Prime00

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.

I strongly suspect there are many others that are innocent. The unfortunate thing is that it costs a tremendous amount of money to pursue any kind of lawsuit against anyone. Most people simply do not have the money. The scout program is completely uninterested in serving justice. They figure it is quicker to just throw out everyone and walk away. I know of another situation where the scout executive revoked membership of a person after a shoddy investigation. The same executive has said to multiple people that he has no evidence to support various claims but still revoked the membership of the person. Same executive committed some criminal activity to get the person out but continues to serve. Bad deal all around.

So how did this pan out?

It's a small town and he targets the dual registered kids. We are kind of stuck there.

Help! Our local scout units have difficulty working together and the kids are being caught in the middle. I have been running the local Venture Crew for 13 years now. Over the years we have had mixed relations with the local Boy Troop, wonderful relations with the local Girl Troop, and have actively started building more with the local Pack. Our Boy Troop Scoutmaster actively slanders our unit to the kids in the Troop at every opportunity, attempts to schedule events with us and then cancels them the week of and spreads false information about the event, other times he actively schedules troop events the same time as ours to force the kids to choose, harasses our youth members when they wear their green Venturing shirts to activities or meetings, withholds advancement from them for weeks to get the non-dual registered scouts through before they do, and various other things. How is this proper conduct for a scoutmaster and his assistants? The Charter Organization Representative for the Troop had the Crew's charter cancelled at the church we at in 2010 (which forced us to find a new charter group) so speaking to him is not really an option. Our Council has previously turned a blind eye to the conduct that this Troop and their Scoutmaster has shown to scouts and other units. What do we do?