BSA’s Summit Bechtel Reserve, a monument to bigotry, is failing

BSA’s Summit Bechtel Reserve (SBR) is a fantastic spot for quadrennial Jamborees.

It has a dark side. Protecting BSA’s bigotry is its raison d’etre. With program revenue a tiny fraction of expectations and staggering debt, it’s worth less than zero and is a major fiscal strain on BSA’s fragile national organization.

BSA has never shared a plan to turn SBR around. As a Scouting-themed amusement park in a remote location that lacks national-scope repute, a turnround seems extraordinarily challenging.

Bigots love BSA’s leadership vacuum

BSA has a decades-long leadership vacuum. Special-interest groups filled this vacuum, freely using BSA as a tool in their culture wars. They are why BSA have squandered so much treasure and goodwill on membership controversies.

Special-interest groups are also why BSA became a stalwart of immorality, aggressively litigating a right to be bigoted all the way to the Supreme Court. And it won this shit prize in 2000.

BSA’s bigoted flex put it at odds with society. Government agencies, pivoting from discrimination, were increasingly resistant to associate with an organization that was openly bigoted on gender, sexual orientation, and religion.

BSA’s bigotry endangered its ability to use government facilities for Jamborees. Seeing this, Congress twice protected BSA’s access to government facilities. The 2002 Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act provided general protection, and the 2005 Support Our Scouts Act protected the Jamboree.

BSA’s reaction? Walk away.

Preserving bigotry: SBR’s main point

Here’s the irony: BSA used Fort Walker for Jamborees 1981-2010. Then, it was named named Fort A. P. Hill. A Confederate, A. P. Hill was a traitorous scoundrel and fool. Hill and his co-conspirators waged an illegal rebellion, bankrupting southern states to engage in a devastating, bloody war of choice, just to preserve bigotry.

Acolytes of special-interest groups follow Hill’s example, morally and fiscally bankrupting BSA so that they can wage war against society, in interest of promoting their bigotry.

An outcome of the special-interest groups’ bigoted flex: SBR! Yup, BSA built SBR to preserve its bigotry!

Former Chief Scout Executive Robert Mazzuca, one of a succession of incompetent CEOs, spills the beans in the first few seconds of this video:

Robert’s admission: “taking our destiny back and seeing if we couldn’t find a place and a home for our new Jamboree”. (I am certain he said “new” in the wrong place, meaning to say “new home for our Jamboree” SBR is the new home for the traditional, not-new Jamboree.)

Why would you need to find a new home for the Jamboree? Why do you need to take your destiny back? It’s because, despite two acts of Congress, BSA still feared that its bigotry would end access to Fort Walker, its Jamboree home since 1981.

BSA could have dropped its immorality. Instead, BSA made foolish fiscal choices, just to perpetuate bigotry.

None of the other reasons make sense

In the above video, other gold loopers gave flimsy, alternate excuses for developing SBR. They were shared starting at 1:01:

• Summer camp
• High-adventure base
• Leadership center

These are affirmed by SBR’s website, which lists these three uses, along with a “Family Adventure Camp”.

None of these uses make sense.

Summer camp makes no sense

BSA had no need for another summer camp.

Thanks to the BSA national organization’s war of attrition against its own membership, by 2010, BSA’s market share of youth had shrunk 46% from its 1971 peak. We had well under-grown our infrastructure, which was affirmed in a late 2010s speech by former Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh. (As of the end of 2023, we’re down an astounding 80%!)

In this context of decline, how is the base served when national competes with declining council summer camps?

Leadership center makes no sense

The leadership center may be the dumbest excuse to build SBR. It was not needed, and it’s too remote.

Again, thanks to its decades-long war against its own membership, BSA has been under-growing a diverse array of national and council facilities since 1971: camps, office buildings, and more. In fact, BSA had so much surplus capacity, it sold a silly, Westlake, Texas training facility to contribute funds to the bankruptcy settlement.

There was no need for more training space in 2010. Yet we solve that phony problem with an expensive, new facility in the middle of nowhere?

Regarding “middle of nowhere”, let’s review the trip plans of those who attended the January 2024 separate-but-equal Wood Badge¹ at SBR and used Amtrak or flights:

• Amtrak to Prince, WV, then 0.4 hour drive: 2
• Flew to Yeager, then 1 hour drive: 12
• Flew to Dulles, then 5 hour drive: 5
• Flew to Charlotte Douglas, then 3.5 hour drive: 5
• Flew to John Glenn Columbus, then 3.5 hour drive: 2
• Flew to Raleigh-Durham, then 4 hour drive: 1
• Number needing BSA-provided shuttle assistance: 14

Contrast this to, say, BSA’s Irving headquarters, where the trip choices would mainly be:

• Amtrak to Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station, then 0.3 hour drive
• Flew to Dallas-Forth Worth, then 0.2 hour drive
• Flew to Love, then 0.3 hour drive

Oh, wait, need a camp facility with an option of bunk houses? Got you covered. Let’s go to Camp Wisdom! What that would look like:

• Amtrak to Eddie Bernice Johnson Union Station, then 0.3 hour drive
• Flew to Dallas-Forth Worth, then 0.5 hour drive
• Flew to Love, then 0.5 hour drive

We add value to an unneeded training facility by hiding it in a remote location?

High adventure makes no sense

Nothing done at SBR is high adventure.

BSA’s description of high adventure:

A high-adventure trek is a joyous opportunity—beyond the scope of the routine. It is more than just a scenic outdoor experience. It is more than just a physical challenge. It is an experience in living and cooperating with others to meet an exciting challenge. It is learning to overcome difficulties and learning to live in harmony with nature.

Passport to Adventure, Boy Scouts of America, 2011 printing, p. 4 (emphasis added)

The last phrase is key: “learning to live in harmony with nature”. That crucial context colors what you get at BSA’s genuine high-adventure bases, which are at the Florida Keys, Rocky Mountains, and northern boundary waters.

SBR is phony high-adventure: A Scouting-themed amusement park built on an area already terraformed by extensive surface coal mining, SBR defies nature! Those enjoying SBR’s headline attractions are using man-made facilities on a scraped landscape.

78% of SBR’s 2023 attendees attended its middle-school summer camp program or programs focused on SBR’s amusement-park rides:

• Summit Experience (31%)
• Polaris ATV (5%)
• Marksman (4%)
• Summer Camp (38%)

Only 22% of SBR attendees are doing high-adventure:

• Pack N Paddle (2%)
• New River Experience (20%)

“Hold on a second, didn’t you say no high adventure was done at SBR?” Correct! Attending a high-adventure program at SBR means you leave SBR, instead going to New River Gorge National Park or adjacent areas!

The New River Gorge National Park did not need a nearby, $439,000,000 white elephant for Scouts to enjoy it. If SBR was never developed, then New River Gorge National Park would be like a regular national park: fully available for Scouting adventure!

Poorly utilized

Those percentages I wrote about in the prior section? They split a tiny number.

Back to the video shared earlier, starting at 1:44, a gold looper shares that SBR will be a “high-utilization site” with projected usage to be “somewhere between fifty and a hundred thousand kids a summer”.

Let’s split the difference at 75,000 kids. What was the 2023 utilization? 2,428 kids, 97% less than projected.

Might as well be zero!

Of those 2,428 kids:

• 921 did summer camp (That means attendance at all summer-camp sessions was comparable to my council’s single week of winter camp!)
• 535 departed SBR to do high adventure
• 972 focused on amusement-park rides

That giant sucking sound: massive financial failures

SBR’s financial piggishness started in its infancy.

Per a 2013 Reuters exposé, SBR’s actual cost was 99% higher than estimated, accompanied by a 32% fundraising shortfall. Given a $439 million facility with a $343 million fundraising goal, this means a $220 million cost overrun met by a $108 million fundraising shortfall.

Now let me admit limitations of these numbers: This is from a mid-2013 article. BSA is invited to share if it got closer to fundraising goals or meaningfully addressed the overruns (unlikely given massive bond debt outstanding; see below). But it will take tremendous shifts from the Reuters article’s numbers to get out of clown-show territory.

More sucking: a SBR-sized heap of debt

(This section is complicated. The main point: Arrow WV, Inc. is a nonprofit controlled by BSA, and it owns The Summit. Arrow WV likely owes Boy Scouts of America, Inc. well over $350 million. It does not seem likely Arrow WV can ever pay this back. BSA reports this amount owed to it as an asset, and that one asset accounts for 41% of all of BSA’s assets!)

SBR is underwater, and the negative fiscal trends are accelerating.

More info on the financial numbers below and the meaning of Arrow WV, Inc.

SBR is owned by Arrow WV, Inc., a nonprofit controlled by BSA. Numbers specific to SBR come from Arrow WV’s IRS Form 990s.

Numbers specific to BSA come from BSA’s IRS Form 990s.

As of press time, the latest Form 990 available covers 2022. Unless specified otherwise, the numbers are as of the end of the 2022 fiscal year.

Thanks to steadily increasing liabilities, Arrow WV, SBR’s owner, went underwater in 2022 with a net worth of -$1,742,989²:

This is fueled by annual operating losses:

Let’s look more into the liabilities.

For 2022, Arrow WV had total liabilities of $370,598,250³. Of that, $783 is “Accounts payable and accrued expenses”, and the remaining $370,597,467 is an intercompany payable.

This intercompany payable is funds that Arrow WV owes to other entities within the BSA family. This common accounting tactic means 1. that other corporations within BSA’s family spotted Arrow WV $370 million to cover its shortfalls and 2. Arrow WV is expected to pay them back.

Boy Scouts of America, Inc.–the main corporation in this family of entities–has an intercompany receivable of $356,180,280⁴. Reported as an asset, it’s money owed to BSA. It’s likely that all, or nearly all, of this is money owed to BSA by Arrow WV. (BSA’s intercompany receivable is about $14 million less than Arrow WV’s intercompany payable. This suggests that Arrow WV owes at around $14 million to other corporations in BSA’s family.)

Let’s assume all of BSA’s intercompany receivable is from Arrow WV. About half that receivable is BSA’s guarantee on county bonds issued to finance SBR’s construction. Fayette County, WV issued $225,000,000 of bonds⁵ in 2010⁶ and 2012⁷. As they are guaranteed by BSA, BSA must pay them off. As of the end of 2022, the bonds still have an outstanding balance of $185,799,385⁸.

Subtract the bonds from the intercompany receivable, and this means Arrow WV–AKA, SBR–owes BSA $170,380,895⁹ for other reasons.

I suspect these “other reasons” fall into two categories:

1. BSA covering for Arrow WV’s start-up expenses that weren’t covered by bonds or donor funds.
2. Daddy BSA paying for things each year that Arrow WV can’t afford.

The expectation may have been that Arrow WV pays this back. But it hasn’t, and it can’t due to staggering annual losses. Arrow WV’s intercompany payable (amounts owed) keeps growing, which is not surprising given its large deficits.

Of BSA’s $902,582,447 of total assets¹⁰, 41% are that intercompany receivable. (Yes, corporations can report money owed to them as assets.) In other words, 41% of BSA’s assets may be worthless!

$18 of youth membership fees = SBR deficit

BSA’s annual youth member fee has had meteoric increases:

If BSA produces any significant savings, its first priority is to provide relief to its youth members from the staggering annual fee increases.

Let’s suppose BSA sold SBR and paid off the bonds. This means BSA no longer incurs about $18,344,608 of annual losses¹¹ related to SBR.

Divide that $18,344,608 savings by BSA’s 1,015,056 youth members, and you get $18 per Scout.

Think about it: $18 per Scout is equivalent to the deficits of a failing facility that few will ever use. If we had no SBR obligations, BSA could reduce the annual youth membership fee from $85 to $67.

Yeah, I know, bean counters may spin some yarn about a corporate accounting trick that disassociates member fees from SBR. I could care less. The loss is real, reported on Arrow WV’s own IRS 990 form. No accounting trick takes away that the highest priority for operational revenue savings needs to be relieving youth from exorbitant national-fee increases.

I had a great time at the 2017 Jamboree

I was a Scoutmaster of 2017 National Scout Jamboree’s Troop 4116. SBR is an outstanding facility for Jamborees! I loved my time there.

But my fondness cannot change that SBR is a failed, money-losing pig.

Closing thought

The Army removed names of Confederate scoundrels from many facilities. We need to follow the Army’s example and remove bigoted culture from BSA. If only we had started that decades ago…

Wishful thinking can’t change today’s reality. We now own this white elephant, courtesy of special-interest groups. And it’s proposed as the home of the 2031 World Jamboree. (Nov. 26, 2024 update: This bid fell through.)

I encourage BSA to reconsider the vision of a gold-looper who helped found SBR:

The key to [SBR] is, from an operating perspective, … that it will sustain itself economically in perpetuity.

-[name redacted], at 7:00 in the above video

Those who like SBR, who want to keep it for perpetuity, the onus is on you to fix its finances, to hold SBR responsible for its “key” promise. What’s your plan?

For sure, the plan isn’t what steampunk Baden-Powell’s ghost shared with gold loopers in the 2000s:

1. You read that right. Grown-ass adults had to pretend that fragile males had to be protected from being “disadvantaged” by females by cosplaying BSA’s separate-but-equal regime! ↩︎
2. Arrow WV’s 2022 Form 990, line 20 (total assets) minus line 21 (total liabilities) (page 1) ↩︎
3. Arrow WV’s 2022 Form 990, line 21 (total liabilities) (page 1) ↩︎
4. BSA’s 2022 Form 990, Schedule D, Part IX, line 1 (page 48) ↩︎
5. BSA’s 2022 Form 990, Schedule K, Part II, line 3, add columns A and B (page 67) ↩︎
6. BSA’s 2022 Form 990, Schedule K, Part I, line A, column (d) (page 67) ↩︎
7. BSA’s 2022 Form 990, Schedule K, Part I, line B, column (d) (page 67) ↩︎
8. BSA’s 2022 Form 990, Schedule K, Part II, add both numbers in line 3, then subtract from that sum both numbers in line 1 (page 67) ↩︎
9. This is calculated by subtracting the amount outstanding on SBR bonds from BSA’s intercompany-receivable asset. ↩︎
10. BSA’s 2022 Form 990, Part X, line 16 (rightmost column) (page 24) ↩︎
11. This is from Arrow WV’s 2022 Form 990, line 19. ↩︎