Youth Protection Policy Does Not Prohibit Retaliation

[CommishJulian]

Maybe this thread has gotten off topic and I feel I'm partially to blame.  Retaliation is a very important topic and may need to be expanded on even more if visitors have their own questions or experiences to share. However, here's some feelings to some earlier comments

1. Thank you for the kind words. -Those never get old when you're a volunteer.
2. Pay-To-Rule (where wealthy Type A, or Karens, or their employers, make donations to a council and buy top leadership positions) sucks.  Royally.
3. I've always invited the District and Council to join my events and advertise camps or sell some services.  They've ALWAYS declined.
4. I've had my Woodbadge cert & Basic UC training (and other training they had control of) withheld by District and Council folks so I got dinged for not being "trained".
5. I've had my teeth kicked in 3 times by District volunteers backed by Council employees: slander followed by official people voicing concerned that I'm involved in scouting. (My heart's been broken maybe a dozen times as well)
6. The three slanderings ended when my attorney got involved and drafted a response.   All their stories evaporated, instantly.  "We never said that."  

The biggest problem came when I took Commissioner Bachelor of Science continuing ed in another Council, and figured out that a prominent District level volunteer had circumvented BSA membership validation safeguards.  After finding evidence, and bringing it to the Council President and Council Commissioner, I lost my Packs, and the violator got promoted to District Chairman.   

My Council is like an iceberg, floating in the middle of the ocean.  While the angry eskimo chiefs fight for supremacy, the lowly villagers fall off the shrinking ice, and drown, one by one.   -All I've done here is invest in boats.  BUT! I can't save any units because I'm the bad guy.   
     The nut I'm trying to crack here is how to be relevant when the local BSA authority has deemed you to not be legitimate.  I haven't broken a single BSA guideline, while those who keep screwing with me all have violated BSA guidelines, and I've got documentation.  But THEY have silver beavers, and I'm just a lowly cub scout zealot without any packs.  (I do help parents all the time, I just have to keep a low profile when I do it. I feel like I'm in East Germany.)

OH!  and what kills me is the "promise" new employees from National make when they first arrive, saying they'll clean up the place.  They're so full of it crap they smell funny.  Within 6 months, they're doing exact stupid stuff the doofus they've replaced did before them.  Nothing changes, only membership has shrunk even more and another camp's been sold.  There is a way to brake the cycle, I just haven't figured it out yet.  Any help here would be appreciated.

Edited July 30, 2020 by CommishJulian
a zillion grammar errors. Not enough coffee this AM

[CommishJulian]

On 7/29/2020 at 8:21 AM, MattR said:

So a 92" band saw could easily cut a full sized car.

I like to give my cubs the chance to make any sized PWD car they want.  You're only 7 once my friend.

 

*it's actually the length of the blade, so maybe an 8" depth. -but don't tell the kids that 😉

[David CO]

1 hour ago, CommishJulian said:

I can't save any units because I'm the bad guy.       

Nobody at council saves any units.  They kill some units, but they never save any.  If you're interested in saving a unit, be a unit scouter and try to do some good.

 

1 hour ago, CommishJulian said:

My Council is like an iceberg, floating in the middle of the ocean. 

Let it melt.  The Chartered Organizations and the unit scouters will get together to rebuild scouting after the councils are gone.  Good riddance to them.

 

Edited July 30, 2020 by David CO

[CommishJulian]

1 minute ago, David CO said:

Let it melt.  The Chartered Organizations and the unit scouters will rebuild scouting after the councils are gone.  Good riddance to them.

That's so harsh, but there's so much truth to it.  I'm sad a hell, but I have to agree with you David CO.

-I'm kinda positioning myself to be in that space when the walls come tumbling down.  Now that I'm thinking about it, it would be the same about of work as I'm doing now, just without the lies and slander.  And the stress.  And the kids would have as good of a time because they don't know or care about any district/council structure.

[David CO]

3 minutes ago, CommishJulian said:

And the kids would have as good of a time because they don't know or care about any district/council structure.

Oh, how I pine for those innocent days of youth... blissfully ignorant of the district/council structure.  [Sigh] 

 

[MattR]

2 hours ago, CommishJulian said:

I like to give my cubs the chance to make any sized PWD car they want.  You're only 7 once my friend.

 

*it's actually the length of the blade, so maybe an 8" depth. -but don't tell the kids that 😉

That's still a nice saw. I just don't have room. 

I had a guy with a portable mill saw some logs up for me. That was a huge bandsaw. I was like a 7 year old watching this thing. Gas powered. He could have easily done 25" diameter logs. Mine were small at 14". He changed the blade (this was black locust)  and, just a guess but it was 4 loops around 2 feet in diameter, so 12ish feet. But only 1 tooth per inch. It took about 10 minutes to slice an 8' log into 5/4 boards. Part of the reason I'm out of room is I have some of that wood stacked in my garage.

[PARENTinSCOUT]

So much forlorn and losses being shared, but the truth shall set you free!

I find BSA a microcosm of our real society, so people including many esteemed leaders will fall into groupthink mode and then fight tooth and nail for a tiny perch on the organization's hierarchy.

I fought hard to protect the scout's spirit of my kids and others and too was alienated for pointing out the wrongs. Whistleblowers don't win even when I successfully showed that the charter was really and truly corrupt and in trouble with the state's attorney general office. I believe I saved a bunch of kids from bad things by pointing out the problems.

I was going to open a change.org petition to change BSA policy to add nonretaliation policy to YPP and empower the parents and youth to speak out. 

BSA's resistance is about keeping power and leverage to themselves and nothing else. Then the bankrupcy came along.

I decided I didn't care enough about the BSA to go through with the petition. Why take away a candy from an adult who's already starved to death?

But to me I am always a scout. I was a cub scout in Vietnam before the country fell to the communists and banned scouting. 

I try to be good scout everyday. I never wore the uniform again ever since I took it off in Vietnam. But uniforms don't make a scout. I am happy with the thought that lord Baden would be happy with my efforts so I don't need anyone else's approval. 

I am a scouter not a BSA'er!