The Future of Scouting

[SeattlePioneer]

Taking into consideration demographics, changes in values, economic and labor force issues and trends and whatever you think is likely to happen in the future, what do you see as the future of Scouting in the United States?

 

 

 

Seattle Pioneer

[johndaigler]

It's not a future I'd necessarily appreciate, but I see a Great Schism. I believe at some point BSA will split off a program organization that has a more "open" membership policy. The BSA would remain what it is, but a BSA2 will come into existence (with program support from the "real" BSA - perhaps, less than publicly), which will accept Scouts whom aren't welcome into the present BSA.

 

No crystal ball here...

 

jd

[SemperParatus]

Scouting in the US has survived and prospered for 95 years through some of the most trying times (depressions, world wars, social upheaval). It will continue and grow even stronger as the generations to follow make their own mark on the program.

 

Anyone else notice that today's scouts are brighter, more spirited and serious about their scouting than those of 20-30 years ago? I think our future will be in good hands.

[Bob White]

"It's not a future I'd necessarily appreciate, but I see a Great Schism. I believe at some point BSA will split off a program organization that has a more "open" membership policy. The BSA would remain what it is, but a BSA2 will come into existence (with program support from the "real" BSA - perhaps, less than publicly), which will accept Scouts whom aren't welcome into the present BSA.

 

No crystal ball here...

 

jd "

 

Is it my imagination or did John just accurately predict the creation of Learning for Life only 14 years AFTER it was introduced?

 

[meckanic]

INDEPENDENT SCOUTS OF AMERICA.com

[Backpacker]

There was an article in my Sunday paper about how more and more kids have lost touch with nature and the outdoor experience, instead being glued to their computers, i-pods, gameboys, etc. As a result they do not have a connection with the idea that we are stewards of the earth, this is one area where I feel the scouting program is sorely needed.

On the other hand in our permissive society where money talks it would not surprise me to se the BSA cave on some of their membership requirements due to political and financial pressure.I hope they can hold the line but with all the changes in the world scouting movement I doubt they can hold for the distant future, time will tell. I don't see a breakaway group happening unless it focuses on electronic gizmos kids love today, but that would not be scouting. Look at Canada and England, BP is probably rolling over in his grave seeing what has happened to his program.

[SeattlePioneer]

Hey Backpacker!

 

I'm uninformed. What is going on in Britain and Canada?

 

When I was doing a yardsign campaign last fall to recruit new Scouts, 90% of the strangers I doorbelled permitted me to post a large yardsign in their front yard promoting Scouting.

 

That's rather amazing, in my view. There is a large reservoir of good will towards Scouting that tends to be ignored, from what I see. And a mouthy minority that seems to get all the attention with a hate campaign directed against Scouting.

 

 

 

Seattle Pioneer

 

 

 

[Bob White]

Scouting now exists in 155 countries in the world, a higher percentage of scouts than non-scouts attend college, a few percentage of scouts than non-scouts ever have a run in with the law, during the time of the iron curtain the youth and adults in many communist controlled countries wanted scouting so bad that they risked impridonment and held secret scout meetings with Handbooks smuggled i from the free world.

 

Scouting has lasted nearly 100 years and is the largest youth organization in the world. Many Scouts have grown up to be community and business leaders as well as dedicated fathers and husbamds, and good neighbors.

 

When you deal with the millions of perople that scouting does there will always be a few who fall short of their responsibilities to the values of the program. But I would venture to guess that BP would see the millions of good people scouting has helped to produced and give a big grin at the legacy he left to the world.

 

The future of scouting will be only as good as the people who we select to lead now and tomorrow.

 

I am reminded of a sign I saw in my early days in training as a new leader.

 

"Those who say it cannot be done should at least get out of the way of those who are doing it"

 

All it takes for good scouting is good volunteers.

[frank10]

I see BSA holding on to it's stance on religion as is. Some see it as discrimination, but it is part of what defines a scout (with in the BSA).

I see the stance on gays refined from "Don't ask, Don't tell" to leave your agenda at home and your welcome to join.

 

 

[tortdog]

The BSA will (i) hold its values and continue as it has since the Dale case, or (ii) change and allow groups that hold diverse moral values to enlarge its base.

 

If the former, it will continue as is, with the percentage of scouters to the population about the same.

 

If the latter, there will be a large (more than 20%) exodus from the BSA from historical sponsors (mainly church sponsored units), leaving the BSA more like the YMCA or Girl Scouts. (Not a put down of those other organizations, but just on a different plane in my opinion.)

[Eagledad]

This is a fun question. I love this program so much, I have often thought of its future. These are not what I want, just how I see how the winds are blowing. I will always long for the program I was in as a youth.

 

On the Cub side, I think we will see a couple more interations of Tiger program changes before the overhead of required number of trained adults pushes the BSA to remove Tigers from the Cub program. I do think however, the BSA will develop a seperate program designed better for that age of boys. The other change that is possible, but I think less likely is lowering the Troop age to get the Webelos II in the program one year earlier.

 

I think the Troop program will see a change in activities. The outdoor program will continue, but it will be watered down by liabilities, political correctness, limited public camping areas and high camp cost. The BSA will in turn add other activities, possibly pointed more toward technology and science.

 

I do see the BSA giving in to some cultural pressure because more and more adult scouters without a youth scouting experience are joining and running the program. There will be less alumni and big money givers to resist changes to traditional parts of the program. Maybe something like giving COs more say. I do believe numbers will never be as high after these changes are made.

 

I also don't think the athiest restriction will change because the BSA will use that to keep their values reputation, which makes it different from most other youth progams. Neither will the girl restriction change and we can thank the the Girl Scouts for that. Pray they hold on because they are struggling.

 

My personal fear for the Troop program is Venturing patrols will go away all together and the max Troop age will be 14. Boy run will still be here in name, but without older scouts, it will not really be what we know it as today. Venture Crews won't go away, but the name will change to encourage more themes that aren't considered adventurous.

 

My other fear is the Troop program will develop into a more nerdy reputation and become less attractive to physically active boys. It will eventally be the program boys who don't enjoy sports look to join. Another reason why the numbers will not get better.

 

As for uniforms, I honestly don't think they will have a dramtic change. At least not like Europe.

 

These may sound like depressing visions, but really it all depends on the results of helping boys develop habits of character and making ethical decisions.

 

I slowly developed these visions after years of talking with professionals and voluntiers way up in the program. On the positive side, I think the BSA will learn from the Canadian program and make adjustments that will keep them here for a long time.

 

Barry

 

[Prairie_Scouter]

This is a very interesting question that could have a number of possible answers.

 

If the country continues down the current conservative path, then I'd think that BSA would be encouraged to continue down its current path and "stay the course".

 

If the country changes to a more liberal path, the BSA will most likely try to continue down its current path. This could lead to legal changes to force them to change policies, a "breakaway group" forming as another poster suggested, or a marginalization of BSA. Or, nothing could change at all.

 

I really don't know which way it will go. I expect that if BSA made drastic changes, it would probably use, as Tort suggested, some percentage of its membership. It's possible that this loss could be offset by new members encouraged to join by a new more accepting membership policy.

 

No crystal ball here, either.

 

I see current challenges continuing regardless of what BSA does. Membership at the younger end continues to be a challenge as youth find other activities to compete with Scouts, and parents who are less able or willing to help out as volunteers. Within our own Council, we manage to hold steady and perhaps get a little growth, but kids aren't flocking to Scouts as they might have 30 years ago. At the upper end, older Scouts hit about 15 and start to find new interests and start to fade away from their troops. I don't think that this is anything new, but I don't see it going away.

 

Personally, I've got about 7 more years of Scouting before my boys will age out. I don't think anything is going to change in that timeframe. I expect that at the end of that we'll still be talking about whether Scouts should be wearing the full uniform or not

 

Ok, I'll make one prediction. I think Scout popcorn, at current rates, will cost about $200 a bag in 2012, making them almost as expensive as Girl Scout cookies.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Scouting has reflected many of the values seen in American life over the years. Scouts have always served their fellow man in many ways by helping with food drives, war efforts, election turn-outs, etc.

 

What I see in the future for Scouting is a greater emphasis on helping out with environmental causes and the use of information. This will be done by cleaning rivers, replanting eroded areas with protective grasses, trees and shrubs; recycling by gathering and reusing goods to build things like tents and shelters for the homeless; designing and building individual elementary solar powered transporters or developing solar power converters for their CO's; helping to recycle oil, clean it and sell it as a way to get camp money; reusing fallen trees to rebuild the soil and keep it from being washed away; reusing leaves and grass clippings to compost soil for fund raisers; helping to maintain the State and Federal lands to supplement a growing lack of Federal funds; assisting with remodeling or building low income housing for the poor; Scouts will learn about land use and will share information with cities and developers; Scouts will learn to garden again and raise crops that are organic for sell to raise funds, they will do away with the over-priced popcorn and will sell over-priced fruits and vegetables.

 

Girl Scouts will merge with the BSA in a grand gesture to stand united in a green revolution for America and the world

 

I believe the BSA will find its way into the hearts of kids by becoming an organization of such worth that it will go beyond any generation of Scouting in the past.

 

MHO

 

FB

[Eamonn]

I kinda think that many of us will be doing much the same thing that we are doing today:

Tomorrow, next week, next month and next year.

Some of us older guys will need to start taking a long hard look and start really trying to understand generational differences.

The future of Scouting will greatly depend on how well we understand and effectively work with a diverse group of generations.

It is vitally important that we do everything possible to be able to understand how they think, what their values are, what motivates them and their habits.

I don't like being stuck in a group by age. Mainly because I think that the groups used are way to big. I don't see myself in the same group as those born in 1945 or those born in 1964, which is the Boomer or Victory Children. I was born in late 1955.

Using estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor, we have a shrinking work force, by 2008 the economy will offer 161 million jobs but there will only be 155 workers. Estimates are that it will take until 2050 till the demand for skilled labor will catch up.

Those born before 1945 tend to have more money than the other generations and this generation held fast to the values of their elders. They are very loyal and dedicated. There are about 18 million of this generation still living.

The Boomer's are the largest group with approx. 65 million. This generation has a reputation of being reluctant conformers, who wanted to set up a more open and free society. They are known for questioning almost everything..

Those born between 1965 and 1977 the Xers are the generation who are first generation that is really comfortable with technology.They are very self-reliant. They are sometimes called the latchkey kids. There are about 42 million X-ers. The Yer's or Millennials born 1978 -1985 are in some ways like the early boomers they have a strong social conscience and are willing to work for causes in the local community, but they have always had access to world wide information. They put great store in education and life long learning. There are about 20 million Y-er's.

There seems to be a trend that people are having children when they are older and are waiting till they are older before they start offering their time to volunteer organizations such as Scouting. There is also a trend that shows that the later generations tend to want to volunteer to do tasks that have a specific goal and they want to get in, get the job done and get out.

Scouting does need to be aware of the different attitudes that each generation has toward dress, how they view authority. Scouting has also to be aware that education and how people are educated has changed and is changing.

In the Wood Badge 21st Century course there is a presentation about change. Those of us who are involved with recruiting volunteers need to be aware that the young people today (Adults) see things in a different way or different light than we do.

Young adults also need to be aware that we older folks are different than them.

I don't know the age of the people who sit on the National Council, but would guess many if not most belong to the group born before 1945 (The Silents) It is going to take a long time till we see the Xer's or the Yer's take the reins. The same can be said about those who are our chartered partners.

I think people who work in the National office are aware that each generation is different and has different values and ways of doing things. I'm not so sure that Councils or Districts are.

Eamonn

[sitrep]

The ACLU and other liberals will continue their efforts to kill the BSA.