[philmont] Another Dr. Bob Rant

Gentle Pholks - A few minutes on the soap box, if you please. This has
nothing to do with Philmont, and so if you're not interested, please
delete without further reading.

I have just spent the last 3 1/2 hours successfully burning out the
third shredder of my career. And #'s 4 and 5 aren't sounding too
chipper, either.

Doing what? Why, shredding all the sensitive documents from two
recently folded Units.

One of the myriad jobs I have assumed over the years is recovering all
the equipment from folding Units that have no hope of resurrection,
triaging it, and redistributing it to other Troops in my own and
neighboring Districts (and failing that, at least recycling all the
metal). It is a sad but necessary task, one I have now done for five
Units over 18 1/2 years.

So why the rant? Because I was absolutely appalled at the amount of
personal and financial information left behind in the detritus. Over a
dozen large boxes' worth. Full Names. Addresses. Phone Numbers. Cell
phone numbers. Social Security Numbers. Medical Records. Dates of
birth. Mother's Maiden Names. Credit Card Numbers (including
expiration dates and even security codes in a few cases). Hundreds of
old checks, and SIGNED blank checks and bank account information.
Signatures. A password to a Church's security system. And more and
more. In short, an identity thief's treasure trove.

Now, I suppose I could have just tossed it all in the paper recycling
bins in the (correct) recognition that there's almost no chance anyone
would ever go through it, but being in law enforcement I'm just not
wired that way. Nor would I want to even be indirectly responsible for
a former Scout's or Scouter's life being ruined because I got lazy and
didn't do the right thing.

Consider just a discarded Eagle Scout application form: Full Name,
Address, Phone Number, Social Security Number, Date of Birth, Signature,
and possibly the mother's maiden name. Identity theft delivered on a
silver platter, as it were.

My efforts to bring this issue before the folks at the Council and
National levels have gone exactly nowhere, which is why I am using this
forum for this non-intended purpose. Please sensitize the people in
your Units, Districts, and Councils as to this currently unrecognized
danger lurking in the closets of their dying Units. Commissioner-types
need to add this to their check-lists for closing out folded Units. In
addition, please consider doing an annual audit of your own Unit to cull
out unneeded personal information for departed Scouts and Scouters (the
identity you save may be your own, or your son(s)'). There is a
compromise between Troop historical records and information security,
and I believe most Scouters can find it without too much difficulty -
but only if you think about it. Please do!

I hope someone on this List will repost this on Scouts-L and any similar
forums you may be on.

Off the box.

- Dr. Bob

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As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
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Received on Sat Oct 7 15:29:28 2006