From On Scouting; an interview with a new guy from the National Meeting

[skeptic]

https://onscouting.org/2026/05/20/qa-with-scouting-america-national-chair-ricky-mason/

The tone is promising, but my confidence in its viability is thin.  Take a look.  He says some of the right words, but is there any weight in them?

[Jameson76]

1 hour ago, skeptic said:

https://onscouting.org/2026/05/20/qa-with-scouting-america-national-chair-ricky-mason/

The tone is promising, but my confidence in its viability is thin.  Take a look.  He says some of the right words, but is there any weight in them?

Sooo, maybe good points, lack of specifics.  If he had laid out they were reducing councils would have felt better.  Glad he didn't start with "your kids are safer with us", that does not need to be the lead in and Go To Market slogan

• we must make volunteering easier and more rewarding. That means giving volunteers the support, tools and resources they need to succeed.
  • I wonder what the plan actually is, sounds correct, but lacks specifics
• We need to improve both our internal infrastructure and the technology families interact with directly. Parents and volunteers should be able to use their phones and online tools easily to manage registrations, communication and unit activities.
  • I wonder what the plan actually is, sounds correct, but lacks specifics
• Another critical area is branding and marketing. During the pandemic and bankruptcy, we did very little marketing. Now we’re reinvesting in campaigns that better communicate the value of Scouting to parents and families.
  • I wonder what the plan actually is, sounds correct, but lacks specifics
• One challenge we face is that we have significantly fewer district executives and unit-serving professionals than we did several years ago. Those positions are critical because they support units, recruit members and help volunteers succeed.  That means some councils may need to rethink how resources are allocated. In some cases, councils may have more property than they currently need, while needing more investment in frontline staff and membership growth.
  • So sell assets to hire even more professionals (DE's) who do little to nothing to serve the units, feed the professional commissioned scouter animal
• Last fall, Scouting America recruited approximately 260,000 new youth members. The problem is that we are still losing more members than we recruit.
  • Agree, finally that's been said out loud
• They need opportunities to spend time with other young people, to be part of a patrol and a community, and to experience the outdoors.  Scouting teaches youth how to succeed — but also how to fail and recover from failure. That’s one of the most important lessons young people can learn.
  • Agree on that point

Edited 18 hours ago by Jameson76

[skeptic]

The largest issue that continues is the apparent inability to note that selling camps that leave a council without local options does not make sense.  And continuing to treat volunteers as ignorant or lacking in ability is not the way to go.  For me, also, not putting the important elements of local historical data and material  into local perspective is NOT wise.  It is that very history and longevity that is most important to bring the program out of its darkness.  I keep coming back to the elderly woman that spoke to me at a local Memorial Day event where my unit was serving.  She said she was o glad to see the scouts there; she thought they were gone.  That is a very telling comment.  I can only hope that somehow we might get the shift in focus to service and positive public images, and away from obvious dollar promotions.  Sadly, I fear I may not live to see that again, though I say I will be my family's first centenarian, I am not foolish enough to discount that as a long shot.  And I already cannot do things I once did, and I miss meetings due to old man syndromes and night driving concerns.  One day at a time, and pass what I can on.  

 

[Tron]

I met Ricky Mason a couple years ago, he was a keynote speaker at an event; based on that experience I can say he has the right ties to the program to be driven to make it survive, and he has the grasp of knowledge of what is really going on to know what needs to be done.

The other thing is we definitely have far too many councils; as we consolidate we won't need as many camps, we're barely using the camps right now. We need to lean on Jim Rogers to optimize the number of camps and campsites. Our membership is low right now, but it's not going to get much bigger.

Historically we've been at 2% of American youth in scouting, that puts the real membership metric at only about 1 million youth members. We have to adjust to the fact that Americans are having far fewer children and that the country is growing older. It is a demographic change that is out of our hands. If the younger generations are not confident in their ability to hold down good employment and have a marriage and a home they will have fewer kids. Fewer kids means fewer scouts. Offshoring jobs and letting banks and investment funds squat on empty homes is having a big impact on millenials and gen Z and their decisions to start families.