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

[Tron]

On 1/22/2026 at 11:32 AM, InquisitiveScouter said:

Yes, the 31 December 2025 number of "Total Unit-Based" is 877,403.  If you included Learning for Life numbers, then the total youth served by Scouting America programs on 31 Dec 2025 was 907,950.

The 31 Dec 2024 Unit-Based number was 956,541.  So, that one year period change was a loss of 79,138 Scouts, or an 8.27% loss from the Dec 2024 numbers.

Current number reporting today (Unit-Based only) is 837,145.

There have been numerous problems with online registrations, particularly if families delayed...  If the unit charter lapsed, families were blocked from renewing registrations.  I imagine we will be seeing a cleanup of that boondoggle through March. 

So, my gut tells me the 837K number is low.  If accurate, it would mean a loss 40K Scouts since end of 2025. (Another loss of 4.56% of membership.) 

LFL is not considered part of the unit based numbers, and unit based numbers are where national counts membership. LFL is like a bonus thing or something (I don't quite get it). 

On 1/22/2026 at 2:24 PM, Eagle94-A1 said:

Historically, the end of year numbers have always come out in March, as they have had rechartering issues in the past too. I remember one pack that had paperwork issues, was "dropped," and then reappear with their membership numbers magically added to the end of year numbers once the charter was completed.

I hope I am wrong, but I do not think we will reach 975,672 (2% growth) for 2025 when everything is said and done. I do not think we will suddenly find 68,534 members.

This is correct, what has been shared with me is showing that Jan 1 dump, and slow uptick of people rushing to renew; however, those Jan 1 numbers were real as a drop-is-a-drop and there are no guarantees that those people will renew. When they do renew, the membership is backdated which often presents issues. Some parents are lapsing on purpose to try and change their scouts membership dates and that only works if you lapse for over 90 days; however, that also presents a bigger problem for renewing. I was just helping with a scout who lapsed after Sep 30th and it was a 2 week nightmare to get him back on the books; the parents wanted him "covered" in the lapsed period so national back dated him and now the parents are pissed because his renewal date is back in September again. There are a bunch of lapses because parents are trying to cheat the system for some reason. The whole lapsed period versus expired thing is a nightmare and in this digital age national should just get rid of both and just terminate membership when they expire. 

[Eagle94-A1]

10 hours ago, Tron said:

LFL is not considered part of the unit based numbers, and unit based numbers are where national counts membership. LFL is like a bonus thing or something (I don't quite get it). 

Learning for Life is not a bonus. LFL is a subsidiary that most councils, at least the ones I have been in and work for, don't want to have, because once established, they need that program to grow as well. I got into major trouble for tryng to convert "In School Scouting" units to LFL groups.

10 hours ago, Tron said:

There are a bunch of lapses because parents are trying to cheat the system for some reason. The whole lapsed period versus expired thing is a nightmare and in this digital age national should just get rid of both and just terminate membership when they expire. 

I don't think they are trying to cheat the system. I think they are tyring to synchronize their Scout's membership renewal with the unit's recharter.

[IanR]

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%

[BetterWithCheddar]

One of the surest signs of membership decline is the lack of Scouters coming to this forum to debate adult square knot insignia. I swear that used to be every other thread around here pre-COVID. 😛

[mrjohns2]

On 1/22/2026 at 2:26 PM, Eagle94-A1 said:

Many councils have December 31st as the last day of a unit's charter year. That is so that those units that fold, and members that drop, are considered in the end of year tally. The 837,145 number is probably correct.

There is a 2 month grace period for both individuals and units. I know my district has been very slow with both. 

[MikeS72]

On 1/25/2026 at 11:29 PM, Tron said:

There are a bunch of lapses because parents are trying to cheat the system for some reason. The whole lapsed period versus expired thing is a nightmare and in this digital age national should just get rid of both and just terminate membership when they expire. 

While we have not seen specifics on how this may be implemented, we have been told that the 'rolling registrations' will be going away and we will be going back to everyone expiring/renewing at the same time.

 

[skeptic]

That would make far too much sense.  

[Tron]

On 2/2/2026 at 8:30 PM, mrjohns2 said:

There is a 2 month grace period for both individuals and units. I know my district has been very slow with both. 

There is a 2 month "lapsed" period; however, depending on what report a leader looks at a lapsed scout may or may not be represented. 

15 hours ago, MikeS72 said:

While we have not seen specifics on how this may be implemented, we have been told that the 'rolling registrations' will be going away and we will be going back to everyone expiring/renewing at the same time.

 

I really hope not; but, if they do decide to go back to pro-rated I hope they have membership at a different time than recharter. 

[Eagle94-A1]

On 2/3/2026 at 10:32 AM, MikeS72 said:

While we have not seen specifics on how this may be implemented, we have been told that the 'rolling registrations' will be going away and we will be going back to everyone expiring/renewing at the same time.

 

WOW, who could have predicted rolling registration would be a "Charley Foxtrot?"  🤔

[InquisitiveScouter]

47 minutes ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

 

WOW, who could have predicted rolling registration would be a "Charley Foxtrot?"  🤔

If they do, in fact, roll this back, I will be impressed that National will have taken prudent steps after recognizing this blunder.

Now let's see how long it takes to make the change.

[Tron]

1 hour ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

If they do, in fact, roll this back, I will be impressed that National will have taken prudent steps after recognizing this blunder.

Now let's see how long it takes to make the change.

I don't think this was a blunder. From what I have witnessed this was a good thing. Just to be clear as to what I was seeing in my area; we had a pack charging $500 pack dues and blaming council & national. Now that it has become infinitely harder for that pack to munge all the dues together at 1 point in the year and blame recharter, council, national, santa claus, and whomever else for the steep fees that pack is down to single digit membership because all of the cubs in that area are going to other packs now. 

Whatever happens going forward membership cannot overlap with recharter; membership with national and council "service fees" have to be clearly defined so as to prevent bad units from scalping parents. 

[InquisitiveScouter]

Different experience here...

1.  The new registration regime actually caused more work to ensure that Scouts remained registered, and could, therefore, enjoy the benefits of "membership".  (I'll elaborate on that in a bit.)  Because the transaction now goes directly from family to BSA, the burden of action was shifted to the family.  Most families are not fully on top of all the minutiae they have to manage in their lives, and the required action of reading the emails from National (which probably went to spam) and figuring out what to do to register their Scout (admittedly a very low priority), especially around the holiday period, meant that about one third of our Scouts did not have a current paid registration going into recharter.

2.  Once the recharter process started, our Troop became "locked" somehow, and no adults or Scouts who delayed could register in the unit until the recharter was complete.  Those who attempted got some sort of "Unit Not Valid" message, and the system would not process their registration or payment.  Now you have doubled or tripled the amount of work a family / Troop has to do to get on top of this, as they have to monitor the recharter, then notify parents to try again, and then do the payment process again.

3.  Even though there is a "grace" period for individual registrations, until the unit recharter went through, adults in our unit/district/council could not manipulate calendars or input advancements (we'd get a message for a Scout that said they did not have a valid membership.)   After a huge outcry to District Commissioners/District Staffs/Registrar/Council Staff (folks at our January Roundtable were quite testy), the council office pulled folks from other duties to assist Registrar in tasks needed to complete the effort.  Still not done for all units due to adult application issues (for position changes to make sure a unit has the required leadership to recharter), but the majority in our District are now done.

Finally, consider the amount of money being wasted on this process... every family has to pay something like a 3% convenience fee to do this online with a credit card.

For those who went to the Scout office and paid in person, because this was an option presented to avoid the card fee, their registrations were held up until staff went through that paperwork in office.  (Of course, the checks were cashed right away, but renewals were delayed... optics on that not so good either.)

I'm with @Tron... these two actions should be de-coupled by some significant space in the calendar.  My take:  Units should be prompted to renew FIRST.  Once a unit renewal is complete for the next year, the demand signal for individuals to renew their memberships in that unit should go out...

There are a lot more moving parts to this, I'm sure...

 

Edited 1 hour ago by InquisitiveScouter

[Eagle94-A1]

16 hours ago, Tron said:

Whatever happens going forward membership cannot overlap with recharter; membership with national and council "service fees" have to be clearly defined so as to prevent bad units from scalping parents. 

Oh, but council can add weird fees.  A friend of mine's council has a $77 Council fee added to the individual, and a $75/Scout fee added to the unit recharter. $85+77+75 = $237 per Scout per year in that council.

Don't forget awards and activity supplies have skyrocketed too.