GMarshMo

We are chartered by a UMC and have multiple units.  Each units committee will be meeting soon to discuss how to proceed.  The primary concerns are councils control of funds, assets, fundraising, and leadership selection.  Each unit will decide whether to continue with council, find another charter (which is unlikely), or fold the tent.  There is no trust that council will be a good and faithful steward of the units or that they have the ability to handle the charter duties at all.  All agree that its a looming admin disaster on most every level.  Finding another charter seems on the surface to be the optimal solution, but very few organizations want the liability or headaches, and more importantly, once the legal council of the other charter organizations realize they can host and support scouting without being the charter and holding the liability, the affiliation agreement could and most likely will eventually become the universal agreement in scouting.  Behind the scenes, these current individually run units and charters have been the unseen organizational glue to scouting from almost the beginning.  The oversight may have not been proactive most cases and even non-existent in some others, but it was usually there when needed, and provided a subtle but steady influence and guiding hand.  This arrangement also provided units with a small but comfortable degree of autonomy from the very inefficient BSA whose objectives and actions were not always in the units best interest.  This change to a council charter is a foundational shift and the end result is unknown, but it will be large and impactful.

Our Troop leadership shares many of the concerns mentioned above, but without seeing the written agreement, our units cannot yet have any substantive discussions or make any decisions regarding how or if we are to move forward.  We have two large units at our Methodist Church.  Does anyone know when the new affiliation agreement will be made available to view or have a link?  I attended the zoom informational meeting, but have yet to see the agreement and I cannot find it online.