Boy Scouts mortgage 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 his assertion.

Top BSA officials signed the document in March, but members of the Philmont Ranch Committee only recently learned of the development, according to committee member Mark Stinnett.

In a memo sent 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 (56,650 hectares). One of its many trails leads to the 12,441-foot (3,793-meter) 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 BSA 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 dismayed numerous local scout leaders, who had already started registering youths for the coming year.

According to Stinnett, the BSA used the ranch as collateral to secure $446 million of debt with J.P. Morgan Chase.

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.

Philmont has been one of scouting’s most popular destinations for decades. At many times of the year, Philmont can’t accommodate all those who want to trek there; it offers an online lottery, held about 18 months in advance, to give everyone an equal shot.

Most activities take place during the summer, but Philmont also has autumn and winter programs. In addition to backpacking treks, it offers horseback riding, burrow packing, gold panning, chuckwagon dinners, rock climbing, mountain biking and sport shooting.

It’s also home to the National Scouting Museum.


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.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Boy Scouts approve plan to accept openly gay boys

GRAPEVINE, Texas — The Boy Scouts of America is throwing open its ranks to gay Scouts but not gay adult Scout leaders — a fiercely contested compromise that some warn could fracture the organization and lead to mass defections.

The Scouts on Thursday stressed that their organization of about 2.6 million boys and about 1 million adult leaders and volunteers would not condone sexual conduct by any Scout — gay or straight.

But the bitter debate is not over. Liberal Scout leaders have made clear they want the ban on gay adults lifted as well.

Thursday’s National Council vote result was welcomed by many gay rights groups, but many religious institutions — which charter about 70 percent of the more than 100,000 U.S. Scouting units — were upset. Some threatened to defect if the ban were lifted.

“We are deeply saddened,” said Frank Page, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s executive committee. “Homosexual behavior is incompatible with the principles enshrined in the Scout oath and Scout law.”

Some of the scouting group’s largest sponsors are relatively conservative denominations that have supported the broad ban on gay members and leaders — notably the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Southern Baptist churches.

The policy change takes effect Jan. 1. Thursday’s vote came after a survey of more than 200,000 leaders, parents and youth members earlier this year. Sixty-one percent supported the policy of excluding gays, while 34 percent opposed it.

However, most parents of young Scouts opposed the ban. That tracks with a growing national acceptance of gay rights in the U.S., especially among the younger generations.

Pascal Tessier, an openly gay 16-year-old Boy Scout, was elated by the outcome.

“I was thinking that today could be my last day as a Boy Scout,” Tessier said. “Obviously, for gay Scouts like me, this vote is life-changing.”

The BSA, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2010, has long excluded both gays and atheists. But protests over the no-gays policy gained momentum in 2000, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the BSA’s right to exclude gays. Scout units lost sponsorships by public schools and other entities that adhered to nondiscrimination policies.

“I’m so proud of how far we’ve come, but until there’s a place for everyone in Scouting, my work will continue,” said Jennifer Tyrrell, whose ouster as a Cub Scout den leader because she is lesbian launched a national protest movement.

The Mormon church reacted positively. “We trust that BSA will implement and administer the approved policy in an appropriate and effective manner,” an official church statement said.

The National Catholic Committee on Scouting responded cautiously, saying it would assess the possible impact of the change on Catholic-sponsored Scout units.

The BSA could take a hit financially with the new policy. Many Scout units in conservative areas fear their local donors will stop giving if the ban on gay youth is lifted.

“The Boy Scouts of America will not sacrifice its mission, or the youth served by the movement, by allowing the organization to be consumed by a single, divisive, and unresolved societal issue,” a BSA statement said.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net