A different scenario below, but similar in that the national scouting body ran roughshod over the local community of Waiau after the scout hall was earthquake damaged and the scout group went into recess
“The group had applied for all the funds that will be generated from the property sale and had hoped to at least secure half the proceeds to benefit local youth.
“We have been battling to retain some of these funds for the youth of our community, but it is Scouting NZ policy that all property proceeds are retained by the national association (as legal owner),” the group says in the latest eCitizen, the town’s local paper.
“We have consulted with a solicitor who advises, legally, we don’t have too many rights here. It is disheartening that the hard work put in by the community to have the land gifted, build the den and keep it going for all these years, can so easily be lost to the ‘legal’ owner on paper. Scouting NZ told the group it was willing to consider a modest investment of about $10,000 in the community, based on a process of a business case detailing how the money would be used to benefit the youth in the community. We are now putting together our business case to try to receive this reduced payout as we wish to retain some funds for our community.
“We have worked hard over the past 18 months to come to the best agreement and are disappointed with this outcome, but do not wish to sacrifice it all with a legal stoush we cannot afford”, the group says. “There is no morality. Nothing in it for the community who had worked to build the den from community fundraising,” she says.
The land was originally gifted by D.C. Macfarlane and J.L. Macfarlane to “The Boy Scout County of Canterbury Trust Board” in 1956. It was subsequently transferred to “The Boy Scouts Association of NZ” in 1964.