CynicalScouter

All of which goes to show BSA (and LCs and COs) was negligent (if not reckless) in how they handled these maters. There's a reason BSA and LCs do not want these to become lawsuits.

I've seen zombie units like this. Here's the problem: they are the LAST to admit they have a problem. So as I said, unless you want to turn unit commissioners into "council spies" for real, this plan is just rife for strife. I know my troop is fantastic. But I've got people on my committee, including but more especially my CC, who dislike the idea of a U.C. to begin with. If they knew that the Unit Commissioner was coming to "inspect" us and had the authority to yank our charter, I know they would simply refuse to let the man in the door.

Institutional Representative (IR) evolved into Scouting Coordinator (SC) which evolved into today's Charter Organization Representative (COR). Today, the old IR is somewhat split in two: Institutional Head (IH) and Chartered Organization Rep (COR). The example I give is the pastor of the church sponsoring the unit is the IH, the junior pastor or congregation member who is suppose to be overseeing the unit is the COR. On rare occasion the IH and the COR is the same, but that's rare (I've never seen it personally, but I've heard it has happened).

Archdiocese of San Francisco has now made an appearance in the case for its claims against BSA. BSA's trick of cutting a deal with Hartford and leaving COs out to dry is backfiring spectacularly.

But that is what was being suggested: that "bad units" have their charters pulled. And I quote So what are you suggesting? That a unit that fails to make JTE Gold have their charter pulled? Silver? Bronze?

I was under the impression JTE was looked upon as being not a "true" measure of "real, true" scouting and therefore shunned by "true" scouters. I know JTE gold troops that function as Cub Scouts 2.0, so I don't know that JTE is going to help weed out "bad" units.

How do you determine "bad" units other than to have outside entities (unit commissioners? DEs?) review the unit and render a judgment? Want to see knock down drag out fights? Create an Inspector General corp (unit commissioners/DEs) whose mission is to judge "good" and "bad" units. Watch the sparks fly. I see precisely 0% chance of BSA coming up with a "bad unit" list or, perhaps more accurately, coming up with criteria for a "bad unit" that are so broad and nebulous as to be unenforceable and wind up with everyone being a "good" unit (JTE, anyone?) EDIT: I want to be clear. If a uni

Today's batch of redacted a sexual abuse letters made it on the docket. Two things I hope everyone takes away There's a reason why YP and Guide to Safe Scouting exist as they do today. Every one of these letters you can just tick the boxes and see every section of YP and GSS directly created to address these types of claims and crimes. These are VERY detailed, even with the redactions. Times, dates, names, locations. Anyone hoping that BSA will skate because of faulty memories is in for a rude awakening.

Things to look forward to for this week 1) TCC's objection to the BSA's disclosure statement. I expect it to be frankly anti-climactic. We all know at this point most of the points. BSA is still not disclosing precisely how much the LCs will contribute, how much the insurance companies will contribute, etc. 2) Agenda! What, precisely, is on the agenda in terms of motion practice for the May 17 hearing. 3) Three days of mediation in New York. 4) TCC will have a townhall call May 13.

Or, conversely, that if a Council were to report NO YP violations in the prior 12 months that you should either Emulate their training system because they have achieved a level of perfection not seen in human history or Start poking around because no one group or organization can ever be THAT perfect suggesting either their data's crud, their reporting practices are crud, or something's crud.

There is no way to tell anything when it comes to mediation. It is a black box in a black hole of nothingness. Let me explain and speak to the HAs for a second. Mediators, like judges, will only discuss what is dragged in front of them. Unlike judges and arbitrators ("Rule. Now. Please.") it is more conversational ("Talk about THIS. Now. Please.") If the parties don't want to talk about it, neither do the mediators.* For all we know, the reason we have not heard a peep about the HA bases (other than Summit) is because There's universal agreement on the other 3 HA bases (oth

Sorta, but someone has to move first. Let me explain and this is how things GENERALLY work so, keep that in mind. In order for her to rule on a motion, one party has to formally put into writing EXACTLY what the problem is and EXACTLY what they want to judge to rule. Along with this motion they will usually file supporting paperwork such as a Brief in Support or something like that listing out the legal arguments. The other side(s) get to then file its Brief(s) in Opposition or support or both. Opposition isn't always clear cut: so for example if BSA filed a motion to declare the H

Yes, but the question was And the fact is BSA Isn't saying what the specific criteria is anywhere publicly available.

Heads up: it won't be done right. Not with leaders who are prepared to have this bankruptcy go off a cliff in order to save Summit at (literally) all costs. BSA is dying but will never fully die. BSA will shamble on as a husk and be thought of the way. A zombie organization that is a pale imitation of its former self. I think a parallel is the Grange. In its heyday, it accounted for 2% of total US population. Well known and well respected. Today, 160,00 total members and barely a blip on the radar. The landscape is littered with defunct scout and scout-like organizations as well

Fine, then go back to 2019. Between 2010 and 2019 Cubs dropped -27%. Between 2000 and 2019: -44% Contrast this with Scouts, BSA where the numbers, while not as bad, were not great: -11% drop between 2010 and 2019 and -20% drop 2000-2019. The idea that we are going to keep as many camps open as when we had back "in the good old days" is ludicrous. It is spending money to prop up an infrastructure based on memories, not math.

Typo. And BSA does not say how they categorize the Classes.

To put in in perspective of where it was and where it is, in the time period you were there Cub Scouts has dropped from 2.1 million to, as of December 2020, 650k, a 70% decline. Scouts, BSA had a little over 1 million in 1997, down to 475k, a 53% decline.

Exactly. Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) and NOT the ones with kids in scouting or if they are they are a small, small percentage. Boomers are 57-75 years of age. They have grandkids, maybe, in scouting. But not kids, or at least not that many. (57-17 = 40).

I heard a speaker talk about this in the following way: His dad, a Boomer, was a life long member of the Sierra Club. Had his original Sierra Club card in his wallet. Whenever they moved his first question was where the nearest club was. Membership was measured in decades. He was Gen X. Belonged to certain organizations when he was younger but as he got older drifted towards others. Still maintained the same level of hours and donations, just shifted. Membership was measured in years. Millennials, initial data shows, are liable to only remain with the same charitable organiza

See Bowling Alone

This. BSA has to go back to, not scratch, but close.

Let's do some math. Based on these Key Performance Indicator reports from BSA. KPI Report December 2019 KPI Report December 2020 MEMBERSHIP MARKETSHARE BSA ASSUMED MARKET 2017 2,282,576 4.5% 50,723,911 2018 2,186,329 4.3% 50,844,860 2019

The youngest boomer is 57. The oldest is 75. If we are talking cohorts, Boomers are not bringing in their kids. Let's talk generational then. If boomers = 1946 to 1964, then they were in scouts from 1953 (1946 + 7) to 1971 (Cubs). Note: that is precisely when the wheels fell off. Now, some of this is attributed to the decline births/the number of young people but a LOT comes from a decline in BSA. I am NOT going to hash how why that happened, lots of people have lots of theories, but suffice to say, it happened. Plus, there were societal changes that impacted BSA. Again not goin

It is everyone with two cents worth of sense knows it. The only question is if gen z parents (:20-40 the ones currently with school age kids) view it as a dinosaur they want to be affiliated with. The millennial generation (current ages = 40-55) already answered: heck no they did not put or keep their kids in.

Given the complete and total collapse in BSA membership even prior to COVID (decline of 37% from 2000-2019, and that was BEFORE LDS left) that's a strong argument. LCs have an infrastructure built and developed for a scouting population of 3-4 million (1955-2004) when, if BSA is very, very lucky, like stupefyingly lucky, it will emerge from bankruptcy and COVID with 2 million (which is what it was in 2019, just before LDS left) and more likely 1-1.5 million, which was the number of scouts in 1944. I also suspect that TCC is claiming that some of these "restricted' camps are not as "R