National Annual Reports

[MattR]

8 hours ago, RememberSchiff said:

So earlier this month, Congress received the Report to the Nation 2024, will it be publicly released?

Well, I suspect I know what the results are. To put it mildly, if the report was good news then we'd already have it.

[InquisitiveScouter]

Should be posted here when available:

https://www.scouting.org/about/annual-report/

[RememberSchiff]

Been awhile, here's an excellent example of latest Annual Report from the Scout Association (UK). The 79 pages describes their program, plan to reach their goals, past year financials, membership numbers, safeguarding (YP)  governance (names of those in charge) AND a thank you to their financial supporters. 

https://yuf.org.uk/sites/yuf/files/2023-12/Scouts - Annual Report 2022 to 2023.pdf

Oh and its public.

Scout salute.

Edited September 8, 2024 by RememberSchiff

[RememberSchiff]

April 1, 2025 (I hope this is NOT an April Fools Joke!!!)

Unlike recent years, this year Scouting America delivered on time as required by its U.S. Charter, its annual Report to the Nation. 

Announcement links:

https://www.scoutingnewsroom.org/press-releases/scouting-america-delivers-report-to-the-nation-in-washington-d-c-highlighting-impact-and-future-vision/

https://www.globenewswire.com/fr/news-release/2025/04/01/3053541/0/en/Scouting-America-Delivers-Report-to-the-Nation-in-Washington-D-C-Highlighting-Impact-and-Future-Vision.html

P.S. I will now look for the actual report   ~RS

Edited Wednesday at 03:31 PM by RememberSchiff

[InquisitiveScouter]

16 minutes ago, RememberSchiff said:

April 1, 2025 (I hope this is NOT an April Fools Joke!!!)

Unlike recent years, this year Scouting America delivered on time as required by its U.S. Charter, its annual Report to the Nation. 

Announcement links:

https://www.scoutingnewsroom.org/press-releases/scouting-america-delivers-report-to-the-nation-in-washington-d-c-highlighting-impact-and-future-vision/

https://www.globenewswire.com/fr/news-release/2025/04/01/3053541/0/en/Scouting-America-Delivers-Report-to-the-Nation-in-Washington-D-C-Highlighting-Impact-and-Future-Vision.html

P.S. I will now look for the actual report   ~RS

Good luck finding it... I looked for about 20 minutes, with no success.  I'm sure you'll share when able

P.S.  Last one posted on BSA website??  2019

https://www.scoutingnewsroom.org/about-the-bsa/annual-reports/

Although, you can view 2023's here...

https://www.scouting.org/about/annual-report/

But scan through the links... what's with not putting them up after 2019?

Edited Wednesday at 03:44 PM by InquisitiveScouter

[InquisitiveScouter]

BTW, 2019 numbers for Scouts:  798,516

2023 numbers for Scouts:  392,275

A 50.87% loss over four years... ouch

Prepare for an even more loss for 2024...

 

Edited Wednesday at 03:49 PM by InquisitiveScouter

[Tron]

In that global news wire thing they state more than a million which is purposely vague; however, knowing how non-profits like to do things I am going to assume that more than a million is closer to 1 million than any other milestone number above 1 million. I think we take this as a good thing, staying above 1 million for 2 years in a row is a sign that the membership decline has arrested. If they had reported just under 1 million or almost 1 million I would totally be in the oh snap, we're still declining camp.

My special twist to this discussion though .... local rumors in my area are that "all hands on deck" emails were sent out last night concerning membership loss. Apparently the council I am in was not watching the expired membership reports and was counting everyone who had not renewed their membership on Dec 31, 2024 as members and yesterday when national dropped all of those people from the membership rolls my council lost somewhere around 25% of it's membership. 

What is everyone else hearing in their neck of the woods? 

[Jameson76]

On 4/2/2025 at 1:11 PM, Tron said:

In that global news wire thing they state more than a million which is purposely vague; however, knowing how non-profits like to do things I am going to assume that more than a million is closer to 1 million than any other milestone number above 1 million. I think we take this as a good thing, staying above 1 million for 2 years in a row is a sign that the membership decline has arrested. If they had reported just under 1 million or almost 1 million I would totally be in the oh snap, we're still declining camp.

My special twist to this discussion though .... local rumors in my area are that "all hands on deck" emails were sent out last night concerning membership loss. Apparently the council I am in was not watching the expired membership reports and was counting everyone who had not renewed their membership on Dec 31, 2024 as members and yesterday when national dropped all of those people from the membership rolls my council lost somewhere around 25% of it's membership. 

What is everyone else hearing in their neck of the woods? 

The complete lack of transparency by BSA (or DBA SA as part of BSA...it's somewhat confusing) on actual membership numbers is certainly neither Trustworthy or Helpful and is troubling.  I would also suggest that the management team is not at all Thrifty with BSA resources.

Obviously the numbers are low, or they have no good way to validate or generate membership numbers.  Par for the course for an organization that judges success by money raised and not participants

[Tron]

On 4/3/2025 at 5:15 PM, Jameson76 said:

The complete lack of transparency by BSA (or DBA SA as part of BSA...it's somewhat confusing) on actual membership numbers is certainly neither Trustworthy or Helpful and is troubling.  I would also suggest that the management team is not at all Thrifty with BSA resources.

Obviously the numbers are low, or they have no good way to validate or generate membership numbers.  Par for the course for an organization that judges success by money raised and not participants

Last year they withheld exact numbers until the national meeting to add more spice to the convention? Do you think that could be the case again this year?

[Jameson76]

On 4/4/2025 at 6:24 PM, Tron said:

Last year they withheld exact numbers until the national meeting to add more spice to the convention? Do you think that could be the case again this year?

Massaging numbers can take a good bit of time, you can't just cook the books overnight.  Has to be somewhat believable.

[PACAN]

Dropping that many in Tron's council is likely to happen in others since IMHO letting parents anywhere near re-registering their scout by themselves instead of doing it all by unit and having members in the same unit re-registering at completely different times is fraught with the disaster they have created.  Parents doing answer emails so one from BSA HQ is not going to get any more rapid response that one from the school system.

I'm going to assume that once again a business has implemented a new procedure without thinking it completely through and doing multiple tests.  There are 40K units that need to register and some mess it up so why let hundreds of thousand potentially individuals register.   Good grief!

[yknot]

1 hour ago, PACAN said:

Dropping that many in Tron's council is likely to happen in others since IMHO letting parents anywhere near re-registering their scout by themselves instead of doing it all by unit and having members in the same unit re-registering at completely different times is fraught with the disaster they have created.  Parents doing answer emails so one from BSA HQ is not going to get any more rapid response that one from the school system.

I'm going to assume that once again a business has implemented a new procedure without thinking it completely through and doing multiple tests.  There are 40K units that need to register and some mess it up so why let hundreds of thousand potentially individuals register.   Good grief!

Parents registering themselves in other youth organizations generally works extremely well.  The problem is that the scouting interface is not user friendly or easy to navigate and there is little to no real support. If you make it hard for people, only the committed will persist.  

[PACAN]

My guess is other organizations like little league each team registers together and there are not multiple end dates for the kids.

Yes the scout interface is crappy which is more reason to do multiple testing before launching this on the masses so you get what you pay for which is "Nightmare in each council"  Film at 11.

[RememberSchiff]

Found this graphic allegedly from 2025 Report to the Nation.

Source:

https://scoutingamericafoundation.org/scouting-america-delivers-2025-report-to-the-nation-highlighting-achievements-and-vision/

[InquisitiveScouter]

On 4/2/2025 at 11:47 AM, InquisitiveScouter said:

BTW, 2019 numbers for Scouts:  798,516

2023 numbers for Scouts:  392,275

A 50.87% loss over four years... ouch

Prepare for an even more loss for 2024...

 

OK, so 2024 is 388,941 for Scouts.  A ~1% drop from 2023, (but probably including the numbers covered by the grace period??)

Cub Scout numbers from 2023:  574,365     2024: 589,253   a ~2.6% increase.  Let's hope that is reality, because Cubs is the primary feeder for Scouts.