State council pulls plug on fund-raising effort

For a group of former Boy Scouts, purchasing Melita Island was a task worthy of a herculean effort, but a fund-raiser to buy the Flathead Lake island is now on the verge of collapse.

While those former Scouts spent several years pursuing the cause, they say the Montana Council of Boy Scouts of America fell short on support for Melita Island. They say the failing fund-raiser is the direct result of financial problems at the Montana Council and poor decisions from former state scouting leaders.

Members of the Phoenix Patrol, a group of middle-aged, former Scouts who took up the cause of resurrecting the island as a summer Scout camp, are now shattered by the turn of events. The Phoenix Patrol negotiated a $1.5 million purchase price with the island's current owner, Fred Cox.

But that agreement came with a deadline that expires at the end of this year.

A capital campaign to raise the money, plagued with problems from the start, was starting to gain momentum this fall when the Montana Council's 54-member Executive Board voted to terminate its organizational support for the campaign as of Nov. 1.

By several accounts, the board backed off on the Melita campaign largely out of concern that it somehow conflicted with the more pressing matter of addressing the Montana Council's heavy debt load.

"They felt they needed to concentrate all of the board's energy in solving the council's day-to-day financial crisis they were facing," said Larry Shadow, the volunteer chairman of the Melita Island capital campaign. "They did not want to see the Melita campaign intrude upon the other fund-raising efforts they were conducting. I don't agree with it, but that's what happened."

With just $350,000 raised so far for Melita Island, the deal appears to be sinking - and Melita Island backers are heartbroken and bitter.

"I'm happy that the council is in the process of reorganizing and revamping," said Chris Roberts, a Missoula businessman and Phoenix Patrol founder. "They recognize that they have problems and they are working to fix them. I'm disappointed that the acquisition of Melita Island had to suffer in the process."

Actually, Roberts is more than just disappointed.

The former Eagle Scout chokes up with emotion in talking about his dwindling hope that the Phoenix Patrol will somehow, some way get more time to pull off the purchase.

"It just hurts so bad," Roberts said through tears. "It's like I've been grieving for six months for a terminally ill patient who's going to die, and I can't do anything about it."

Larry Johnson, another Eagle Scout and Phoenix Patrol founder, also is distraught.

"I took a special trip out there and picked up my personal gear and bailed out," said Johnson, who has been a die-hard volunteer during summer camps at Melita Island the last few years. "I kissed the pillars on the lodge goodbye and kissed the dock out there. They hurt me. They hurt everybody. They shot the volunteers in the foot."

Johnson, Roberts and many of the 60 other Phoenix Patrol members have put in hours of work, donated money and have been active on the island during summer camp the last few years.

Both Johnson and Roberts say the Montana Council became so top-heavy with administrative costs and debt that it became a hindrance rather than a help to Melita Island and other programs like it.

The Montana Council's financial troubles developed over the last few years, under the leadership of former council executive Ray Chase, who was paid more than $100,000 annually. After more than a decade in the position, Chase resigned in May 2003, just as an effort to force him out was coming to a head, Roberts said.

Two other scouting professionals - whose salaries totaled about $120,000 - resigned at roughly the same time.

Soon after, it became apparent that a consulting company charged with the Melita Island fund-raiser was failing miserably, Roberts said.

For all their resentment toward the Montana Council, Roberts and other Phoenix Patrol members have strong faith in the council's new leadership under Gordon Rubard.

With Rubard at the helm, Roberts said, "this council has progressed to a complete change in the way it's doing business. Gordon is going to save the council."

Shadow also has confidence in Rubard and other volunteer state leaders.

"We're in a much better place today than we have been. We have a council executive who's a very able leader as well as a council president," Shadow said, referring to council president David Nash. "And we're seeing some very positive things beginning to happen … There's a better approach to budgeting and a more responsible approach to budgeting and a more open approach to budgeting."

Concerns from the beginning

The effort to re-establish Melita Island as a summer Scout camp started as a dream among men who once spent summers on the island as young Boy Scouts. The island had been leased for use as a Scout camp from the Montana Masonic Order until 1975, when the Masons terminated the lease and sold the island.

When that happened, Roberts said, he decided that if there was ever an opportunity, he would do all that he could to resurrect a Scout camp on the island.

"I made a vow in 1975 that if we ever got Melita Island back we'd never lose it again," Roberts said. "I'm facing that Dec. 31 and it kills me.

As the Phoenix Patrol organized and established a relationship with Cox, the island's owner, Roberts said patrol members had considerable concern about the Boy Scouts owning the island, mainly because the organization has a history of selling off Scout camps if they struggle. Several have been sold in Montana over the last few decades.

Roberts, Johnson and others wanted the Phoenix Patrol, as a nonprofit organization, to own the island and lease it to the Scouts in perpetuity. But for a variety of legal reasons, that did not happen.

Even though it was well over $800,000 in debt, the Montana Council got involved in the fund-raiser.

And that was a bad start, Rubard said.

"Normally you don't begin a capital campaign without being strong on your day-to-day finances," he said in an interview from the council's Great Falls headquarters. "That wasn't the case."

Instead, there was a pressing deadline to purchase the island. The $1.5 million price tag seemed irresistibly attainable, considering some estimates that the island may be worth as much as $17 million for development purposes.

The council hired National Community Development Services in early 2003 to conduct a professional campaign to raise $3 million for Melita Island and several other Montana Scout camps and programs. Melita Island was identified as the priority, however, and would receive the first $1.5 million raised.

The Atlanta, Ga., consulting firm had a strong track record leading capital campaigns for Boy Scout councils in other states and was to be paid $25,000 a month for 10 months, regardless of how much money was raised.

The company's campaign leader of choice had to back out because of medical problems, so it took roughly two months to send a replacement to Montana - two months during which the company was paid its fee.

The replacement campaign leader who moved to Montana "didn't have a clue" about fund raising in such a large state, according to Roberts.

By the time Rubard was hired as council executive in November 2003 - several months after Chase had left - the Melita Island campaign had been languishing for months.

A couple of months later, National Community Development Services and its Montana consultant were fired by the Montana Council - after being paid $252,000.

"I don't think they raised anything," said Shadow, a Phoenix Patrol supporter who soon after stepped in to become a volunteer chairman of the capital campaign.

Last week, the Montana council sent a letter to National Community Development Services requesting "all or a large chunk" of the $252,000 that was paid, Rubard said.

There were other difficulties involved with fund-raising in Montana, Shadow said.

"I think part of it has to do with the demographics of Montana," he said. "There are a lot of people in Montana who have money but not a lot of them are year-round residents and there aren't a large amount of large companies that we can draw from."

The capital campaign continued through most of 2004, with glossy pamphlets and a media campaign that was launched in Missoula. With sentimental ads featuring old Melita Island campers, the media effort proved promising, generating more than $100,000 in pledges or contributions. Shadow contends it would have gained momentum had it been extended to other Montana cities.

But the council's executive board decided in late August to cancel the campaign by the end of October. That decision was viewed as a betrayal by Roberts, Johnson and other Phoenix Patrol members.

"The board made the decision based upon the current financial challenges of the council," Rubard said. "My personal perspective is that in the last few months, we had more challenges than we had the ability to meet concurrently."

Tagen Vine, a 10-year veteran district executive with the council, noted that the council's $252,000 expenditure on the Melita campaign deepened its debt. The executive board, he said, was faced with the decision of directing future money toward day-to-day scouting programs rather than a summer camp.

Rubard said his clear priority is addressing a debt load in excess of $800,000. The council has put an emphasis on backing district executives who are charged with supporting some 4,000 scout leaders and volunteers who manage 9,000 Scouts statewide.

The size of the state has been daunting for that task - one district executive covers the Hi-Line area from East Glacier to Glasgow, Vine said.

Montana's breadth has been challenging for managing council costs, Rubard said. As a result, the administration has been reduced by two positions, with Vine voluntarily leaving the organization for a new job in Billings.

For the first time in four years, the Montana Council is close to ending a fiscal year with a balanced budget, Rubard said.

"Fortunately, there's a great deal of commitment and interest in establishing that milestone," Rubard said. "Until you are operating in the black, the problem gets worse."

"We've turned the Queen Mary. It's slow but it's turning. Gordon is fantastic," Vine said. "Unfortunately, the momentum for Melita Island has not been changed because of that."

Hope and obligations

In recent days, Roberts has been sending out e-mails to a network of Melita Island supporters, urging them to buy lottery tickets as a "Hail Mary" effort, and to pursue any possible leads on potential contributors.

Roberts hopes that the Cox family will consider giving the Phoenix Patrol more time to raise the money, or that generous contributors will step forward.

So far, there are a few fund-raising leads but no indication an extension will be granted, Shadow said.

"We do have some irons in the fire that could come through," Vine said. "We have a few major givers out there and there is potential for that to happen."

Year-end giving "can be huge" - not necessarily for sentimental reasons, but for tax purposes, Vine said.

With about $350,000 raised so far, the campaign will have obligations to contributors if it all falls through, Shadow said.

"It's a very clear obligation and the council will contact every donor," Shadow said. "Assuming we do not succeed, we will contact every donor, giving their money back or donating it for the use and improvement of the other camps."

There is an agreement in place that could allow the island to be used as a Scout camp until the Cox family pursues another future for the island, which is already subdivided into 17 lots.

As long as Scouts are in uniform on Melita Island, Roberts has hope that the island will someday be reserved for that use. And while Johnson said he may never again wear a Scout uniform or invest time as a volunteer, he still wants the Montana Council to be successful.

"I sent the council a donation," he said. "I sent them $500 because I believe in it."

For more information on the Melita Island capital campaign, contact Larry Shadow in Missoula at 626-0706 or Tagen Vine in Columbia Falls at 892-1344.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com

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