Current BSA enrollment as of 9/21 with goal

[Eagle1993]

Don't forget the scouts who do not renew membership fall off the books after recharter (early 2023).  The number I am interested in will be posted in February.  I have seen a big uptick in scouts dropping during recharter. I think in the past, parents would see $25 and figure they would renew even if they don't participate much. Now scouts who rarely participate drop off.  

We need to continue to see growth feb to feb every year or BSA is in trouble.  

[Jameson76]

The BSA has never been overly transparent on their numbers or their math.  Lately they don't seem to report their numbers or generate an annual report.

Their math is suspect at best.  They always report that only 5% of Scouts get Eagle.  This number is generated by XX Eagles in a year divided by YY Scouts registered at that time.  50,000 Eagles, 1,000,000 Scouts (now Scouts BSA) and you have 5%.  Challenge is that a good number of Scouts are Scouts for multiple years.  Not a big deal but I think it speaks to the casualness the BSA has with actual data.  No way diminishing the Eagle rank (I am an Eagle Scout), but let's report the number honestly.

Now with the bankruptcy / LDS / COVID and other impacts that have been long in the making the total membership is well under 1,000,000.  

Some basic numbers from press reports middle of last year

• Decline in membership in the Boy Scouts of America from 2019 to 2020
• From 1.97 million Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts to 1.12 million
• Associated Press reports that BSA membership has fallen even further since 2020—to about 762,000
• For purposes of comparison in the BSA peaked in 1972 at 6.5 million members
• As recently as 1998 membership was 4.8 million

If as noted in the slide that membership is under one million, a lot of work to do

 

Edited September 30, 2022 by Jameson76

[yknot]

3 hours ago, Eagle1993 said:

Don't forget the scouts who do not renew membership fall off the books after recharter (early 2023).  The number I am interested in will be posted in February.  I have seen a big uptick in scouts dropping during recharter. I think in the past, parents would see $25 and figure they would renew even if they don't participate much. Now scouts who rarely participate drop off.  

We need to continue to see growth feb to feb every year or BSA is in trouble.  

Agreed. The only membership numbers that are near accurate are the ones posted in Feb/March. 

A month or so ago, BSA extended the paused UMC recharters to the end of this year, so the numbers in the Webinar chart include a percentage of memberships that may no longer exist or are questionable. 

[yknot]

2 hours ago, Jameson76 said:

The BSA has never been overly transparent on their numbers or their math.  Lately they don't seem to report their numbers or generate an annual report.

Their math is suspect at best.  They always report that only 5% of Scouts get Eagle.  This number is generated by XX Eagles in a year divided by YY Scouts registered at that time.  50,000 Eagles, 1,000,000 Scouts (now Scouts BSA) and you have 5%.  Challenge is that a good number of Scouts are Scouts for multiple years.  Not a big deal but I think it speaks to the casualness the BSA has with actual data.  No way diminishing the Eagle rank (I am an Eagle Scout), but let's report the number honestly.

Now with the bankruptcy / LDS / COVID and other impacts that have been long in the making the total membership is well under 1,000,000.  

Some basic numbers from press reports middle of last year

• Decline in membership in the Boy Scouts of America from 2019 to 2020
• From 1.97 million Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts to 1.12 million
• Associated Press reports that BSA membership has fallen even further since 2020—to about 762,000
• For purposes of comparison in the BSA peaked in 1972 at 6.5 million members
• As recently as 1998 membership was 4.8 million

If as noted in the slide that membership is under one million, a lot of work to do

 

The AP report earlier this year is in sync with numbers reported in one of the bankruptcy submissions that showed actual March '22 membership numbers to be around 650,000. 

I think what this Webinar chart may show is some effective recruitment up from that low number; however the 900,000 number looks likely to fall again once the UMC paused recharters are reconciled by Feb/March. I know there has been very aggressive cub recruitment nationwide and certain councils are reporting significant registrations. However, there's a lot of ground to make up from a low of 762,000 or more likely 650,000. 

[mrjohns2]

1 hour ago, yknot said:

The only membership numbers that are near accurate are the ones posted in Feb/March. 

Even that is hard with some charters processed in March. April? 

[Bowline]

At some point , like now, the numbers game catches up with you. 

[jcousino]

it would not totally surprise if come December ,January national comes out and say because of all the confusion in dealing with recharter of UMC church units we are going to extend  a grace period of 90 days to youth of these unit to recharter without being dropped Jan 1.

This will BSA to keep people on the roles who have dropped and will not be rechartering longer to make the number look better year to date. 

 

Just my wild thoughts

 

john

[BlueandSilverBear]

Our Pack has gone from 79 as of August 17 to 121 as of October 2 with a few more paper applications working their way through the system. We have at least 30  (up from 25) crossing over in the spring, so we needed to backfill if we wanted to keep the Pack rolling.

I had 4 new girls at our all-ages girls den meeting today: 1 Bear, 2 Wolves, and 1 Tiger.  It has taken a lot of work from our CC, Cubmaster, and Den Leaders, but the program is still relevant and still in demand.  Now it's up to us to deliver the adventure.

Scout on!

[SiouxRanger]

For what anecdotal value it is worth (zero), our Pack has 3 Lions, 4 Tigers, 1 Wolf, 1 Bear, 0 Webelos 4 and 4 Webelos 5.

When I was the Pack committee chair person, we had about 65 registered and 45 attended each Pack meeting.  Pack registration is now lower than pre-covid.

This is the only Pack that feeds our Troop, so maybe 4 crossovers into a Troop of 16 registered and 12 to 14 active.  We usually get half to 2/3rds to cross over, and half of those stay one year.  We have seen worse, but we have seen much better.

And so it goes.

[Eagle94-A1]

11 hours ago, SiouxRanger said:

For what anecdotal value it is worth (zero), our Pack has 3 Lions, 4 Tigers, 1 Wolf, 1 Bear, 0 Webelos 4 and 4 Webelos 5.

When I was the Pack committee chair person, we had about 65 registered and 45 attended each Pack meeting.  Pack registration is now lower than pre-covid.

This is the only Pack that feeds our Troop, so maybe 4 crossovers into a Troop of 16 registered and 12 to 14 active.  We usually get half to 2/3rds to cross over, and half of those stay one year.  We have seen worse, but we have seen much better.

And so it goes.

Be thankful you still have a pack. When we stopped being able to recruit in local schools 10+ years ago, my troop's pack dies. We are down to 8 Scouts, with 1 aging out next year. All of our Scouts save 1 either transferred from other troops, or had a brother in the troop. Major concerns if we are going to survive. and council is not helping.

[SiouxRanger]

4 minutes ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

council is not helping.

They are "service centers," so I am told.

[5thGenTexan]

This was on Facebook this evening.

Circle 10 -

4% Overall Council Year-End Growth and 19% September Council Growth

[Eagle1993]

My district is short it's goal by about 50% or just over 160 Cub Scouts.  That is as of October.  They will probably close the gap a bit, but will end short of plan.

I am concerned about Troops. Several are down to 1 patrol in my area.  One Troop in my town who always had 50-60 scouts even as of 2018/2019 are down to 9.  I talked to that Scoutmaster who said a former SM took over who was really strict and a rules guy to the point most of the scouts just quit.

My pack recruited well and our Troop is fairly healthy.  However, I am seeing some dark clouds on the horizon.  BSA will need major changes to survive.

[1980Scouter]

30 minutes ago, Eagle1993 said:

My district is short it's goal by about 50% or just over 160 Cub Scouts.  That is as of October.  They will probably close the gap a bit, but will end short of plan.

I am concerned about Troops. Several are down to 1 patrol in my area.  One Troop in my town who always had 50-60 scouts even as of 2018/2019 are down to 9.  I talked to that Scoutmaster who said a former SM took over who was really strict and a rules guy to the point most of the scouts just quit.

My pack recruited well and our Troop is fairly healthy.  However, I am seeing some dark clouds on the horizon.  BSA will need major changes to survive.

My LC put out an update video last week saying year over year the number of scouts is up. 

No numbers were given. Does this mean they have 100 more scouts? They went from 15,000 to 6,000 over 5 years.

They always make everything upbeat and positive which is good but sometimes you have to be honest and let the facts be known. 

I suspect if you dig deeper they are in trouble with losing members and charter partners. 

[5thGenTexan]

On 10/7/2022 at 10:31 PM, 5thGenTexan said:

This was on Facebook this evening.

Circle 10 -

4% Overall Council Year-End Growth and 19% September Council Growth

Circle 10 at the end of Sept.  33,000 registered.