I am watching the BSA be destroyed by those who wish harm to our country. Watched the BSA win in the SCOTUS and then due to pressure like companies cutting off donations decide to
drop their Morals for
cold hard cash. The article below shows dammed if you do and dammed if you don't. The BSA's leadership I shake my head at regardless of the corner they have been backed into.
Been to some of these places like the National Scout Jamboree in Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia. (The moon and stars aligned just right for that to happen.) Moved all over the USA and BSA was a place to meet new friends in a new area. Did make Eagle Scout and still have the Cub Scout Trophy from a 1st place speed derby car that was a rare Father-Son project. Last year I saved a life of a family member by remembering how to do a tourniquet that I learned in The BSA. ER doc said it was a little tight...
I did visit my old Scoutmaster and show him a comment he made to an ill prepared Scout at a week long BSA campout: "Just plug that into the Current Bush!"
This apparently is a "Current Bush!"
I can say I always wanted to go to the Philmont Scout Ranch. And then this comes up...
AP:
Boy Scouts of America mortgages vast New Mexico ranch as collateral
The Boy Scouts of America has mortgaged one of the most spectacular properties it owns, the vast Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, to help secure a line of credit as the financially strapped organization faces a growing wave of new sex-abuse lawsuits.
The BSA said Friday that it has no plans to sell the property, and that the land is being used as collateral to help meet financial needs that include rising insurance costs related to sex-abuse litigation.
However, the move dismayed a member of Philmont’s oversight committee, who says it violates agreements made when the land was donated in 1938. The BSA disputed that assertion.
Top BSA officials signed the document in March, but members of the Philmont Ranch Committee only recently learned of it, according to committee member Mark Stinnett.
In a memo to his fellow members, Stinnett, a Colorado-based lawyer, decried the financial maneuver and the lack of consultation with the committee
“I cannot begin to tell you how sorry I am to be the one to break this news to you,” Stinnett wrote. “The first point of the Scout Law is ‘A Scout is trustworthy.’ I am distressed beyond words at learning that our leaders apparently have not been.”
“But I am even more distressed to learn that Waite Phillips’ magnificent gift has now been put at risk,” Stinnett added.
Phillips was a successful oilman who used some of his fortune to develop a huge ranch in northeastern New Mexico. In 1938, and again in 1941, he donated two large tracts of the ranch to the Boy Scouts.
Since the first Boy Scout camp opened there in 1939, more than 1 million Scouts and other adventurers have camped and hiked on the property, which now covers more than 140,000 acres. One of its many trails leads to the 12,441-foot summit of Baldy Mountain.
In a statement provided to the Associated Press, the Boy Scouts said programming and operations at Philmont “continue uninterrupted, and we are committed to ensuring that the property will continue to serve and benefit the Scouting community for years to come. “
“In the face of rising insurance costs, it was necessary for the BSA to take some actions earlier this year to address our current financial situation,” the organization said. “This included identifying certain properties, including Philmont Scout Ranch, that could be used as collateral .... in order to keep in place an existing line of credit for insurance.”
Disclosure of the mortgage comes at a challenging time for the BSA, which for years has been entangled in costly litigation with plaintiffs who said they were abused by Scout leaders in their youth. Hundreds of new lawsuits loom after New York, New Jersey, Arizona and California enacted laws making it easier for victims of long-ago abuse to seek damages.
The BSA, headquartered in Irving, Texas, says it’s exploring “all available options” to maintain its programs and has not ruled out the possibility of filing for bankruptcy.
Seeking to ease some of the financial pressure, the BSA announced in October that the annual membership fee for its 2.2. million youth members will rise from $33 to $60, while the fee for adult volunteers will rise from $33 to $36. The news upset numerous local Scout leaders, who had already started registering youths for the coming year.
According to Stinnett, the BSA mortgaged its legal right and title to Philmont Scout Ranch to the J.P. Morgan Chase Bank to secure $446 million of debt incurred over the past decade.
Stinnett wrote that ranch committee member Julie Puckett — a granddaughter of Waite Phillips — had urged BSA officials in recent weeks to recognize Philmont as a restricted asset based on the understandings of all parties when Phillips donated the land.
“BSA management has instead stated its position that Philmont and its endowment are free and clear of restrictions and are thus theirs to take or encumber as they wish,” Stinnett wrote, depicting that stance as a “betrayal” of agreements made with the Phillips family.
The Boy Scouts disputed Stinnett’s assertion, saying nothing in the agreements with the Phillips family prevented the ranch from being used as collateral.
Last year, a wildfire ripped through the heart of the ranch. Campsites and several miles of trails were wiped out, leaving behind a scar that will take years and millions of dollars to restore.
Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
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