DavidLeeLambert

In prior years (five-ish years ago, give or take), my council required Cub Scout Day Camp "walkers" (an adult whose job was to walk around with a provisional den, typically the once including their kid, and make sure no one wandered off) to have a certificate of YPT completion, but did not requre them to be registered with any unit. But I haven't looked at the fine print of those policies for the current year yet. My son's troop already had a policy that any adult wishing to attend more than 72 hours of cumulative camping time had to be registered with the BSA (hence also YPT trained), even before this year's coming changes.

As far as I know, not with any of the current units I am registered with, but: My younger kids' pack switched COs at the end of 2020, from a public school's "Parent Council" to a church Several boys joined my older sons' troop after the CO of their prior troop (a Catholic parish) was dissolved, mid-2020 (and the parish's dissolution was announced in late 2019) Another troop (or at least one boy and its Scoutmaster) has been meeting with our troop for over a year now because the fire-station where they used to meet has been closed to outside groups since the beginning of the COVID pandemic Another CO in a nearby town is a church that voted to dissolve, just this past week And I was a registered leader in a couple of LDS units until the end of 2019 I hope that "might" turns into a decision to keep your units (and perhaps even "support" them more meaningfully), but if not, switching to a different CO should be doable. But a few days before the board meeting, and a few weeks before the end of the year, is not a good time to be organizing your equipment, reconciling your accounts, and tracking down copies of paperwork. Just as program planning for camping and advancement a year or more in advance is helpful, it's probably prudent for the committee to have plans in place in January of "what will we do if our CO won't recharter us in December?"

A couple other ways of looking at those numbers... The number of LDS Scouts at the end of 2019 was about 400 thousand (Salt Lake Tribune article), so that's about $625 per ultimate-year boy. That would have been almost 20 years of registration-fees at the 2019 rates, or probably fees for another 5 or 10 years as they've gone up (and will go up) since, or possibly more than the sum total of all registration fees ever paid before. It's also a fair complete-program cost (one Council camp or High Adventure trip, several weekend activities, literature, supplies, etc.) for one boy that year. And the church had about 16 2/3 million members at the end of last year. So that's about $15.00 per man, woman, and child in the church, worldwide.; or $8029 per local congregation ("wards or branches", including those that did not ever charter a Scouting unit).

So these actually hit the docket before the Town Hall, but the Debtors have filed two more motions asking for approval of non-abuse litigation settlements... Romero Settlement Agreement https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/cf68ebd7-41b0-42a5-99db-2d6986b00ccc_6155.pdf Knight Settlement Agreement https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/73c61cbd-1db3-4158-a1b7-1a5f7cd21eaf_6154.pdf The Knight case was discussed on this forum when the lawsuit was first filed, and I believe it was mentioned in one of the bankruptcy threads but I'm having trouble finding that reference. A Scout was camping at a Council camp in Georgia, and a tree fell on his tent while he was in it; he died. The proposed settlement is for $7.1 million, against the March 2018-March 2019 policy year; $1 million from a base policy with Old Republic with no aggregate limit, and the remaining $6.1 million from an excess policy with Old Republic with a $9 million aggregate limit. For that year, there were 18 Direct Abuse Claims that meet certain criteria, and only $248 thousand left to the limit on that particular excess policy (assuming the Lehr settlement is also approved, see below); but the motion says there is approximately $200 million left in other excess policies that would apply to that year. The Romero case is from an accident in February 2016, where a Boy Scout was struck in the eye by an arrow while attending a "Mountain Man Rendezvous" in Nevada. The proposed settlement is for $2.5 million, against the March 2015-March 2016 policy year. That year had the same structure of two Old Republic policies with additional layers above, and approximately $7,144,000 of the Old Republic excess policy in that year would remain. For that year, there were 22 Direct Abuse Claims that meet certain criteria. Lehr Settlement Agreement https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/ee370ded-4028-485a-8e3c-6efe453bac3b_2719.pdf The Lehr incident was also during the 2018-19 policy year. An adult leader was injured on July 3, 2018, while attempting the "Leap of Faith" at Summit Bechtel Reserve. The settlement is for $3 million (in addition to dental costs of less than $31 thousand already incurred and paid). BSA filed the Lehr settlement near the end of April, and the Coalition objected to it. However, on Friday the Coalition withdrew its objection. https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/a780f211-e51d-4a5d-a9bf-7dd70476bd3f_6193.pdf

Minor quibble: the 7th group was a uniform sampling across all claims NOT in the earlier groups. See the Neumann declaration, D.I.1972 attachment 6 page 3 (page 77 of the PDF): "We then sorted the Abuse Claims by this random number. [...] We then limited the remaining claims on the randomly sorted list to those that were not coded into any of the six sub-categories and selected the first 200 claims from that group." Did she say something that hinted that, or is that just your guess?

It's possible that this is what happened: Your friends contacted the Council Council told them to submit a claim They submitted claims They were then randomly cold-called (or cold-texted, or cold-emailed) by AIS intake specialists with slack time. (I was never cold-called, but maybe they were in the "absolute optimum" demographic, 60-year-old veterans with youth Scouting mentioned on their resume, or something like that.) During their responses to the cold-calls, they admitted (or insufficiently failed to conceal) that they had already filed claims. The AIS intake person picked up on that and ran with it. More likely than a leak somewhere? Not sure. Still bad for AIS? I'd say so. Still bad for BSA? No, except that perhaps they should have done even more noticing or filed the motion to control lawyer advertisement earlier. Edit: One other possibility, your friends did a Google search for "official BSA claims submit" and clicked on an advertisement rather than the official restructuring site, by mistake.

A potential claimant has made a motion to the court requesting leave to file a claim, notwithstanding the Bar Date. https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/08d00d9b-f3d7-4e65-b923-2860ee591eaa_6108.pdf He says he saw some of the attorney advertisements last fall, but not the part about the Bar Date; and that he was never actually served with any notice of the case by the debtors. (In other words, the noticing program didn't really reach him.) He currently lives in Pennsylvania, but grew up in New Jersey, an "open window" state. Also, "certain insurers" (American Zurich, etc.) have filed another objection to the Disclosure Statement and Plan, this one with specific suggestions for changing the wording of certain parts of the document. https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/eb22d4e3-995d-434b-835d-0b7534508bf7_6062.pdf They issued policies with "Self-Insured Retentions" (SIRs) for certain years. I guess one of those is even stronger than a deductible: with a deductible, the insurer doesn't pay out the deductible; with an SIR, the insurer doesn't pay out at all unless someone else pays out the SIR first. And in all years they issued policies with an SIR of at least $1 million; in some years, $2 million or even $4 million. As they explain, They issued policies for the year March 1, 1989, to March 1, 1990, and from March 1, 1996, through March 1, 2007. The number of cases in those years are... 1989 1105 1990 1125 1996 759 1997 662 1998 635 1999 538 2000 532 2001 369 2002 357 2003 325 2004 241 2005 227 2006 202 2007 171 Assuming that abuse occurred at an even rate during the relevant end-years, that's about 5860 claims covered by Zurich.

Started at a little after 10:00. The parties had agreed on what to admit as evidence from depositions over the weekend, so Mosby and Ownsby will not be testifying. Recess at about 10:30 until 12:00, when oral argument will resume.

A couple of developments in the case... 1. I thought I had posted the first half of this one before, but can't find it. A creditor committee in the bankruptcy of the Archbishop of Agaña (a Catholic diocese in Guam; filed for bankruptcy in January 2019) had filed a joinder to the TCC's objection to the Disclosure Statement. https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/8705b18d-18f3-4edd-aaaf-e1638ffaddc5_4321.pdf Then the Archdiocese itself filed a joinder to an objection to the RSA. https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/dbd1e21b-96ba-40eb-91d4-6996dca609aa_5690.pdf Now the RC Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut, which filed for bankruptcy in July 2021, has filed an appearance and a joinder to an objection to the RSA. https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/9b07179e-ab94-4d17-a676-2bfbd391fc6e_5980.pdf https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/02fefa23-23e1-41a4-b698-2ac2826cf34f_5970.pdf 2. AVA Law Group has dropped Kosnoff's lawyer (David Wilks) and retained new counsel to represent them (Christopher Simon and Kevin Mann). https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/9dad98c0-9b5e-410f-bb72-7757568243a0_6001.pdf

https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/6b679ab4-343c-45fc-97b1-a29861a0deec_5971.pdf Actually, that's not the first, nor the last, of at least a half-dozen objections on the docket that make basically the same argument... down to the table of council with assets above $30 million in paragraph 21. For example, see D.I.5967 and D.I.5968. That is a good summary. I would add, in some cases, a claim against "facilities" place F. I think the case of some units regularly meeting at a place that was not owned by the Chartering Organization was already more common than the generalities in the Disclosure suggest, and of course a lot of packs and troops conducted outings at national and state parks, sometimes with the help of private outfitters, or camped on private property at the invitation of the owners ("old Mr. Bob has some rural property where his buddies go deer hunting, he says the Troop can camp there any time except deer season so that's what we do a couple times a year"), or even went "glamping" at private tourist attractions.

Hence the requirements in YPT (and similar training I had to go through for my church) that adults take an initial youth report of anything that sounds like abuse at face value, and personally report it to the authorities; and report anything that looks like deliberate or careless noncompliance with the rules internally within the organization. But there's a difference between taking a child's report at face value for the purposes of starting an investigation and taking immediate steps to make sure the child is safe on the one hand, and being completely credulous about a story that has lain dormant for more than half the lifetime of an aged adult on the other. I wonder about some of claimants in this case, not just the thousands who submitted claim-forms with basic details missing (or on whose behalf certain attorneys submitted such forms), but even some of the parties who have written letters to the Judge. Here's how one recent letter, from "T.K.", [D.I.5749], begins... https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/b96e52f4-034b-4b34-9423-62ff75855b3c_5749.pdf "Your honor, "This, my second letter to you is to clarify any misunderstandings as per my first letter to you." (There are other letters from "T.K." on the docket, but they don't match this writer's handwriting or the details in this letter, so perhaps his other letter was lost in the mail, or misaddressed, or perhaps it was filed as his claim.) "I've written other similar letters before, except for the 'scouts' part. When events and circumstances repeat themselves enough times, that I'm essentially 'tipped-off' that my current letter for help was not successful, by also the behavior of enemies. [...]" "I thought it a necessary gesture to tell my sister about the BSA litigation and my attorney [redacted], so I am confident about my assumption of my sister contacting you, the BSA, my attorney, etc. to cause harm. | So if they did communicate with you, they lied." The writer goes on to say, as far as I can tell, that he worked/volunteered as an undercover drug informant while still in High School, in the mid-70's. The sister of one dealer was killed as retribution for various dealers being caught in a sting. The writer then says "... her brother threatened me with a gun, threatening to rape my little sister." He told his Scoutmaster and his sister (assuming he only has one sister, that would be the same sister who was threatened, and who now might be contacting the BSA to contradict his story) about the threat, and "one or both put the badmouth on me right away." That's the only mention of his Scoutmaster in the entire 15-page letter. He does claim that reports that he is a registered sex offender, performed a drive-by shooting, pushed dope while in the Army, committed burglaries, and took "psycho-meds" are all untrue, and that the NCIC record is for "someone with my same name". I've seen other letters that have more details about the actual abuse (or appear to have them, hidden by redactions), followed by allegations that the writer took drugs, got drunk, was abusive to spouse and children, committed other crimes, etc., all in reaction to the abuse. That all makes sense as plausible consequences, but the older the claimant is, the more time has elapsed during which he didn't tell anyone, the less external evidence he has that he even was in Scouts at all, and the more serious his intermediate drug-use, commitment or incarceration has been, the harder it will probably be to convince a jury that any particular person or organization is responsible for his current challenges. In other words, someone who submitted a claim-form or wrote a letter may sincerely believe that certain people did certain things to him in 1965 or 1975, but if he later took LSD or some other drug, did the "bad trip" alter his memory? Perhaps he really was abused, but by a different person, and the drugs altered his memory of who abused him or where it happened? Perhaps he had a consensual sexual experience as a young adult (or while above the age of consent under state law or actual community custom at the time), and the drugs caused him to misremember his age and the fact of the consent? Or perhaps the drugs caused him to remember a report he saw on TV once as something that happened to him? Or if he was in solitary confinement in prison, could that have had a similar mind-altering effect? At the hearing where she said she would go forward with the Rule 2009 motion, the Judge asked the attorneys to also brief her about the "thousands" of letters she had received. Actually, it's not quite that many. Each letter received goes on the docket twice, once as "SEALED", not viewable by the public, and once as "REDACTED". As of August 4th, there were only 1,150 such "REDACTED" letters on the docket. And one of the attorneys who spoke at the most-recent hearing said that only about half of the letters appear to be from claimants connected with AIS.

There are a couple of things going on here: When the insurance companies first tried to serve Kosnoff, they tried to serve him at his Texas office address (the one on his Washington registration) and at a marina in Puerto Rico where he was believed to keep his yacht. They did not accomplish personal service at either place, and in their report of the attempts they noted that he's not licensed to practice in either of those jurisdictions. Kosnoff's divorce papers require him to pay spousal support to his ex-wife as long as he continues to practice law. Before the end of 2019, he sent her a letter saying he was retiring, and he has not paid any spousal support for 2020 or 2021. Yet, here he is on Twitter offering opinions about the case, and being interviewed for infomercials, and having a financial stake in a law firm, and even being counsel of record for thousands of claimants. At the last hearing, the Judge asked "Who speaks for AIS?" and "So when AIS ... sent out advertisements, what were they saying? Join something that's leaderless?" After Mr. Wilks' answer, in which he described AIS as "a movement", she said, "Movements have leaders" and "AIS has, in fact, put itself before this court, and I need to know who they are." Somewhere in there she also said that real attorneys do not ask their clients to write directly to the Court.

So I saw a story in my feed about a (non-Scout) summer camp in New Hampshire that ended its season near the end of the first week... The ‘Fyre Fest’ of overnight camps closed after 6 days https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/07/22/metro/fyre-fest-overnight-camps-closes-after-6-days/?utm_source=pocket-newtab Maybe it's just a badly-run private camp, but my own son's Council-run Scout Camp could have had to shut down like that mid-season this summer (although the price for two weeks at the camp in the story is ten times the cost of a week at the Council camp). Barely a couple weeks before camp, Council sent out e-mail looking for staffers... a list of 15 or 20 positions across four camps, still unfilled. My son's troop showed up, and there was still no head cook. My sons' scoutmaster volunteered to fill that role unpaid, and took an extended vacation from his day-job to stay on a few more weeks. Scouts taking the Leatherwork merit badge had to share kits among multiple youth; likewise scouts taking Space Exploration had to share rockets. Are Scout camps elsewhere having trouble with food deliveries, illness, poorly trained staff, or simple understaffing this summer? If so, is there a common root cause: COVID, the bankruptcy, both together, something else?

So Thursday July 22nd was the deadline to object to the Restructuring Support Agreement as such (rather than to the Plan and Disclosure more generally). Several parties did so, including the estate of a deceased Non-Abuse Litigation claimant [D.I.5711], the Catholic and Methodist Ad-Hoc Committees jointly [D.I.5676], the LDS Church [D.I.5674] joined by the Episcopal Church [D.I.5677], and about 250 abuse claimants represented by about a half-dozen firms [D.I.5682, plus a few joinders]. However, the biggest objections are from Century. Redacted versions appeared on the docket on Friday. CENTURY’S OBJECTIONS TO THE DEBTORS’ MOTION FOR ENTRY OF AN ORDER, PURSUANT TO SECTIONS 363(b) AND 105(a) OF THE BANKRUPTCY CODE, (I) AUTHORIZING THE DEBTORS TO ENTER INTO AND PERFORM UNDER THE RESTRUCTURING SUPPORT AGREEMENT AND (II) GRANTING RELATED RELIEF [D.I.5723, https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/9ce30206-3b08-48c0-9909-76c18b9134b2_5723.pdf ] CENTURY’S OBJECTION TO THE PAYMENT OF THE COALITION’S LAWYERS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE DEBTORS’ MOTION FOR ENTRY OF AN ORDER, PURSUANT TO SECTIONS 363(b) AND 105(a) OF THE BANKRUPTCY CODE, (I) AUTHORIZING THE DEBTORS TO ENTER INTO AND PERFORM UNDER THE RESTRUCTURING SUPPORT AGREEMENT, AND (II) GRANTING RELATED RELIEF [D.I.5724, https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/ae84e517-2cbe-44a1-8924-934c843388c5_5724.pdf ] The first motion points out several problems with the RSA and/or the process that produced it, such as: "The RSA Fails to Obtain the Core Relief Expected in a Restructuring Support Agreement: Support for a Plan": Not one actual claimant has signed the RSA. "The RSA Requires the Debtors to Pursue a Plan that is Likely Not Confirmable Because it is Affirmatively “Insurance Prejudicial” Rather Than Insurance Neutral" The RSA "cedes complete control of the case" to the Abuse Claimant Representatives. "Given these facts, granting the Motion would only serve to further distance the Debtors from their other constituencies—to the detriment of all parties." The second motion specifically attacks the $10.5 million one-time payment and ongoing $950,000 fee to Brown Rudnick. The payments are subject to the "Substantial Contribution" standard. But ... "A self-serving declaration cannot satisfy the burden to prove a substantial contribution to the estate." The Coalition can't meet that standard in any case, because of its nature. (Quoting Kosnoff's email about "we control 80% of the case", etc., again.) "Mere Participation in Settlement Does Not Constitute[] a Substantial Contribution." "Any Services that the Coalition Claim to Render that Are not Intended to Advance their Own Interests are Duplicative of the TCC. And the RSA also poses an "irreconcilable conflict" for State Court council

An attorney representing three abuse plaintiffs in three separate cases in the State of New York has filed a motion to allow the stay to be lifted, only for the purpose of adding a Chartered Organization to each case before the Statute of Limitations window closes again. https://casedocs.omniagentsolutions.com/cmsvol2/pub_47373/f8deaeb1-fb2c-4f3d-9e67-434ca96e5d0b_5582.pdf Case 806601/2020 in Erie County. Against the Greater Niagara Frontier Council and alleged abuser Robert L Eberhardt. Adding Rescue Volunteer Hose Company No 1 of Cheektowaga, NY. Victim born about 1968, abuse from 1977-1981 (Cub Scout program). Case 807731/2020 in Erie County. Against the Greater Niagara Frontier Council; the alleged abuser, John J Gruber, is deceased. Adding St Paul's RCC Church Society of Kenmore. Victim born about 1964, abuse from 1974-1975 (Boy Scout program). Case E173403/2020 in Niagara county. Against the Longhouse council and Peter A Byrne. Adding St Margaret's Church d/b/a Holy Name Society. Victim born about 1954, abuse in 1966 (Boy Scout program). None of the alleged-abuser names in these three cases appear in the public portion of the IV files. I did find a news article (WKBW Buffalo, August 2019) quoting a different plaintiff who also alleged abuse by Robert Eberhardt. Neither of the living alleged abusers appears on the New York sex offender registry. I don't know whether any of the plaintiffs are abuse claimants in the bankruptcy case, but they probably are, since they filed their cases in July and October, 2020. However, BSA itself is actually not a defendant (yet) in any of these three cases; in each one, only the local council is named. 807731_2020_Brian_D_Driscoll_v_Brian_D_Driscoll_SUMMONS___COMPLAINT_1.pdf 806601_2020_John_C_Bobeck_v_John_C_Bobeck_SUMMONS___COMPLAINT_1.pdf E173403_2020_Robert_A_Rein_v_Robert_A_Rein_SUMMONS___COMPLAINT_1.pdf