Honesty, integrity, and truthfulness are fundamental principles of the
Boy Scouts of America. Accurate reporting of membership is essential. Falsifying
records is unacceptable and not tolerated.
Of our more than 300 local councils, a very small number have ever
experienced challenges regarding membership records. The leadership in our local
councils has always responded quickly to investigate such allegations, and we are
confident they will continue to take all appropriate measures to ensure the
integrity of their membership rolls.
The NBC Nightly News report on February 17 contained a number of
inaccuracies:
- The claim that "national turns a blind eye" to membership inaccuracies
is simply untrue. The BSA's policies and procedures clearly require
local councils to maintain accurate records. Numerous procedures are
in place to ensure this, and employees have been terminated or dismissed
for falsifying membership documents.
- The report displayed troop rosters and claimed duplicate names of members
and false Social Security numbers. Social Security numbers are not collected
from youth members, and adult volunteer Social Security numbers are not
placed on BSA rosters. Duplicate names do occur in instances of multiple
registrations of leaders.
- Registration revenues of $109 million were reported for 2002. Actually,
total 2002 revenues from membership fees were only approximately $24.7
million.
- The report said: "Most funding comes from businesses." It also cited
government grants as a source of income. In fact, individuals are the
largest single funding source for local Boy Scout councils, and government
grants are a very small source of income for the Boy Scouts.
- NBC was aware that in both Birmingham and Atlanta, investigations are in
progress with the full cooperation of the volunteer boards of directors
and staff, and no clear findings have been made as yet. Nevertheless,
the news report suggested that irregularities had been confirmed.
- The Dallas situation occurred in 2000 and decisive action was taken by
the council at that time. The NBC report did not note this or the fact
that nothing has occurred since then.
The BSA National Council is concerned about the allegations made. We received
multiple calls from NBC requesting a variety of information. We responded in a
helpful way by providing information about our standards and procedures and our
dedication to accurately reporting membership. We believe these are isolated local
problems, but we are committed to handling any problem quickly and fairly.
We appreciate our volunteers and professionals in all Boy Scout councils who
are dedicated to delivering an outstanding program.