William Cronk Elected as National President of BSA

[fgoodwin]

William Cronk Elected as National President of the Boy Scouts of America

 

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20060524005678

http://tinyurl.com/rmaqy

 

Business and Civic Leader Assumes Role as Top Volunteer

 

May 24, 2006 12:11 PM US Eastern Timezone

 

WASHINGTON, D.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 24, 2006--Today at its National Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) elected William F. "Rick" Cronk as national president. In his new role as the BSA's top volunteer, a two-year term, Cronk will direct the National Executive Board, which guides the National Council of the BSA.

 

Cronk has been a long-time supporter of the Scouting movement has served the BSA in various roles, including district chairman and area president, and on the BSA's Finance and Investment Committee.

 

"It is an honor to serve the Boy Scouts of America," Cronk said. "More than ever before, our young people need character development and a strong sense of values. I am proud to be part of this storied organization that prepares young people for today's challenges and tomorrow's promises."

 

Cronk received his bachelor of science in business administration from the Haas Business School at the University of California at Berkeley in 1965. After graduation, he began his career with Eastman Dillon. In 1977, Cronk and his best friend, Gary Rogers, purchased Dreyer's Ice Cream, a $6 million San Francisco area-based company. When Cronk retired recently as president of the company, his leadership had made Dreyer's the nation's largest manufacturer and distributor of premium and super premium ice cream brands, expanded its distribution throughout the United States, and attained revenues in excess of $1.5 billion.

 

"As the BSA continually evolves to remain relevant in the lives of today's youth, Rick's business and civic leadership will be extremely valuable to our organization," said Roy L. Williams, Chief Scout Executive. "We are excited as Rick leads millions of BSA volunteers in their work on behalf of millions of Scouting youth."

 

While Cronk dedicates much of his free time to the BSA, he remains active with many civic and business organizations. Cronk is focused upon dramatically reforming California's K-12 public school education system, to provide educational opportunities to all youth, particularly the disadvantaged.

 

Cronk is a recipient of the BSA's Silver Buffalo Award, Scouting's highest commendation for service to youth. The father of three sons, all of whom are Eagle Scouts, Cronk and his wife reside in Lafayette, Calif.

 

Past national presidents of the BSA include Ed Whitacre, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of SBC Communications Inc.; Milton Ward, chief executive officer of Ward Resources Inc.; Roy Roberts, managing director of Reliant Equity Investors; and outgoing president John Cushman of Cushman & Wakefield Inc., a global real estate services firm.

 

The Scouting movement is composed of 1.2 million volunteers, whose dedication of time and resources has enabled the Boy Scouts of America to remain the nation's leading youth service organization. Serving nearly 4.5 million young people between 7 and 20 years of age with more than 300 councils throughout the United States and its territories, the Boy Scouts of America is the nation's foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training. For more information on the BSA, please visit http://www.scouting.org

[Fuzzy Bear]

I suppose asking about the validity of the 1.2 million membership count would miss the point?

[evmori]

Nah ask! But just remember the article, NOT the BSA is reporting those numbers.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Lisabob]

Looks like those were adult volunteers, not youth numbers being reported. If youth membership is somewhere between 4-5 million then I suppose it would be reasonable for adult leadership to be somewhere around 1.2 million?

 

By the way, I'm not terribly well-versed in this stuff so let me ask those of you who are - is it typical for this position to be held by someone who has served as a volunteer, as Cronk apparently has? I'd think that would be a refreshing bit of news and maybe bring a bit more pragmatic focus to the organization?

 

Lisa'bob

[jkhny]

Gotta love the way BSA muddles Scouting membership numbers. About the whole "trustworthy" thing?

 

Without Learning for Life - which even BSA goes to great lengths to say is NOT Scouting (can't get govt grants and charitable funds otherwise, but it has little resemblence to Scouting anyway) - BSA can claim only 2.9 million in SCOUTING programs - Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Venturing. There are less than 1 million in Boy Scouts. that's pretty sad. When an organization continues to lose members at the rate BSA is losing them, you think they'd throw the management team out.

 

And this is the "total served in 2005 count. BSA is lucky to have 2.5 million actively participating at any point in the year.

 

This is pretty sad considering they had MORE in Scouting in 1952 - when the numbers were a far more accurate count and the age group served was far smaller.

 

BSA is continually losing ground. It is doing a lousy job of representing the world-wide SCOUTING movement. If they didn't have their Congressional monopoly - oops, "charter" - this corporation would have been put out of business a while ago.

 

But maybe that's what the intent is..... all the paid professionals will still get their pensions - no matter what happens to Scouting.

 

Flame away, but our Council has 7000 active in Scouting at any time during the year - tries to claim "10,000" at year end but can only pull that off with huge turnover and LFL counts. Girl Scouts in the same region has 17,000.

 

The problem is not "Scouting." Volunteers here are fed up with the Amway model being shoved down their throats - "Add new members and sell popcorn." Sorry, but "the key to a quality Scouting program" is NOT popcorn sales.

 

You can't simply order staff to "find new volunteers" when your most dedicated leaders are getting fed up and quitting. And when the NY Post headlines an abuse story where BSA's defense was that a 14 year old "consented"..........you try to explain THAT to a parent. On what planet is the leadership of BSA living? Are they TRYING to kill off Scouting?

[funscout]

jkhny,

 

I must live in a totally different world than you do. The only leaders I know who have quit in the last 7 years are those whose boys have quit. And, the only reason I know of for boys to quit or not join in the first place, is lack of time due to other extra-curricular activities.

 

I've only been involved in BSA for 7 years, but in that time I have never heard of a leader or boy quitting because of BSA policies.

[Newbie Den Leader]

In my world (Pack and District level), I don't hear the leaders talk about national council or membership numbers. Usually, the conversations are geared toward making our units better or how to be a better leader. I conur with funscout. Leaders in my district generally leave when their sons leave, not because of national or council politics.

 

Fundraisers (popcorn)are not popular activities, but they do provide needed funds for our Pack. Without some kind of fund raising, we would have to raise our monthly dues to provide a quality Pack program.

 

 

 

 

 

[SSScout]

There always seems to be two perspectives:

 

"Back when I was a Scout..."

 

"This is what I see now..."

 

#1: My mom had been a Campfire girl, my dad had never been a Scout. But when I wanted to join Cub Scouts (so they told me, I asked to join. Perhaps from a school presentation), they whole heartedly supported me and our Pack and then Troop. Dad made things for us, drove us around, coached our CS softball team. Mom was a DL.(DM!). Our basement was a Patrol meeting room, equipment storage place. Altho we lived in a nascent suburb, Scouts was one of the biggest things to do. I also marched in the HS band (others of my Scout friends were on sport teams, etc.), so yeah, we had choices.

 

#2 Times change. My daughter never took an interest in GS, perceived as "too dorky" First wife never supported the idea.. My son took to CS easily, both from my encouragement and a school promotion (they were still allowed). Second wife and I were DLs, she CC and I CM. The other parents in the P were supportive, but many were strapped for time and money. Too big of a house, too big of a mortgage, IMHO. "Gee, you know about these things, We don't" Good job thanks CM!" When it came time to move on into BS, no one was willing to pick up the reins, so the P folded. Our DE ( an otherwise excellent Scout) said they would not chill the charter, even tho all the Cubs had moved on or dropped out. The DE and DD labored for several months with various promotions to resusitate the P to no avail. No interest in the school community. Been two years now. Is that indicative? of what?

Our present Troop is very active, as a Troop. The 4 Patrols are not that active as Patrols. We have 12 new "crossed over" boys and things look good. But more on that later...

[Newbie Den Leader]

Back to the original post -

 

William Cronk sounds like a fine choice.

 

QUOTE FROM jkhny:

This is pretty sad considering they had MORE in Scouting in 1952 - when the numbers were a far more accurate count and the age group served was far smaller.

 

Do you have proof that the numbers were more accurate on a national scale than they are today? In 1952, counts were likely done manually. Yes, there were more members in 1952 but families were also larger as 3 to 5 children per family was commonplace. Today, the 2.3 kids per family average does not help increase the pool for potential recruits for boy scouts.

 

Also and sadly, The BSA does not have the public support and popularity it once had because public opinion has changed on manymoral issues while the BSA has held it's ground. In 1952, belief in God and disapproval of homosexuality were common in the public square and the BSA was not challenged on these issues.

 

I would rather the BSA hold it's ground on moral issues and be smaller instead of pandering to public opinion for the sake of getting more members.