Prime00

So what happened with this? He straighten up?

I have heard from inside sources, that 2 large factors in Scout Executive pay are fundraising results and size of staff they manage. This creates a perfect self-fulfilling prophecy. You have to hire more people to fundraise the money that you want. Then when you fundraise enough, you can hire even more people. Then those people can go fundraise even more which repeats the cycle. Unfortunately, this cycle will break down, it is just a question which link breaks first.

Our Council got pretty tight about that stuff. They tried to hang some of our adults out to dry for having a multiple unit campout, (just like we had been having for YEARS) without the Council permission. They went right down the YPT route and accused leaders of violating YPT policies for something that NONE of us knew existed. They even used it as part of the grounds for why they revoked a member's registration. No incidents happened, they just wanted to prove a point that they could do that. Then they started getting pushback from others and they started doing "awareness" in the Council to make sure people knew about it. How convenient they left out the fact they used that as grounds to dismiss a member.

The bad thing is that in some areas the paid scouters are running out the volunteers because they question what is going on. By the time they get to the 50+ years old with their kids out of the unit level stuff, they have seen enough of the districts and councils to ask "why do we do this like this?" Many times it's not a slam, just an honest question. The paid scouters get mad and see it as rebellion then they start over reacting to things.

Their public image isn't near what it used to be since the big lawsuits. One would think their public facing employees are better trained to avoid negative publicity when possible. Human nature and egos sometimes get in the way it seems. It comes down to when do enough of the volunteers finally get off the sidelines and dig in their heels? We lost something in our country over the last few decades. The amount of people willing to say something when things go off the rails is rapidly dwindling. The entire movement is built upon the foundation that our morals and values are the guiding principles. Somewhere that got lost in the day to day fight to survive. Its happening everywhere in our society unfortunately.

If the people in power are bold enough to pull these stunts with someone that can defend themselves, imagine what else they have done. Scouts always taught me that we are supposed to stick up for other people when they need it. It is unfortunate that the organization struggles with walking the walk that they so heavily promote.

Well things went bad last year. The Scoutmaster had been making reports to Council that we were "parasites to the troop" and got the SE to revoke the membership of the Crew Advisor (as well as the Scoutmaster due to other issues) and expire the charter on the Crew on the same day. This came after the same Scoutmaster blew up on the kids at a meeting after a joint event and the Crew Advisor stepped in to defend the kids. The SE stated multiple times that the Crew was the issue the entire time and that he just took care of the problem. The Crew was finally re-instated after 4 months of lost summer program but it has been severely hobbled. The Advisor is still revoked but the Scoutmaster has been allowed to do some activities that the SE has made excuses for him to attend. Not a good deal at all.

So retaliation by SEs on volunteers for petty reasons is not something new? I am dealing with that now. Our SE has come after me, my 85 year old mother, my girlfriend and both of her kids. Right now he has both of them on an "investigative suspension" for the last 2 months. Claims that they bullied someone but can't find any proof in 2+ months. This is after he already put me out on indefinite suspension over lies that I am still fighting. Continues to slander and defame my character at every opportunity. The way he treated an 85 year old woman with hearing and comprehension difficulties was disgusting. The other people in the room when he did it were not impressed either. Yet no punishment or even investigation into his conduct is ever done.

Non profits in Illinois have already been legally forced to comply with FOIA requests. A 501c3 in the Chicago area fought this and lost the court case. Due to the case, articles and memos have been sent to 501c3s that we need to review these requests closely if we get them. I am the head of a 501c3 and I have personally been been made aware of this situation. I have been advised to comply if possible to save legal headaches. Other 501c3 groups around here have been getting the same advice recently. The kicker of this whole deal is if you do not comply and lose the case, your organization is responsible for the costs of both parties.

BSA takes money from the government. This is reflected on their 990 forms. Since they take taxpayer funding in the form of grants, they are subject to FOIA. FOIA guidelines may vary from State to State but I know this is the case in my state.

The transparency is definitely lacking in how things are handled. If things are done openly and fairly, generally speaking there is very little reason to conceal that type of information. It makes people wonder what else is going on that it needs to be hidden from everyone else. I am a member of a labor union. Unfortunately, our International has had its ethical challenges in the past and we are working to overcome those. It was a situation not completely unlike the Scouting organization here but the program is still worthwhile for people so its worth fighting for. Personally speaking, the concept of open meetings and transparent records is wonderful. We can attend any meeting (except personal and disciplinary type), review the minutes of meetings, view financial records, you name it. The potential for integrity and participation of everyone in open and fair dialog is a great thing. It does breed high quality leaders, which is one of the goals of our program overall.

Already checked the Council's 990 form. Bad thing is it doesn't have contact information which in the era of cell phones and all of that is getting difficult to acquire for people. Lots of little towns in the Council makes it difficult to look up things too. Makes me almost miss the good old days of landline phones and phone books. I don't think many of the CORs even attend those meetings or know much about what abilities they truly have. The heads of the Charter groups have a lot of power too and can put the brakes on a lot of things going on if they choose to as well.

Yeah our Council hides the contact information of all the board members and executive board and refused to disclose any meeting information about them. They used to have this information posted but now it is all a big secret that they refuse to disclose. So much for no secret organizations there I guess. Even when you do figure out some contact information, they are told not to respond at all. The Executive is basically running his own little fiefdom here and has bullied everyone around so he can maintain control. I have never seen anything like this in my life.

So I am willing to put a bounty out for anyone that can provide the updated version of the document "Maintaining Standards of Membership" We can find the 1972 version without too much trouble but there has to be an updated one out there somewhere. So anyone out there that has the document and is willing to send it to me, I am willing to pay them cash. I been seeing a lot of abuse happening in our local council from Council level employees on down and no one is willing to take a stand against what is wrong. National ignores pleas for help. The Council Executive just threatens to revoke charters and memberships left and right. After he does that, he puts the word out that no one is to speak to anyone and goes on to the next person that he wants to abuse. It never stops.

The Charter Representative was even kept in the dark on this whole deal. The Council Executive revoked the membership of the person and then informed the Charter Representative what he did. Gave vague details and then changed them later. The same Executive refuses to provide any details even to the person that was removed. Just vague, generalized charges with no specific information. The information he has provided does not even match up to the information provided to the Charter Representative and Charter Organization. Real sketchy deal all around.