Ojoman

Ever since this started it's been about the lawyers and their cut... this is creating millionaires and multimillionaires but not among the victims

A lot of law firms and lawyers eyes lit up 22 years ago when the BSA was forced to open their files. I remain convinced that the majority of lawyers just saw $ signs and rushed to get as many plaintiffs signed up as possible to get as big a slice of any settlement as they could with not that much regard for the victims. Call me a cynic but most victims would probably have been better served in individual actions. Just my opinion: https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2012/06/boy_scout_perversion_files_are.html

Too late for our council cub camp.... gone. Of course the silver lining will be all the new billable hours/expenses that the lawyers and law firms can charge.

A little humility and a little humor should always be appreciated. I've known many really good, even great attorneys and a couple that I'm pretty certain will find a particularly uncomfortably warm spot waiting for them in the next life. Thanks for your thoughts.

Be nice if they reduced the lawyers comp. I saw where of the 2.4 billion that 1 billion went to the lawyers. Should have gone to the survivors.

At that time that was probably as good as any other youth programs were or could do. Of course it is and will always be less than perfect.

Unfortunate turn, be nice if the same thing happens to the lawyers and law firms...

Sadly, I expect that this will drag on for several more years at the least. I wish all survivors receive just compensation but has been pointed out, there will be inequities. There are lawyers and firms that just saw $$$ signs and didn't care if claims were factual or directly related to BSA programs (while most are) but just wanted to sign up as many people as possible and increase their slice of the pie. Certainly the corporation BSA has to do what it can to limit the damage and try to remain viable. The program did and still does serve huge numbers of youth and adults. While the total number of cases remains a fraction of a percent of overall youth registered, even one incident in which a BSA official swept abuse under the rug is too much. We are hearing more and more about the exploitation of children and a week hardly passes that there is not some breaking story. Predators must be held to account. The BSA made serious errors in judgement and that has come home to roost, as it should have. It is shocking that of the roughly $2.4 billion that a billion goes to the lawyers and firms. These types of actions should be done to help the victims, not line the pockets of people trusted to represent them.

This is an interesting conundrum. I suspect it could be rectified if the troop associates with a Venture Crew and the 18-20 year old's transfer into the crew and then are still youth members????

Sadly, membership losses have been going on for half a century and mostly due to mismanagement. There are still strong units, perhaps even a few strong districts but they are rare. Here at the Longhouse Council in Syracuse the membership is down by at least 85 to 90% over the past 2 dozen years. The district that I ran back then had more membership and units in it than the entire council does today. We have a new SE and I hope he is up to the task but I don't know if the council and districts have the manpower (professional and volunteer) to do the job. (Frankly, I doubt it). Time will tell...

It would be helpful to see where those losses are in the program. Is there growth in cubbing? Are the losses still due to covid and a lack of older cubs to cross over? How is retention compared to the past and is recruiting down? The massive advertising campaign along with the documentary that aired last fall that made BSA look like a movement that does not care about the safety of their membership. There is still hope for a turn around if National gives good direction and support and if local councils really service the grass roots volunteers as they should. If.....

Sadly even the YMCA has had a spotty history with child abuse... It is incumbent on parents to see that their children are safe in any youth environment. I'm glad your group was well supervised and safe.

Some folks will always be resistant to change. That's their opinion and at the present time those folks can continue to run single gender programs. World Scouting has been co-ed for many decades and it has worked out well. The BSA is a Johnny come lately on that score. There have been hundreds of girls now that have earned Eagle or been elected into the OA and who have held leadership positions. I think that is GREAT! The folks in favor of this are many and that is a good thing.

There is no program that serves kids that does not have the potential to attract predators. That is a sad fact. Also, children are more at risk from family members and close relatives/neighbors/friends than most other individuals. Sadly, Scouting now has the stigma of what mostly happened 30 plus years ago. The past several decades have seen Scouting create barriers to abuse that make it extremely difficult for predatory people to get exclusive access to kids. I know of no program that has come so far and done so much. Sadly no program is 100% safe and a predator without any 'history' could slip through but if the training/guidelines are followed there would be no opportunity to abuse. Again, no system is foolproof. I would encourage you to check out the BSA Youth Protection training and the parent supplements in Cub Scouting that must be reviewed with their kids annually including on line videos and all of it is available to any parent in or out of the program to use to give their kids the tools they need to protect themselves. It is extremely well done. Youth protection is a major emphasis of BSA and will only continue to improve. I'd be interested to know your opinion of their efforts and what improvements you might feel need to be made as a survivor.

My mother was a den mother back in the day... scoutmaster, cubmaster and Webelo's leader positions and accompanying assistant positions were not available to her. Today women can and often do hold all of those roles and it is only fitting that girls can join into the program and enjoy the benefits of leadership, character and citizenship training/learning that takes place while they enjoy fun and adventure. No child ever joined to have their character developed... that just naturally happens (sort of sneaks up on them) while they are having fun being given the opportunities to learn, lead and teach. Pretty neat.