Tron Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 4 minutes ago, IanR said: 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. No one except club sports are flourishing. I'd like to see the real trailife numbers, what's available online shows initial great success peaking over 100k but then also decling back intonthe 50 to 60k range. Same pattern for girl scouts and BSA. 2021(ish) spike followed by linear decline to current numbers. Scouts Canada is also in decline. The only english speaking scouting group doing well is scouts UK which has a significantly different org structure with growth throttled by lack of leadership. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuctTape Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 Club and travel sports are beginning to hear a backlash from parents. So far it has not changed participation but that would be the next step. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanR Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 1 hour ago, Tron said: No one except club sports are flourishing. I'd like to see the real trailife numbers, what's available online shows initial great success peaking over 100k but then also decling back intonthe 50 to 60k range. Same pattern for girl scouts and BSA. 2021(ish) spike followed by linear decline to current numbers. Scouts Canada is also in decline. The only english speaking scouting group doing well is scouts UK which has a significantly different org structure with growth throttled by lack of leadership. 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) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tron Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 8 minutes ago, IanR said: 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) Where are you seeing your numbers? Like I said I would like to see their real numbers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yknot Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 Scouting is in decline. Other youth activities are not. Most have not only rebounded after Covid but have hit new highs. For example, 4-H is around 6 million up from 4 million prior to the pandemic. More US youth are involved not only in traditional sports but in new and emerging sports like Cricket. More US youth and families are involved in the outdoors than ever before -- they just are not accessing it through scouting. The problem with scouting's decline is scouting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanR Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 8 minutes ago, Tron said: Where are you seeing your numbers? Like I said I would like to see their real numbers. 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. Just now, yknot said: Scouting is in decline. Other youth activities are not. Most have not only rebounded after Covid but have hit new highs. For example, 4-H is around 6 million up from 4 million prior to the pandemic. More US youth are involved not only in traditional sports but in new and emerging sports like Cricket. More US youth and families are involved in the outdoors than ever before -- they just are not accessing it through scouting. The problem with scouting's decline is scouting. 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InquisitiveScouter Posted April 2 Author Share Posted April 2 (edited) 8 minutes ago, IanR said: 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. https://info.traillifeusa.com/annual-report (2020 - 2022) https://info.traillifeusa.com/2023-annual-report https://info.traillifeusa.com/2024-annual-report https://info.traillifeusa.com/annual-report-2025 Edited April 2 by InquisitiveScouter added 2023 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanR Posted April 2 Share Posted April 2 8 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said: https://info.traillifeusa.com/annual-report (2020 - 2022) https://info.traillifeusa.com/2024-annual-report https://info.traillifeusa.com/annual-report-2025 Cannot find one for 2023. https://info.traillifeusa.com/2023-annual-report 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jameson76 Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 On 4/2/2026 at 9:33 AM, Tron said: Correct, membership is on a near linear decline 10%(ish) year over year. From what I have seen its fairly uniform across the whole country, no single council or region is responsible. I'm increasingly believing that the issue is just a significant amount of untrained or poorly trained unit leaders pushing families out of the program by not running the actual program. How many recall the feedback a few years back from many of the council leadership and national that what was needed was to edge out the old guard of the BSA and make room for the new leaders, that is what was holding the scouting movement in America back. What the brain trust did not fully take into account was that many of the "old guard" did not really see Scouts as just an activity, but more as a calling and a mission. They were in it for the long haul. Those leaders have in fact moved on and nobody is stepping into the gap. Especially at district and council levels, and obviously the unit level. Getting new leaders is really tough, many families (parents) view Scouting as purely transactional, they pay and the "Unit" provides the program. Not realizing (I feel) that they are in fact the unit. They look around and wonder if they are really getting the bang for their buck. It does not take a detailed accounting to realize if you want to go camping, hiking, build a birdhouse, all of that can be done waay faster and cheaper on your own. Invite kids friends and go to out and do. Scouts needs to fully figure out what value they actually bring 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tron Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 2 hours ago, Jameson76 said: How many recall the feedback a few years back from many of the council leadership and national that what was needed was to edge out the old guard of the BSA and make room for the new leaders, that is what was holding the scouting movement in America back. What the brain trust did not fully take into account was that many of the "old guard" did not really see Scouts as just an activity, but more as a calling and a mission. They were in it for the long haul. Those leaders have in fact moved on and nobody is stepping into the gap. Especially at district and council levels, and obviously the unit level. Getting new leaders is really tough, many families (parents) view Scouting as purely transactional, they pay and the "Unit" provides the program. Not realizing (I feel) that they are in fact the unit. They look around and wonder if they are really getting the bang for their buck. It does not take a detailed accounting to realize if you want to go camping, hiking, build a birdhouse, all of that can be done waay faster and cheaper on your own. Invite kids friends and go to out and do. Scouts needs to fully figure out what value they actually bring In my area that old guard is still staunchly in place. More to your point I see many units with new parents willing to step up but they then recede when the old guard wants to use them as worker bees in a dictatorship instead of a collaborative environment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcousino Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 5 hours ago, Jameson76 said: How many recall the feedback a few years back from many of the council leadership and national that what was needed was to edge out the old guard of the BSA and make room for the new leaders, that is what was holding the scouting movement in America back. What the brain trust did not fully take into account was that many of the "old guard" did not really see Scouts as just an activity, but more as a calling and a mission. They were in it for the long haul. Those leaders have in fact moved on and nobody is stepping into the gap. Especially at district and council levels, and obviously the unit level. Getting new leaders is really tough, many families (parents) view Scouting as purely transactional, they pay and the "Unit" provides the program. Not realizing (I feel) that they are in fact the unit. They look around and wonder if they are really getting the bang for their buck. It does not take a detailed accounting to realize if you want to go camping, hiking, build a birdhouse, all of that can be done waay faster and cheaper on your own. Invite kids friends and go to out and do. Scouts needs to fully figure out what value they actually bring I wonder how loss of skilled scouter during the break off of losses to trail life effects this. I know a lost of a lot of good baptist scouter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanR Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 11 hours ago, jcousino said: I wonder how loss of skilled scouter during the break off of losses to trail life effects this. I know a lost of a lot of good baptist scouter 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle94-A1 Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 Even before Trails Life, pros were trying to do away with long term volunteers. I cannot tell you how many good, extremely dedicated Scouters left because of treatment by pros. Some left district and council roles to focus ont heir units. Others just quit. And they left vacancies that to this day are still not filled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tron Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 49 minutes ago, Eagle94-A1 said: Even before Trails Life, pros were trying to do away with long term volunteers. I cannot tell you how many good, extremely dedicated Scouters left because of treatment by pros. Some left district and council roles to focus ont heir units. Others just quit. And they left vacancies that to this day are still not filled. Some vacancies are purely the result of professionals not building out the team. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle94-A1 Posted April 7 Share Posted April 7 Or professionals ignoring, shouting at, or cursing out volunteers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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