BOY SCOUTS NEED TO GET THEIR ACT TOGETHER: PULL THE BANDAGE OFF ALREADY

The Greater Alabama Council of the Boy Scouts of America (GAC) issued a press release on June 2, 2006, indicating that it has been investigating allegations involving enrollment discrepancies which are now almost a year and half old. The press release indicates that the Council retained independent forensic accountants to conduct the investigation, compiling a statistical analysis of GAC’s membership trends, interviewing virtually all of GAC’s employees, and examining a targeted selection of scout unit files representing approximately 25% of GAC’s total traditional scout units. According to the Council, thousands of documents and electronic records were reviewed during the investigation.

The press release then indicates that the forensic audit determined...

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that the December 31, 2005 membership count of 21,055 for traditional scouts is substantially correct.  The press release summarizes the findings, stating:

During the years 2002, 2003 and 2004, it was determined there were a number of traditional scout registrations that were not in compliance with Boy Scouts of America (BSA) written policies. The typical registration non-compliance issues were no parent or guardian signatures, incorrect birth dates, and/or no home addresses. The number of registrations found to be non-compliant were 5,619 at December 31, 2002, representing 13% of total traditional scout membership; 4,265 at December 31, 2003, representing 11%; and 3,518 at December 31, 2004 representing 11%. Virtually all of these non-compliant registrations involved what is referred to as assisted units, which were affiliated with inner-city organizations or school systems. In an assisted unit, GAC funds the $10 individual scout registration. 

This is a very confusing summary.  On the one hand, it begins by reference to traditional registrations and gives numbers for 2002, 2003, and 2004, but it then refers to non-compliant registrations and assisted units.  Are these the Life Learning units?   If these non-compliant registrations are not for Life Learning units, what were the findings for Life Learning units? 

The Birmingham News is reporting that an FBI “probe began in December 2004 amid allegations that high-ranking Scout officials were padding enrollment numbers to boost government and grant funding.”  See K. Taylor, Scouting Audit Indicates Rolls Vastly Inflated; Top Exec Quits, June 3, 2006.  That has been the story that has circulated throughout the last year and sparked so much interest. Yet, the press release refers to raw statistics. It makes no judgment and draws no conclusion about the question of intentional padding of enrollment.

It may be that the Council doesn’t want to draw conclusions until the FBI has completed its investigation, fearing that people who are being investigated will raise defamation and other concerns. That certainly is a legitimate reason for being cautious. If, however, that is not the motivation, then the release of raw statistics, particularly ambiguous ones, was a waste of time that keeps the story alive and continues to create questions in the mind of the public.

After a year and half, the Council should be able to draw some meaningful conclusions,  placing the statistics in context. It should have given statistics for its traditional program, its assisted units, and its Life Learning units.  It should have clearly explained the degree of discrepanicies in each category, how each category works,  changes that have been made to the procedures for each category to prevent future discrepancies, and the reason for the problem in each categoy.  Although the possibility of padding is still in the allegation form, we really have to wonder why the FBI would be involved if a few parents forgot to sign Boy Scout forms.

The current chairman of the board, John Hayden, told the Birmingham News "We have to continue a lot of internal investigations, but we are already setting up systematic, periodic spot-checks to look for things that may be a little unusual....We are just happy we can find a way to deal with the issue."

LESSON FOR OTHER NONPROFITS. When writing press releases regarding unfavorable matters, it is certainly legitimate to take defamation and privacy concerns into account. However, releasing raw data that doesn’t begin to answer the core questions is counterproductive, particularly when the statement is poorly written. Had we been the Council, we would have drawn some conclusions, but would have not mentioned names or pinpointed blame on specific people in view of the FBI investigation--assuming of course that this was possible. We would also have completed the internal investigation long ago.  The Council should have been able to gather all the facts in much less time.

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