Is the Congressional Charter important?

[eisely]

There are two separate but related questions:

 

1. Is the congressional charter necessary for success?

 

2. Is the congressional charter helpful for success.

 

I think that most people would agree that the answer to the second question is yes. The answer to the first question is a qualified no.

 

If BSA were to lose its congressional charter, I don't think there would be too much difficulty in creating a successor corporation chartered at the state level. Presumably such an organization could pick up most of the identifiable valuable intellectual property in the process. However, would all the existing councils which are themselves separate non profit corporations choose to affiliate with the new national organization and continue to function as in the past? Hard to say.

[BadenP]

eisley

 

Sorry to say you are dead wrong, the charter is not helpful other than as a piece of congressional endorsement that carries no legal weight behind it. If the National BSA was to somehow become localized the BSA we know would cease to exsist. However your scenario, as far fetched as it is, might be the best way to save the BSA from its own self destructive tendencies.

[ghjim]

As I stated in my earlier post, the Congressional Charter has great legal weight and is being used by the BSA to block the introduction of any competing organizations.