Replying to this for convenience. Hi all!
Not sure whether to make a new thread for the question, since it seems to be the theme of forum (political segment) discussion since COVID. If the BSA folded (or practically folded, like all current members transfered to an alternate org), how would a new org be designed? Suggestions have been made here about cost-saving (the most abhorrent issue) such as uniform-policing, but is there space to construct a possible solution in the forums that a National council could implement?
Or in another way, how could we let youth organize a movement they want to be part of? There are multiple appealing avenues which Scouting teaches life skills... For myself, the merit badge program had the promise of introducing topics which were more interesting and relevant than the severly limited selection of K-12 subjects. (And as I went through the program, allowed youth to teach youth topics they were interested in.)
I'm sure there have been good initatives from Council and above to increase youth ability to do things for themselves and discourage adults from creating obstacles to that. (For instance, the flop of "BSA Open Source Initative".)
Do we scouters need to document and promote ways youth can take up the promise of Scouting? Specifically, to percieve problems and have a strong program to lead themselves and others toward solutions?
What is your account of how scouts get interested in joining and retaining their membership? Is this question best addressed at the volunteer level - and if not, is there an organizational change that needs to happen, such as moving towards a more OA way of doing things - tasks are more or less availible to "opt in" to an existing list, or projects are easily proposed at an Lodge Exec Council meeting (an all-volunteer council-level mostly-youth org)? (Including consideration that most scouts only are active ~3 years in the troop, before high school life presents more appealing opportunities.)
And for the population of scouts who you see excited about scouting (the contingent of girls excited to 'legally' participate in the program comes to mind), are there other resources that should be considered or created? (As a foil to the OA/LEC example: does your council have a strong Venturing program, and how is the VOA? Which gets more "political" or "in-group"ish?)
For the proposals that the BSA culture reorients toward the 18-30 y/o demographic for volunteers, how do you propose that is implemented?
For related threads in this theme, see:
https://www.scouter.com/topic/32944-will-the-bsa-survive-bankruptcy/
https://www.scouter.com/topic/33190-what-happens-if-bsa-goes-chapter-7/
https://www.scouter.com/topic/32928-is-it-time-for-the-bsa-to-change-its-leadership-model
https://www.scouter.com/topic/26256-what-changes-would-you-make-if-you-were-robert-gates-the-new-bsa-president
https://www.scouter.com/topic/33134-why-do-we-need-a-national-council/
