What?? You've Got to Be Kidding Me with These Membership Numbers!

[Tron]

2 hours ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

Trust me there is a lot of indignation. One unit now refuses to have anything to do with the council except paperwork: no camporees, no using camp, no purchasing supplies, no FOS, nothing at at. Most of the units do not use the local summer camp because the program sucks: it is a MB giveaway. Last time I went, inadequate supplies, equipment breaking, large Scout to Instructor ratios (30 people in Lifesaving MB; 15 minutes max on the water each day because you don't have enough canoes?!?!?!), and no improvements from complaints.

Families are seeing all this and no longer want to support the council. There is actually discussion about the county leaving the current council, and joining a neighboring one.

 

How does leaving the council work? Is there some sort of petition process? 

[Eagle94-A1]

2 hours ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

The number this will be on 31 Dec, as @Eagle94-A1 points out, will be the one to watch for to give the most accurate "real time" number for comparison. Although, I suppose if a Registrar has a backlog of applications or renewals, they can tweak the Dec 2025 numbers into Jan 2026.

Registrars are extremely overworked this time of year, and usually until February/March

One of the ways we found more Scouts were registration audits. We asked each unit to  give us a list of their active Scouts, and compared it to the charter. I can tell you Scouts who should be on charters were found not to be on it, and other Scouts who should have been removed from the charter, were still on it. I know I still find that I have found folks still on charters that I took off the last year, and missing others, even with My.Scouting.Org. You cannot take off the ones still listed, but you can add the missing ones.

The December 31st number doesn't actually come out until March. They do have a grace period. I have heard some pros joke about "December 42nd" 

 

[Eagle94-A1]

1 hour ago, Tron said:

How does leaving the council work? Is there some sort of petition process? 

Supposedly, if every CO in a county petitions to leave and join a council, it can happen. BUT every single CO has to agree to it. I do not know if they have everyone on board or not. But I told them to have patience as mergers are coming.

[Tron]

44 minutes ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

Supposedly, if every CO in a county petitions to leave and join a council, it can happen. BUT every single CO has to agree to it. I do not know if they have everyone on board or not. But I told them to have patience as mergers are coming.

But the mergers are going to come slow, they're all fighting them, they only do it (looking at you Long Island & Northern MN.) when they simply have no other options and national forces them to do it with no cards on the table.

[Eagle94-A1]

7 hours ago, Tron said:

But the mergers are going to come slow, they're all fighting them, they only do it (looking at you Long Island & Northern MN.) when they simply have no other options and national forces them to do it with no cards on the table.

Trust me I know. My council is about to launch a capital campaign for repairs and upgrades at camp. What happened to the money from a camp they sold that they told volunteers would pay for these renovations? Yes, I know, it went to pay the council's share of the lawsuit.

[PACAN]

Did anyone see this from Mr. Krone?

 

Membership: Recruitment and Retention

In 2025, we focused on growth by hiring an executive vice president of membership and leveraging Lilly Endowment funds to hire unit growth executives for councils. We also expanded our marketing efforts, driving a record number of visitors to BeAScout.org. I am pleased to report that by the close of 2025, we will have recruited almost 260,000 new members. But membership is more than recruiting — it is also retention. In the coming year, we will intensify our focus on retention and on delivering a more meaningful experience for all members.

 

If we recruited 260,00 new members but the overall membership through November is around 900,000 where did 260,000 that were on the rolls the end of 2024 go?

[InquisitiveScouter]

1 hour ago, PACAN said:

Did anyone see this from Mr. Krone?

 

Membership: Recruitment and Retention

In 2025, we focused on growth by hiring an executive vice president of membership and leveraging Lilly Endowment funds to hire unit growth executives for councils. We also expanded our marketing efforts, driving a record number of visitors to BeAScout.org. I am pleased to report that by the close of 2025, we will have recruited almost 260,000 new members. But membership is more than recruiting — it is also retention. In the coming year, we will intensify our focus on retention and on delivering a more meaningful experience for all members.

 

If we recruited 260,00 new members but the overall membership through November is around 900,000 where did 260,000 that were on the rolls the end of 2024 go?

The system numbers I see tell a different story.

As promised, 01 Jan numbers, pulled moments ago...

Total Current Youth: 855,685 (Jan 2026)  a 14.22% drop from Jan 2025

Same Month Last Year: 997,529 (Jan 2025)

Last Year End:  907,949 (This is the 31 Dec 2025 number in the system.)

Dec 2024 End of Year number was: 986,520

So, Dec 2025 year end compared to Dec 2024,  is a 7.96% drop, year to year.

These numbers include Learning for Life...about 27K on the books now.

And, um, how is hiring an Executive VP of Membership (LOL) going stop the losses?  Or hiring "unit growth executives" at the council level???

Explain it to me like I was a ten year old (who might be looking to join Scouting), please

[mrjohns2]

January numbers will fluctuate all month, drop at the start, grow a bit with renewals/new people. Is your Jan 25 number from 1/1/25?

Your numbers are still interesting to compare end of 24 vs end of 25.

So...
Dec 24 986,520
Dec 25 907,949

Loss of 81,571 or (8.3%) for the year.

So, using Krone's loss number, we really lost 341,571 and gained 260,000 to get to the net loss of 81,571.

From a strategy standpoint, an EVP of membership and council unit growth executives could/may/potentially help by having people focus on things like renewals and membership vs. an afterthought.

I do agree, though, having some additional employees in and of itself doesn't do much. How about a gosh darn renewal system that doesn't break in the last month or the year, or one that works robustly each and every day! That would be a start.

[Eagle94-A1]

Let's be honest, we won't get actual numbers until March when all the December 31st expirations go into effect. And I bet the March numbers will. be down.

While I do think more Unit Serving Executives may help, they will need to get the right type.  For whatever reason, BSA seems to think educators make good execs and program folks. Yet BP realized when he started that educators make lousy SMs.

As for IT systems, this is what happens when you put a former SE into being the CIO without any experience in the field. 

[Eagle94-A1]

3 hours ago, mrjohns2 said:

Is your Jan 25 number from 1/1/25?

Going from memory.  The membership reports could compare by date, or month, as well as tracking for the June 30th, or December 31st goals.

[InquisitiveScouter]

Another facet of this that may arise under the new registration system... 

We have several units who cannot be renewed because the leaders have not renewed. Yet, those units have Scouts who renewed online for 2026.

I hope the number will be small, but for a time, we are going to have Scouts with current registrations whose units have shuttered.

They'll need to find new homes.

 

[InquisitiveScouter]

1 minute ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

Going from memory.  The membership reports could compare by date, or month, as well as tracking for the June 30th, or December 31st goals.

The 01 Jan 2026 number is real time... today's number.

The Jan 2025 number looks to be the close out number for 31 Jan 2025.