https://www.newsday.com/news/nation/boy-scouts-new-name-scouting-america-d58730
The new name puts a focus on inclusivity. Krone told The Associated Press that they wanted a name going forward that made clear that all children and teens are “very, very welcome.”
He added that when people question why the organization needs a new name, he points to historically low membership numbers.
Like other organizations, the scouts lost members during the pandemic, when participation was difficult. The high point over the past decade was in 2018, when there were more than 2 million members. Currently, the organization serves just over 1 million young people, including more than 176,000 girls and teens. Membership peaked in 1972 at almost 5 million.
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IMO there's three reasons. You mentioned two (coof and “policy changes”), but another is the declining interest in scout-y activities among boys. Less interest in hiking, knot making, camping, etc. Not to mention hanging out with other people (coof related but also technology related).
My last reason, if valid, is kinda sad. Hopefully there's a renewed interest, but this time through Trail Life USA.
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People spend less time in the outdoors in general and if you go "camping" nowadays you don't have to lift a finger
Only weirdos camp in tents, and even fully serviced camp washrooms are considered roughing it to burgers
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Wrong. Wow literally everything in this post is wrong. stay in your gay cities, urbancel. Camping owns
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Primitive camping owns. Making fire owns
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I do not want to RETVRN
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Shoulda been a fat chad doing the same pose.
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Kkkracka
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BIPOC I see ppl out here every day. It ain't just glampers here
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Good God no, I live in New Hampshire r-slur
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I do the casual camping with a travel trailer, more or less an excuse to grill and read my books.
Unfortunately the campground has this really fricking obnoxious "drunk train", a lawn tractor pulling a trailer that people drink on.
It'd be fine if they didn't do constant loops, blasting goddarn sirens until midnight.
I really wish my mom would find a new campground to park the camper at, so on the final night I could drive a constant circle, blasting the car horn.
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This seems like a nightmare to me. Just stay home bro
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Seriously. The owners love it. They sell cups and tshirts with a picture of the drunk train on it. It's their "thing".
I've never had a stronger urge to physically batter an elderly man before encountering this campground.
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Do you have to go?? I never understood people going "camping" at trailer parks. It's like a white trash suburb with no plumbing. Why?
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No, I'm an adult. It's mom's camper but my wife and i will use it. My parents bought it a couple months before my dad passed away, so mom likes seeing it actually be used.
It's something to do away from home, out in the woods. Saturday activities like kayaking or tubing, then dinner on the lake. Spend the evening reading a book in front of the fire.
When it's time to go to bed or if it starts raining, the camper has a queen bed, TV, and full bathroom.
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I will never understand the appeal
I hope u have fun tho
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My kids are in scouts and I'm a leader and council member. A huge part of it is fricking old people, they just won't fricking quit and it drives so many people away. They absolutely refuse to change with the times and all think it's fricking 1960 still. They won't do anything new or anything that kids born after like 1980 would find interesting. Like our leaders want to do shit like drive 8 hours to go to Silver Dollar City because they think kids find watching an old man whittling a lawn gnome fun. It causes anyone not being raised by people in their 70s to quit after a year. A bunch of these old dudes don't even have kids in scouts anymore and their grandchildren don't want shit to do with it, they shut down pretty much everything suggested by someone under 50 and then act surprised when they stop helping as leaders. Then these dudes hit the point they have to retire and there's no leaders left and the troop folds. We've absorbed 4 other towns troops in the last 2 years.
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Just take them to shoot guns, that's a fun, timeless activity
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Actually for the first time in years the last regional jamboree was just shotguns, rifles, and archery. $40 bucks for like 20 shells, a box of .22s and all the archery you wanted. But my kid had a softball tournament
. First campout I missed in two years and it was the best so far.
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Darn that sucks. Paintballing would also be cool, people that take it seriously are strags but it's fun as frick with friends. Kids would have an absolute blast with it
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Not allowed, I looked into it. You can't launch shit or shoot at each other. Especially if somethings called a gun or alludes to violence. We had to rename the Boy/Cub Water War squirt gun fight to The annual Water Spraying Contest. You aren't even allowed to point wood props at each other, we host a civil war thing and a dude from the regional council demanded they point the wood props in the air when they shout bang.
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Jesus, can you just start a group with these ppl on your own and call it some other kind of club?
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Well you can just declare the event/campout over and then do shit. Like the annual cub scout bowling trip ends after 2 rounds, then we just keep going but with beer. I live somewhere pretty small so most of are friends anyway.
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I was a Scout within the past decade and this is true. The troop-level leadership was mostly dudes who actually had sons who were part of things, but the guy who had the charter was like 70 with no kids under the age of 20. The troop actually just folded this year
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Our charter is through a Rotary/Lions/ Optimists Club kind of place but they're down to 4 old guys themselves. They're about to see if they can merge with one of the other groups.
It's really a shame how community involvement is dwindling, and covid made it so much worse. But what really gets me is how many people b-word about groups like these on Facebook when I know how they aren't doing shit themselves. Like if I have someone demand to know why we don't do a chili feed anymore I'm going to fricking punch them, it was literally just two of us doing everything.
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Interesting and unique take. Thanks for sharing.
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I'm hazarding a fourth reason. Helicopter moms were encroaching on the Boy Scouts for a long time, and the decision to welcome girls probably threw the helicopter mom hangars wide open, thus ensuring all fun is safely snuffed out
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Nah, the moms generally don't want their kids to be fricking kitties. Its old people, and there's always some rule following neurodivergent stick in the mud killjoy. Like if we host a game night they'll cockblock any game rated higher than E10. Or will complain because your not even supposed to have like wood prop guns and say bang at each other.
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Where do you live that there aren't tons of helicopter moms that think swiss army knives are too dangerous?
Also what boy scout troop has so many old people? I thought it mostly parent volunteers
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Rural Kansas, farm moms generally arent terribly soft. And it's any volunteers, you don't have to have a kid in or be a former scout or anything. It's mostly parents for obvious reasons, and generally the old people were parents and just won't fricking quit.
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My troop had to ban women from trips to get the helicoptering under control
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Urbancel?
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Didn't know ruralcels had it so different
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I did Indian Guides with my dad and other dad's and sons in the neighborhood as a kid and it was a fricking blast. We'd get away from our moms, the dad's would just get shitfaced around the campfire and we'd run wild all weekend. Some of my best memories as a kid were those trips.
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I absolutely do not see declining interest in traditional outdoor scout activities here but it could be regional
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Neither, 2018 was the year they started letting girls in.
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The libertarian scandal stuff was closer to like 2010-2014 wasn't it? I dont remember when it blew up but it was sooner than 2018 i think
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Mormons splintered after the homos were allowed in
https://www.hurley-law.com/chicago-injury-lawyers/how-the-mormon-church-and-the-boy-scouts-of-america-are-linked/
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Zoomers don't go outside
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From someone who was part of it while it was dying:
1. Demographics. There are less Gen Alphas than zoomers and less zoomers than millenials and less millenials than xoomers and less xoomers than boomers. There aren't that many young people.
2. Becoming more obscure. Back in ye olden days, troops would be chartered by schools, so you would join your school's troop. At some point that became against the rules (or law?) so now churches charter troops, so it's mostly only church kids become Boy Scouts. Church is getting less and less popular as well.
3. The Mormons left. This happened in 2018, and is likely why the numbers dropped so hard since then. Mormons made up a huge amount of Boy Scouts, which is the one redeeming quality of Mormons. When the Boy Scouts started letting girls in, the Mormons severed all ties with the Boy Scouts and forbid their youth from joining.
4. Zoomers be gay. Let's face it, zoom-moids would rather watch titty streamers and play Fortnite then go out camping and shooting guns.
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