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Methodist Church telling Churches to Not "Recharter" Scout Units


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A couple of units here in Mid-Michigan that had a United Methodist Church as a sponsor were dropped effective yesterday.  Now they are scrambling to find a new CO and place to meet.

ccjj

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If a UMC is switching to a Facilities Use Agreement only relationship, then the unit will need a new Chartering Organization, such as a VFW or your Local Council.

I have been hearing of councils that don't want to serve as the chartering org as well. That's something for BSA to resolve though in its reorg plan I would think. 

Ours has already informed us that we will move to the facilities model.  Other than that, they assure us that they still consider us part of their ministry, just under a different format.  Since we ha

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On 7/26/2021 at 1:10 PM, yknot said:

We've been discussing this somewhere else, too, although I can't remember where. Our state conference is telling Methodist churches not to charter or recharter prior to Dec. 31 as they are investigating what to do. It appears they will simply shift to the facilities use agreement although I found it interesting that the wording seems to have changed slightly over the past few weeks. Instead of saying sign the facilities agreement instead of recharter, they now seem to be saying don't do anything at all just yet.

 

 

We need to clarify that there are now two groups of Methodists, and they are not in agreement.  However, the traditional support of Scouting, the Methodist Mens' group, still supports the program.  Please be aware of this.  See this FB group.  https://www.facebook.com/MethodistScouting/photos/a.128216575250845/582219489850549

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On 8/2/2021 at 12:00 PM, skeptic said:

We need to clarify that there are now two groups of Methodists, and they are not in agreement.  However, the traditional support of Scouting, the Methodist Mens' group, still supports the program.  Please be aware of this.  See this FB group.  https://www.facebook.com/MethodistScouting/photos/a.128216575250845/582219489850549

There is still only 1 Official Methodist Church,  anything else is just a part of the chatter that is been going on for awhile and has yet to be voted on.  I suspect that a change where there are two groups, Progressives and Traditionalists, may come about, but it hasn't yet.

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31 minutes ago, Eagle69 said:

There is still only 1 Official Methodist Church,  anything else is just a part of the chatter that is been going on for awhile and has yet to be voted on.  I suspect that a change where there are two groups, Progressives and Traditionalists, may come about, but it hasn't yet.

I think what he is referring to is the conservative/liberal split within the Methodist church, which is occuring both inside and outside of the US. Many other denominations are having similar issues. It's still basically the UMC though right now. 

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30 minutes ago, yknot said:

I think what he is referring to is the conservative/liberal split within the Methodist church, which is occuring both inside and outside of the US. Many other denominations are having similar issues. It's still basically the UMC though right now. 

Yes, but the United Methodist Men's Foundation group that supports the BSA is not part of the Church leadership that is liberal. So, in a sense, there are two groups. While the leadership isn't directly involved with the church BSA support, they wouldn't mind if that part of the program fell by waste side.

Barry

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Not the Methodists, but our current CO let the Pack and Troop know two weeks ago that they would not recharter our two units.  As we started to look at other churches to support us, we were rejected by the Presbyterian Church and they were getting their marching orders from the PCA at National level.  There are rumors that other denominations are considering the same thing.

We do have one of our Girl Troops that just received their notice from the United Methodist Church that sponsors them and told them they would no longer charter the Troop.

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And the sad part is that the Council, at least ours, is pretending as though they do not have any contingency plans.  If the denominations pull the rug out soon, which is likely, the Councils need to have a plan.  Ours has its head in the sand (or somewhere else).

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2 minutes ago, vtcchokie92 said:

And the sad part is that the Council, at least ours, is pretending as though they do not have any contingency plans.  If the denominations pull the rug out soon, which is likely, the Councils need to have a plan. 

The plan seems pretty simple. The Methodists have said that Scouts can still meet there. So, the council charters the units using the new "council charter" option. The units continue as though nothing changed. 

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Just now, mrjohns2 said:

The plan seems pretty simple. The Methodists have said that Scouts can still meet there. So, the council charters the units using the new "council charter" option. The units continue as though nothing changed. 

Our council has no plan to do that nor do they have a mechanism according to our Executive

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18 minutes ago, mrjohns2 said:

The plan seems pretty simple. The Methodists have said that Scouts can still meet there. So, the council charters the units using the new "council charter" option. The units continue as though nothing changed. 

Some COs are not even interested in the facilities use agreement. 

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2 hours ago, yknot said:

Some COs are not even interested in the facilities use agreement. 

Makes sense.  The relationships were always very loose.  Why misrepresent it with something formal that is written?  Most charter orgs were just being supportive of the community.  They can still do that without signing an agreement (aka a contract).

 

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12 hours ago, vtcchokie92 said:

Our council has no plan to do that nor do they have a mechanism according to our Executive

It is a national mechanism on the national forms site. So, your SE is either not telling the truth or ignorant of the alternative process. 

Annual Council Unit Registration Agreement

https://www.scouting.org/resources/forms/

 

 

 

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2 minutes ago, mrjohns2 said:

It is a national mechanism on the national forms site. So, your SE is either not telling the truth or ignorant of the alternative process. 

Er, sorta. What I was told was that Councils have the OPTION to take on the role of CO via the Annual Council Unit Registration Agreement.

Perhaps that's what is meant: "we COULD do this, but we have absolutely no intention on doing so".

Now, I cannot imagine a council not wanting to if the alternative is losing the unit outright, but the Council cannot be forced to do so. But maybe there are such councils out there.

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