks will be encouraged to become active in their Councils, which will be larger and offer a more-sophisticated leadership challenge for the chapter/lodge chiefs.

PACAN: I think aspects of the program will change. They said there will be a national "re-branding" of the organization coming out of bankruptcy. A re-branding after what we will have gone through by then (and the previous 5 years) does not take the form of a new logo. I have no inside information, but I'll predict that we will drop "Boy Scouts of America" or "BSA" for a new name, and this might be influenced by the GSUSA trademark litigation that I believe the bankruptcy judge will allow to go forward this summer. If we abandon the BSA name and the GSUSA litigation prevent us from using the generic "Scout" label for our girl program -- we just might become the "Explorers", as that is a name we undisputedly own. We will re-evaluate uniforming and simplify the blizzard of complexity and expense that is now the Cub Scout program. We will become intensively more outdoor in program emphasis. There will be complete emphasis on "outdoor fun" and a backing-away from "character building".

I summarized about 45 minutes into two brief paragraphs and admittedly left out a number of things. Gone will be the "legacy" electronic system we have. It will be scrapped and replaced with a modern cloud system for everything. All program books and materials would go electronic. They stated that everyone will be "adult" at 18, so I think OA is included in that. As to the size of national, I think they will do only program and have maybe 20 professionals operating a simple structure to maintain contact with councils. Maybe 100 volunteers to support them. Stem was not mentioned, but is pretty exotic under these circumstances. I predict councils will drop it. The spin off of Sea Scouts did not cost a dime. The nautical program (I am a quartermaster) has been wedged into the larger teen program since after WWII, and this never worked. Keeping these 5,000 folks in a separate division is the right way to go. Another option would be to spin them off to the Coast Guard. They already are the official youth program of the Coast Guard Auxiliary, which might be able to do a better with it. While it was not announced as a change, the incoming National Chair made clear that councils which do not operate well will be merged. While he did not say this precisely, I think he meant that national will quickly pull the charters of unsuccessful councils. That meant terminating council executive boards and marshalling the assets into a new entity. I've been mentioning this for a while to the displeasure of many commenters, but that is what I see happening. If you are a council, district or large unit leader, I advise that you begin now to evaluate what is in the best interest of your Scouts. Cluster together with nearby council buddies and figure out now which single property you can argue to the court is "essential" to offer program to your Scouts. Otherwise, a bankruptcy judge in Delaware is going to make all of those decisions for you.

Tomorrow: There is a Zoom video for the Council Key Threes tomorrow afternoon from 3:30 to 4:30 (Central), during which there will be a lot more specifics discussed. Much of what will be shared are the recommendations of the Executive Committee to the Executive Board. However, an accurate way to look at this is that we are no longer really in charge of our own destiny. The bankruptcy court and the litigants before it will decide what happens.

More: This is information that came directly from a widely-viewed general session at the virtual national meeting. The content was delivered directly by the National President/CEO, General Counsel and both the incoming and outgoing volunteer National Chairman. The news was delivered very directly. Readers of this site will perhaps be most interested in knowing that the program won't change, except for the ending of Venturing and Exploring program after age 17. The big impact of the way the bankruptcy has trended after the virus is that it has dragged and the plaintiff attorneys have experienced great success in identifying large numbers of clients. After a major advertising campaign this fall to identify more claimants (unfortunately scheduled during our recruiting season) there will bean even bigger number. The principal change is that now council assets be impacted in a significant manner. This is because the liability will be greater than expected (very large numbers of victims), the insurance companies are "pulling out", and the national assets will be insufficient to pay.

Friends, The initial announcements portend that we will be a different organization very soon. No more youth program past age 18. National will limit its activity to council services only. We will have a single "onboarding" membership platform. The regions and areas will be discontinued in favor of a downsized system. The organization will be rebranded after the bankruptcy is completed. Local councils will be significantly impacted, as the plaintiffs are primarily aiming at council assets. This includes camps, offices, everything. The BSA has had a very difficult time with the bankruptcy process, which will now be dragged out and more expensive because the insurance companies are litigating to get out of any liability. In essence, the opposition "wants it all" and that includes council assets. As we are recruiting this fall the BSA will be paying for a national media campaign to be sure 95% of men over age 50 know about the claims bar date in November. We will be smaller and with far fewer assets. This will be front page in the papers tomorrow.

Summit is huge. They have vast camping sites, program areas and bath facilities because they can serve up to 50,000 during jamborees. Having up to a few thousand wound be easy to handle. If there is any place that could do this, it would be the Summit.

Great. We have that circumstance in some of our local all-girl Scouts BSA Troops. The new web site apparently carries-over some "legacy" language from the old relationships web site which implies that all Packs and Troop are all-male. Ambiguity that will surely get ironed-out.

Dear Latin Scot: Will a female in a all-girl Scouts BSA Troop or all-girl Den be able to earn its awards?

The CoJCoLDS chose to cut its ties with the BSA in an absolute and very public manner. I certainly disappointed me, but every faith has its right to offer programs if it choosing, and we are no longer an approved part of their church program offerings. Church members played an outsized role at all levels of the BSA and they will be missed. I wished them well with their effort to establish a substitute program for Scouting. I think it is fine that some Church members have chosen to individually continue with the BSA in units whose chartered partners are not related to their church. It is natural for them to form a group and I wish them the finest. I looked at the nice web site and did notice the group is using the discontinued term "Boy Scouts" rather than "Scouts BSA" for our 11-17 year old program. Any explanation for this obsolete usage?

You have the option to educate others that requiring families to over-subsidize a camp (especially if it is of marginal quality) is not a worthy request. Urge its closure and consequent reduction of council operational costs. Go to a different council camp of distinction. The cash has run out and there will be no suddenly-appearing pot of gold.

The Summit has been a dining hall operation. First in elaborate tents and now in a proper inside dining facility. For this summer I do not know if they will offer patrol cooking or "hot pack". I will know I a few days and will share that information.

I hope the Summit becomes the preferred Scouts BSA summer camp for a large territory. Council camp property closures during the BSA financial meltdown amid the virus crisis can cause this to happen. As long as we do not lose it in the bankruptcy, the Summit will be there to operate every single year and will become increasingly nicer, generally known and popular with he Scouts. Many long-time adults do not like the Summit because it is new, the construction scars (until a year ago) looked raw, and its development caused a BSA financial crisis. However, I have yet to meet a Scout who did not really love the place after staying there. Those Scouts will start becoming the Scoutmasters of the future within 5-10 years. A challenge for the Summit has been to develop a good use for the facility during non-Jamboree years, but the staff has been so consumed with constructing and financing the place that it was difficult for them to focus on that. The bankruptcy and virus financial meltdown will cause councils to disfavor overly-subsidized camps and provide the opportunity to make Summit work as a super summer camp. If we hold on to it, the place is going to become a beloved place for Scouting families as treasured as our finest national park properties.

Good information to know. As for the range arrangements, they are larger than those on military bases, with hundreds of shooting positions. I guess they need that when 40,000 scouts are there and all want to shoot.

Troops in the Northeast and Southeast should give serious consideration to the Summit for summer camp. It will run for all weeks in July and the first week of August. $415/week and you get the experience of being at the Jamboree site. Advanced medical facilities, plenty of open room to distance single tents, huge program areas (designed for thousands but used by hundreds during summer camp) to accommodate social distancing and a very mature program staff. If summer camp is going to take place anywhere, it will be at the Summit.