It appears that the decision is done; see letter.

[skeptic]

[Jameson76]

Family Troop.  That's a real selling point for the 11 - 17 years olds

[qwazse]

23 minutes ago, Jameson76 said:

Family Troop.  That's a real selling point for the 11 - 17 years olds

The delusional thinking regarding increased membership stupefies me. We will be fortunate if we see a turnaround in a decade. Prove me wrong. (Seriously, please prove me wrong.)

This summer, I did meet a couple that said they would not support our troop if it ever went coed. If five girls approach me to start a unit, I’ll help them. But, I have no inclination to hazard community support if SA continues the corporate doublespeak of “family” scouting. I’d rather say our CO fields a unit for boys, and one for girls, and they sometimes join in the same activities.

[Jameson76]

16 minutes ago, qwazse said:

The delusional thinking regarding increased membership stupefies me. We will be fortunate if we see a turnaround in a decade. Prove me wrong. (Seriously, please prove me wrong.)

This summer, I did meet a couple that said they would not support our troop if it ever went coed. If five girls approach me to start a unit, I’ll help them. But, I have no inclination to hazard community support if SA continues the corporate doublespeak of “family” scouting. I’d rather say our CO fields a unit for boys, and one for girls, and they sometimes join in the same activities.

On the hoped for increased membership related to girls join.  First on girls joining troops and cubs, not my cup of tea, but if folks want to pursue it fine, but let's be honest about the background.

BSA (at the time) had Coed options; Explorers and Ventures, neither of which was overly successful and honestly BSA had no idea what to really do with the programs.  The REAL challenge to the BSA was continuing decline in membership in 2016 - 2018.  If you actually list to Surbaugh's town hall interview (as the announcement on adding girls was made) he basically says that adding girls to packs and troops was the only idea they had left.  The brain trust had no other real ideas or had done no real examination of how to grow, so hey, let's add girls.

This was not really to provide diverse opportunities, not to serve an underserved group, not to right some perhaps wrong, no, BSA basically (to quote Animal House) needed the dues.  Now as this has evolved, many reasons have been developed and applied on why BSA (now SA) did this, but the base reason is this is the only way they felt they could stem the drop in membership.

And that is the real deep issue, they (BSA professionals, National Board, regional teams, et al) have never really fully defined the WHY in the drop in membership, they have never truly delved deep and gotten into the reason.  Basically an echo chamber of potential ideas that may work have been bandied about (Scout Me In??).  This has been ongoing from Improved Scouting Program in the 70's (it wasn't) to the current expansion of classroom focused activities.  What did set BSA (now SA) apart is the camping and outdoors, getting youth out of their comfort zones, and really becoming unique in the crowded market place of youth activities.  Sadly SA is not that group and the activities they want to focus on or move towards (safer and less of the messy outdoor stuff) are just like so many other groups provide and a lot of those have waaay less overhead.

Adding girls to the rosters will likely not stem the decline as National and the high level volunteer groups NEVER defined the WHY for the decline.  If one cannot define the problem, they can never solved the problem.

[RememberSchiff]

After months of "piloting", an important policy change, i.e. "Coed Scouting"  "family troop option" is announced and in common National fashion, the implementation details and other supporting documents are not available. There are rumors of a 5-page Best Practices PDF?  Contact  your Council for information!

IMHO, a scout program with leadership development, outdoor adventures, and reduced membership costs grow membership. Dragnet recruiting not so much.

My $0.02 or is it a nickel now?

[InquisitiveScouter]

6 hours ago, RememberSchiff said:

My $0.02 or is it a nickel now?

We have to change it to the nickel now... pennies are no longer being minted as of last Wednesday 😜 

https://apnews.com/article/us-mint-treasury-department-penny-end-production-86139df5644ef0885a9baf98e9677380

[InquisitiveScouter]

And it is just sad to read some of the drivel at this site...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/512240731294585/

 

[Eagle94-A1]

13 hours ago, Jameson76 said:

And that is the real deep issue, they (BSA professionals, National Board, regional teams, et al) have never really fully defined the WHY in the drop in membership, they have never truly delved deep and gotten into the reason.  

IMHO, the membership was inflated for a long time. When I was a DE in the 1990s, I can tell you phantom units and Scouts existed. Anyone remember Ronnie Holmes and the Greater Alabama Council?  https://www.heraldnet.com/news/ghost-unit-scams-haunt-boy-scout-operations/. And don't think it was just Alabama. It was all over. If you tried to clean up the mess, your performance reviews were poor because you took a loss in membership and units. 

Also LDS units registered all eligible youth, regardless if they wanted to be a Scout or not. Heck one LDS pack was completely in name only, and the Scouts were meeting only to play basketball. 

Those two factors are why I think we are seeing a "rightsizing" of Scouting America today.

 

[fred8033]

9 minutes ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

IMHO, the membership was inflated for a long time. When I was a DE in the 1990s, I can tell you phantom units and Scouts existed. Anyone remember Ronnie Holmes and the Greater Alabama Council?  https://www.heraldnet.com/news/ghost-unit-scams-haunt-boy-scout-operations/. And don't think it was just Alabama. It was all over. If you tried to clean up the mess, your performance reviews were poor because you took a loss in membership and units. 

Also LDS units registered all eligible youth, regardless if they wanted to be a Scout or not. Heck one LDS pack was completely in name only, and the Scouts were meeting only to play basketball. 

Those two factors are why I think we are seeing a "rightsizing" of Scouting America today.

Good analysis.  Also, there has been the alignment with scouting as a reflection of this nation and the recent growing pains of the nation.   Scouting got too caught up into too many current political debates.  Dancing a fragile line between some faith emphasis / churches support and a secular government / outdoors focus.  Scouting has had to survive all the changes ... and it's been painful.

IMHO, the "family focus" is a good way to avoid saying "coed"; but it sounds like it's the same thing.  I wish I was more active now to see the changes.  

I trust in 20 years, scouting will be better off.  

[Tron]

I can tell you all the following based on my  knowledge of my district and council. Our linked troop plan was ok, but not optimal to bring females into the program due to the 5 girl minimum that has been enforced (my DE will not allow 3 female 3x3 units). My pack has crossed female scouts into the void for 7 years now. The females that did cross in my area were forced to cross to units that were not convenient to get to (long drives, bad meeting nights, etc ...) it seemed that all of the not so great units got linked troops first and then the district and council protected their first to the table status. 

Membership is going to tick up due to female retention, and to some degree brother of sister scout retention, simple rational logic; we're going from a system where female scouts had no path or a poor path to the troop level program to a literal buffet of troop choices. We're going to have better female retention and better female recruitment. My primary unit has become the strongest troop in the district and they were basically barred from having a female linked troop. We have run the numbers, we've talked with the families, and now that the unit charter won't get yanked the second someone ages out or moves we'll recharter in December as a Family Troop starting with 5 female scouts. In March we're picking up at least 2 crossovers. The 3 linked troops in my district have about half of their female membership commuting in from my town, we expect to get half of those scouts transferring in to our new Family Troop in 2026. The critical mass that this will create is already spreading through our local scouting community and we think before the end of 2027 we'll have somewhere between 12 and 20 female scouts in our troop. 

The downside is that we'll experience a considerable amount of cannibalization in 2026 as female associated scout families reset into their home communities. We are going to see some troops collapse and not recharter in 2027. Some troops that thought they had a good program because they were pulling in female scout families will have to face the fact that their program sucks but they were the only option for people. 

I spoke with a family this last week, they were ALL going to drop from the program due to their female scout struggling in the only option unit. They are going to stick it out for the Family Troop option. That's 4 registration that we were going to lose on Jan 1st that we're going to retain at least for 1 more year. 

[skeptic]

8 hours ago, RememberSchiff said:

After months of "piloting", an important policy change, i.e. "Coed Scouting"  "family troop option" is announced and in common National fashion, the implementation details and other supporting documents are not available. There are rumors of a 5-page Best Practices PDF?  Contact  your Council for information!

IMHO, a scout program with leadership development, outdoor adventures, and reduced membership costs grow membership. Dragnet recruiting not so much.

My $0.02 or is it a nickel now?

At least a buck.  Then it can stop there.  

 

 

Edited 19 minutes ago by skeptic