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Chapter 11 announced


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On 3/9/2021 at 7:17 PM, Eagle1993 said:

The agreement to extend the injunction also prohibits any local council from selling or transferring any property with the intent to hinder or defraud creditors, or without receiving compensation that equals the property's value.

The agreement also prohibits local councils from designating unrestricted assets as restricted “by board resolution or otherwise,” including proceeds from the sale of assets.

Besides the confirmed case of asset transfers in Tennessee, has this been happening elsewhere? From an attorney's perspective, I would've been advising it for years, not unlike a basic tax and estate planning review directs some clients to transfer identified assets to trust, whether revocable or irrevocable. With the assault on the ramparts since the $19M OR case, I would think asset protection measures would've exploded.

If I may, I also want to bring back one of my posts now moved to the spinoff thread on YPT and Other Stuff. This is regarding the continuation of Scouting and goes to financial and programatic viability of LC's if the full force of Scouting National is greatly diminished or gone:

I also wonder if it depends on the resources and current strength of those LC's (few?) that can fairly easily give some millions [to the Settlement Trust, be released] and still pivot on the strength of community support, leadership and donor base depth and breadth.

Edited by ThenNow
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On 6/24/2020 at 10:23 PM, RememberSchiff said:

As I understand , National has to seek permission from the Bankruptcy Court  for new financial transactions - hiring, buying, selling outside of what was initially court allowed, but  "independent" councils do not. This might soon change  as on July 8 when participating councils will provide a list of  their assets to the court.  Consider the sudden rush to sell Camp Pioneer  in Caddo Area  Council (AR) by June 30..  Maybe a  coincidence?

The really “hard decision” would be to take a step back and honor their fiduciary responsibility to secure the best deal for the Council. It does not take a real estate professional to recognize that an unsolicited cash offer, with a short deadline, for an unlisted property with no professional appraisal is seldom the best offer or even a fair offer. The Executive Board should know that, and they should also know that anyone who is truly interested in purchasing the property will still be interested beyond June 30.

https://txktoday.com/news/letter-to-the-editor-sale-of-camp-pioneer-boy-scout-camp-raises-concerns/

Local council camps have been sold since the BSA has entered Chapter 11. Whether all transactions complied with whatever Court guidelines that were set is a question. It does appear those guidelines or enforcement needed a boost.

Edited by RememberSchiff
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36 minutes ago, ThenNow said:

[quoting @Eagle1993 , who said: "The agreement to extend the injunction also prohibits any local council from selling or transferring any property with the intent to hinder or defraud creditors, or without receiving compensation that equals the property's value.

The agreement also prohibits local councils from designating [...]"

Besides the confirmed case of asset transfers in Tennessee, has this been happening elsewhere? [...]

Other councils have been selling and transferring property over the past decades, maybe not so much over the past year.  The surrounding grumbling has sometimes included nonspecific allegations that the transfer was not in good faith with prior donors and volunteers, or was not arm's-length, or was not the best possible deal for the Council, but I'm not aware of a case where a sale has actually been blocked by a court.

My council, Michigan Crossroads, has four operating full camps and one operating cub-only camp, down from about a dozen across several pre-merger councils a decade or two ago. They still  own some of the camp properties, with no public news of imminent sale, but also no public or foreseeable plans to reopen any time soon. A couple of the closed camps had already been partially sold off even before closure (one as a housing development, the other for gravel mining), and for at least one of them the Council was at least negotiating with a buyer before National filed for bankruptcy.

The former council camp closest to my home had been donated by the Kiwanis Club on sufficiently restrictive conditions that, when it closed, it reverted to the donor. Or at least that's what everyone was told at Roundtable. The actual form of the transfer on county tax records is an "ARMS LENGTH" sale to an LLC for $408,000.  The new owners advertise it as a suitable place for church retreats, family reunions and weddings. I've actually been "camping" (well, winter cabin stay) with a scout group on the property since that sale, and the new owners have done a good job of bringing the remaining buildings up to the standard they advertise, but the trails are in disrepair and are switfly disappearing (except where they've caused serious erosion).

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1 hour ago, ThenNow said:

Besides the confirmed case of asset transfers in Tennessee, has this been happening elsewhere? From an attorney's perspective, I would've been advising it for years, not unlike a basic tax and estate planning review directs some clients to transfer identified assets to trust, whether revocable or irrevocable. With the assault on the ramparts since the $19M OR case, I would think asset protection measures would've exploded.

If I may, I also want to bring back one of my posts now moved to the spinoff thread on YPT and Other Stuff. This is regarding the continuation of Scouting and goes to financial and programatic viability of LC's if the full force of Scouting National is greatly diminished or gone:

I also wonder if it depends on the resources and current strength of those LC's (few?) that can fairly easily give some millions [to the Settlement Trust, be released] and still pivot on the strength of community support, leadership and donor base depth and breadth.

 i do not know how recent, but I know one restriction put on many BSA properties (including our council's) is a Conservation Easement.  A property right (restriction?) transferred with ownership that prevents development.  This would drive down the resale value, particularly for potential developers.

Of course, these easements are done with money changing hands.

Edited by InquisitiveScouter
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9 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

I know one restriction put on many BSA properties (including our council's) is a Conservation Easement.  A property right (restriction?) transferred with ownership that prevents development.  This would drive down the resale value, particularly for potential developers.

This may amount to no more than "just for gee whiz" type information, but in one of my incarnations I represented real estate developers. We targeted conservation easement properties, based on our history and track record of being able to weave through the legislative, statutory and political maze and emerge with a "clean" title. Buy cheap, build big, sell bigger. Land Conservancy, Century Farm, Williamson Act (CA) and Conservation Easement are all terms used to describe this type of thing, with some variations.

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A friendly reminder regarding the TCC Town Hall meeting tonight:

NOTICE OF VIRTUAL TOWN HALL MEETINGS HOSTED BY THE OFFICIAL COMMITTEE OF BOY SCOUT ABUSE SURVIVORS

The next TCC Town Hall will be held on Thursday, March 11, 2021, at 5pm PST/8pm EST. No registration is required.

Town Hall Zoom link

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25 minutes ago, ThenNow said:

Are there any materials/specific court filings that would help inform us prior to getting on the meeting? Thanks for this.

My understanding is that this Town Hall Meeting will focus upon the plan, claims data, and the TCCs view.

 

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1 minute ago, MYCVAStory said:

My understanding is that this Town Hall Meeting will focus upon the plan, claims data, and the TCCs view.

D-oh. I recall the TCC's reply to the plan was posted somewhere in here. That's what I meant. I will look for it. Thank you.

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In case anyone else was looking for this. Sorry I didn't look more closely earlier.

____________ 

The Official Tort Claimants Committee (the “TCC”), appointed by the Office of the United States Trustee and the official representative of all sexual abuse survivors in the Boy Scouts of America  bankruptcy case, opposes the Boy Scouts of America’s (“BSA”) chapter 11 plan filed today in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.  Under the plan, BSA seeks a release for itself and its 253 local councils for the sexual abuse of more than 85,000 individuals from 1930s through 2019.  As a fiduciary to all sexual abuse survivors, the TCC has thoroughly investigated the assets and liabilities of the BSA and its local councils and concluded that the BSA’s reorganization plan woefully fails to adequately compensate sexual abuse survivors or provide any enhanced systematic protections for future generations of Scouts.

John Humphrey, the TCC chairman stated, “This plan reflects BSA’s ‘business as usual’ attitude to abuse survivors and does nothing to make Scouting safer.”  “The plan contemplates BSA will fund a trust of approximately $220 million including illiquid property for 85,000 known abuse survivors, in addition to an assignment of insurance policies.  Mr. Humphrey observed that BSA’s contribution and the Local Councils’ contemplated property and cash contribution averages a mere $6100 per survivor.  “The BSA and its local councils are not making the effort necessary to provide a modicum of compensation to men and women whose lives were changed forever by BSA’s and the Local Councils’  failure to protect them as children.  Instead, BSA and the Local Councils are putting the onus on survivors to fight with the insurance companies and walking away from their legal and moral duty to these men.  The plan violates every word and the spirit of the Boy Scout oath that each of us took as kids.” 

The plan seeks to force abuse survivors to release the Boy Scouts Local Councils even though not a single local council has filed its own bankruptcy.  Throughout the BSA bankruptcy case, the TCC, as a fiduciary for all abuse survivors, has sought complete disclosure of the local councils’ assets and liabilities to ensure they provide, as they must, adequate compensation in exchange for release of the sexual abuse they are trying to avoid. “Getting information from the local councils has been an uphill fight” observed Douglas Kennedy, co-chair of the TCC, adding “they want to force us to release the local councils but have not provided the financial transparency that is necessary for survivors to make an informed decision on whether to release the local councils where the majority of the abuse occurred.”

The plan makes no systematic changes to the Scouting program to better protect children.  Humphrey said, “BSA claims to have the best child protection program in the country.  That arrogance is belied by the thousands of claims filed in the bankruptcy since the inception of this so-called platinum standard program.  The protection of children seems to be an after-thought in a plan that tries to get BSA and its councils off the hook for minimal compensation to abuse survivors.”

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