Why does the BSA have a "volunteer board" model?

[AwakeEnergyScouter]

This sounds a bit like a good old boys network where performance is irrelevant and you don't want to be too talented or you might make someone feel bad so that they target you. 

Lack of financial transparency, clearly a problem if embezzlement charges were brought, sounds like a general and ongoing problem for the BSA. Demoting someone who brought embezzlement to light is very problematic, especially for an organization that's supposed to have honesty as a value. If heads didn't roll in that council, then that's an indication of the general culture.

[InquisitiveScouter]

1 minute ago, AwakeEnergyScouter said:

This sounds a bit like a good old boys network where performance is irrelevant and you don't want to be too talented or you might make someone feel bad so that they target you. 

Lack of financial transparency, clearly a problem if embezzlement charges were brought, sounds like a general and ongoing problem for the BSA. Demoting someone who brought embezzlement to light is very problematic, especially for an organization that's supposed to have honesty as a value. If heads didn't roll in that council, then that's an indication of the general culture.

Welcome to Boy Scouts of America!

[AwakeEnergyScouter]

Well, I'm going to do my best to serve my scouts, but I'm definitely not getting invested in the organization itself then. I mean, there's a definite theme to what people say about the "professional" overlayer.  While people complain even in well-run organizations, charges brought for embezzlement without an embarrassed purge of criminals and enablers from the ranks is clear objective proof of that there are some serious systemic problems.  Edit: just realized this could be misinterpreted - I mean that even in the best case where one person truly fooled everyone else around them, then financial systems must have been lacking to not detect the fraud. No matter what happened, it can't have been just one person who failed to do their job.

I served on a nonprofit board for a professional society for a while, and they'd just dealt with something similar (severe and systemic misuse of funds by president and crony friends). They needed new people, because the offender was barred by the professional organization from ever serving as a chapter anything and all his friends resigned in protest. Good riddance, of course. So, the professional society let him keep his outward face, but quietly disbarred him from all leadership and in the process flushed all the co-conspirators and enablers out. And that wasn't even reported to police, let alone prosecuted, and that was here in the US.

IMNSHO a leader in your organization being prosecuted for embezzlement is a black mark on your honor. My god, how embarrassing 😳 

Edited August 10, 2023 by AwakeEnergyScouter

[BetterWithCheddar]

On 8/9/2023 at 10:58 AM, SiouxRanger said:

Why does the BSA, like so many not-for-profits, have a volunteer board?

Hypothetically, if you take a dozen well-respected individuals from a community, you can create a decision-making body that's not only made up of intelligent, well-connected people, but also one that's invested in that community. They often hire an executive to make the day-to-day decisions, but can also help provide a layer of oversight to an organization and a vision for long-term planning.

[RememberSchiff]

21 minutes ago, BetterWithCheddar said:

Hypothetically, if you take a dozen well-respected individuals from a community, you can create a decision-making body that's not only made up of intelligent, well-connected people, but also one that's invested in that community. They often hire an executive to make the day-to-day decisions, but can also help provide a layer of oversight to an organization and a vision for long-term planning.

The reality - conflict of interests. There should be no business transactions between Board Members and Council. One example from a year ago.

"To preserve the open space (Deer Lake), Pathfinders had to top an offer that looked for a time like it would carry the day. In the spring, the Scouts’ Connecticut Yankee Council announced it was selling the land for $4.62 million to a major real estate developer, Margaret Streicker, who is also a board member of the council."

https://www.courant.com/2022/08/13/deal-near-to-preserve-deer-lake-in-killingworth-as-open-space/

[BetterWithCheddar]

I agree, there is potential for conflict there, but you also must consider the fact that the pool of buyers for properties that cost >$4.5 million is pretty shallow. Having a board member with a real estate development business (or even developer friends) likely expedited the sale and provided immediate liquidity to the council. It's then incumbent upon the remaining board members to ensure the council received fair value for the property.

The role of a Board is clear to me, but who selects the Board in most councils? In a public corporation, shareholders at least have some recourse to sue or recall Board members. How can volunteers hold their council board accountable?