AlcovyScout

A note from William A. Terry, Chairman of the Board Ladies and gentlemen- Effective immediately, the Greater Alabama Council of the Boy Scouts of America has begun the process to identify a new scout Scout executive. Tim Cooper has resigned as scout Scout executive for the Greater Alabama Council and has relinquished his management duties effective immediately. Tim is leaving the Council in great shape, and we appreciate all of his hard work. Tim will continue to serve the program by serving as an advisor to the GAC Capital Campaign Committee and support its operations as requested by Hatton Smith the campaign's chairman. After 31 years in scouting, Tim has announced his plans to retire in September of 2012 after completing his work as an advisor to the Capital Campaign. As Board Chair I am appointing a search committee to recommend a new scout Scout executive. The search committee will begin its process immediately. In the meantime, Regional Area director John Meeks will serve as the GAC's interim Scout executive. He will manage all of our staff functions and our programs on a day-to-day basis. Former GAC scout executive Jim Tinker has agreed to be available to assist John on an as-requested basis. We have thousands of youth counting on us and we will continue to provide the best programs for character development, physical fitness and personal growth of any Council in the BSA. Thank you, Bill Terry

madkins007 is right that the "problem" of registration misrepresentation and non-accountability is not a Universal National "problem" however it likely is a problem of autocracy that affects about 10 to 20 percent (30 to 60) of the national Councils. 1. Because the "problem" is (thankfully) not Universal, those Councils with "open" non-authoritarian Council Executives have Scout Leaders who likely are mystified at the fuss and feelings of moral betrayal felt by Scout Volunteers in the autocracy Councils. 2. The problems of autocracy and "number padding" likely have been going on for a long, time, but like spousal abuse, incest, pedophilia, and alcoholism, cultures eventually reach a point where some relatively rare behavior patterns are no longer tolerated. 3. The problem with the "problem" (which is really autocracy and not just the number padding) is that in order to preserve the image of the purity of Scouting, some Scouting Executives stifle all criticisms regardless of the nature or truth of those questions. As a result, real instances of pedophilia and alcohol abuse by Scouters and Executive are hidden under the guise of protecting the "privacy rights" of those individual as well as protecting the image of Scouting. It is very similar to the autocratic policies of the Catholic Church in "protecting" pedophile Priests (estimated at 5% of the Priesthood). And that mentality should be an anathema to Scouting. 4. Such concern IS relevant and essential for Scouting if Scouting is to maintain the empirical wisdom that is its basis. The 80%+ of the Councils who do not have a problem with autocracy with their Council Executives are fortunate and need to continue to focus on the quality of their programs. The other Councils need to have an "internal" mechanism for preventing such problems so that it does not lead to the disembowelment of Scouting nationally or the creation of "red" and "blue" Councils based upon whether or not the Scouting Professionals are autocratic. 5. Just because "number-stuffing" takes place in "corporate America" does not mean that Enron or Tyco or such similar abuses should be tolerated in corporate America or Scouting. (Richard Scrushy's HealthSouth case in Alabama is an exception in that he proved that you can fool some of the people all of the time" as demonstrated by the final members of his jury.) The organization that we are talking about IS the Boy Scouts (remember the Scout Law item called "Trustworthy") so that there are higher standards for both the members AND the Professionals, not only in how our organization is run, but as roll models to the Scouts. It is why the number of successful business, government, and religious leaders has such a high percentage of Eagle Scouts. To not apply such hypocritical standards to our Professional staff also violates the 13 Scout Law in that supposedly "A Scout is not a fool." The ideal "solution" to the "problem" is going to be internal to maintain the credibility of Scouting within Scouting rather than external and forced upon Scouting by lawsuits or challenges to Scouting's tax-exempt status by State governments. What is needed to prevent these "problems" from occurring in the non-autocratic Councils ("absolute power corrupts absolutely") and to remove the "problem" from those Councils experiencing them is a very slight modification of the Scouting structure and communication channels: 1. The Council Committee member selection process needs to be more independent of the Council Executives. Charter Organizations must be better notified and required to get more involved with Council Committee selection and elections because broader participation would not only widen the support for Scouting, but diminish the potential for abuses. To avoid abuse of authority problems a better means of feedback and involvement in the operation of the Councils is needed by the Charter Organization Representatives and the Council Commissioners to insure that the Council Committee does NOT become a rubber stamp for the Council Executive or other Professionals. The structures are likely already present, they are just by-passed or ignored. Current Federal and State tax laws require the Council Committee to be independent of the Professional organization of Scouting. The threat of those controls being by-passed in the future is that such a hand-picked Committee might cause a BSA Council to lose its tax-exempt status. 2. Numerous Scout Councils are run by a good old boy system that stifles new leadership and maintains a static environment ripe for abuse by Council Executives. Limiting tenure of Council Committee members may reduce the roles of experienced senior Scouters, but it also creates opportunity for new leadership and involvement. Because of the limited, or non-, accountability by the Professional to the Volunteers as to measures of Scouting performance, there are very few, if any, checks or balances outside of the organization to avoid the type of abuses experienced in the Northeast Georgia, Atlanta Area, or other Councils. Having new Volunteers on the Council Committee increases the opportunities for oversight. 3. As franchises of the National BSA, Scout Councils seem to have as their primary goal fund-raising rather than increasing the demographics of per-capita Scouting. Funding seems to be the main measurement of success by National BSA. This has resulted in an emphasis on bigger financial donors to Councils rather than increased participation. Broader participation might likely avoid the obsession with authority by the Council Executives as well as significantly increase Scout funding by increasing the number of donors. 4. A more useful way of measuring and/or validating the success of a Council is the per-capita growth of Scouting and the Eagle Scout graduation rate. The Northeast Georgia Council projects the illusion of a successful Scouting program because the total number of Scouts has grown over the past several years. What is hidden by the Council is that the overall population of Northeast Georgia has risen significantly faster than the increase in the numbers of Scouts, with much of that growth from the Gwinnett District. The Gwinnett per-capita increase in Scouts has fallen far behind the population increase, and the growth in the numbers of Scouts in the rest of the Council has been minimal or declining. A per capita measurement of Scouting involvement is much more rational an indicator of growth than total numbers. 5. Scouting, like Parenting, is a process. The culmination of that process is the graduation of a Scout in becoming an Eagle Scout as a life-cycle reflection of the efforts of that Scout, the support of his parents and friends and family, and the support of his Troop. It is NOT desirable that Scouting and Troops become Eagle Mills with the main focus of creating Eagle Scouts because that might dilute the concept of personal growth associated with being an Eagle or diminish Eagle standards. However, If the standards remained undiminished, it would be beneficial to those individuals as well as our society to encourage Eagle status for as many Scouts as possible. Our Gwinnett District of 6300 Scouts had 78 Eagle Scouts in 2003. The approximately 630 Scouts per age group gives us a graduation percentage of 12.3% which compares very favorably to the national average of about 4%. A District by District comparison, and a Council by Council comparison, of Eagle graduation rates would provide a very accurate and useful quantitative measure of the effectiveness of the local, District, and Council Scout Program. (Currently, these numbers are hidden not only from the general public, but are hidden from the National Association of Eagles which only gets the names and totals of new Eagles from each Council.) It is unlikely that a national review of the demographics is going to come out of National BSA, however, because I sense they fear of loss of their control (autocracy). Such a review will likely have to come from independent senior Scouters setting up a clearing-house webpage that invites a review of Scouting policies and demographics for each Council. I do not have the resources, the time, or the credibility to organize such an effort. If it is done, Scouting will then have an empirical measure of its success and its value to society and the individual who benefit from that learning and involvement. If it is NOT done, I fear that the dichotomy of the Professional autocracy versus the actual needs of our society may lead to the demise of Scouting. Please feel free to edit or copy and share the comments above. If you know someone with the time and resources to organize such a National Scout Council review, please let me know. If I can provide them with any productive insights, I would be delighted.

For more recent updates on the Atlanta situation, go to www.BoyScoutsForTruth.com which is trying to keep a direct handle on the situation. My compliments to the wisdom of non-professional Scout leaders. A couple of years ago, I formulated this guideline for our Troop: --- Rules for Being a Scoutmaster Rule #1: The Scouts must have fun. If the Scouts arent having fun then they wont come to Scouting, let alone have the involvement that motivates them to learn skills and the skill of working together. People learn best from joy rather than obligation or fear. Rule #2: The Scoutmaster must have fun. No matter what the Scouts think theyre doing, if YOU are not having fun then THEYRE NOT having fun. If you are not enjoying what you are doing, then you not only shouldnt do it, you are serving as a BAD role model for the Scouts. Rule #3: Always Be Teaching Even if they dont understand, tie Scouting Principles to everything they do. People learn by doing rather than listening, but if they think that there is a rational explanation for what they are doing, by the time they understand the explanation, they will have also mastered the skill and be able to pass it on to other Scouts. Rule #4: See Rule #1

There seems to be a problem with "Private Posts" on the site. I sent one to myself to test it out after receiving a request for a reply from a private post from jkhny that had no actual post attached to it. My test private post to myself did not work, or I did it incorrectly. If jkhny would like to re-send me a post directly, my direct email address is AlcovyScout@comcast.net. Thank you.

Refering to the Idaho case was overkill. I suspect the relevancy is only in that the negligence case against the Boy Scouts was only recently resolved. >January 2001 A court refuses victim's request to open files in the negligence case against the Boy Scouts. >2001, 2004 Negligence cases are settled. >2005 Court records in one of the negligence cases are opened. The suspicion of Administrative Abuse by the Professionals creates a very fine line between their having authority to set Scout standards and the need for confidentiality. What is really needed is some type of internal Scout organization that can provide the checks and balances.

You left out the IRS. The IRS had a field day reaming the Northeast Georgia Council for tax improprieties after the CE resigned to go to work for National. Of course that was a triple header. Not only was the CE juggling the books, he was manipulating registration numbers AND covering up a Youth Protection problem with a DUI DE who was also accused of buying beer for under age Boy Scouts. Thats why National found the CE a job with National since he was one of the "good old boys."