IanR

We are constantly told that kids have to see people like themselves (color, sexual predilections) to feel included and to be interested in (insert your activity here). If that really is true, what does that say about Scouting's interest in reaching their largest potential demographic?

Too bad the Scout leadership dismissed concerns of what abandoning its membership requirements would do to those who cared. In related news, Trail Life added six more troops this week. PA-8142 Coudersport AZ-3756 Prescott Valley NC-2316 Hendersonville OH-7777 Pleasantville MN-0317 Avon VT-1513 Irasburg

https://info.traillifeusa.com/2023-annual-report

Pulling them out of press releases, news articles, their home page, and Wikipedia. I don't think they have annual reports like the BSA used to. The American Heritage Girls peaked at around 55k in 2019 and lost a lot during covid. They are back up at 43k and slowly growing.

Where do you see the 100k number? I can't find anything official saying that. Here are the numbers I have: 2015: 20,000 (after first full year; 524 troops) 2017: 23,390 (727 troops) 2020: 31,078 (841 troops) 2021: 37,350 (875 troops) 2023: 49,000 (1,000 troops) 2024: 60,000 (1,250 troops) 2026: 70,000 (1,500 troops)

So why are groups like Trail Life flourishing? Could it have anything to do with the complete about face in the BSA over mission and membership over the last ten years? All the training and programs that national can come up with can't fix that.

That's a 21% drop from my numbers for cubs, bs, and venture in 2024.

Not having the "inside" data, I just relied on comparisons for each year's reports. Even if they were massaging the numbers, it still looked horrible.

With that outlook, the Scouts won't be able to financially hold on to any facilities by the time they hit bottom, at which point there may not even be 50,000 total members left. As regards the member numbers, remember how they stopped issuing nice annual reports about seven years ago when the numbers started collapsing?

Our school district was celebrating a couple of years ago that in a student high school survey, only 50% of the respondents identified as heterosexual. Now the same people are professing surprise that the number of students in the district is collapsing and claim to have no idea why.

Scouting America ‘on the clock’ to roll back DEI, War Dept says "Scouting America told Fox News Digital in a statement via email that the organization was “encouraged” by Parnell’s post. “For nearly 116 years Scouting has stood as a cornerstone of American ideals, good citizenship, service, and adventure for American youth,” Scouting America said. “We are encouraged by [Monday’s] social media post by the Pentagon, and we look forward to providing more details as we move ahead.” Parnell, however, added that the partnership would continue only on condition that Scouting America “rapidly implements the common-sense, core value reforms” the Trump administration has put forth. “They are on the clock, and we are watching,” Parnell wrote, adding that officials may have more to announce soon."

I've been tracking numbers from annual reports since 2009. Finding them in the past few years has been much more difficult. Cubs BS Venture 2009 1634951 898320 257361 2010 1601994 -2.02% 898852 0.06% 238846 -7.19% 2011 1583166 -1.18% 909576 1.19% 231127 -3.23% 2012 1528673 -3.44% 910668 0.12% 219453 -5.05% 2013 1417034 -7.30% 888947 -2.39% 192080 -12.47% 2014 1300000 -8.26% 885000 -0.44% 158000 -17.74% Homosexual scouts 2015 1261340 -2.97% 840654 -5.01% 142892 -9.56% Homosexual leaders 2016 1262311 0.08% 822999 -2.10% 136629 -4.38% 2017 1249882 -0.98% 834124 1.35% 87827 -35.72% Venture lost Mormons 2018 1231831 -1.44% 789784 -5.32% 55101 -37.26% Added girls 2019 1176119 -4.52% 798516 1.11% 42571 -22.74% 2020 649248 -44.80% 474403 -40.59% 23731 -44.26% Lost all Mormons 2023 574365 -11.53% 392275 -17.31% 14961 -36.96% 2024 589253 2.59% 388941 -0.85% 14986 0.17% Changed to Scouting America % remaining from 2009 36.04% 43.30% 5.82%