Eagle1993

Kosnoff is out with his update. Is he reading Scouter.com? Basically, he believes insurance companies, non cooperative LCs and all COs will be abandoned by the BSA. I tend to agree. They have appeared to abandon their current plan and have run out of time for any other option. To me ... this sounds like Kosnoff saying that National BSA abandons any hope of protecting COs or LCs (who are not paying large settlements) and also abandons prior deals with Hartford. I think he is 100% correct here. The COs seem to have not been agreeing to the court delays, so it sounds like they may be on the outs. The TCC plan was a LC by LC resolution, which is likely what will come out. BSA has already mentioned they will be a trimmed down version. I have to imagine a bunch of COs are like ... "you can't yada yada yada the most important part .. are we on the list". I think he probably meant hundreds to thousands of cases (not hundreds of thousands). That said, he is 100% correct once again. Our COs will be sued and BSA will not be there to protect them. I really feel for many of our COs. Most just thought they were offering a place to meet. They signed the paperwork out of a sense of civic or religious duty. I have a bad feeling our larger COs are about to see a wave of lawsuits later this year. At this point, I wonder if BSA abandons the CO model or at minimum, is 100% ready for a large number of units to take the Council charter model.

I think the US Bankruptcy Trustee is raising the same questions. I'm still not 100% convinced a global settlement would pass an appeals process. All it takes is 1 claimant to say, I want to sue my local council for $20M. They are not bankrupt and are legally responsible for my injury. The could sue and then go through appeals. If the appeals see the Bankruptcy Trustee objected, I wonder if that could get the settlement thrown out. I would have been more convinced if local councils never had to pay out directly from prior lawsuits. So if local councils were found liable in the past, how can a bankruptcy of the National organization provide protection for legally distinct local councils? I'll be more convinced when I see the US Bankruptcy Trustee agree with the deal. Until then, I agree with @fred8033that there is significant doubt if a global deal is even legal.

This has all 3 Mediators on the signature line. It really feels the are close. I don't believe there would be time to exit this in failure. Then have TCC/BSA present updated plans. Obtain objections/support for those plans. Hold a couple of hearings. Then a plan for vote. Wait for the results. Review the results and finally approve the plan by September (or October or possibly even November). What is the point. They need to exit mediation with an agreement from TCC & the Coalition. The only other option at this point would be liquidation and I don't see that as a viable path.

I think the big shock to our long term COs was BSA stating they were not covered by BSA insurance prior to 1976. https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/213bd53f-b44f-45c9-97fc-246bcb7ca06b_4108.pdf

I could also imagine that they either are settling on the restricted assets (which means BSA giving up the OA$ and some HA bases) OR are agreeing to binding arbitration. I do not see the TCC giving up the fight over the hundreds of millions of BSA restricted assets through mediation.

Kosnoff Law "This bankruptcy may go down in history as the only instance in which the judge never made a single, solitary ruling. Survivors would have been better served by a used side by side refrigerator with a broken ice maker and wrapped in a black robe."

This definitely sounds like they are finalizing a settlement to cover National BSA and Councils ... or at least a framework of a settlement. BSA was clear, they need to exit by end of summer. We could argue if that was 100% true, but it was clear they were burning cash and running out. If BSA is now asking for an indefinite delay ... that can only mean they realize that a mediated settlement is the only closure path. I expect the plan would still go to a vote ... but no need to fight within court. I wonder if the HA bases are in discussions and if the LC settlement is more along the lines of a council by council payout. It will be interesting to see the final deal.

This thread started in the bankruptcy thread with a post about the LDS relationship with BSA and a statement that the LDS is more at fault than BSA and should contribute a large amount to the settlement. It quickly veered in a deeper discussion about LDS reporting practices and after a few pages of posts, I thought it would be best to pull the discussion out of the bankruptcy thread (as it had little to do with bankruptcy) and make it its own topic. Part of that goal was to allow those who were not following the bankruptcy thread to realize what discussion was taking place and take part (if they desired). I think this topic has run its course. If someone wants to start a new topic about who is mandatory reporting, etc. that is fine.

Ok ... moved the National Annual Meeting discussion to the NAM thread here: I also created a new discussion regarding LDS Abuse Handling. It seemed to start a bit related to CH11, but then diverted a lot and may be missed by others who are interested.

There is now an approved alternate to Cyber Chip for Scout & Star Ranks. This Personal Safety Awareness may be used in place of the Cyber Chip requirement for the Scout and Star rank. If used in place of the Cyber Chip requirement for a rank, Scouts are encouraged to inform their Parent or Guardian and unit leader of the replacement prior to viewing the videos. https://www.scouting.org/training/youth-protection/scouts-bsa/

I saw that as well. I'll also say Kosnoff is not screaming on Twitter about this ... more like they are apparently close to a deal. I won't believe it until I see it ... but perhaps the BSA leadership is correct at the NAM, they are close to a deal. BSA really doesn't have an alternate as they are burning through cash right now. Mediation may be the only way to close this out quickly. We will see....

That is true. The delay could give TCC and others the ability to say they tried mediation to the fullest extent and it is time to allow other plans.

https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/e97b2e05-5d1f-47ac-a4e2-541eb269322c_5219.pdf Major mediation update... request delay to June 11... Getting close to agreement. TCC will agree to the delay. Flashing lights ... we may be close here...

I thought the same. She could have just left it at how sad the letters were. I read a lot of the letters, most do not say she needs to save the BSA ... so I was surprised she picked those. I was wondering if she was attempting to send a signal where she was headed. I just wonder if the Coalition thought ... let's try and get the best "voluntary" offer from the BSA before they get a ruling from the judge. If the judge continues exclusivity, I think that is a sign she is headed to approving the BSA plan.

In terms of this case, the judge has been very supportive of everyone, but has been very apparent she wants BSA to survive long term. When she mentioned the letters, she said she couldn't read them all, but she emphasized that several indicated they want the BSA to survive. She seems more focused on BSA's survival than maximizing a payout for claimants. I've also followed the USA Gymnastics bankruptcy and that judge has ripped the Olympic committee and said dig deeper. There is a major tone difference. She has never said that to the BSA. While cramdowns never happen, I would not be shocked if she allows a vote on the current BSA deal and if it rejected, takes their Plan B as is and closes out the bankruptcy. If she does anything else, she risks having the end of BSA on her hands and from everything she says, she doesn't want her name attached to the end of the BSA. Perhaps the Coalition and others see this as a real threat as well, which is why they are working to improve BSA's deal. There is a strong chance that there is no other option available. Tomorrow we will see (perhaps today if there is a last minute deal).

BSA's latest financials https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/2f5112e6-d8c5-4fe3-b63b-dab01932cba9_5180.pdf They gained $4.4M over the month of April 2021 in available cash. In 2020, they gained $1.2M. Now the details in 2021, we are seeing higher income from HA bases (+$2M), Supply (+$3M) and transfers from investments (+$11M) than 2020. On the cost side, payroll is up ($3M),, trade AP is down ($0.7M), and a combination of other expenses & capex increased ... so total non bankruptcy expenses are higher in 2021 ($4M). Bankruptcy expenses are up by $9M So expenses up $13M, income up $16M shows an increase over April 2020 for net by $3M. I think the concern here is the transfers from investments. I cannot imagine that continues indefinitely. Plus ... in 2020 we didn't have HA bases very active, now we will have have the higher C&B to cover it. Now .. May 2020 we lost $5M. That is with lower C&B and much lower bankruptcy rate.

I've started and stopped writing my thoughts several times. I do think our leaders love the movement, but I don't think they are the best face for scouting right now. You can be older and active. You can be larger and active. But the key is active. If you are running our scouting organization, you should be outdoors and active. I rarely see our leaders, out in the field, camping, hiking, canoeing, etc. I would love to see much more social media presence from our individual leaders, highlights scouts, highlighting their own personal adventures that could be attributed to scouting, perhaps some amazing leadership or something. I rarely if ever see them. I didn't know 2 of the key 3 without searching. Nothing. No weekly podcast. No twitter. No anything. Where are they?

I keep hearing the program and how we deliver it will be greatly changed after bankruptcy. After bankruptcy we will rebrand. Etc. They have to have some ideas when they keep saying this .... what are their ideas? What do they mean?

From what I have read, the rumor is the TCC is not being included in the negotiations. Essentially, the BSA has collected a group of claimant representatives >50% and is working with them on a settlement. There may be some truth as the Coalition agreed to delay the hearing but the TCC objected. Does anyone know if the TCC is actively part of the current mediation or are the being excluded? I know the target is 66%, but I wonder if the judge would accept >50% yes votes and if BSA has identified a path to yes with 42,001 claimants. There could be a lot out there that are just looking for a quick payout.

We had. Den leader talk to his den about Greek and Roman gods. One of the scouts asked why these gods are no longer believed in. The leader said that well, people stopped believing in those gods and moved on to other religions. Then the scout asked... what happens when people stop believing in today’s God(s). Den meeting over..... I think our Faith den meeting created some agnostics.

Moved the Michigan discussion to a new topic.

I have to believe MSU and Nasser come to mind. They cannot be caught flat footed again.

They did the same with the Catholic Church. I expect they will start with search warrants soon. You will see pictures of agents going into all scout offices and pulling files out. The good news is that I expect leaders and anyone who covered it up to be charged and probably go to prison. Michigan charged a priest for assaults dating back to the 1970s.

Scouting University... https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/62be061b-eeb1-427a-9416-8e57a135751f_5095.pdf

TCC mentioned that this is as a typo in one of their town halls.