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

[yknot]

18 hours ago, mrjohns2 said:

It is pretty normal for an org to talk about their year-end numbers as their numbers. This year, 2026, isn't over yet. 

That is what the Chipmunk rank expansion is for -- to boost the numbers up before the end of 2026. Allowing everyone to recharter in February also means that membership numbers from year end 2026 now through to whatever the new recharter grace period is (May?) will be inflated. That means that in 2027, unless Chipmunk completely fails or numbers really continue to trend down and tank, we will likely be seeing and hearing of claims of membership growth. 

[mrjohns2]

3 hours ago, yknot said:

That is what the Chipmunk rank expansion is for -- to boost the numbers up before the end of 2026.

This makes me think of "same store sales" that retail has to report. It would be better for them to report each one of the programs with chipmunks broken out. They obviously won't do that. 

[Tron]

3 hours ago, mrjohns2 said:

This makes me think of "same store sales" that retail has to report. It would be better for them to report each one of the programs with chipmunks broken out. They obviously won't do that. 

It's my understanding that they do internally.

 

[InquisitiveScouter]

On 5/15/2026 at 12:19 PM, InquisitiveScouter said:

15 May 2026 numbers:

Total Unit-Based Youth:  754,640  

- This is a loss of 12,754 from end of March number, which was 767,394.

- End of April number was 762,883, or a loss of 4,511 from end of March.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark

Reporting 887K when system shows 755K, or 15% less.  It cannot be that hard to post a current number on a slide. 

You gotta go back to Dec 2025/Jan 2026 to get near 887K total youth, and that includes unit based plus Learning for Life.

Do you think the NAM number includes LFL?

Beginning of June update:

Total Unit-Based Youth:  746,579, down 8,061 from last month, or -1.1% 

(this does not include numbers for Learning for Life)

[Tron]

24 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

Beginning of June update:

Total Unit-Based Youth:  746,579, down 8,061 from last month, or -1.1% 

(this does not include numbers for Learning for Life)

This aligns with the 500k trendline scenario that was presented at the NAM.

[PACAN]

Was there a slide in a presentation that showed the trendline that anyone has and can share?

 

Was there a breakdown of the 500K?   30% Chipmunks,  30% Lions, 40 % Eagles?  😁

[Tron]

21 hours ago, PACAN said:

Was there a slide in a presentation that showed the trendline that anyone has and can share?

 

Was there a breakdown of the 500K?   30% Chipmunks,  30% Lions, 40 % Eagles?  😁

Not that I saw, a lot of the slide deck data was not shared this year. 

[InquisitiveScouter]

Just now, Tron said:

Not that I saw, a lot of the slide deck data was not shared this year. 

Maybe churn through the links here???

If you find something relevant, please let us know

https://nam.scouting.org/presentations/

[PACAN]

Nada in the slide presentations.

[Eagle1993]

BSA will be headed to bankruptcy again.  They retained massive debt after the last bankruptcy and their business plan showed membership growth to over a million scouts by now.  I saw some of their presentations online.  I hope their plans work, but I struggle to see a turnaround in membership.