This is in reference to the situation I have recently been reading about with Boy Scouts in Maine. There is a similar situation here in Michigan.

I’ve been a Boy Scout volunteer for more than 20 years. It seems, over time, emphasis shifted from opportunity done for boys to professional Scout salaries and perks. (They should be required to spend 30 days per year in a tent, outdoors.) The result: This allegedly nonprofit organization is run like a business for profit.

During the past 50 years, I have seen Boy Scout camps sold; few becoming commercial ventures, others becoming parks. I understand that it is very expensive to maintain reservations, and pay for liability issues. Money from the reservations sold should have been put in trust to maintain the remaining ones.

However, now parents and boys are being penalized.

Our troop is considered a non-team player because each family does not contribute to the Friends of Scouting program, or, as I like to think — “Fund Our Salaries.” Some families cannot afford to do so. As a result, district activities cost each Scout more. They are additionally penalized on popcorn sales by getting less.

That is so wrong, because the boys earned the money and depend on it for going to summer camp. The organization gets most of it back in camp fees, uniforms and supplies eventually anyway.

Thomas Muller, Coopersville, Mich.