BSA GSA / Scouting Alternatives

[Bootstrap]

The old Boy Scouts was something I could take neighbors to. I wish I could bring some of the refugee boys to Boy Scouts. The old kind I grew up with. Not what they have now.

I sure miss Scout Pioneering. We used to build an observation tower inside the local mall every year with nothing but saplings and lashing. I still like lashing things together ...

[Haystack]

Some of my best childhood memories were when I was a Boy Scout through a Mormon Church. This was 10+ years ago, it's sad to see the direction that they're going in now.

[temporal1]

Page 1 / 2018

The Mormon church announced this week they were severing all ties, following BSA's recent name change to "Scout Me In". I'm trying to find the article, but I read yesterday that because the Mormon church had the largest church-sponsored BSA membership numbers, the BSA lost around 425,000 members.

I doubt BSA is going to last much longer; I was involved till the 2013 openly gay Scouts decision, and saw the affect it had on our very conservative Christian homeschooler-based group. BSA has suffered huge loses with every change they've made since then.

A lot has happened.

April 2019 / Name change, open to girls.

“Boy Scouts Are Just Scouts Now, and That’s Making Girl Scouts Mad”
“The 100-year-old organizations are prepared to take their battle over self-identity to court.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features ... scouts-mad

February 2020 / Bankruptcy (still using BSA name??) -

“Boy Scouts files Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the face of thousands of child abuse allegations”
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/ ... 301187001/

Nov 2019 / Assets:

“Boy Scouts mortgage vast Philmont ranch in New Mexico as collateral“
https://www.sltrib.com/news/nation-worl ... gage-vast/

2013 Philmont Promo / 2 min.
https://www.philmontscoutranch.org/mult ... montpromo/

Meanwhile ..
AHG / American Heritage Girls, and Trail Life USA (boys) seem to be doing very well.

Evidently, Trail Life USA has grown a lot in this last year, as BSA attempted to change their name and invite girl members.

BSA has a LOT of lib corporate support*, or they have, i don’t know how gov is involved with BSA/GSA, but, i sure notice these are THE ONLY 2 scouting groups featured in mainstream news, esp when it comes to GS cookie sales.

*lib corporations unapologetically promote lib social engineering experiments and politics.
in the U.S., and world wide.

Personally, while BSA and GSA have had good histories, nothing lasts forever.

(i would prefer) they be allowed to die natural deaths, other scouting options are available.
corporations+gov can fund that which is failing, i wish they would do less of this and respect deaths of unwanted “institutions.”

As far as i can tell, “they” don’t care what i prefer,
it appears they plan to use bankruptcy to regroup and grow, they sure have assets and political backing to accomplish it - NO MATTER WHAT PARENTS WANT.

The BSA sex abuse scandals seem to be treated as an inconvenient hiccup in their corporate business plan. i notice no remorse, aside from remorse for “some” financial inconvenience.

Since 2013, BSA admin has not been about what scouts and parents want, but about lib political agenda.

.. i feel really badly walking past young scouts selling popcorn at grocery store entry doors.
i want to encourage them! honestly, parents seem to be in denial of corporate leadership+politics. they feel detached from it, only wanting their boys to enjoy scouting. it’s sad. it’s a lot like people voting for abortion, telling themselves they are not.

[temporal1]

Max posted in another thread:
http://forum.mennonet.com/viewtopic.php ... 052#p81052

[temporal1]

Feb 18, 2019 / Quote found in comments:

NBC / “Boy Scouts of America, hobbled by multiple sex-abuse lawsuits, files for bankruptcy protection”
“The venerable nonprofit is following the lead of the scandal-wracked Roman Catholic Church.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/bo ... dDUZ7mhVds

E D Sandwall wrote:
Survivor’s rights have just been trampled by the BSA filing bankruptcy and avoiding responsible accountability. All those NY victims from within the BSA whose rights were finally established by NY’s CVA are officially wiped away. So are the rights of any of those affected by CSA at hands of a BSA perp in any other state in which an SOL bill containing a look back window has been instituted (or will be). If anyone wants to understand how egregious this is, and how civil rights defying this is, reach out. Very experienced with how the chapter 11 reorganization court treats survivors.
AND how it allows for the protection of perpetrators and assets, be it on an individual or institutional level.
[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/18/us/b ... abuse.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/18/us/b ... abuse.html)