Scouting audit indicates rolls vastly inflated; top exec quits

[t158sm]

Since this is my council, I'll follow Fred's example and let everyone else have the discussion.

 

http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1149326370170920.xml&coll=2

 

Scouting audit indicates rolls vastly inflated; top exec quits

13,000 phantom members identified

Saturday, June 03, 2006

KELLI HEWETT TAYLOR

News staff writer

 

Membership in the Greater Alabama Council of the Boy Scouts of America was inflated by more than 13,000 youths over three years, according to details from an audit made public Friday.

 

The departure of the council's top paid executive, Ronnie Holmes, also was announced Friday. Efforts to reach Holmes were unsuccessful.

 

John Hayden, the 2006 board chairman of the Greater Alabama Council, would not discuss details of Holmes' departure.

 

The council, which serves much of central and north Alabama, said nearly all the questionable memberships were linked to a program that is supposed to serve inner-city youth. The council's executive committee approved the audit Thursday night.

 

Hayden said the audit was given to both the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI. Efforts Friday to reach FBI agents in Birmingham who are conducting a separate membership investigation were unsuccessful.

 

That probe began in December 2004 amid allegations that high-ranking Scout officials were padding enrollment numbers to boost government and grant funding.

 

The Scouting organization's highlights of the audit showed most problems were with inner-city membership forms, involving incorrect birth dates and lack of addresses or parental signatures.

 

"Our report did not find any cause for criminal misconduct," Hayden said.

 

A Scouting news release also says the report, covering the years 2002 to 2005, shows the Scouts had accurately adjusted their membership rolls to 21,000 by December 2005.

 

"We have to continue a lot of internal investigations, but we are already setting up systematic, periodic spot-checks to look for things that may be a little unusual," said Hayden. "We are just happy we can find a way to deal with the issue."

 

Hayden said the report was not sufficiently detailed to determine whether entire "ghost units" had been fabricated, but said the council will continue investigating.

 

The audit of the membership forms was conducted by Summerford accounting firm in Birmingham. Findings show:

 

In December 2002, 5,619 Scouts, 13 percent, were not verified.

 

In December 2003, 4,265 Scouts, 11 percent, were not verified.

 

In December 2004, 3,518 Scouts, 11 percent, were not verified.

 

Hayden, of Huntsville, serves in a volunteer position for the Greater Alabama Council, which serves 22 counties, including Jefferson and Shelby. The 2006 executive members and other representatives met Thursday night and are instituting the new procedures to build public confidence. Along with the spot-checks, the procedures include stricter monitoring of enrollment forms.

[BadenP]

As sad as this story is all I can say that there is nothing new here. Ghost or paper units have been a standard practice among professional scouting for many years now. This was especially true when United Way was providing as much as 25% of some councils income based on an increase in membership and specialized inner city programs.

 

I experienced this first hand as a DE when I refused to set up a ghost unit in my district telling my SE that my professional reputation and the trust that I had built up for four years with my volunteer leaders were more important to me than creating a phony inner city program. That was when I decided I had finally had enough of the dishonesty going on with this new SE so I said goodbye to professional scouting forever. Three years later that council was absorbed into a larger council, and that SE resigned.

 

I am much happier now working with a troop and crew helping these young men and women grow into responsible and honest adults. I feel sorry for all those scouts and scouters in Alabama having to see their council dragged through the mud after learning how important it is to follow the Scout Law and Venturing Code. This has become a real ethical dilema that the BSA had better deal with quickly and justly or face losing all their credibility and support with the public.

[WAKWIB]

If I am reading this article correctly, it's the council chairman who is the one having to answer for this to the press. A volunteer, who I am sure has many things to do beside damage control for the professional money-grubbers. Where's a statement from the National Council-most likely too busy cooking up other schemes to seperate good people from their money. And when the next scandal comes to light it will be us volunteers who will have to pick up the pieces and provide the program that our youth desperately need.

[scoutldr]

The way it's supposed to work is the paid Scout Executive serves at the pleasure of the Executive Board, a group of volunteers led by the Council President. Too often, however, the Board is hand picked by the SE and they don't pay any attention to what the SE and his corps of paid professionals are doing or how they are achieving the numbers...nor do they have the backbone to stand up to him and tell him how they want things run.

 

In a non-profit corporation, it is indeed the Executive Board (volunteers) who have the fiduciary responsibility and should be answering. They allowed it to happen.(This message has been edited by scoutldr)

[SSScout]

Very sad.

When the purpose of the organization (say, what is our purpose, anyway? Another thread there...) is forgotten in favor of the personal resume (look how many Scouts/Units I have led to join/ be formed) or the income (is there a bonus/bounty for showing increases?) or the BoD never leave the board room to visit the "front lines" to verify the SE reports, well Bad Things Happen.

Now, is Irvings purpose the same as the Councils purpose the same as the Districts purpose the same as the Troop/Packs purpose the same as ...?

Or are only the methods of the N, C, D, T/P in fulfilling that purpose different?

 

YiS

[Eamonn]

I have heard that some members from the National Office are visiting Councils to do spot checks on membership.

I don't know if this is true or not?

Sometime back I also heard that Boy's Life was being used to see if any cheating was going on?

The idea being that no one would spend the extra money paying for a subscription for pretend members.

While I'm sure that we all agree that this sort of thing is both very sad and just plain wrong.

I really don't think that anyone in the National Office is in any way responsible. I think it is the work of a few people who really need to take a long hard look at their values.

For ten years I as a member of a key 3 really worked my tail off trying to make sure that our District was a Quality District.

We (Me) were not happy when we didn't make it. We felt like we had in some way let the side down, but we picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves down and started working on the next year. Sadly the bar was lowered the next year.

Worse still is today when I look at the small Troops, I'm reminded of the year we failed to meet the Cub Scout goal by 125 Cub Scouts.

125 Lad's that are not in Boy Scouts today.

I have to admit that I'm having a lot more fun today.

I really don't worry about membership. The Ship is doing well and I can worry about the important stuff.

Kids and Program.

I'm happy to see any youth who wants to join the Ship.

I'm happy to work hard helping them come up with things they enjoy doing.

I'm happy that we are becoming known and respected in our community.

I'm happy that in a lot of ways we are doing what we can to help the BSA with meeting the Vision and Mission.

You might say that I'm one happy little camper.

Eamonn.

[jkhny]

Ronnie Holmes - the SE in Greater Alabama - was allowed to RETIRE and collect his pension and benefits. He was making over $240,00 a year in an area with a median income under $40,000. This was the SECOND time he'd been involved in an enrolment scandal int he last five years. He was part of the Circle Ten scandal in Dallas in 2000.

 

Mr. Holmes attempted to blame the ACLU for missing units and tried to explain away all the "John Does" with addresses at Council offices (BSA National even tried to support this lie).

 

Lie, break the law and get a nice retirement package. His pension will be more than most volunteers earn. BSA is better than ENRON or Worldcom. This has been going on for 25 years and is only gettng worse. The paid staff find it easier to fake results than accomplish something real. Nobody ever getws punished.

 

If BSA FIRED paid staff for this it would stop. PERIOD. Why WON'T BSA do so?

 

When will BSA act ethically and morally and hold paid professionals accountable for ILLEGAL behavior? When false inflated numbers are used to solicit funds, this is fraud and IS illegal.

 

BSA goes to great lengths to excuse clearly horrid behavior on the part of their professional staff. WHY?

 

WHY wasn't Holmes FIRED? Why won't BSA answer that question?

 

And before this scandal broke Holmes had been bragging that he was going to be the next Chief Scout Executive - which says something about the state of BSA National. Holmes had gotten off scot free in Dallas - he'd bragged there "They won't find anything" - though numbers there had to be restated lower by a quarter or more.

 

Meanwhile, Tom Willis, the volunteer in charge of training who broke the story has had his membership in Scouting revoked and is paying to fight this in court. Wondering why so many unit did not have trained leaders, he was told to "forget it." When he persisted, he was threatened. BSA did NOT want this story to come out.

 

As in Dallas, an "investigation" has reluctantly admitted some wrongdoing - while still ignoring problem areas. Greater Alabama Council STILL has more boys in Learning for LIfe than they have in Scouting. THAT is a clear red flag according to honest BSA professionals. A SE "buys" numbers in LFL with charitable donations and other funds to boost counts. SO..... another Dallas..... numbers will keep getting adjusted downward - after nobody is looking. And it will happen again somewhere else.

 

Volunteers here challenged enrollment numbers. The investigation promised by a local volunteer (who promised no whitewash and public results) never happened. BSA itself "investigated." Their CONFIDENTIAL findings stated that "there was no eveidence procedures were not being followed." They thought it "appropriate" to "limit the scole of their investigation" despite specific and detailed challenges to enrollment numbers. With this kind of "investigation" is it any wonder that volunteers feel compelled to go to outside authorities?

 

There is widespread faking of numbers in BSA - the rule - according to a professional - is "don't get caught." And BSA will make determined efforts to cover a professional's tail when he is challenged.

 

And the mission of BSA is to teach youth to make ethical and moral decisions? Does this organization even KNOW what's ethical and moral anymore?

[Bobanon]

"There is widespread faking of numbers in BSA - the rule - according to a professional - is "don't get caught." And BSA will make determined efforts to cover a professional's tail when he is challenged."

 

So much for TRUSTWORTHY.

 

[SaintCad]

"Meanwhile, Tom Willis, the volunteer in charge of training who broke the story has had his membership in Scouting revoked and is paying to fight this in court. Wondering why so many unit did not have trained leaders, he was told to "forget it." When he persisted, he was threatened. BSA did NOT want this story to come out."

 

So now there are 3 thing that will get you throwned out of Scouting:

1) Being an atheist

2) Being a homosexual

3) Being a whistleblower

 

[BrentAllen]

In the interest of full disclosure:

 

"Tom Willis, a Decatur dentist and Scout volunteer who went public with accusations of inflated membership last year and claims the council retaliated by making up sexual harassment charges against him and then kicking him out of scouting, said he doesn't feel vindicated by the audit.

 

"I'm sad that it had to come to this," he said, noting he originally wanted to meet with council staffers to figure out why the membership numbers didn't add up and then correct them without going public.

 

He also doesn't believe the audit findings will help his appeal to the national office for reinstatement into scouting, for which he had volunteered 25 years."

 

 

[jkhny]

The "official" charges against Willis are old and predate his appointment to the local Board. Apparently it didn't matter enough to keep his Council from making him the head of training - which is how he stumbled across the enrollment problems. And Willis tried REPEATEDLY to get BSA to deal with this problem - they refused to do so and threatened him instead. He finally went to local police who were scared to death of this "hot potato." But then with local law emforcement officials on the local Council Board (who have squashed publicity in the past on such issues), in this case they recused themselves for possible conflict of interest and turned this over to the FBI. It's still not over. Nobody's looked at Learning for Life numbers.

 

And as far as:

 

"So now there are 3 thing that will get you throwned out of Scouting:

1) Being an atheist

2) Being a homosexual

3) Being a whistleblower "

 

3) covers a lot of ground - more than just the traditional "whistleblower" definition though the intent is the same - to silence someone.

 

Hence -

 

In NEGA, an Eagle Scout and mother were removed after complaining about a DE who was buying beer for underage Scout camp counselors. Only after the arrest of the DUI (a "good Baptist who would never buy alcohol) for DUI and the involvement of the SE in some serious financial problems were their memberships reinstated. And this happened only through the concerted efforts of volunteers there who put unrelenting pressure on that Council's leadership.

 

In NY, a 17 year Scoutmaster was thrown out for signing a letter (with over 20 others) asking if it was "ethical" for his small Council (2000 or so scouts) to spend $500,000 on unneeded new Council offices. This Council seems to exist only as a sinecure for the SE there. His church and COR for his Troop are defying Council leadership who is not trying to pretend this is all invisible.

 

In CA a then 15 year old girl in Venturing and her mother were removed for complaining about blatant and graphic sexual harassment from a 21 year old camp counselor. This is a felony in CA. The SE removed the VICTIM and threatened the mother, telling her to be quiet and not talk about it. The SE claimed to have removed the perpetrator and reported him to state authorities but that seems to be a lie. He was up for a promotion and didn't want another scandal. His Camp Director was arrested by the FBI the summer before. And this SE is a retired cop!?!

 

One of the volunteers in Chicago had his mrembership revoked for his involvement in the suit there against Council leaders. They refuse to step down after being voted out repeatedly. They're violating Council Bylaws and keep appealing decisions against them. How ridiculous. Seriously, they simply won't leave....... the whole Council is in revolt and calling for their heade, voted them out more than once but they're saying "tough luck."

 

Of course "Red Dog" Maynard in SW Florida got thrown out after fighting to rezone a camp donated to BSA so it couldn't be sold. A few thousand screaming volunteers, national media coverage and a threat to sue each and every local Board member personally reversed his removal.

 

Here in WPC, a volunteer has our SE and BSA in court. They refused to tell him why his membership was revoked at the time (two years ago).

 

Our Council had volunteers screaming for the removal of the SE at the time - a call for boycotting FOS and even one calling for COR's to oust council leadership. Over a hundred showed up at a Board member to protest the firing of a long time staffer. This SE managed to infuriate pretty much everyone here. Our SE threatened a number of unit Scouters at the time with ouster. He'd already replaced a good number of Scouters in District and Council spots (an awful lot of the new appointments seem to be paper appointments, never seen by anyone).

 

Court papers show the reasons cited for this volunteer's removal are false. A DE actually suggested to a few politically toady types that it would be nice if they filed a police complaint so Council could remove this guy. The cops thought so little of it that they closed it without ever contacting the volunteer. "No reason to." This is why his membership was revoked? This looks like a total set-up AND it's obvious the SE didn't follow BSA procedures. But it worked. Volunteers shut up - worried about getting thrown out. A couple hundred simply quit. Others stopped doing anything for Council. But nobody was publicly complaining anymore. But Scouting numbers are still down along with Council finances. Shutting people up doesn't fix real problems.

 

If this volunteer didn't go to court, nobody would be any wiser about what happened - but it took TWO years and lots of $$$$$$

 

BSA's lawyers are REAL weaselly in all of this and desperate to say SOMETHING. There's a lot of "should" doesn't mean "has to" and other word games but they're real careful in NOT trying to claim that any of the reasons used against this volunteer are actually true. Clearly BSA has no sense of embarassment anymore. No sense of right and wrong either.

 

The NY Post had coverage of a suit where BSA was tryig to claim in legal briefs that the then 14 year old victim of abuse was "consenting" and asked for it. Sometimes you just need to say "We were WRONG."

 

 

So...... if a volunteer proves to be an embarassment to his SE, not that HE has done anything wrong, he can get removed.

 

 

But if you'e an executive in BSA, you don't have to worry - as long as you're not gay or an athiest. It seems like anything else goes...... at worst, you have to retire.

 

Scouters should be screaming over all this. I'll bet 95% of those in Scouting don't earn what Holmes will get as a pension.

 

 

[Hunt]

Even if there are lots of terrible things going on in the upper echelons of scouting, I have to say that I think I get very good value for the money I pay for my son's registration, even when you add in the modest amount I give to FOS. I'm not trying to defend any of the actions complained about, but the organization is so big that I'm not convinced that shenanigans in a subset of councils is enough to tar the whole organization.

[SSScout]

Thank you jkhny.I aapreciate your efforts. I would recommend the movie "Z" to anyone reading this thread. YiS

[Beavah]

Yah, Hunt, I hear you. I am and will continue to be a strong supporter of da Scouting Movement, and of the work of the many good men women, and youth who run our Scouting programs.

 

But despite his somewhat incoherent rant, jhkny is right to say that questions of fraud and dishonorable behavior have moved beyond a small subset of BSA Councils. They're happenin' all over the country, eh? And usually only a fraction of the cheaters get caught. That suggests a systemic problem, in this case, a problem of corporate oversight.

 

It would be a good thing if the COR's in the forums all showed up this year at their annual meetings and asked for outside audits of membership roles, and annual reports that comply with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles which show clearly where donation and fundraising dollars were spent. And a fix of the local bylaws to prevent things like da Chicago mess.

 

 

[jkhny]

"It would be a good thing if the COR's in the forums all showed up this year at their annual meetings and asked for outside audits of membership roles, and annual reports that comply with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles which show clearly where donation and fundraising dollars were spent. And a fix of the local bylaws to prevent things like da Chicago mess. "

 

BSA is a "representative" democracy BECAUSE COR's DON'T pay attention to what's going on in Scouting. Most don't really want to be involved and simply sign the paperwork once a year. Only the LDS and a few conservative religious groups have used their collective clout - and not necessarily in a good way.

 

 

BSA could VOLUNTARILY call for regular independent outside audits of membership numbers. Instead they adamently REFUSE to do this though the calls for this have been regular and loud.

 

BSA could FIRE paid staff that violate BSA rules and break the law. THey REFUSE to do so and work quite hard to keep misdeeds under wraps.

 

BSA can show the character they claim to represent or continue hypocritically hiding behind "values" whenever caught in wrongdoing.

 

People aren't attacking your "values" by expecting you to show some ethics and morals.

 

Let's be real. The system is rigged in favor of the Execs running things. They're well paid, have great benefits, have almost NO accountability unless they are really blatant in faking things....why on earth would THEY want to change things? OF COURSE they hand-picl Executive Boards and do as they want. They do it BECAUSE they can do it. Most are decent guys and do not abuse their authority but even the "good guys" see the larger problems and abuses but know better than to speak out.