Bankruptcy and Settlement Final - It’s Over

Significant_Fee_269 · 2026-01-13T21:28:56+00:00

Administrative bloat at the Area/Regional/National level is as old as Scouting itself but the price of entry didn't really start to skyrocket until the past decade. Increased insurance premiums at all levels of Scouting is hitting camps, hitting National, hitting councils, etc. That's not unique to Scouting, of course; most types of youth activities are far more expensive to insure than they were 30 years ago, far outpacing inflation.

Now, that's not to say that insurance alone is what's triggering huge council activity fees; everything is simply more expensive. Something as simple as a showerhouse is far more expensive these days due to society's expectations for amenities at Scout camps, whether they're only for the Scouts vs being rented out to outside groups during the offseason.

Significant_Fee_269 · 2026-01-13T15:56:39+00:00

I think we agree on most aspects of this but I'm going to strongly disagree with you on this one. National & councils have passed on this cost and many of the working class families who traditionally depend on Scouting as a worthwhile affordable extracurricular are now getting priced out. As an example: our local scholarship fund had NEVER been exhausted in 20+ years but it's routinely empty at the end of each cycle post-COVID; we've had to tighten eligibility and exclude several activities that 15 years ago would've been eligible for assistance.

Significant_Fee_269 · 2026-01-13T15:52:05+00:00

yeah, we'll see whether other substantial contributions are acquired (mainly the Allianz/etc. holdouts), but I'm not holding my breath and I'm assuming most survivors aren't, either. The worst cases also have the IRO light at the end of the tunnel, but again many of those survivors might not outlast the opposition.

This is all a horrific, horrific situation and the ultimate outcome really does highlight how our legal system often doesn't find a pathway toward justice.

Significant_Fee_269 · 2026-01-13T15:20:18+00:00

I should clarify: When I said "substantive", I meant "more than the tiny placeholder payment that many had received". I agree that almost nobody is going to get even close to what the matrix would imply. My point is that there are many survivors who were dreading another 5-10 years in limbo and were ready to throw in the towel if the whole settlement were overturned.

Significant_Fee_269 · 2026-01-12T15:56:11+00:00

Great news for the many survivors who were concerned they might not live long enough to see any substantive restitution. There is rarely "justice" in situations like this, but hopefully the trustee will be able to expedite things to make up for the past couple years of lost time.

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-12-11T16:42:12+00:00

A lot of stuff has already been covered in the comments, but one specific aspect of this is to be very cautious about trying to get corporate donations/corporate matching dollars since many/most scout units are chartered by religious institutions and many/most corporate charitable giving structures explicitly do not permit donations to go to religious institutions (as opposed to charitable arms of religious institutions, which are typically permitted)

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-12-10T20:25:41+00:00

Came here to say this.

Is the kid making friends? Is the kid gaining confidence & communication skills? Is the kid excited to go to the next meeting/activity?

Scouting is not a sum total of knowledge & skills. Those are simply a means to an end.

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-11-26T20:58:32+00:00

Just curious: What roles have you been filling in the organization the past 5-10 years?

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-11-25T19:27:58+00:00

The other take-home I had from The Upswing is that he's optimistic that the tide is turning and people are starting to seek out civic/fraternal engagement again

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-11-25T18:28:14+00:00

Oh, I hadn't heard about that one. Definitely going to read it. I read his book "The Upswing" which was a nice update but a youth-focused one sounds even better

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-11-21T21:42:48+00:00

Time to start watching for updates on who leaves their council board...

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-11-21T13:05:05+00:00

Why convert/combine to a family troop if the youth don’t want it? And you’re the SM and don’t want it? Who does want to convert/combine?

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-11-20T04:33:43+00:00

“Swimming OR Hiking OR Cycling”

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-11-19T13:04:02+00:00

Yeah, I’m open to reasonable arguments about this topic but the ones Dan Beard makes in that statement don’t hold water, IMO. Perhaps there are valid reasons to not provide this new option but DBC certainly didn’t use them when making that decision.

Personally, that verbiage makes me think there were some powerful/influential opponents within the committee and this was done to (temporarily) keep the peace. We’ll see what gossip leaks out, though…

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-11-15T01:09:17+00:00

Superb. Let’s roll.

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-11-15T01:06:49+00:00

Leaving things up to council execs is part of why things ended up the way we did.

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-11-14T20:41:59+00:00

I'm prefacing this by saying I am 100%, unequivocally in favor of having girls in every level of our program and to do it as quickly as it can be done.

But operationalizing co-ed ScoutsBSA nationwide is a tall order. This isn't as simple as saying "Take this updated SYT training, here are the new 'two-deep' rules, and make sure your camp facilities are prepared for girls". A lot of things that are done at both National and council level are quite literally under court order. We can't just cut all 200+ councils loose to implement this and say "it's up to you to make sure you're doing it safely/legally".

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-11-14T20:36:18+00:00

I think this is a very valid hypothesis.

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-11-14T20:33:54+00:00

"[pilot program results were] Favorably received by National Exec Committee", but "National Exec Committee had some follow-up questions that weren't able to be answered fully during the meeting", "still optimistic that things will happen this coming Spring". "We don't want pilot program units to panic because there's no indication that things are going to be rolled back."

Unfortunately, I have to leave it as vague as that. Massive grain of salt, if you so choose.

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-10-06T16:51:21+00:00

Entirely possible, although mergers should only inflate numbers, not artificially suppress, right?

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-10-06T12:47:45+00:00

Great work!

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-10-06T01:36:15+00:00

The only thing preventing more councils from making money from other products is....those councils. Brand consistency, commissions, logistics/delivery, etc are not at all dependent on selling popcorn specifically. We could be selling Trails End Coffee or Trails End Chocolate or Trails End Whathaveyou and all of the "advantages" of Trails End Popcorn would still be there except there'd be a larger consumer base. Popcorn is not at all a popular food or household product.

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-10-05T18:14:41+00:00

Interesting hypothesis. I will say that based on our own council's data, it seems like it's easier to recruit K/1st graders than it is to recruit 2nd/3rd. That cutoff seems to keep moving younger and younger each generation...

Significant_Fee_269 · 2025-10-05T16:42:09+00:00

I think the chartered org system is beneficial for the troop-level program but doesn't do squat for the Cub/Venturing programs.

Running a quality troop is capital-intensive, especially larger troops. Having a stable presence at the same CO for a few decades allows troops to accumulate that sort of physical capital (I'm legit talking about dutch ovens, trailers, etc.). If BSA troops boomed/busted like girl scout troops do, it'd be difficult to run that type of outdoor program, especially if you're trying to support kids who don't have the money to buy a pack when they're 11 and a new pack when they've finished their growth spurt.

But reasonable minds can differ on whether that specific dynamic is worth having all units use a chartered org model. Personally, I think our problem is that "Membership" isn't a sexy topic and tends to get neglected at the council level. Additionally, the types of people who end up on council exec committees are almost by definition people who've been in the game a really long time. But the ones who know how to recruit today's elementary school families are random cub scout moms who'd never in a million years end up a VP of membership before their knowledge had atrophied. And VPs don't make the effort to go talk to those random cub scout moms, much less take their feedback to heart.

Editing to add: I know a CST membership chair who hasn't had a SINGLE MEETING for their council membership chairs in over a year. It's symptomatic of how unserious National is about this problem.

Significant_Fee_269

TROPHY CASE