U.K. Scouts see largest membership surge since WW2

[Cambridgeskip]

Evening all (Or it is over here anyway!) so swinging by and saw my name in lights so thought I'd respond...,

Anyway I think the first thing to note here is that this membership "surge" is really just recovering members that were lost during covid. Kids sign up to scouts because they want we offer. Which is basically being with your friends outdoors. The rest is just noise. When during covid we had to move online, and even when we were face to face it was inititally quite restrictive, a lot of kids quit. And if you look at news stories from this time last year it was reporting a huge drop. So really its all about recovery just now. Indeed even with this big jump we still aren't back to pre covid numbers (although my group is!)

On some of the other topics raised....

I remember from previous threads being told that it was unusual in BSA for adult volunteers to be anything other than parents of existing, or at least very recently departed, scouts. In the UK that is less common. Certainly many adults are parents but it is certainly not unusual to not be. Looking at my group, from Beavers to Explorers we have a total of 28 adults of which only 3 currently have children in the group and 3 more used to. Not sure what effect that has in practice but it is what it is!

Patrol system. UK could be better at the patrol system. The 14 year old scouts/explorers cut off certainly doesn't help. As older scouts become properly useful we use them! However, fact is that it was the change to that age range that marked a turn around from years of membership dropping to numbers rising again back in 2003. I do though think that the Young Leader scheme is excellent. This is where 14-17 year old explorer scouts effectively become apprentice adult leaders with Beavers, Cubs or Scouts. It ahs helped us produce multiple adult leaders

[Eagledad]

5 hours ago, Eagle1993 said:

My thought was primarily Cub Scouts.  They have Squirrels (4 - 6), Beavers (6-8) and Cubs (8 - 10.5).  I wonder if by keeping these groups in smaller age groups, they may see less drop off when they go on to Scouts (10 - 14.5).  I do wonder how the patrol method works by moving 14.5 year olds to Explorers.  Most, if not all, of my PLs are >14.  My SPL is 16 and my JASM is 17 (Eagle).  

 

I do agree with your Cub thoughts. Especially the squirrel age. Squirrel?
 

Barry

[InquisitiveScouter]

13 hours ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

Sadly the 18-20 YO crowd in my neck of the woods feel completely disrespected by not being counted as 2 deep for YP purposes within Scouting, BUT also have to follow YP rules outside of Scouting per National.  KNow several outstanding young men who are no longer involved because the 2018 rule would interfere with school, work, and friendships

+1

[Eagledad]

17 hours ago, Eagle1993 said:

The 18 - 30 year old age group is prime to help if approached.  One of my biggest complaints of the BSA is that they seem to ignore that demographic.  When I was in my 20s, I didn't have kids, had a TON of free time (compared to now) and was volunteering for various organizations.  BSA never reached out (and I never even thought of it).  I volunteered for sports clubs & FIRST robotics.  If BSA reached out, I could have been a district volunteer or even unit.  I'm convinced that there is huge potential in that group.

I think it’s a cultural thing. I worked a lot with the 14 to 22 year olds and gained so much respect from them, as well as pleasure with the experience. They are the noble product of patrol method and have so much to give back. But, our culture expects them to go out into the world and get educated and find their place in the community. Like some here, many at National and others outside looking in see scouting as nothing more than an after school babysitting program. Move on from youthful play time and get busy with serious adult life. I agree the BSA doesn’t give the older scouts any vision of scouting beyond 17 and that cripples the adult’s vision as well. We can do more at the local level. I did do more. But, the effort is an uphill challenge that wears one down. Can you imagine working with dozens of Eagle94s? The experience is a reward from God and makes all the hard work at the younger ages worth it.

Barry

[MattR]

15 hours ago, Cambridgeskip said:

I do though think that the Young Leader scheme is excellent. This is where 14-17 year old explorer scouts effectively become apprentice adult leaders with Beavers, Cubs or Scouts. It ahs helped us produce multiple adult leaders

I've always thought before that having a wider age range in scouts helped promote the magic of older scouts working with young. To me  that magic was what scouting was about. And yet I can see how splitting that age group could help the scouts see the transition from younger scout to older. I had a lot of conversations with scouts along the lines of you're no longer the young scouts, it's time to start helping out.

Something about the UK group system could also help that as well. The BSA also struggles with the transition between age ranges because they're separate units. If the same leadership ran through the entire age range then maybe those transactions would be easier.

It's nice to talk about it but speaking of an uphill battle ...