Cubmaster Problems

[Oak Tree 15]

Should I be able to complain without giving my name?

 

Maybe you should, but there isn't any easy mechanism for doing this. Still, you could definitely do it. Call the CO or the council office from a phone that's not yours, or send an email from some email address that you get just for the purpose.

 

Honestly, though, I'd really hope you don't want to complain anonymously. Do you have friends in the pack? If you don't, I'd just leave. If you do, I'd get together with them and make a multiple complaint. If I were the CO, I'd want to know about this, so that I could remove the CM. Most COs would, I think, unless this pack is chartered by a "friends of" organization that is led by the CM. But if you are chartered by a church or a community organization, there is no way that they want this guy to be CM.

 

At this point the facts are so egregious that everyone is going to take swift action to fix things, if they are told about them. So either tell someone or leave. Tell everyone. Tell anyone. Tell them in person, or anonymously. I don't think that you'd be out of line asking for a personal meeting with the SE. Tell them the story either by yourself or with others. But if you want this pack to survive and you want to stay in it, and the facts are all the way that you relate them, you've got to do something.

[Papadaddy 121]

This is just too bizarre for words. I think we've been led down this path before. Call your Scout council office and request a private meeting with the SE for a "youth protection" matter (even though it is adults he is sexually harassing). Those are code words and the secretary should patch you right through. Then tell him everything you've told us. This man and this unit are way out of bounds and you and your family need to find another unit with "normal" scouters. Good luck.

[Cito 12]

Even if it turns out that you're better off finding an altogether new unit, you need to report it to the CO and the SE. When people are this out of line, they need to be taken out of scouting. Don't worry about the lack of cubmaster, any situation would be better than the current one.

[AlamanceScouter 10]

I read things like this on these message boards and it just makes me so thankful for our Pack.

 

As others have said.......move this up the chain ASAP.

[moosetracker 132]

Well it's sexual harrassment, not youth protection.. So you don't call the SE and state a falsehood..

 

I agree with the chain of command approach.

 

I Question also why even when going up the chain, everyone jumps from IH to SE?.. No one talks to the DE?? At least for me, maybe because I know my DE, and more people should know their DE over their SE, I would go there first unless you know your DE is an A--hole, and choose to jump over him. But, I would trust mine to figure out if it needs to be elevated..

 

Anyway anonymous will get you nowhere, if you are hiding then who is to trust you are telling the truth, especially if you state it happened to A, B, or C and they also are not complaining..

The best you can do is organize a group and go into complain as a group. Your name is not the single name listed on the complaint, and the more that make a stand, the more seriously the complaint will be taken.

 

Then prepare to find someone to take the position. A women can be a cub master, this is much more accepted then a female SM.. But also if he is gone, then the guys (who I don't think much of for not wanting to confront some guy disrepecting their wife or other women, so stay home).. Can come back to the meeting, and can help out again. If not CM, then they can be a DL to replace some women who takes over for CM..

 

Like the old wild west.. Stand up, fight for, and take back your town! (errrr.. Pack!)

[Papadaddy 121]

If he is doing this with scouts present, as you stated, it is creating a hostile environment, which, in my opinion, is a youth protection issue. Anyone with this bad of behavior, I wouldn't assume anything. Let the SE sort it out, and it will remain confidential. In our council, we are trained to call the SE directly...and in my experience, most DE and UC are useless, except when they want money.

[kari_cardi 10]

What a mess.

 

I agree, take it to the the charter organization and the scout executive. I think it is a YPT issue. The Cubmaster is screaming at the scouts and recruited an assistant den leader who has previous and current violence issues. And given the PR ramifications of rampant sexual harassment which are acts of violence toward his pack leaders? Both organizations will want to know.

 

The reason to limit the reporting to the IH and the SE is simple. The cubmaster and the assistant den leader are protected from defamation of character even if what is being said is true. To protect themselves, the reporter needs to limit who they talk to about this. I found this true when I had to report a YPT issue to my COR and SE last year and Beavah has also referred to the need to NOT talk to everyone in other similar threads. My DE had no idea what happened until a recent need to include him in the loop, and that is how it should be.

 

PepperSammy, it's hard to do the right thing in situations like this, I know. You know you need to report the cubmaster, though, or you wouldn't have brought the problem here. The cubmaster is counting on fear, intimidation and the need to be 'nice' to continue harassing women as he pleases. Please stop him. Know that you have scouters here who are behind you. A call to the council to report YPT problems will get you to the right person, and you can share the rest of the story then. And soon you, your son and your fellow scouters can enjoy scouting as you should.

[Oak Tree 15]

Yeah, moosetracker, in some cases the DE could be a reasonable person to go to. One reason that people might go straight to the SE is that in the G2SS it says "Any violations of the BSAs Youth Protection policies must immediately be reported to the Scout executive."

 

Another is that for problems like this, a DE might bump it up the chain and have the SE deal with it anyway.

 

However, especially in large councils, the SE isn't going to be able to deal with all of these problems personally. I know that in our council, if you call to report a problem like this to the SE, you're going to get referred to the Director of Field Services, who is a very reasonable guy.

 

A lot of DEs just don't have the experience needed to deal with the situation. Some do, though, and if you happen to know your DE and feel comfortable with him, that would be a great place to start.

 

In the end, it doesn't really matter who you talk to at the council office. You just need to talk to someone.