Rejecting adult volunteer

[Disappointed]

When an adult applies for an adult leadership position, all paperwork filled out properly (even to the point of acknowledging some legal issues), if the Council,District, or whoever does the background check decides to deny the adult, is it not appropriate to advise that adult of his rejection and why?

By not notifying the Troop,major problems were created and it isn't over.

[nldscout]

Council will usually tell the applicant in writing why so you can appeal thier decion to national, not that it will do any good. They however will not tell anyone else why you were not accepted, that is to protect your privacy.

 

Why would it create a problem by not expalining it to the troop? If you want to tell the troop your welcome to do so.(This message has been edited by nldscout)

[Basementdweller]

Immediate disqualifiers

 

Category I Offenses

When an applicant or member has a criminal record (felony or misdemeanor)

that includes the following categories of criminal offenses, he or

she will be disqualified from membership in the Boy Scouts of America

regardless of any other factors:

1. Crimes involving sexual deviancy, sexual abuse, sodomy, sexual assault,

rape, sexual misconduct, pornography, soliciting prostitution, or any

other sex-related crime.

2. Any offense involving a child or a dependent adult.

3. Manufacture, distribution, or possession with intent to deliver drugs or

illegal substances.

4. Crimes of violence against anyone, including aggravated or felony

assault, battery, manslaughter, homicide, and any offense in which a

weapon was used.

 

 

 

 

On the application

 

NOTICE TO APPLICANT REGARDING BACKGROUND CHECK

In order to safeguard the youth in our program, the Boy Scouts of America will procure consumer

reports on you in connection with your application to serve as a volunteer, and the Boy Scouts of

America may procure additional consumer reports at any time during your service as a volunteer

in order to evaluate your continued suitability for volunteer service. The Boy Scouts of America

has contracted with LexisNexis, a consumer reporting agency, to provide the consumer reports.

LexisNexis may be contacted by mail at LexisNexis, 1000 Alderman Drive, Alpharetta, GA 30005

or by telephone at 800-845-6004.

The consumer reports may contain information bearing on your character, general reputation,

personal characteristics, and mode of living. The types of information that may be obtained include

but are not limited to Social Security number verification, sex offender registry checks, criminal

records checks, inmate records searches, and court records checks. The information contained

in these consumer reports may be obtained by LexisNexis from public record sources.

The consumer reports will not include credit record checks or motor vehicle record checks.

 

Also see these links

 

http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=342833

 

http://pushies.com/documents/28-105_PMSML.pdf

 

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/524-501.pdf

 

 

[Lisabob]

In instances that I am aware of, the applicant is notified of the fact that they were rejected and why, in writing, by the Council (generally by the Scout Executive). That provides an avenue for appeal. Sometimes, this works. For example, I am aware of a case where the applicant's identity was confused with someone who had committed numerous violent felonies. Once it was shown that these were not the same person, the rejection was rescinded.

 

Also in the instances I am aware of, the unit committee chair is informed in writing that the applicant was rejected, but not why.

 

I also think that there are some grey areas. An applicant might have a "questionable" red flag on their record where the Council might want to advise the unit that there are issues and let the unit (CO and CC) decide whether to accept the applicant, based on that knowledge. In one such case I am familiar with, the issues had to do with an applicant who had DUI convictions. The unit opted to accept the applicant but not allow them to drive scouts. There, I imagine it would be difficult for Council to apprise the unit of a potential problem, without telling them what the problem actually is. In this particular example don't recall, exactly, how that communication was handled but I think it was an off-the-record verbal conversation between a DE and the unit's CC, rather than a formal letter.

 

From what you've written, it sounds like you are dealing with the former situation and not the latter. Is that correct?

[Disappointed]

There was no notification to the individual, Scoutmaster, Committee Chair, COR or CO that the young man was being turned down. He and mother of another Scout, were added to the re charter and neither one ever received a BSA ID card. But since it always seems to take our Council 8-9 months to mail cards to SM, it was never questioned. Since this has come up, it has been discovered this mother has been 'acting as an adult leader and merit Badge Counselor' and not been accepted by Council, for 2 years now.

[NJCubScouter]

If there was no notification, whoever made the decision to deny the registration clearly did not follow the procedures prescribed by the BSA, which are spelled out in the document that Basementdweller linked to.

 

Just out of curiosity, Disappointed, has there been any acknowledgment by council that the person (or persons?) were actually "turned down"? Is there a possibility that it could have just been a matter of lost paperwork? It has been known to happen. I think one of my applications was floating around for months before it got to the right place and I was actually registered.

[Basementdweller]

As always we get a sliver of information.....

 

 

Recharter....if they were added to the charter our council also requires an application be submited if you don't the charter is rejected.

 

So a youth was rejected by the BSA....Never heard of that but OK.

 

 

Sounds like the entire Troop leadership needs retrained

[Disappointed]

Have seen some interesting theories and suggestions. But since I am the committee member 'fired' by the CO with a letter saying only that it was a hard decision but in the best intrest of the boys, I must turn in my keys and all Troop papers, etc. He copied the letter to the CC and some Council people. But he never contacted me and asked about the circustances of the legel issues/leadership roll of the young Eagle who desperately was trying to clean up his act. He was visited by the CC and the OA Advisor, who explained things to him and he understands and is ok with the decision. What is not understandable is why I was kicked out when I was the advancement chair and various other jobs. And no, the CC and I are close friends, her son and my "Scout" grew up together. So if Council had ever followed policy and wrote to the CC, I would have known about it.

 

AS I mentioned, this was all made public by a mother who got upset with me and an advancement issue with her son. She set out to destroy the Pack as well as the Troop, and has just about succeeded.

[NJCubScouter]

Now I am really confused.

 

If you want to go back to the beginning and explain exactly what happened to who and by who, and when, it might start to make some sense, and people might be able to make useful comments. I also think that if you want meaningful responses, you are going to have to be a little more specific about the "legal issues." If you choose not to do so, I understand. But right now, I don't even see where the council made any decision at all. Your leadership position was apparently terminated by the CO, but you don't say why. Were you ever actually registered? If these questions make it sound like I am confused, like I said, I am. You have received the answer to your actual question, which is that the council is required to notify a rejected applicant. However, if your CO has chosen to take action, I am not sure what recourse you or any of the others involved might have at this point.

[Lisabob]

To be clear:

 

A CO can control the membership in its pack or troop as it wishes. That means it can reject an adult application for leadership, remove an adult that has been a leader, and revoke a youth's membership in that particular unit.

 

What a CO cannot do, is remove a person (youth or adult) from the BSA as a whole.

 

What you are now describing sounds to me like your CO decided to cut ties with your family. The CO has the right to do that, however ill-advised it may be (or not be - I don't know the circumstances). The CO cannot keep you from joining a different scout unit chartered by some other group operating down the street, across town, three counties over, etc. The BSA as a national organization, could do that.

 

 

[nldscout]

I will say this. Disappointed sent me a PM which shows me he is the one who was rejected by the CO, not council. Also unanswered was how would he know what the council said to the other leaders, they probably lied to cover up the fact they were rejected.

 

 

[Basementdweller]

So he wasn't rejected at all but probably fired from his position for not doing what the CO wanted....

 

[ScoutNut]

Although Disappointed's posts are disjointed, and confusing, what I get out of them is that -

 

A Young Man (former youth in the Troop), with legal issues, filled out a BSA Adult application for a leadership position in the Troop. He listed his legal problems on the application, and handed it in to the Troop.

 

Young Man, and a misc Troop Mom, were both added to the Troop charter at re-charter as adult leaders. Troop Mom was a re-charter, Young Man was a brand new leader on the charter.

 

Some time period later (days/weeks/months ?) the Institutional Head of the CO contacts Young Man, and Disappointed, and tells them that Disappointed is fired from the Troop leadership, and Young Man's application for adult leader in the Troop has been denied/rejected.

 

The IH of the CO also told Young Man's OA Advisor, the CC, and various folks at the council offices that his application was denied/rejected.

 

It also turns out that Troop Mom, who was re-chartered (for her 3rd year with the Troop), has never been registered with BSA at any time, in any capacity.

 

This entire firing/rejecting thing was apparently, somehow or another, caused by one mom who was pissed off at Disappointed because of some advancement issue between her son and Disappointed.

 

Some questions that crop up because of the muddled aspect of Disappointed's posts -

 

How is Disappointed related to the Young Man?

 

What does Young Man's OA Advisor have to do with anything? Why did the CC include him when he informed Young Man the IH's decision?

 

What is Troop Mom's relationship to Young Man?

 

What happened to Troop Mom when it was discovered she has never been registered with BSA?

 

Did Troop Mom ever fill out an application to be an adult leader in the Troop?

 

Why did no one ever notice, in two years, that Troop Mom's name was not on the Troop's charter?

 

Did Troop Mom ever turn in an adult application to your local council's Advancement Committee to be a Merit Badge Counselor?

 

Does the Troop Scoutmaster never check the council's list of Merit Badge Counselors to make sure the Counselors he is using/recommending are in fact registered Merit Badge Counselors?

 

Were adult applications (for anyone) for Troop leaders ever actually turned into your local council by the CC, or COR?

 

Or did all of these applications get only as far as the IH of the CO, who then either rejected the applications, or simply forgot about them and never turned them into council?

 

Bottom line is that while this entire mess is as clear as mud, it seems there is plenty of blame to go around.

 

The folks who got their adult applications rejected need to contact their council to see EXACTLY what is going on with their BSA registration.

 

 

 

[SeattlePioneer]

ScoutNut makes a variety of good points, but I'm surprised at his surprise that adult leader membership is often poorly organized and maintained.

 

Getting adult leaders through the application process is increasingly a complicated and burdensome process, especially when councils require a variety of mandatory training.

 

The opportunity for people to fall through the cracks or for someone to just throw away applications rather than jump through all the hoops is there at multiple stages.

 

I expect in the years to come we will find more and more people registered as "Scout Parents" and nothing more, if that.

 

Just as an example, my district has found quite a number of people who were dropped as registered district leaders because their Youth Protection training expired after two years. They weren't notified by e-mail to renew it, they were just DROPPED.

 

You'd think it would be easy enough for National to send out e-mails 90 days, sixty days and 10 days before YPT expired, but nooooooooooooo!

[packsaddle]

Adult leaders shouldn't need BSA to be their 'nanny' when it comes to their responsibilities as leaders. Seems like we preach something along those lines with the boys?????