Chapter 11 Announced - Part 4 Revised Plan

[ThenNow]

6 hours ago, SiouxRanger said:

He has tangentially unpacked the abuse he was subjected to.  It is more than I care to discuss, not feeling at liberty to do so, even concealing identifying details, and don't even care to contemplate, except to help me wrap my own mind around the degree and depths of the damage done.

Thanks for your post. I’m sorry my question was misinterpreted. All I meant was if he had unpacked the statement that Scouting saved his life, even in the midst of the abuse.

[MYCVAStory]

13 hours ago, ThenNow said:

So, if all is buttoned and zipped, let’s see the BRG Dashboards. Small ask if they are mirror images or mere inches apart. 

Excellent point.  Remember, the LCs are NOT under mediation confidentiality to do so, nor are they under an NDA.  The TCC shared the dashboards with the LCs and specifically encouraged them to share them publicly.  Because they contain financial data that is figuratively the "property" of the LC it's the LC's choice as to whether to share.  Frankly, it's always a bad look when a non-profit doesn't share all that it can.  Again, the question to ask the LC is "Will you share the TCC's dashboard for the Council?  If not, in light of the TCC encouraging it to be shared, it not being part of mediation confidentiality, and no NDA ever being produced by BSA or the LC. why not?"

[Eagle94-A1]

13 minutes ago, MYCVAStory said:

 If not, in light of the TCC encouraging it to be shared, it not being part of mediation confidentiality, and no NDA ever being produced by BSA or the LC. why not?"

Could the NDA be with National and the Ad Hoc committee?

[CynicalScouter]

26 minutes ago, MYCVAStory said:

Remember, the LCs are NOT under mediation confidentiality to do so, nor are they under an NDA. 

1. I had a copy of the NDA forwarded to me. They most certainly are under an NDA in order to obtain information as part of this process. The signature line is my council's president.
2. The demands on our council are much, much more than the TCC claimed. It was purported that the TCC wanted to leave councils with 2 years operating expenses. We won't be left with that. We are being forced into a merger as a result. This is likely because our council is 100% cash with no properties whatsoever to sell, making us a very small minority (out of 250 councils, I think around 10% have no camps or offices to sell).
3. Our exposure is "120 claims, plus or minus 3" because those claims are shared with a neighboring council (due to mergers and splits) there's some ambiguity over 3 claims. Of those 120 or so, 6 are not time barred. We are a closed state.
4. 120 claims * $7,000 = $840,000. The actual number is closer to $1.1 million due to some of those claims be within the SoL.
5. Again, we only have $1.5 million in total assets, and that includes our entire endowment. The number I was told was $450,000 left after this is all said and done, not two years operating expenses (which are $250,000 per year)
6. Again, my council is probably atypical because we don't have property to sell (we were forced to sell our camp and office during the Great Recession). But anyone thinking that somehow my council's holding on on victims, we are not.

11 minutes ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

Could the NDA be with National and the Ad Hoc committee?

Yep. That's exactly who it is with I saw it myself.

Edited July 11, 2021 by CynicalScouter

[CynicalScouter]

Marci Hamilton of ChildUSA on Diane Rehm Show about the bankruptcy. Nothing new if you've been reading this forum. In short

1. The deal that has been cut is not meeting with 100% approval by plaintiffs attorneys.
2. Comparisons between the Penn State settlement and the Catholic Dioceses (which was not national) and BSA (which is national)
3. Insurance companies are evil and the insurance companies need to step up with a "gold standard" that gets discounted insurance rates (pilot program coming out)
4. The claims process re-traumatizes and may not be worth it if it is only a few dollars at the end of this
5. The bankruptcy courts and bankruptcy law were never designed for sexual abuse cases. Can't blame the judge, she's trying to do the best she can, but Congress needs to act.
6. This is mass tort lawyers vs. child sexual abuse lawyers at this point.
7. Most of the individual perpetrators are beyond the criminal statute of limitation.
8. The Oregon and Kansas cases were the key and revealed the information about the IVF/"Perversion" files.
9. If BSA did not claim bankruptcy, it would have lead to more discovery.
10. Victims, this is going to take years.

https://dianerehm.org/audio/#/shows/2021-07-09/what-the-boy-scouts-settlement-says-about-justice-for-child-sex-abuse-victims/116455

Edited July 11, 2021 by CynicalScouter

[Bronco1821]

23 minutes ago, CynicalScouter said:

1. The claims process re-traumatizes and may not be worth it if it is only a few dollars at the end of this.

This is what I have been feeling for the last several weeks.  I think we were used by almost everyone.  Looks  like it has turned into a finger pointing exercise and every man for himself situation.  Especially because I wasn’t told about the SOL when I signed up.... .01% is not worth it, neither is $3500.  I get the feeling BSA wishes it had never gone this route, not that it had much choice but I don’t think they ever dreamed there were 84,000 cases out there.

[CynicalScouter]

5 minutes ago, Bronco1821 said:

I get the feeling BSA wishes it had never gone this route, not that it had much choice but I don’t think they ever dreamed there were 84,000 cases out there.

It really didn't as even Hamilton alluded to. With all the lookback windows and the inevitable wins in state courts, BSA's options were:

1) The race for the courthouse door: Get dragged into various state courts with no or opened SoLs for the next decade, lose or be forced to settle hundreds of cases, run out of assets (or have hundreds of millions in court judgements) and be forced into a bankruptcy anyway.

2) File bankruptcy now and try to parse things out as best as they could.

Hamilton's point was also that the best case scenario here would have been a an omnibus settlement that included one number made up of a) BSA payments to victims b) LC payments and c) insurance payments. But, given insurance companies and their track records in other sexual abuse cases, that's not happening anytime soon.

[johnsch322]

I have been sitting back for the past week or so reading everyone's comments and trying to assess my own feelings.  I was appalled when I read attacks against the TCC members who I have felt have given their all to what has been going on.  I have thought about the first Town Hall where they all said that this was a steep learning curve for themselves and I have wondered how they feel at this point.  My conclusion is they must feel a lot like most of the rest of us.....hurt, confused, and wondering what will happen next.  I also recalled the night before the last Town Hall when the word was that something was happening and there might be a deal.  I distinctly got the impression that they were discussing whether to sign on or not.  It must have been gut wrenching for them.

My therapist asked me this week what justice would look like in my own eyes as an outcome.  I was quick to tell her that there is no justice only restitution that would never go far enough.  I told her that I had to look for some kind of silver lining and for me it's that I have had the revelation of what has caused my past behaviors and that I am now on a path to come to grips with them and not let what happened be the most dominant force in what life I have left to live.

I know the litigation is not over and will be something I will have emotional ups and downs for the foreseeable future.  I have no crystal ball to read the final outcome but I do know that I am in a better space now then I was three years ago before all of this started.  I also with gods grace will be at the finish line.

Edited July 11, 2021 by johnsch322
wrong wording

[CynicalScouter]

More media coverage on LC assets/what will the LC have to pay https://www.goerie.com/story/news/crime/2021/07/11/boy-scout-bankruptcy-how-much-will-erie-council-give-in-settlement/7894716002/

Of course the sad irony is that the "recommended link" in that article is to a February 2020 article in which the local scout executive was quoted saying BSA's bankruptcy would have no impact on the LC whatsoever.

Area Scout chief: Bankruptcy to change nothing in Erie

https://www.goerie.com/news/20200219/area-scout-chief-bankruptcy-to-change-nothing-in-erie
 

Quote

 

But abuse victims’ lawyers say local assets at risk as national Boys Scouts of America files for Chapter 11 protection

The head of the Boy Scouts council for northwestern Pennsylvania said the national Boy Scouts of America’s abuse-related bankruptcy filing will not affect the operations of the council and its 3,000 Scouts.

“It won’t,” said Duane Havard, executive director of the French Creek Council, whose headquarters is on Robison Road in Summit Township. “Nothing is going to change here.”

 

Now, of course, that is just not true.

[ThenNow]

9 hours ago, CynicalScouter said:

Again, my council is probably atypical because we don't have property to sell (we were forced to sell our camp and office during the Great Recession). But anyone thinking that somehow my council's holding on on victims, we are not.

I am sorry for what your council will be facing, having interfaced with you here. You’ve been supportive of me and victims, generally, at many turns.

9 hours ago, CynicalScouter said:

Yep. That's exactly who it is with I saw it myself.

An NDA with National serves to reinforce one side of this discussion. Self imposed failure/unwillingness to disclose. I believe the point is, LCs are not compelled under the court’s watchful eye to maintain confidentiality. They are non-parties. So, I ask again, why are they being withheld from you folks, victims and the public if all is well with the numbers? The fact that BSA is imposing this gag order is worse than if Lcs were under court edict. It simply compounds the perception that there is something (more) to hide that may be damaging to the cause. That does not sit well with me as I’m sure it does not with others. I’m going to ask my reporter friends about it.

EDIT/ADD: I’ve been on a number of non-profit boards and was and Exec Director of one. Granted, none of them faced anything like BSA has on its hands. Still, if there were financial statements floating about challenging our public representation of our financial condition (and our integrity) and we refused to cough them up, it would be bad on multiple levels, including with major donors. BSA donors may be different, all part of a tightly circled wagon train. I don’t know. As an Exec Director, I would have been pleading with the Board to allow them to be released, unless there was something hinky in Moneytown. More of my pocket change for the street poet. 

Edited July 12, 2021 by ThenNow

[ThenNow]

7 hours ago, CynicalScouter said:

More media coverage on LC assets/what will the LC have to pay https://www.goerie.com/story/news/crime/2021/07/11/boy-scout-bankruptcy-how-much-will-erie-council-give-in-settlement/7894716002/

Available on the proletariat side of the paywall?

[RememberSchiff]

3 minutes ago, ThenNow said:

Available on the proletariat side of the paywall?

Perhaps this

https://howmuch.news/how-much-will-erie-council-give-in-settlement/

 

[ThenNow]

8 hours ago, CynicalScouter said:

Hamilton's point was also that the best case scenario here would have been a an omnibus settlement that included one number made up of a) BSA payments to victims b) LC payments and c) insurance payments

This, in a very hard, impossible to crack nutshell, is what (I think) most of us unwashed and lowly thought we had signed on to witness. I sure didn’t expect the Bass-O-Matic I find myself stuck in, waiting for the sketch to end with uproarious applause and a break to a word from our sponsors. I hope it’s not the Ginsu knife people. Out of the Bass-O and onto the chopping block with Julia Child...

[ThenNow]

5 minutes ago, RememberSchiff said:

Perhaps this

https://howmuch.news/how-much-will-erie-council-give-in-settlement/

Grazie Signore!

[CynicalScouter]

10 hours ago, ThenNow said:

I am sorry for what your council will be facing, having interfaced with you here. You’ve been supportive of me and victims, generally, at many turns.

Right, I am. I know the debt has to be paid.

10 hours ago, ThenNow said:

So, I ask again, why are they being withheld from you folks, victims and the public if all is well with the numbers?

Without going into to the details, precisely because LCs are non-parties, anything done or said is not otherwise protected under attorney/client and under attorney work product. The NDA allows the Ad Hoc Committee of Local Councils and BSA National to share info without nuking those privileges.

And the reason I don't think you see or hear LCs clamoring to claim the TCC's numbers are wrong is because I don't think there's much of a conflict between what the TCC is asking for/saying LC financial status is and what the LCs are about to announce to the court they are giving EXCEPT where, as in my council about about 10% of councils, there are no camps or other property to sell. That's going to be a holdup for only a few councils or perhaps smaller councils or both.

Edited July 12, 2021 by CynicalScouter