Anybody experienced in changing Charter Org ?

[Eagle 66]

?

[Eamonn]

Sure!!

Eamonn

[nldscout]

I second that

[FScouter]

Suppose you live in an apartment building. How do you and your fellow tenants change the landlord?

[Eamonn]

OK, remembering that I thought a unit could only have one CO, and I was proved wrong. I do hope the other wise and wonderful people in the forum will chime in if need be.

The expert in this should be your Council Registrar. He or She has all the books, codes along with a direct line to the experts at National.

Changing CO's can normally only be done if the CO that you have at present wants it too.

The charter belongs to them.

What normally happens and it isn't very pretty!! Is that there is some sort of disagreement or falling out between the CO and the Scout Unit. The reasons can vary from unit to unit and the fault can be on either side. In most cases the Scout people get upset and want to move to greener pastures.

In most cases or at least some cases the adults go out looking for a new CO. They are not changing CO, they are starting a new unit.

The CO that was/is there holds all the aces. They can stand back and wave good-bye, reform the unit and carry on business as usual,only under new management. They can keep all the equipment, the unit number -Everything. They can do this because the stuff belongs to them. Some leaders think that because the unit raised the money for the tents or whatever, that these should belong to the unit. This is not the case, the money was raised in the name of the unit and the unit belongs to the CO.

My church does fish fries every Friday during Lent, the Ladies that fry the fish have over the years updated and bought new French friers. When these Ladies decide to quit the friers will still belong to the church.

We have in the District had a unit that had a big falling out with the church that was their CO. The Preacher and the Church Council were so happy to see the back of the people in the unit, they said just go, take the number, take the equipment and just go. The unit had as a member a guy who was a ranking member of the American Legion, the unit went there,a new charters were issued with the same troop and pack number, but they lost their tenure, because it was a new charter.

I was talking with a Scoutmaster friend of mine the other week. He is on his second family. Years ago he had been SM for the unit in his church. Soon after he left the unit fell apart and the church never formed a new unit. He is a wonderful Scouter and is now Scouting in a unit chartered by a Methodist church. His church (A Catholic Church) had came up to him and asked if he would come back.

I kinda think that if he were to pick up his tent and move the Scouts, parents and other leaders would follow. He said that he was very tempted, the Catholic church is his church and it was where his oldest son became an Eagle Scout. But when he looked at what he had now: The meeting room, the support of the preacher and church council along with a few other things, he decided to stay put.

There are cases where units lose their CO, this is happening in the Military and we have had it happen in the District. One day the organization that chartered a unit just ceases to be there anymore.

When this happens you do need to involve the DE. A new CO will enter into an agreement with the BSA and the DE is the local areas representative of the BSA. The District Membership Committee should be able to help in finding a new a new CO.

It might be in your area or maybe because of the people you have in the unit that there is more than one organization that is willing to take on the responsibility of becoming the new CO. When this happens the leaders and the adults need to look at which organization is going to do the best job for the unit or maybe which organization is closer to the unit members. By closer I'm not talking geographical. I mean if the Leaders and most of the Scouts are Jewish and the two organizations are a Jewish Organization and a Catholic Church, even though the Catholics might have a better meeting room, you might want to consider going where the leaders and other members feel more comfortable. You and the other adults might want to write down a wish list. Chances are that you will not get everything that you wish for, but one organization might offer more than the other.

If you and the present CO have had a falling out, I do hope that everyone remembers that they are Scouts.

I do hope that this helps, but you really need to talk to the professional staff in your District and Council.

Eamonn.

[Eagle 66]

Thank you for your very informative note.

 

 

[KoreaScouter]

We changed just over a year ago. Our former CO had expansion plans that would really put a pinch on the area we met in, and they asked us to "look around" for a new home. We found one, and it all worked out.

 

KS

[EagleInKY]

A couple of years ago, we outgrew our CO. Now, if there was a different preacher there, we probably could have worked something out. This guy was the "kids should be seen and not heard" type, if you know what I mean. Having 60 Cub Scouts there once a month was more than he could stand. Even though our guys were pretty well behaved, considering their age, it was just not going to work out.

 

Things came to a boil, so we brought in our DE. She met with the minister and realized that there was no getting around it. He wanted us to leave, and gladly "released" us from the charter. Another, younger, growing church down the road welcomed us with open arms. The DE met with us and their leadership. A month or so later the paperwork was signed and we were up and going.

 

Even though it was painfulat the time. It was the best thing that happened to us.

[anarchist]

We are currently going through this...finding a new meeting site has been very hard in our small community. Having out grown our current room (along with having to share it with a day care operation has been trying) we are faced with moving our troop which has been in this town for 52 years to a nearby town and a CO which has a nice facility and really wants a troop to use their building and wants to finacially support the troop or 'sidling up' to a new CO that has an OK facility and who wants to help the boys out of their 'jam'... but in the end, will not really be a true CO...no interest and no real support. Our committee is leaning toward the latter, inorder to maintain the troop in the original community.

 

As you go about the process try to stay on good terms with the current CO...and try to get your council to 'allow' troop tenure to continue...other wise you may have the same troop number but be in effect a brand new troop.

 

Also ask each question two or three times...as eammon notes some times the experts don't know all the right answers...and the second or third person you ask might know of a 'loop hole'...

try to get letters from the CO/IH/COR to the effect that they want to transfer the troop to the new CO, not just drop the charter and strat a new troop....It helps!