Falling Membership - 2011 Annual Report

[TAHAWK]

"I should also point out one key difference between Scouting and other programs - sports, dance, theatre - is that kids can pretty much join & start the others that very day. Grab a pair of sweats and dance barefoot, read some lines and help move scenery, grab a ball and start dribbling. If your parent pays and fills out the form, you're in.

 

Not so with Scouting. A typical interested Boy Scout-age kid is going to attend a meeting, which is typically indoors and boring. His parents have to fill out a form, mail it in with the check, go to a store and buy a uniform and handbook ... And then the boy has to attend several other meetings before he actually goes camping and hiking and fishing and climbing, which is probably what he was interested in in the first place."

 

I see some of your point, but I have to believe you never had kids in an typical team sport program. If you did, you would recall the meetings, the forms, the check(s), the uniform (and the ENTIRE uniform), the physical (and physical form), and the routine practices (these days, practices most of the year). I certainly recall those aspects of team sports for myself and my son.

 

If troop meetings are boring, the leadership is to blame for not using the tons of available resources.

[shortridge]

My point is not that Scouting doesn't have any of the administratrivia, but that it takes a comparatively longer time for a boy to get into the core of Scouting than it does to play a sport or dance or act. They can get someone involved almost right away; we put roadblocks in the way in the form of interminable meetings. The fun and adventure - what's important to the boys - is delayed.

[Kudu]

 

"parents never really see the good stuff because it happens out in the woods."

 

"Scouting is a Game with a Purpose: To Update One's Facebook Profile Whilst Advancing a Suntan" (Baden-Powell, Founder of Scouting).

 

 

"The fun and adventure - what's important to the boys - is delayed."

 

Not if you schedule your recruiting presentations for the day of your meetings, on the week of a campout.

 

So:

 

10 AM Recruiting Presentation

 

3-5 PM Call parents of boys who signed "Yes! I Want to Go Camping!

 

7 PM 15 new members attend "How to Pack for your First Campout" demonstration, then dodge ball.

 

Friday, 7PM. Camping 300 feet from the other Patrols.

 

Easy Peasy!

 

http://inquiry.net/adult/recruiting.htm

 

Yours at 300 feet,

 

Kudu

 

http://kudu.net

 

[Jeffrey H]

My son dropped out of Boy Scouts after only 2 years. His major complaint were boring meetings and boys who were ill-prepared for those meetings. Other boys his age dropped out for the same reason.

 

A secondary complaint he had was the same old "car camping" experiences. The boy-led PLC was not adventurous when planning campouts. In his 2 years with the Troop, owning a backpack was not really necessary. While I agree with the boy-led concept, you need adult advisors that are willing to coach the boys to consider more physically challenging outdoor treks and have adults that are willing to accompany the boys on these treks.

 

Boy Scouts is not a Normal Rockwell or Joseph Csatari promotional painting with boys always in perfect uniform for every event. It should be a fun, challenging, and rewarding experience with the emphasis taken off trail-to-Eagle. A Troop program should not be focused on getting the boys to Eagle when only a small fraction of them will be be interested in earning it. Advancement is one of the methods of Scouting and plays an important role, but it should never be done at the expense of the other methods.

 

Most boys join scouts for the anticipated adventure of outdoor challenges, not to attain the rank of Eagle. If expectations are not met, then the boys move on. I spent some time as an adult leader with a Troop that was on the "merit badge mill" and I would rather not experience that again.

[Eagledad]

>>A secondary complaint he had was the same old "car camping" experiences. The boy-led PLC was not adventurous when planning campouts. In his 2 years with the Troop, owning a backpack was not really necessary. While I agree with the boy-led concept, you need adult advisors that are willing to coach the boys to consider more physically challenging outdoor treks and have adults that are willing to accompany the boys on these treks.

[Abel Magwitch]

I find this a bit puzzling. According to individual council annual reports through the years including my own council's, I tend to read every year how membership numbers have increased from the previous year. Years of bragging about the council making the quality rating and constantly meeting membership goals.

 

How can this be?

[fgoodwin]

Scouting has its own problems and those certainly need to be addressed.

 

But declining membership isn't unique to Scouting. Service club membership (Lions, Kiwanis, Rotary, etc.), church attendance, PTA membership, etc. are ALL down. This is a society-wide issue. Whether or not is a "problem" is in the eye of the beholder. If you're interested in reading some serious stuff about this issue, I invite you to read "Bowling Alone" by Robert Putnam.

 

He has studied this issue in great detail.

[Kudu]

 

"parents never really see the good stuff because it happens out in the woods."

 

Do Not Underestimate the Power of Facebook and other social media to enable parents to share their pride in their son hanging off a 60 foot climbing tower, or hanging out 60 feet below a SCUBA dive boat.

 

"Hey! Anyone want to do scuba?"

 

The public page below is only one campout old (Climbing Merit Badge, rather than Scuba), but please consider clicking "Like" (at the top, under the Boy Scout swimming toward the dive boat) to benefit the Troop if you see the potential in their example for your own unit:

 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boy-Scout-Troop-452/184243044947246

 

Note the emphasis on individual photos and videos, which encourage both parents and Scouts to post them on their Facebook walls.

 

With the constant stream of High Adventure images, "Friends" of parent's Friends in local Webelos Dens started visiting, then crossing over.

 

Likewise the Scouts use these portraits and YouTube videos on their own Facebook profiles and walls, which leads to Facebook Friends tagging along to rappel, SCUBA, backpack, canoe, etc., along with buddies picked up through First Class requirement 10 "Tell someone who is eligible to join...about your Troops' activities. Invite him to a troop outing..."

 

Yours at 300 feet,

 

Kudu

http://kudu.net

 

[Second Class]

American birth rates are declining. This does have a direct effect on available youth.

(This message has been edited by Second class)

[Lisabob]

SecondClass, that's probably true. I don't have the stats handy anymore, but I believe the problem isn't just absolute numbers, but percent of youth served. In other words, we reach a lower percentage of "total available youth" than we used to.

[BadenP]

 

I think Lisabob brings up an excellent point about the percentage we are reaching. IMO a big part of the problem is that BSA as an organization continues to get further away from its basic roots and program every year. What made the BSA a unique organization was that its emphasis was built around the outdoors as were its activities. With the US population becoming more and more sedentary the BSA program has followed suit and many of the pack, troop, and crew activities have also become more sedentary in nature, and much less fun and challenging.

[Get Outdoors]

1) Fire all the lawyers that work for BSA.

2) Start the outdoor program at the Tiger level

3) Get rid of the money grubbers at council level (what does council do for the unit without charging them money?)

4) What do our customers (the boys)want? 4 backpacking trips a year in not the answer for most boys

5) Having a 100% boy led troop is unrealistic with today's youth. So why are we training adult leaders that this is the only way? Kids are lazzy and aren't willing to put in the time required for a troop to be sucessful. We have to find a balance.

6) The uniform s**k's Change it so kids will wear it. (our unit has pretty much done away with the class A excpet for formal functions. The uniform is about as uncool as it gets. This is boy led. they said we don't want to wear them and the adults said OK.

7) Do away with adult awards and recogintion crap. Most parents see adult uniforms decorated as weird.

8) Encourage a more high adventure program across the board. Car camping just to camp is boring for most kids. Whitewater Rafting, Skiing, snorkling, bike trips, climbing, white water canoe trips, kayaking is what brings our customers back.

9) Encourage less troop/patrol meetings. one or two a month in addition to an adventure trip is more than enough. Why do we have troop meetings without a goal?

10) Instead of troop meetings, how about day trips to play a softball game or swim at a local lake or river, visit a museum, how about a little paint ball or rent some ATV's

11) Stop the perception that we are here to get boys their Eagle. Lots or parents push kids to join scouts because it looks good to colleges.

12) Open Boys Scouts to girls 11 - 18.

13) A lot of grown men that have gone through woodbadge are over the top and the kids don't like seeing adults pushing the message. Showing off that you went to woodbadge needs to go away. Waering that special neckercheif or beads does nothing for the unit.

14) Using the phrase "When I was a scout" needs to be grounds for dismisal. Kids are not like we were. Oportunities for todays youth are 100 times greater than they were when we were kids.

15) A lot kids don't go to summer camp to have fun. The put up with summer camp to earn merit badges. Camps have been way too slow responding to this fact.

16) Why is scouting considered gay or uncool? It's the adults that made it that way not the boys or what the boys do on weekends. See #17

17) The term a cubmaster or scoutmaster serves should be limited to no more than 5 years and can't be over the age of 50 or at least have a child young enough to be in scouts.

 

The Boy Scouts of America is caught in the past. (Somewhere around 1975) We have a lot of work to do to bring it to modern times. I scares me to think that scouting may not be around for my grandchildren or great grandchildern to experience.

 

[SeattlePioneer]

Hello Get,

 

 

In general, I disagree with 1-17 on your list.

[BSA24]

Get,

 

Great idea! So just do it. What do you need BSA for to do that? You could just start you own club and do that instead. You basically eliminated any need for support from BSA. You rejected the uniforms, the program, and going to the BSA camps. That's really all BSA is there for. The rest of BSA's support is just gravy.

 

Dump 'em and do it.

[johnponz]

I agree with SP