Boy Scouts rename themselves Scouting America

US News

From Associated Press

The Boy Scouts of America is changing its name for the first time in its 114-year history, becoming Scouting America.

This is a significant shift as the organization emerges from bankruptcy after a spate of sexual abuse lawsuits and wants to focus on inclusion.

The storied organization has made groundbreaking changes after decades of turmoil, from finally admitting gay youth to welcoming girls into its ranks.

Faced with declining membership, the Irving, Texas-based organization announced the name change Tuesday at its annual meeting in Florida.

“For the next 100 years, we want every youth in America to feel very, very welcome in our programs,” Roger Krone, who took over as president and chief executive officer last fall, said in an interview before the announcement.

The organization began admitting gay youth in 2013 and ended a blanket ban on gay adult leaders in 2015.

In 2017, the historic announcement was made that girls would be accepted as Girl Scouts beginning in 2018 and into the flagship Girl Scout program – renamed Scouts BSA – beginning in 2019.

The Eagle Scouts’ first class of 2021 included nearly 1,000 young women, including Selby Chipman.

The all-girls group she was a founding member of in her hometown of Oak Ridge, North Carolina, has grown from five girls to nearly 50, and she believes the name change will encourage even more girls to realize they can join.

“Girls said, ‘Can you join the Boy Scouts of America?'” said Chipman, now a 20-year-old college student and assistant scout leader of her troop.

A few days after the announcement that girls would be admitted, Bob Brady got to work.

As the father of two girls and a proud Eagle Scout himself, the lawyer from New Jersey eagerly founded an all-girls troop.

At their first weekend meeting with other troops, the boys were happy to have the girls there, but some adult leaders seemed concerned, he recalled.

Their worries seemed to disappear as the girls led a traditional cheer around the campfire.

“You could see a change in attitude from some of the doubters who weren’t sure and they realized, wait, these kids are exactly the same, they just happen to have ponytails,” Brady said.

His daughters are among 13 girls in his troop and 6,000 girls across the country who have achieved the vaunted Eagle Scout rank.

Like other organizations, the Boy Scouts lost members during the pandemic when participation was difficult.

After peaking over the last decade with over 2 million members in 2018, the organization currently serves just over 1 million youth, including more than 176,000 girls and young women.

Membership peaked at nearly 5 million in 1972.

The Boy Scouts’ move to admit girls into its ranks strained relations with the Boy Scouts of the USA, which sued, claiming it caused confusion in the marketplace and harmed their recruiting efforts.

They reached a settlement after a judge rejected those claims, saying both groups were free to use words like “Boy Scouts” and “Boy Scouts.”

While camping remains an integral activity for the Boy Scouts, the organization now offers something for everyone, from grand adventures to merit badges for robotics and digital technology, Krone said: “Anything kids want to do today, they can do in a structured way. “as part of the scouting program.”

The Boy Scouts’ $2.4 billion bankruptcy reorganization plan went into effect last year, allowing the organization to continue operating while compensating the more than 80,000 men who say they were sexually abused as children while in Scouting be.

Angelique Minett, the first female president of Scouts BSA, is excited about the future of Scouting as she sees the approximately 20-member youth council from across the United States leading the program by addressing issues important to them, such as sustainability and other things You would like to see changes, such as the fit of some uniforms.

“When we think of Boy Scouts, we think of knots and camping, but it’s a means to an end,” Minett said. “We’re actually teaching kids something much bigger. We teach them to be brave and we teach them life skills and we teach them how to be good leaders.”

The organization will not officially be renamed Scouting America until February 8, 2025, the organization’s 115th birthday.

But Krone said he expects people will start using the name immediately.

“It sends a really strong message to everyone in America that they can come to this program, that they can bring their authentic selves, that they can be who they are and that they are welcome here,” Krone said.