The Boy Scouts in Crisis - The Perfect Storm

[gpurlee]

This is the second in a planned series of three posts related to past and present crises in Boy Scouting. They reflect my observations as a long-time Scouter and Scouting historian.

A few years ago, I received unexpected telephone calls from a New York Times reporter and a CNN producer asking me to comment, from the perspective of a long-time volunteer Scouter in the heartland, about the controversies which were shaking the organization and had now burst out into the public arena.

 In reality, the storm clouds had been building on the horizon for several years. Almost two decades ago, a prominent national news magazine had featured the cover photo of a Boy Scout with the caption “The Battle for the Soul of the Boy Scouts”.  The largest youth movement in the nation had attempted to stay apolitical but rapid social change created a new and challenging environment for the organization.

  The national decision to allow openly gay boys and adults to be part of the movement came after agonizing years of heated debate that deeply divided the organization. Debates continued about whether to admit girls into the traditional Boy Scouting program at the pack and troop level. Coed membership had long been commonplace in many other international Scouting programs as well as our own Exploring and Venturing programs.  Change once again met resistance for  various reasons. In a series of actions, all programs were opened to female membership at the discretion of the chartered organization. In reaction to these decisions, some local chartering organizations chose to discontinue their long-standing relationship with the Boy Scouts. 

 Citing a variety of factors, the LDS church announced that it was withdrawing from participation in the BSA effective at the beginning of 2020. This ended a long relationship with the loss of an estimated 18% of the BSA membership nationally. However, the percentage of LDS linked members varied significantly from council to council with some western councils losing almost 90% of their membership overnight.

 The leading edge of the storm was clearly on the horizon as several states temporarily extended the stature of limitations in past abuse claims. The national BSA and the councils in those states faced an onslaught of abuse claims.  This set the stage for the filing of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy by the national organization in an effort to avoid financial collapse and to attempt to reach a fair reconciliation with victims.

 Yet, there was an element of this storm that no one anticipated. The advent of the coronavirus pandemic rapidly accelerated the growing crisis. It was like a hurricane entering a body of warm water and rapidly building to Category 5 magnitude.  Scouting units ceased to meet in many communities, council and national events were cancelled and much fund-raising ground to a halt in many places throughout the nation. The attorney for national BSA stated that cash flow was a major issue and the national operation might not have a sufficient cash flow to continue operations past the 2021 summer unless a settlement could be quickly reached.

 As of this writing, membership in 2021 seems poised to take a significant drop in many councils. Some Scouting professionals have stated that they are anticipating an estimated loss of 30% or more of the council membership at recharter time. The Cub Scouting program has been especially hard hit with estimates of an 80% membership loss in some areas. Scout troops apparently have been affected to a lesser degree as many of them were able to shift to virtual meetings.

 Many units have been unable to successfully conduct recruitment events during the pandemic. The deluge of non-stop negative media coverage and advertising related to abuse in Scouting have created a negative and scary image for prospective families. Scout troops will be adversely affected if cub packs have on-going major membership losses. In addition, it is unclear how potentially months of virtual Scouting and no in-person Scout activities due to pandemic restrictions will affect the retention of youth members.

The force of the storm upon the organization has been unrelenting. The statement of 90,000 plus abuse claims is stunning.  It far exceeds even the “worst case” estimates.  If it indeed proves accurate, it is a damning indictment of, at the very least, our past if not present programs. And it will shake the trust of our families, our partners, our donors and even ourselves. Insurance companies have threatened to withhold payment toward past abuse claims due to perceived neglect on the part of the BSA. While this still has a long time to play out, the question may be, has the brand been so damaged that even if it survives bankruptcy, will it be able to successfully function?

The storm is still not done with us. Boy Scouting has historically been built around the idea of chartered partners. The impact and willingness of these chartered partners to continue sponsorship has been shaken. Many churches recently received notification from their conference that they needed to immediately have their attorney file a claim against the BSA.  The responsibility and liability of hosting Scouting will be perceived in a different way in the future. The days of simply allowing a troop or pack to meet in the church basement on Wednesday nights being your perceived sole duty as a sponsor are behind us. The sheer number of abuse claims will certainly raise a multitude of concerns among our charter partners. These concerns will only accelerate if chartered organizations find themselves as a target of a lawsuit from a program that they may have ceased to host decades ago.

From a historical standpoint, this is the most serious crisis that the organization has faced since its formation. A perfect storm of events is occurring that threatens to significantly reshape or perhaps even destroy a program that has been a staple of American society for over a century.

My next and final planned post in this series – The reality of the current situation is sobering and disheartening. There are a host of questions. What are possible paths ahead for our national organization? How will these events play out at the council and unit levels? What can we do as Scouters? Does our history offer us lessons for the future? I will discuss my take in more detail on the issues discussed in this post and more.

Edited November 25, 2020 by gpurlee

[qwazse]

Thanks. You need to, however, reference oft-forgot starting points for each policy, just like you did when you referenced the improved scouting program. Hunt down the years for:

• The declaration of religious principle.
• The policy on homosexual adults (specifically, scoutmasters).
• The (different) policy on homosexual youth.
• The first SM who wanted to confer Eagle Scout to a female.

The important thing to note here, is that these were not generated in a vacuum. Somebody in one part of the country didn't like how somebody in another part of the country was proceeding, and the picked BSA for a cudgel.

[RememberSchiff]

Tightly written, well done. Perhaps mention that many summer camps, a major source of local council funding and retention of scouts, were closed due to covid.

"Scouting units ceased to meet in many communities, council and national events were cancelled and much fund-raising ground to a halt in many places throughout the nation."

Scouting units ceased to meet in many communities, council and national events including local summer camps were cancelled and much fund-raising ground to a halt in many places throughout the nation.  

My $0.01

[FireStone]

The impact of COVID on membership really cannot be understated. Even in Packs like mine where we have tried to maintain an active outdoor program, we've taken a hit to membership (both previous and new) because of covid. Some parents even openly complained that we weren't delivering the outdoor group activities they had come to expect. We did the best we could but we had to dial things back a bit, and for some families that made scouting no longer living up to expectations.

With new parents it was hard to sell the promise of adventure when we were hamstrung on how much outdoor adventure we could really do. While our new signups were less than half of what I'd expect in an average year. Really probably about 25% of what I'd ideally hope to see.

How much of that added to the crisis or just acted on its own as a sort of crisis on top of another crisis, I'm not sure. But I think we'll be discussing the covid effect for a long time, while trying to recover from it and hopefully build back new membership next year.

 

[yknot]

1 hour ago, FireStone said:

The impact of COVID on membership really cannot be understated. Even in Packs like mine where we have tried to maintain an active outdoor program, we've taken a hit to membership (both previous and new) because of covid. Some parents even openly complained that we weren't delivering the outdoor group activities they had come to expect. We did the best we could but we had to dial things back a bit, and for some families that made scouting no longer living up to expectations.

With new parents it was hard to sell the promise of adventure when we were hamstrung on how much outdoor adventure we could really do. While our new signups were less than half of what I'd expect in an average year. Really probably about 25% of what I'd ideally hope to see.

How much of that added to the crisis or just acted on its own as a sort of crisis on top of another crisis, I'm not sure. But I think we'll be discussing the covid effect for a long time, while trying to recover from it and hopefully build back new membership next year.

 

It's just a bad situation all around. Between the bad publicity and the bankruptcy spiking up fees, it's been tough. As has been stated, most other youth programs reduced or refunded fees in the face of offering reduced programming. BSA has increased fees, and that is a tough sell.  It's also been very hard to accommodate varied expectations. Some families are completely spooked by in person activities even when outdoors; others are angry that more activities aren't being offered. Committees and leaders have had to grapple with the fact that they and their COs are potentially liable if someone gets sick and they are not following the most conservative guidelines. 

[HICO_Eagle]

As with many class action torts, the lawyers are incentivized to get (or create) as many presumed victims as possible.  Some of the abuse was real but how many of the supposed 90,000 cases are mixing things like teasing by other boys in group showers with pedophile cases?  How many of them are a result of the lawyers getting the now-men to attribute their current problems to "abuse"?  If the count vastly exceeds the so-called secret files (at least some of which were unproveable and maybe even innocent people), just what were BSA or the adukts involved supposed to do with cases they didn't even know about?

[David CO]

48 minutes ago, HICO_Eagle said:

As with many class action torts, the lawyers are incentivized to get (or create) as many presumed victims as possible.  Some of the abuse was real but how many of the supposed 90,000 cases are mixing things like teasing by other boys in group showers with pedophile cases?  How many of them are a result of the lawyers getting the now-men to attribute their current problems to "abuse"?  If the count vastly exceeds the so-called secret files (at least some of which were unproveable and maybe even innocent people), just what were BSA or the adukts involved supposed to do with cases they didn't even know about?

If teasing in group showers counts, I was both a victim and a perpetrator.  They got me with a few zingers, but I like to think I gave as good as I got.

 

[qwazse]

8 hours ago, David CO said:

If teasing in group showers counts, I was both a victim and a perpetrator.  They got me with a few zingers, but I like to think I gave as good as I got.

I wholeheartedly agree with @David CO, but feel like I can’t respond in detail because these ambulance chasers might build cases that hold someone’s estate liable.

I have acquaintances who were brought up in other organizations and communities that were more permissive than BSA. I’m sure that they don’t want their communities gutted.

[Jameson76]

12 hours ago, HICO_Eagle said:

As with many class action torts, the lawyers are incentivized to get (or create) as many presumed victims as possible.  Some of the abuse was real but how many of the supposed 90,000 cases are mixing things like teasing by other boys in group showers with pedophile cases?  How many of them are a result of the lawyers getting the now-men to attribute their current problems to "abuse"?  If the count vastly exceeds the so-called secret files (at least some of which were unproveable and maybe even innocent people), just what were BSA or the adukts involved supposed to do with cases they didn't even know about?

It is a challenge with the age of accusations and the time in which they were handled.

When I was a DE (Back in the 80's) there was a issue in one of the districts.  None of the families wanted to formally involved the police.  The CO (a church) did not want the police formally involved.  As there was not a required reporter laws NOR shield protections laws, if we (the council) had called the police, that could have opened us up to slander issues.  We terminated the alleged abuser's membership in the BSA, put his name in the file, and that was all we could legally and legitimately do AT THAT TIME.

Spring forward 30 - 40 years, now the case is being made we should have done something.  But in reality we did DO something.  Is it comparable to today's expectations, no.  Same as when I was in car wreck in mid 70's and got a head injury as there were no airbags.  Can I sue GM now as they did not provide that safety feature as standard back then?

[John-in-KC]

36 minutes ago, Jameson76 said:

 

When I was a DE (Back in the 80's) there was a issue in one of the districts.  None of the families wanted to formally involved the police.  The CO (a church) did not want the police formally involved.  As there was not a required reporter laws NOR shield protections laws, if we (the council) had called the police, that could have opened us up to slander issues.  We terminated the alleged abuser's membership in the BSA, put his name in the file, and that was all we could legally and legitimately do AT THAT TIME.

Have you been interested enough to determine if the particular youth members filed claims?

[Eagle94-A1]

12 hours ago, David CO said:

If teasing in group showers counts, I was both a victim and a perpetrator.  They got me with a few zingers, but I like to think I gave as good as I got.

 

Every single high school with a boys locker room and every single youth sports facility with a locker room is in trouble....

[Jameson76]

37 minutes ago, John-in-KC said:

Have you been interested enough to determine if the particular youth members filed claims?

That was a long time ago, do not recall the youth(s) names as I was not directly involved.

[Eagle1993]

I still question if admitting girls was a response to the LDS leaving.  The LDS had to be working on their alternate program for years and I expect informed the BSA of their decision well ahead of any public announcements.  Giving the timing, it seems like the BSA added girls as they knew they would be losing LDS membership.  Would be interesting to hear the details once they all come out.  

Covid has devastated our Pack.  Our Troop shrank by 24% but our Pack will shrink by 80%+.  I expect we will recover some next fall when we can return to normal … but it will take 2 -  3 years to get back to our original membership, if at all possible.

 

That said, Covid & the lawsuits while massive impacts, may simply be pulling in the end date of the BSA.  If BSA was healthy going in, I'm sure it could survive both.  The real issue is that BSA has been in decline for decades.

In my area, the groups that seem to be expanding have hired staff.  Travel sports have paid coaches.  After school programs have paid staff.  Non BSA overnight week long summer camps cost $800+ but have well compensated staff, cabins and nice equipment.  Their commonality …. no or limited time commitment from parents.

Volunteer organizations that thrived in the 1900s are dying in the 2000s.  I wonder if this is a symptom of 2 income households.  Moms and dads both working and then are expected to both share in household activities after work.  Neither have time/energy to spend with volunteer organizations (like Boy Scouts, youth sports, etc.).  This isn't true 100%, but finding good volunteers is tough these days. I wonder if it was a model that worked well in the past but doesn't work well going forward and also explains the decline of the fraternal orders.

Look at the rise in dual income households since 1960.  While BSA membership has other causes & effects, I expect this was a huge headwind.  

 

 

 

[David CO]

4 hours ago, qwazse said:

I wholeheartedly agree with @David CO, but feel like I can’t respond in detail because these ambulance chasers might build cases that hold someone’s estate liable.

I have acquaintances who were brought up in other organizations and communities that were more permissive than BSA. I’m sure that they don’t want their communities gutted.

I don't think it is necessarily a matter of permissiveness.  Many conservatively minded people and groups, in those days, had opinions and attitudes that would not seem acceptable today.  My parents would have expressed disappointment if I was embarrassed by my own nudity.  They felt that boys should grow up "confident".  Insecurity and vulnerability were not considered to be positive male traits in my community.  The girls were expected to be modest.  Not the boys.

 

[David CO]

5 hours ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

Every single high school with a boys locker room and every single youth sports facility with a locker room is in trouble....

I hope not.  Most middle school and high school boys don't take showers at school anymore.  Group showers have become a thing of the past.  I don't agree with this.  I am old fashioned.  I still thing group showers helped to build team comradery and individual self-confidence.  I wish schools still did this, but they don't.  There is no point in arguing the matter.

As for the past, I would hate to see schools and other institutions penalized for having once had group showers.  I don't think requiring boys to shower was a form of abuse.  If actual sexual abuse occurred,  the people and institutions responsible should be held accountable.