Mentor or Destroyer

[keoki12]

Quite often you hear of stories of people who have made mistakes and learned from them, and in the process learned to also be compassionate and tolerate of others and their shortcomings.

 

Thank you NeilLup and Beavah for your compassion and understanding. PackSaddle has done the same while admitting he made some less than stellar choices as a kid and thanks to the second chances he was given, he was able to turn his life around. Showing compassion and tolerance does not mean enabling, it means showing the wrong path and helping to guide to the right path. Just like the Troop 382 ScoutMaster tried to do for my son.

 

PackSaddle, I hope my son grows up to be like you. And I think he will, for I see him reaching out to other kids with ADD, ADHD, autism, and other learning disabilities and giving them encouragement. Through his own struggles and pain he knows very well what they are going through and is able to connect with them. Sort of like that movie Pay It Forward, the compassion and support he received from his old troop, Troop 382 and now this new troop and council, he is showing that to these kids.

 

Thank you guys. The boys in Scouting are lucky to have people like you.

 

And Rythos, you ask some great questions.

[frank10]

Keoki12,

Wow, your first post has generated a lot of action. Looks like your son has found a way to make this work and learned something along the way.

 

Care to stick around for a while and join in a few other threads?

[Beavah]

To me the question remains is the Council bound by the Region's determination that the scout should be let back in?

 

Yah, I'm not goin' to get too deep into this, eh? But I will offer a bit of insight.

 

It isn't right to think of the BSA in the same way yeh think of Government, with a hierarchy of laws and courts and such. As long as yeh think that way, you won't understand the dynamic.

 

BSA is based on partnership. Chartered Organizations are our partners. They don't work for us, and while our mission is to provide services for them, we don't really work for them either. We can't tell 'em what to do with their youth programs, nor can individual CO's tell us what to do (other than go to h*** and drop the charter ).

 

Same with council corporations. Councils are separately incorporated (or unincorporated) NFP entities in various states. They are also partners. Through some agreements and bylaws and such, their legal relationship with da BSA is tighter than CO's. Nevertheless, we can't tell 'em what to do, nor can they tell us what to do. That's important, eh? Because that means the BSA is not liable for the actions or contracts of a council. A council can go bankrupt without its creditors goin' after Philmont.

 

As with anything, a good partnership relies on some mutual respect and trust, some common values, and an understandin' of limits. A council is an agent for da BSA in accepting a membership application. As such, it's bound to follow da BSA's rules for membership. That's not quite da same thing as being forced to act as agent for a particular transaction.

 

For example, an independent insurance agent is bound to follow the insurer's rules when accepting a policy contract, but that same agent doesn't have to deal with Mr. Annoying if he doesn't want to have Mr. Annoying as a client. And even if the insurance company accepts Mr. Annoying's contract directly, the independent insurance agent can still ban Mr. Annoying from ever setting foot in his office.

 

So when yeh get into these sorts of disagreements with one of your partners, yeh sort of work it out. Most of the time, if you value the partnership, you work it through or you work around it somehow. How yeh do that depends a bit on how much emotional investment each partner has in a particular issue. It's not so much that there's rules as it is that there's relationships.

 

That's why in this case I'm suggesting everyone take a deep breath and acknowledge each other's positions. The directors of the council corporation don't want to act as agent for this transaction, and don't want this boy and his family on their property. Their position, quite frankly, is understandable. As a staffer, the boy saddled them with a real problem and a very real liability risk. The Chartered Organization, however, is comfortable assuming that risk, as is the BSA. So they should work that out, while respecting the wishes of the council corporation. Everyone values their partners, and everyone respects the scope and limits of their own authority.

 

Leastways, that's the way I'd work da problem, eh?

 

Beavah

 

[keoki12]

Thank you Beavah for the explanation. That has been a major source of confusion for us and everyone in the old troop.

[Basementdweller]

I think they are waiting for him to age out. The incident happened when he was 16 which was a year ago already. Then BG council said to wait one year to re apply. He will be beyond his 18 the year at that point.

 

They are making sure he does not get his Eagle.

 

It is interesting the variances in rule enforcement is interesting. I remember a thread about a boy pre and post eagle caught smoking weed on a camp out and a scoutmaster conference was it. Non-discipline IMHO. Then this case were the discipline is significantly harsher.

 

I have to agree that there must be more to the story than we have heard.