A 400,000 member drop from 2004 is what my SE told me, too. It doesn't prove anything, but . . .
Ed, I say this with all love: Your saying "This is 2006" and putting up 2006 numbers doesn't answer the thesis posed--"BSA mebmership drops by over 400,000 in 2005." To answer it, you need to subtract 2005 numbers from 2004 numbers. I may have missed it, but I don't recall any of you doing that.
And of course, refusing to put up any numbers at all tells me the prospective author (I forget his name) doesn't have any that are favorable to his position. (I'm interested in reading that f