In today’s episode of “what the hell is going on”, we have the Crossroads of America Council. Starting April 1, 2023, its new bureaucracy-preservation fees inflate annual membership costs to $340, 304% of the prior year’s cost. That’s right, just to be a Scout in this council, you will have to pay $340 a year. ($75 of this is the annual national fee, so $265 is COAC’s bureaucracy-preservation fee.) Dues for your unit and activity expenses are on top of this.
Doesn’t BSA cap fees? Halfheartedly. Page 14 of BSA’s Rules and Regulations of the Boy Scouts of America, Sept. 2020 edition lets councils charge an “annual registration or program fee … not to exceed the amount of the applicable individual registration fee”, which is currently $75.
How does COAC get away with $340? Likely because of a word in BSA’s policy: “annual”. COAC flouts national with a monthly bureaucracy-preservation fee!
BSA national appears to be winking at high bureaucracy-preservation fees: A cursory search shows that 2021 documents mention the council-fee cap, but 2022 documents omit it.
BSA could easily fix this: Control all council-imposed fees required just to be a member, regardless of how they are applied. They must not exceed $75 over any 365-day period.
BSA should go further. It should go back to how things used to be–no council fees–within three years: Limit to 50% of the membership fee for year one, 25% for year two, then 0% afterwards.
This will cause failed councils to collapse, but that is part of the point: Youth in failed councils are better served by rebooted operations or a successful council taking over. Failed councils that wish to turn around will engage in healthy changes, relationship development, and new thinking. Either way, failure is forced out of Scouting.
This brazen, exorbitant bureaucracy-preservation fee made it past several volunteer and professional checks and balances. That is evidence of a failed council.
How do you deal with a failed council? First, blunders of this magnitude fall on the Scout Executive. That person must be held accountable.
Second, turning around failure of this magnitude may require a reboot or dissolution. A reboot is only meaningful under remarkably different professional and volunteer leadership. If that is not feasible, it should seek a managed dissolution, where a different, successful council takes over its territory.
The Crossroads of America Council is at a crossroads! Will its members choose revitalization, or will they continue to tolerate a clown show? I sure hope revitalization. The youth of Indianapolis are worth it!
UPDATE (2023-02-10): It is a contagion. Nearby Northeast Illinois Council has done about the same.
UPDATE (2023-02-12): Per the petition organizer (see photo credit below), Crossroads of America Council has pulled back on its bureaucracy-preservation fee.
This council’s next steps will determine if it is a failed council.
No matter what its new funding proposal is, an egregious blunder made it past the entire council volunteer and paid leadership. That is an unacceptable leadership failure. Accountability should be a nonnegotiable part of healing from this.
(Photo credit: https://www.change.org/p/prevent-the-decimation-of-membership-of-local-bsa-unit-in-crossroads-of-america)
UPDATE (2024-10-14): The Scout Executive behind this scheme was dismissed by his council, allegedly in a “resign or you’ll be fired” ultimatum by the council’s board of directors. Financial shenanigans, poor revenue, and a poorly conceived airshow caused this council to bear $1.44 million of losses in 2023 and $1.24 million of losses in 2024:
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