All Activity
- Past hour
-
National Annual Reports
RememberSchiff replied to RememberSchiff's topic in Open Discussion - Program
Another decision not mentioned in National Report, FleishmanHillard ($$$) which has worked with the BSA on and off for years, was chosen as PR Agency of Record (AOR) in November 2023 with a focus on the rebrand. BSA Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Michael Ramsey said his team is amplifying the organization’s message to reach youth and families across the country via national press releases and a social strategy that “leans hard into” Instagram and LinkedIn. “We have a lot of our leaders on LinkedIn,” said Ramsey. “But video is the backbone of a lot of the things we are doing. We are a - Today
-
To clarify, all of these decisions and actions are the BSA's to own. It was their decisions that led to the situation we are in; I think you need to go back further to see how these decisions all relate and many of the decisions were linked to BSA's concern of losing LDS members followed by reactions to losing LDS members. I went back and updated the name of the church as one of the best scouters on this forum, @The Latin Scot has mentioned the correct name to use in the past.
-
I suspect Eagle1993 is correct about splitting the baby. To me it further erodes my confidence in the BSA now that they announced coed Troops. For the last 5-6 years the BSA continued to tout the benefits of single-sex environments, but oddly only for the Scouts BSA program. Now we need a 10-month pilot to find out that coed is just as good if not better. So their arguments over the last 5-6 years are suddenly incorrect? Or, they never had any evidence of it to begin with but made the arguments so as not to alienate certain groups? Tired of the nonsense. Talking to regular people at that
-
I expect each time they did risk/benefit tradeoff discussions. They may have been better talking with 3 guys at a food truck. These decisions really started with Dale (perhaps you could argue it goes back to their partnership with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). I'm sure each time they weighed the risks of change and did their best.. but clearly the end result has been failure. 1999- Keeping Gay scouts out... To prevent angering the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, BSA fought to keep gay scouts out. In 1999/2000 there was limited blow back. Howev
-
BSA mentioned this, which is why they added girls but kept girls in their own den and Troop. The idea was that it would prevent any loss of boys while also adding girls. Clearly that strategy didn't work, which is likely one reason why they are adding fully coed options. No point in keeping them separated if it didn't keep scouts/scouters from quitting and many packs/Troops operated like coed units anyway.
- Yesterday
-
I gave up referencing myself a while ago, so I won’t link to the thread that shows this data, but here goes anyway … while BSA was mulling over including girls in packs and troops (under the corporate double-speak “family scouting”), there was a WOSM census that revealed that membership declined in nearly every European country immediately after their scouting organization incorporated girls. Recovery to where they would have the same number of boys as they did before desegregation would take decades, if it has occurred yet at all. The UK took 25 years. So, if BSA is indeed about serving
-
Just curious..did the BSA do any risk analysis on any of these decisions? Or did they ask 3 people at the food truck and 2 said yes so they plowed ahead?
-
Gays had very little influence one way or the other on membership until National decided to allow gays. That caused the exodus in numbers as well as as alumni funds. And that was the beginning of raising membership fees. Forcing scouting out of schools was done by the atheist. Non of the progressive activism really affected membership except for the girls. What really hurt the BSA the most was the financial support from past members. While liberal corporations taking away their support got all the media attention, it was the huge alumni pockets that hurt the most as National tried to
-
When we hear BSA plans to simplify the program (for Scouts), is the fear moving it back to 1972 and skill awards?
-
You had me going there for a moment. Then I remembered that National only makes program changes that serve the folks at National. I’ve been wondering lately what the Boy Scout program has that would attract girls over the Girl Scouts program. Then I ran into a BSA girls troop fundraising at a local store yesterday. These girls were in full uniforms with every patch they could wear appropriate for their rank. They looked really sharp and any Scoutmaster would be proud. I think these girls are attracted to the legacy Boy Scout program. Sadly, National is going to shuck that away from them l
-
BSA lost a million and a half scouts from the start of Dale to lifting the ban on gay scouts. They fought 15+ years and cemented their legacy of discrimination against the gay community. Yes they are much more inclusive now, but 15+ years digs a deep hole of mistrust. GSUSA who avoided that mess has 700,000 more girls than total youth in BSA. That said, it is tough to determine if BSA numbers would be better now if they accepted gay youth at the same time GSUSA did. Loosing relationships with public schools was damaging, but I expect trends would have worked against BSA regardless.
-
I remember the first year girls were admitted the annual report emphasized that some 77K girls joined cub scouts, but neglected to mention there were 91K fewer boys in cub scouts. That trend accelerated. Compare the number of girls in the programs today (175K or so) to the massive decrease in the numbers of boys served (somewhere in the range of -1.1 million compared to 5 years ago. Maybe it was never about "serving more youth." Maybe it was about serving different youth. Remember, Surbaugh said the legacy clientele was no longer good enough for the BSA.
-
Bruce Russell; a prize winning political cartoonist of the WWII era. So, likely copied from a newspaper of the time. -
"Tells me that inclusivity isn't the problem. " There lies the problem. For whatever reason, the wider media has chosen to stigmatize BSA, and really other positive (with the known aberrations) groups such as traditional service organizations for adults, and too often our own civil servants. This has metastasized in the modern era of overly available media output with little control for the larger good. And this problem is rampant in our political machines, socalled entertainment industry, and our educational entities. I have no answer, other than to try and put the positive images forwa
-
Did the addition of girls actually improve numbers? The chart doesn't indicate that. The various changes (and I wouldn't call BLM support and the LDS departure an "outside change") haven't brought in the numbers that we were told they would. The numbers in the Boy Scout program didn't change all that much from 1979 to 2019. Even with COVID, if the changes were to have had the desired effect, I would expect the bars for Boy Scouts to have remained the same, not 75% of the previous numbers. COVID has been over for more than a year and the numbers have dropped even more. Tells me that inclu
-
Of course it is 5 years old. I used it to illustrate a strategic choice and the thinking process behind it. Let's not kid ourselves though. "Bringing scouting to more youth" is easy to rally around. Reality? BSA is serving 1 million fewer youth than 5 years ago. 1 million fewer (50% less) is not more youth. Perhaps it is a non starter for most of the youth as you say, but I'm not so sure. 50% of them are simply gone. In the last 5 years BSA has failed miserably at serving more youth.
-
Interesting article, but it is five years old. On the other hand it reinforces what I have said from the start; that allowing girls is a good thing, and the issues the so called experts raise are pretty much non starters for most of the youth. As always, the adults cause the most waves. The likelihood of coed is almost a reality, and it will in time be just the norm, though a few specific troops likely will still remain.
-
And let's not forget that as late as 1990 about 18% of boys in the target population age were in a BSA program and that percentage was still about 15% in 2000. I believe it slid down from there to about 9% by 2017 when Surbaugh and the higher ups decided there were two paths forward. One was to juice the flywheel with laser focus. But, Surbaugh and others thought that meant becoming a "very small, boutique organization serving what's probably a legacy clientele" (quote from article referenced below). So they decided to transform into something else--a saving grace of bigger is better because a
-
Fascinating graph. It explains a lot. The rise in scouts was tied to the baby boom a lot more than I realized. I joined in 1971, which was both about the peak and near the end of the baby boom. I don't know what happened in 86 but there was a big bump in cub scouts but no change boy scouts. The other thing I noticed is the connection to the family savings rate and this graph. Nobody even measured it before 1950 because it was so low, but then there was a huge surge in the 60's and a drop off mid to late 70's that has been going down since. Maybe I'm seeing what I want but the lesson to me
-
So..if there are folks who were at the Annual meeting, what else was put out as solutions to the decreasing membership numbers. Did any in attendance stand up and scream "how can we fix this before we go out of business" or just death by powerpoint? Name Change....personally don't see hundreds of thousands of youth flocking the council offices to sign up Coed Troops...is the official position that this too will increase membership? Seems like existing co-located units MIGHT merge into one but that isn't assured. CO still have the say. Slides on how many girls are in
- Last week
-
In the first three decades of our troop it was an NRA club as well. The SM owned a ranch and it had an arroyo. He built a range in the arroyo where the scouts trained. We still have remnants of that in historical items, including an interesting journal of names and scores, along with ammunition used. Sam also ran the local camp range for years, and then someone else from the troop took it over. During WWII, all the members that went in the service were marksmen or experts. Below is an interesting target that apparently was used during the War years. I have no idea where it came fr
-
Sadly, that would truly not surprise me in the least. So many of our challenges relate directly to people being too self-centered or simply completely clueless. That, of course brings us back to why Scouting IS still important, if we could just work the basic programs with arm distant adult mentoring. Oh, and lock the lawyers up unless they have a valid reason to be let out. If our society would simply "live the twelve" and see that foundation for what it still is, and was with a few sad exceptions, we would maybe be better off. But blinders seem to have taken over the role of glasses and
-
May 11, 2024, Mississippi Valley Council : ADAMS COUNTY, Ill. - An ammunition shed at Saukenauk Scout Reservation’s shotgun range caught fire Thursday, destroying $8,000 of ammo. Mississippi Valley Council Scout Executive Ricci Dula said the shed, constructed as a Wood Badge project, was gutted leaving debris on the range. Only leaders and the reservation’s ranger were onsite at the time. “We’re still determining the cause of the fire,” Dula said. “Nobody was harmed or at any risk of being harmed. The Mendon Fire Department did an exemplary job; the fire could have bee
-
Stage 1 .... We are well past this now, but were there in the 80s and 90s.... Another characteristic of stage one decline is the loss of the adventurous, open-minded, searching orientation for continuous learning. Answers are believed to be found in the years of experience, which might be useful, yet often can be blinding in new situations. Typically, generational and positional gaps present themselves with one-up-man-ship dynamics by those with positional power or organizational tenure. The past filters the present so that a true future cannot be created without showing “due” and “respec
-
2 gold devices. Or here's a wacky thought... ask the Scout to read the requirements and tell you what he thinks he has earned!
-
Posts
-
By RememberSchiff · Posted
Another decision not mentioned in National Report, FleishmanHillard ($$$) which has worked with the BSA on and off for years, was chosen as PR Agency of Record (AOR) in November 2023 with a focus on the rebrand. BSA Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Michael Ramsey said his team is amplifying the organization’s message to reach youth and families across the country via national press releases and a social strategy that “leans hard into” Instagram and LinkedIn. “We have a lot of our leaders on LinkedIn,” said Ramsey. “But video is the backbone of a lot of the things we are doing. We are also looking at media outlets that target youth and families.” ... The team particularly wants to reach moms and make them aware of all the fun and adventure involved in scouting, such as camping, hiking, boating and earning badges, said Ramsey. Next February 8, a marketing campaign called Spring into Scouting will let older youth — children ages 11 to 18 — know about the opportunity to join scouting programs, Ramsey said More at Source: https://www.prweek.com/article/1872349/inside-boy-scouts-america-rebrand My advice, if you are a going to talk to CEO, CFO MOM, be prepared to reveal the True Cost of Scouting and parental time commitment. My $0.02, -
To clarify, all of these decisions and actions are the BSA's to own. It was their decisions that led to the situation we are in; I think you need to go back further to see how these decisions all relate and many of the decisions were linked to BSA's concern of losing LDS members followed by reactions to losing LDS members. I went back and updated the name of the church as one of the best scouters on this forum, @The Latin Scot has mentioned the correct name to use in the past. -
By ToKindle96 · Posted
I suspect Eagle1993 is correct about splitting the baby. To me it further erodes my confidence in the BSA now that they announced coed Troops. For the last 5-6 years the BSA continued to tout the benefits of single-sex environments, but oddly only for the Scouts BSA program. Now we need a 10-month pilot to find out that coed is just as good if not better. So their arguments over the last 5-6 years are suddenly incorrect? Or, they never had any evidence of it to begin with but made the arguments so as not to alienate certain groups? Tired of the nonsense. Talking to regular people at that food truck might really be a good idea. What do people think the BSA is vs. what does BSA tell itself it is? BSA gets so wrapped up on "leadership development, "instilling the Oath and Law," etc. I'm not so sure most regular people who aren't in the BSA orbit see it that way. -
I expect each time they did risk/benefit tradeoff discussions. They may have been better talking with 3 guys at a food truck. These decisions really started with Dale (perhaps you could argue it goes back to their partnership with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). I'm sure each time they weighed the risks of change and did their best.. but clearly the end result has been failure. 1999- Keeping Gay scouts out... To prevent angering the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, BSA fought to keep gay scouts out. In 1999/2000 there was limited blow back. However, that grew over time and as the USA opinions on gays changed, BSA was clearly behind the times (similar to their delayed response to desegregation in the 1960s). 2013/2015 - Gay scouts/leaders admitted.... They stopped listening to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and realized the nation passed them by. They probably made the decision 5 years too late, but it is what it is. The damage was done for corporate donors, United Way and progressive areas. However, I expect this started the clock for the LDS to leave. 2018/2019 - Girls admitted... They knew the LDS were leaving and felt they needed a new group of youth to recruit. They wanted to minimize the impact to existing scouts so they attempted to minimize changes (single gender, BSA name stays the same, etc.). They attempted to split the baby.... 2020 - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leave BSA 2020-2024 Covid/Bankruptcy caused further damage 2025 - Scouting America.... They decided to go all in on relaunching BSA. I expect they believe the BSA brand has been tarnished and they need a relaunch. BSA membership and financials are atrocious so I expect they are more willing to be aggressive. What else is changing going forward? I don't think a name change alone will do anything. Perhaps it's time for them to talk to a few guys at the food truck.
-
BSA mentioned this, which is why they added girls but kept girls in their own den and Troop. The idea was that it would prevent any loss of boys while also adding girls. Clearly that strategy didn't work, which is likely one reason why they are adding fully coed options. No point in keeping them separated if it didn't keep scouts/scouters from quitting and many packs/Troops operated like coed units anyway.
-
-
Who's Online (See full list)
-
Popular Contributors
-
1
-
2
-
3
-