walk in the woods Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 Saw this on another scouting list: Quote The 2017 numbers are from the 2017 Report to the Nation. <https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/02/2017-Report-to-the-Nation.pdf> Boy Scouts = Boy Scouts and Varsity Scouts. Venturing = Venturers and Sea Scouts. Cub Scouts Boy Scouts Venturing Total ---------- ---------- --------- ----- 1998 2,171,987 1,023,442 188,010 3,383,439 1999 2,166,289 1,023,691 202,164 3,392,144 2000 2,114,420 1,003,691 233,858 3,351,969 2001 2,043,478 1,005,592 276,434 3,325,504 2002 2,000,478 1,010,791 293,323 3,304,592 2003 1,914,425 997,398 288,395 3,200,218 2004 1,875,752 988,995 280,584 3,145,331 2005 1,745,324 943,426 249,948 2,938,698 2006 1,701,861 922,836 244,266 2,868,963 2007 1,687,986 913,588 254,259 2,855,833 2008 1,665,635 905,879 261,122 2,832,636 2009 1,634,951 898,320 257,361 2,790,632 2010 1,601,994 898,852 238,846 2,739,692 2011 1,583,166 909,576 231,127 2,723,869 2012 1,528,421 910,920 219,453 2,658,794 2013 1,417,034 888,947 192,080 2,498,061 2014 1,295,527 854,692 157,655 2,307,874 2015 1,261,340 840,654 142,892 2,244,886 2016 1,262,311 822,999 136,629 2,221,939 2017 1,245,882 834,124 87,827 2,167,833 The overall decline during the past year was 2.4% while the decline during the past 19 years has been 35.9%. The BSA's goal for 2017 was to increase youth membership by 2%. The 2017 link is in the quote. The 2016 document I could find is linked at https://www.scoutingnewsroom.org/key-topics/report-to-the-nation/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbuzzard Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 Wow is that 36% drop in Venturing mainly LDS related? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle1993 Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 Wow... Venturing is dieing. Down over 50% in last 4 years and now under 100k. With some of those girls moving on to BS4G I don’t see it lasting much longer without some sort of revamp. I hope these numbers fully reflect LDS exit. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Flagg Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 And these are the numbers reported at the annual meeting, and not the lower revised numbers reported (quietly) later in the year. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jameson76 Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 In the annual report (at least 2016) they also noted the 492,159 "Scouts" in Career based programs and Learning for Life. Also interesting drops since 1998 Cubs - 43% Boy Scouts - 19% (honestly less than I may have been led to believe) Venturing - 54% Total - 36% Pretty good drop for Cubs. Thought that was the growth area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gblotter Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 Many of the LDS Venturing registrations reverted back to Troop registrations, so that puts the Boy Scouts number in perspective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle1993 Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 51 minutes ago, Jameson76 said: In the annual report (at least 2016) they also noted the 492,159 "Scouts" in Career based programs and Learning for Life. Also interesting drops since 1998 Cubs - 43% Boy Scouts - 19% (honestly less than I may have been led to believe) Venturing - 54% Total - 36% Pretty good drop for Cubs. Thought that was the growth area. Problem is Venturing grew until 2008. It has dropped 66% in last 10 years. Cubs is also a concern as that includes addition of some Lions. Sounds like Boy Scout Numbers may Be up a bit as Some Venturing converted over to Boy Scouts. All in all... not a great report on numbers. Hope this starts turning around soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Flagg Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 21 minutes ago, Eagle1993 said: Problem is Venturing grew until 2008. It has dropped 66% in last 10 years. Cubs is also a concern as that includes addition of some Lions. Sounds like Boy Scout Numbers may Be up a bit as Some Venturing converted over to Boy Scouts. All in all... not a great report on numbers. Hope this starts turning around soon. Hope won't do it. Solid strategies on retention will. The big question is will the inflow of girls exceed the outflow of boys leaving the program? Another set of stats not shown but equally as troubling: The number of units year over year. The number of adults year over year. Both of those numbers continue to decline at near 8-9% or greater. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gblotter Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 49 minutes ago, Col. Flagg said: The big question is will the inflow of girls exceed the outflow of boys leaving the program? Surbaugh has bet the farm. Following the trend of co-ed Scouting in Canada, camp properties may be going up for sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skeptic Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 It is interesting and disheartening that all of these stats are similarly seen in the downward trends in organized religious groups, especially the oldest ones, and within community-based service groups such as Elks, Lions and so on. There is very likely a connection reflective of societal malaise in general. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle94-A1 Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 Regarding the 1998 stats, take them with a grain of salt. I know there was some inflation, i.e. Ronnie Holmes and Greater AL Council. While that is the largest one known, there were inflated stats all over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJCubScouter Posted February 23, 2018 Share Posted February 23, 2018 56 minutes ago, gblotter said: Surbaugh has bet the farm. Following the trend of co-ed Scouting in Canada, camp properties may be going up for sale. Haven't council camp properties been going up for sale (and sold) for at least the past 10 years? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gblotter Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 Just now, NJCubScouter said: Haven't council camp properties been going up for sale (and sold) for at least the past 10 years? I don't know. Are there statistics on this? Not in our council, at least. Our council has three camp properties, and one sits mostly unused (even during the summer months). But nothing has gone up for sale (yet). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwazse Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 6 hours ago, Eagle1993 said: Problem is Venturing grew until 2008. It has dropped 66% in last 10 years. Cubs is also a concern as that includes addition of some Lions. Sounds like Boy Scout Numbers may Be up a bit as Some Venturing converted over to Boy Scouts. All in all... not a great report on numbers. Hope this starts turning around soon. Yea, about that Venturing growth ... 2008 was about when we insistedd that our DE stop feeding us numbers from paper crews whose youh hardly even knew they were registered with the BSA. I wouldn't be surprised if the number of Venturers who actually ever read their oath/code never exceeded 1/4 million. Registration fees, adult applications for 18-20 year olds, and YPT demands didn't help. But, I was surprised last year when my crew couldn't drum up even five youth who wanted to engage the program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattR Posted February 24, 2018 Share Posted February 24, 2018 (edited) Yep, cubs sucks. Edited February 24, 2018 by MattR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now