Ebb and Flow of Membership

It looks like this year will see our troop shrink a bit. We are getting 5 Webelos crossing over and losing a handful of scouts to aging out plus a few that gave scouting a shot and decided against continuing.
After our huge growth of 19 scouts last spring, this will be a much different year. We'll have lots of experienced scouts to show them the ropes and we have a couple Troop Guides that will be just great.
Another local troop that got just a handful last year is getting 18 this year so I plan on keeping in touch with their scoutmaster to see how it goes.
We've checked to see why there was a change this year and as far as anyone can tell, one scout from each den decided early to go to a troop and the rest of his den just followed along. That might be a good thing to remember if you are 'competing' with troops for Webelos - get one of them to commit to you early and tell the rest where he's going.

I'm not concerned with getting fewer scouts - its actually good for us, I think. I am sad about the few scouts that chose to leave the troop. Every one of them said the troop was fine, but... too busy doing other things. I wonder what I could have done different to have them still be with us.

We do have one fellow who told me he wants to be a 'part-time scout' and only attend the outings and meetings he can make. I tried to explain that everyone is a part-time scout and it would be just great to have him participate as he can.

Scout On