a big selling point of officially chartering is that you are insured by the bsa. local councils provide health and safety insurance and the national bsa provides liability coverage for the organization and its board of directors. It's actually quite good.
The only times any thing is ever really asked to put on the charters insurance or possibly find a seperate private one is if the unit has a trailer for pulling gear, or other such equipment. For a nominal fee its possible to insure most items such as that. That's the only thing I have ever seen happen, and thats is not really that big of a deal as its not that hard to have a current insurance policy cover additional equipment.
**again, i would like to stress, doing so is not required.
I think the idea is that the charter is supposed to make sure that the group follows the official line and that no pack or troop is chartered by some renegade organization. The BSA has to approve the charter organization before a new pack or troop is formed.
Boy Scouts have a deeper structure than Girl Scouts. A boy belongs to a den, a pack, a district and a council that reports directly to BSA. I think Girl Scouts only have a troop that reports directly to an area council.
In reality, a pack like ours that has been existence for over 25 years is pretty self-sufficient. Our charter rep rarely comes to our executive committee meetings. He approves the applications of all adult leaders and does review the charter every year to see who the members of the pack are. This also shows what BSA training the adults have received. Because of the problems BSA has had with volunteer leaders they are really particular about the training volunteers get.
As I said before, insurance is provided by the BSA. If someone wanted to sue they couldn't get much from the tiny church that charters our pack - they don't even have an office or a church building.
<neverwilldothat>
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19 years 6 months ago#101420by <neverwilldothat>
It's been stated that all the chartering org. is required to do is.." provide a meeting place and adult volunteer leadership for it's BSA unit(s). The chartered organization and local council must approve unit money earning projects before the launch of the project".
You are responsible for their leadership, the money and the places that they meet. I can think of anything else that would put you under more legal responsibility than those 3 things. Any org that would take that on better have background checks on all its volunteer leaders and subordinate volunteers, auditing done at least once a year on their books and lots of insurance on the yourselves in case you are sued for an accident or for any of the things people sue for nowadays.
Originally posted by mom2m&a:
The charter organization has no obligation to provide any financial support to the scout groups it sponsors. Their only obligation is to provide minimal background checks on adult volunteers, make sure we are managing our money correctly, and make sure we don't violate any major scout rules.
I'm still confused as to why a pack needs a chartering organization. Is it required of all packs that they be "chartered" by another group or organization? Why?
Back to my earlier question: why is this true of scout packs but not of other organizations like PTOs or the soccer assocaition in town, etc.?
I'm the treasurer of my sons' Cub Scout Pack and president of our PTO. Our pack is chartered by a local church but we meet at our elementary school (as does the local Boy Scout troop).
The charter organization has no obligation to provide any financial support to the scout groups it sponsors. Their only obligation is to provide minimal background checks on adult volunteers, make sure we are managing our money correctly, and make sure we don't violate any major scout rules. Our charter is so uninvolved I didn't know for the first two years we belonged that we even had a charter.
As for insurance, liability for the scouts and adults is provided by the BSA as part of your rechartering process each year.
We are a self-supporting pack. We charge monthly dues of $5 per boy (paid yearly in advance) and we sell some popcorn outside the local grocery store each fall. This is enough income to pay for ALL the patches, badges, pins, etc. that the boys earn through the year and to have a couple of really cool outings.
I can't imagine any cubmaster having the nerve to ask for donations from the charter - especially for the Blue and Gold banquet. It doesn't have to be fancy - it can just be cake and punch and fun skits and songs. We charge for our banquet - $15 per person for nice food at a nice hall nearby. But some packs in our area do very little and that's fine too.
I am personally against a public school or PTA/PTO sponsoring a scout pack or troop. I am a huge supporter of scouts - I have no doubt my sons will stay and try and get Eagle - but the religious component of scouts is a very large part of it. Much bigger than it was in the past. And in my opinion public schools and religious activities just don't mix. I know none of the schools in our area (except the religious private schools) sponsor scouts and I would be surprised if our school district even allowed it.
we've chartered our boy scouts for as long as I remember (10+yrs). The boys NEVER asked for any donations until 2 yrs ago when one of the CS parents stole their fundraiser profit money and they didn't have money to purchase the pine derby kit.
They came to a PTO meeting, told us the situation, asked for the money, we took a vote and no one objected (however, girl scout moms were there and the very next meeting they asked for money then they asked again this year). That is the only challenge we've had being their charter and it wasn't even their fault, it was the greed of our girl scouts.
They do fundraising every fall and whatever they need above and beyond that, the parents have to pay and are responsible enough to do so.
They hold their meetings up at school and the PTO Pres gets invited to their blue and gold banquet each year at no charge, a thank you for us chartering them. Everyone else is charged $3 for the banquet.
We have many PTO committee members who are involved with the boy scouts.
It's never been a problem and I don't see any problems in the future. They are as involved with the actual BSA organization so until I received that letter, I had no idea how unorganized they were.
Girl Scouts in our area is another story, they are unorganized. I know it's just our local council because I've talked to friends out of our state that crack up when I tell them what goes on because they are not like that.
