Reinventing the BSA?

What I carry away from this widely distributed AP Article is
- The BSA is in the midst of a membership crisis owing to two basic factors -

"...a still-standing ban on gay or atheist leaders, and scandals surrounding inflated membership numbers. In addition, teenagers raised on TV and shoot-'em-up games had less use for learning to build a campfire or memorize the Scout oath."

- The BSA has not yet figured out how to close the deal with an ever growing population of Hispanic families in spite of Soccer and Scouting and other initiatives.
- Studies by experts have resulted in a new initiative that will be piloted in several cities during 2009.
- This initiative is lauded as "... a reinventing of the Boy Scouts of America."
- The article does not elaborate on the details of exactly what this reinvention involves, but mentions an emphasis on family based activities.

I am somewhat troubled by the idea that we are going to 'reinvent' Scouting. I may be hopelessly behind the times but it seems to work pretty well as it is.

Just about all of my Scouts are tech savvy video gamers, watch plenty of TV and are involved in activities of every description. The argument that boys are no longer interested in an active, challenging program of Scouting is, and always has been, specious.

The sharpest declines in membership followed the highly publicized controversies over sexuality and belief. Scouting has benefited, grown and flourished with the participation of many gay and atheist Scouts and Leaders - we just don't ask and most people don't tell. Without addressing these issues the relevance of the BSA will continue to dwindle away as society continues to evolve.

A heightened campaign directed at Hispanic families is laudable. I have a fair amount of experience with this myself and have found limited success - perhaps a breakthrough is possible. I hope it can be accomplished without any radical alteration to the program. It would be absurd for a national leadership who has refused to alter membership standards in the name of integrity to significantly change a program with a century of proven results in an attempt to shore up flagging membership numbers.

Comments

[Greg Harewood]

I can't tell you how to fix the sexual prejudice problem. But let girls join - it fixes many other things, including family involvement and standards issues and membership issues.

BTW - in the UK, girls in Scouts has not led to dropping numbers in the long-standing Girl Guides association; it tends to be a different type of girl who wants to join in the grittier, no make up or toilet block or soap carving Scouting programme.

[Dave Hardwick]

Scouting Membership is a real hot-button issue for me. Especially because my belief is that the BSA membership decline is directly related to their shift towards a non-inclusive membership mission.

After reading the above post, and the AP article that started all this, I did a little digging for stats. Unfortunately, the BSA National Council is not consistent in the reporting of membership statistics from year to year, which makes comparison against U.S. population data not very accurate. That said, I was able to dig up the following:

1997 Youth Membership
Cub Scouts: 2.1MM youth
Boy Scouts: slightly greater than 1MM 11 - 17 yos

2007 Youth Membership
Cub Scouts: 1,687,986
Boy Scouts: 913,588 11 - 17 yos

In other words, a 20% drop in Cub Scouts and a 9% drop in Boy Scouts in this time.

Contrasting this against U.S. Census data from 2000 - 2007, we see a 3.3% decline in cub-scout aged boys, and in boy-scout aged boys an increase of just over 2%.

I'm thinking that whatever the BSA has been doing to increase membership over the last 10 years is not working. So, on a certain level, I understand their targeting of the hispanic population to gain more boys participating in the program, as well as the 1st Class Requirement to Recruit a friend into the program.

On another level, these initiatives will not be able to overcome the drag induced by National's policy to make an issue over Gay & Lesbian participants, as well as those who don't believe in God (either boys or adults).

The only thing the BSA needs to do to improve their recruitment is to focus on those things that made it such a movement at the beginning of the last century: Everyone gets to participate, and without prejudice. We cannot help build the great leaders of this century if those boys don't get the opportunity to participate because their parents think the BSA is an outmoded, religiously intolerant (other than Christian-based faiths) organization.

The challenge is for our new National Exec: What will he do to address this problem. I hope the program to entice hispanics is not what National is pinning all their hopes on to turn this situation around!

[Jim Hughes]

I like your response to the membership issues Dave. After 30 years out of scouting I wanted to sign up as a volunteer and discovered to my shock, that as a religious agnostic I am no longer "fit" to be in scouting. As I get in touch with my friends still in the organization, I cannot find a single one who agrees with National's stance against gays and homosexuals.

It looks to me that the executive council's position on this cannot be moved. For the last two years now I have read on several blogs about current BSA members trying to make change from within. I think they are getting nowhere.

The only way to obtain change within the BSA is for a significant number of members to make some kind of legal challenge which will allow the BSA membership to elect the executive council. This is how we select the leadership in the Philmont Staff Association (PSA) in which I am a lifetime member.

If such a thing can be accomplished, and the volunteer membership still votes in a policy of discrimination, then those of us who oppose these policies may have to accept that this is the new BSA, and is what the members want.

At that time it might be necessary to begin thinking about forming a new organization.

Jim Hughes
Gig Harbor, WA
Eagle Scout, 1969
jhughes@harbornet.com

[Jim Hughes]

I agree with you entirely Greg.

As a former scouter (see my response to Dave Hardwick below) I had the privilege of serving on the Philmont staff in 1975. I knew one of the (at that time very few) female rangers. She was a fun, interesting person to be around, and more than once mentioned to me her frustration at not having the opportunity to become an Eagle scout.

Bringing girls into the BSA into perhaps separate troops at the earlier ages is the thing to do. The Baden-Powell scouts do it.

You are right that not all girls will want to be in this kind of organization. But a large number of girls would and it would enhance the organization and the future of scouting.

Jim Hughes

[Dave Hardwick]

I've been thinking about Jim's response quite a bit, and I just don't know what the best thing to do is.

My firm belief is that we should be focused on delivering a quality program at the Troop level. So, that's where I put my attention. Too, Scout Troops are owned by the sponsoring organization. As a result, I tend to look at National's recommendations as guidelines.

Should a broad group of Scouters get together and overturn the leadership? Maybe. I'm just not sure, though. I wonder if the possible risks in outcomes would be too much. Especially with the fact that given time, the BSA always seems to right itself.

More research into the National Leadership and methods for selection is probably in order (Oddly, I do hear reports of gay leaders up the chain of command past the Troop level, but they tend to work under an ad hoc 'don't ask, don't tell policy').