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

[Tron]

6 hours ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

I do not know where you live, but in my neck of the woods $237 IS a lot of money for folks, especially with multiple kids. I am in a rural area with high poverty rate.

As for value, (sarcasm on) what's a professional? Are those the paid folks who are supposed to help units with recruiting? I have heard of these mythical creatures, and thought they were extinct since it has been so long since I have seen one.(sarcasm off)

If I wasn't trying to laugh, I would be crying.

I'll jump on the pity party. 64% of my town lives at or below the poverty line.  $237 is not a lot of money. 

[Eagle94-A1]

17 hours ago, Tron said:

I'll jump on the pity party. 64% of my town lives at or below the poverty line.  $237 is not a lot of money. 

Glad you got a good job, cause i sure don't.

 

[InquisitiveScouter]

UPDATE:

01 March ended the grace period for those memberships which expired on 31 Dec.  Those expired memberships have now dropped off the rolls.

Let's look at the updated numbers now...

As of 03 March, numbers pulled moments ago...

Same Month Last Year: 980,311 (Mar 2025)  all programs...

Total Current Youth: 781,539 (Mar 2026) a 20.28% drop from last year.

Last Year End:  907,950 (This is the 31 Dec 2025 number in the system.)  This changed by +1  from previous reports. (weird, huh?)

Dec 2024 End of Year number was: 986,520

These numbers include Learning for Life,  33,478 on the books now.

Edited 6 hours ago by InquisitiveScouter

[InquisitiveScouter]

Taking out the LFL numbers, we now have 748,061 members in all unit based programs.

Last time it was that low?  1933

[yknot]

5 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

Taking out the LFL numbers, we now have 748,061 members in all unit based programs.

Last time it was that low?  1933

Thank you for posting numbers. The nadir during Covid was at one point around 650,000, but that low included a lot of paused not lost memberships.  

[InquisitiveScouter]

3 minutes ago, yknot said:

Thank you for posting numbers. The nadir during Covid was at one point around 650,000, but that low included a lot of paused not lost memberships.  

That was in Scouts only, not all programs.  All programs 2020 was about 1 million.

https://nam.scouting.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2024/05/Change-the-Way-We-Work-Together.pdf

[InquisitiveScouter]

Those slides from 2024 NAM.  You'll notice the projection for end of 2025 was 1,224,000, all programs.

Actual 2025 end was 907,950, so 25.8% below projected.

[Jameson76]

3 hours ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

UPDATE:

01 March ended the grace period for those memberships which expired on 31 Dec.  Those expired memberships have now dropped off the rolls.

Let's look at the updated numbers now...

As of 03 March, numbers pulled moments ago...

Same Month Last Year: 980,311 (Mar 2025)  all programs...

Total Current Youth: 781,539 (Mar 2026) a 20.28% drop from last year.

Last Year End:  907,950 (This is the 31 Dec 2025 number in the system.)  This changed by +1  from previous reports. (weird, huh?)

Dec 2024 End of Year number was: 986,520

These numbers include Learning for Life,  33,478 on the books now.

 

The current group of professionals and key volunteers know how (in some cases) to raise money.  Grow program, not so much.  Sad part is they are raising money on the nostalgia of the BSA, not the current BSA

No real effort being made to add units or expand the program.  Lots of excuses as to why membership decline, just no real honest effort to make updates so people (families) may want to buy what is being sold