Scoutmaster Musings

In an official statement released today, the BSA and LDS announce a dissolution of their relationship. LDS will "discontinue its role as a chartered partner with BSA" effective at the end of 2019. A layperson's interpretation of that is "Game Over" between LDS and BSA.

On top of the other major changes to the BSA this year, this is yet another disruptor for us all to prepare for. In my small part of the world, it will have no impact at the unit level, little at the district level, but some at the council level. After all, of the religious in Minnesota, they are about 35% Lutheran and .35% LDS.
Other councils will certainly find significant membership drops.

At the national level, I expect there to be a major drop in membership and philanthropic income which will trickle down through the councils. Maybe opening the membership requirements will help counter the effects. Maybe there are other plans being made at the top. The next year will be interesting to discover how it plays out.

How do you expect this split to affect Scouting where you live? What steps are you taking to prepare for it?

Read the announcement HERE.

Scout On!

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Get ready to recruit youth of all genders.
The BSA announced a new recruiting campaign to attract all youth. It's called "Scout Me In" and is aimed at reaching girls to join Cub Scouts.

I don't think it's really so "historic" as the BSA news releases are saying since the BSA churns out marketing campaigns often enough. But, I expect we'll see the number of participating girls explode from the current 3,000+ girl Cub Scouts in the early adopter dens to 300,000+ next year.

Bigger news, I think, is the official name change of Boy Scouts to "Scouts BSA" in 2019. The youngest program is still Cub Scouts and Venturing is still Venturing, but the 12-18 year old program is changing to Scouts BSA to remove the obvious "Boy" in the name.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes the country to recognize Scouts BSA as Boy Scouts and not ask, "Is that another competing group to Boy Scouts?"

So, buckle up for another exciting year ahead in the ongoing evolution of Scouting in America!

Scout On

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