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

[Eagle1993]

On 6/7/2026 at 3:58 PM, IanR said:

We are constantly told that kids have to see people like themselves (color, sexual predilections) to feel included and to be interested in (insert your activity here).

If that really is true, what does that say about Scouting's interest in reaching their largest potential demographic?

 

 

I don't disagree but kids and parents are not staying away because of a flyer.  They are also not joining because of a flyer like this.  

Upper middle class suburban...

The largest classes of Cub Scouts typically occurred when the popular mom(s) signed their kids up.  It was based on parents connections.  We would see anywhere from 35 Lions to 10 depending on what moms sign up.

Unfortunately, regardless of who signs up, we continue to see decreases at the Troop level. Since the addition of Lions, retention of AOL cross overs has plummeted.  Parents tell us they are looking to focus their kids in middle school and most are choosing sports.  Our community is heavily focused on sports, parents make friends over the travel teams their kids join and it's tough to compete with that. 

I'm sure experience varies over the country, but unless there is some sort of change of the view of scouts, I think it will continue to decline in terms of enrollment.

 

[Tron]

We're basically wrapping up the very tail end of crossover season here in my district; we know right now that arrow of light scouts who have not crossed are basically never going to join a troop. This time period has led my district to look at who the "winners" and "losers" of crossover season are; the results are staggering. 

Over half of our districts troops received ZERO crossovers this year. When we (district committee) looked into this we noticed a trend. The units that received ZERO crossovers had all of the same attributes in common. Units with untrained leaders, small leadership groups, and little to no advancement of current scouts were the big losers that received no crossovers. We also identified "super losers" in the crossover situation; these were units (we had multiple) that have not received a crossover in 2 or more of the past 4 years. We are very concerned with those units as they are in a situation where they have a structural gap of little to no young scouts for the older scouts to lead, and in a few years (if they troops survive) they will have no older scouts to lead the potential younger scouts. 

I know other activities are pulling families away from scouts; however, I think bad units are also pushing families away. 

[Eagle94-A1]

3 hours ago, Tron said:

I know other activities are pulling families away from scouts; however, I think bad units are also pushing families away. 

Don't forget costs. National fees are up. Councils are implementing their fees on top of that. Then uniforms and books. Then activities.

[yknot]

3 hours ago, Tron said:

We're basically wrapping up the very tail end of crossover season here in my district; we know right now that arrow of light scouts who have not crossed are basically never going to join a troop. This time period has led my district to look at who the "winners" and "losers" of crossover season are; the results are staggering. 

Over half of our districts troops received ZERO crossovers this year. When we (district committee) looked into this we noticed a trend. The units that received ZERO crossovers had all of the same attributes in common. Units with untrained leaders, small leadership groups, and little to no advancement of current scouts were the big losers that received no crossovers. We also identified "super losers" in the crossover situation; these were units (we had multiple) that have not received a crossover in 2 or more of the past 4 years. We are very concerned with those units as they are in a situation where they have a structural gap of little to no young scouts for the older scouts to lead, and in a few years (if they troops survive) they will have no older scouts to lead the potential younger scouts. 

I know other activities are pulling families away from scouts; however, I think bad units are also pushing families away. 

I agree in that the focus is always on recruitment, not retention. I also think part of the reason for that is that the reasons for poor retention are unpalatable and not what leadership wants to hear. It isn't so much that "bad" units are pushing scouts and families away, it is that the entire organization has become so poorly designed and managed and unworkable that it is very difficult for Scouting America to produce a high quality, consistent product at the unit level whether that's across country let alone across town. The organization needs to re-engineer itself around providing a good product at the unit (parent and scout) level, instead of organizing itself around what has become the Scouting institutionalized monolith. There are so many touchpoints that simply don't work for most parents and kids and there seems to be little recognition of it or appetite for changing anything. 

[Tron]

On 6/26/2026 at 1:24 PM, yknot said:

I agree in that the focus is always on recruitment, not retention. I also think part of the reason for that is that the reasons for poor retention are unpalatable and not what leadership wants to hear. It isn't so much that "bad" units are pushing scouts and families away, it is that the entire organization has become so poorly designed and managed and unworkable that it is very difficult for Scouting America to produce a high quality, consistent product at the unit level whether that's across country let alone across town. The organization needs to re-engineer itself around providing a good product at the unit (parent and scout) level, instead of organizing itself around what has become the Scouting institutionalized monolith. There are so many touchpoints that simply don't work for most parents and kids and there seems to be little recognition of it or appetite for changing anything. 

I think Scouting America has a good product, a high quality product. I agree with you that there is a consistency problem. Let us compare Scouting America to Walmart for the sake of argument. When a unit, district, or council are doing horrible, recruitment is down, retention is down, fundraising is down, engagement is down, etc ... what does Scouting America do? From where I am in the organization I don't see Scouting America doing a single thing. Contrast that to Walmart. When a Walmart store is doing bad, high theft, above average complaints, low sales, etc ... Walmart sends in a corporate trainer to evaluate the situation, temporarily take over certain aspects of the store, and correct the problems; if the problems cannot be corrected the trainer recommends closing the location. Could Scouting America learn something from Walmart? 

[InquisitiveScouter]

48 minutes ago, Tron said:

I think Scouting America has a good product, a high quality product. I agree with you that there is a consistency problem. Let us compare Scouting America to Walmart for the sake of argument. When a unit, district, or council are doing horrible, recruitment is down, retention is down, fundraising is down, engagement is down, etc ... what does Scouting America do? From where I am in the organization I don't see Scouting America doing a single thing. Contrast that to Walmart. When a Walmart store is doing bad, high theft, above average complaints, low sales, etc ... Walmart sends in a corporate trainer to evaluate the situation, temporarily take over certain aspects of the store, and correct the problems; if the problems cannot be corrected the trainer recommends closing the location. Could Scouting America learn something from Walmart? 

Is this what Commissioners are supposed to do?

Problem is, no one is willing to use the stick.

[DuctTape]

On 7/1/2026 at 6:15 PM, InquisitiveScouter said:

Is this what Commissioners are supposed to do?

Problem is, no one is willing to use the stick.

Increasing number of units as a performance metric is contradictory to closing non-performing units.

Personally I have no issue with declining membership and closing of units as long as Scouting remains true to its core methods and aims.

Chasing market share is a corporate goal, not a scouting goal. I know some people argue that scouting better achieves its goals by having more scouts, I disagree. When Scouting sacrifices its aims and methods to chase numbers it erodes the very goal it claims to promote. Secondly, Scouting is no longer the only activity with its aims. Others have the same aims, where Scouting differs is in its methods and outdoors camping based medium. We should double down on what truly makes Scouting unique. 

We can be McDonalds or a Michelin star restaurant. I choose the latter.