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In 2000, the country finally learned of the lengths to which BSA would take to keep their discriminatory membership policies, when the US Supreme Court ruled in Dale. Companies,
public officials and communities had been made aware of BSA's policies as early as 1992 (with the Curran case). Many of these took action to distance and/or disassociate themselves from BSA between
1992 and 2000. However, the national media spotlight revolving around James Dale educated the millions of parents of young children and those who would be parents in the next few years.
Eight years after the New
Jersey Supreme Court ruled in favor of James Dale (1998), BSA is feeling the effect of it's reluctance to be an organization open to All boys -- as it promised the American people and the US Congress in 1916.
For the year ending December 31, 2005, BSA has lost over 530,000 registered Cub Scouts since 1998. Total membership in BSA's traditional programs has declined by approximately 23.5%, since 1997!
Please remember that for BSA's traditional Scouting program to expand, it
requires a continuous stream of youth through the Cub Scouting program. For the year ending in 2005, the number of registered Cub Scouts reportedly fell to 1,640,685. For the past seven years, membership in Cub Scouting has continually
declined. The year 2006 was also the THIRD straight year in a row, since the mid-1980's, that membership in Cub Scouting fell below 2 million! And that's after BSA expanded Cub Scouting from a 3-year to a 5-year program in the 1980's!!
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From a historical perspective, 2005 saw the lowest number of registered Cub Scouts
since 1954!
And that was with
only 8-10 year-old boys, not 6-10 year-old boys!
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Some BSA apologists have argued that the decline in membership is only indicative of a decline in the number of available boys. However, the US Government has not seen any such decline in this population, nor do they project
any decline.
In fact, between 1983 and 2001, the population of boys age 5-17 has increased by 19% and is projected to increase another 5% between 2001-2013. Don't believe us? Then take a look at the report compiled by the US Department of Education. Even the US Census population estimates of boys from 1995-2004
show an increase in this population segment (see below).
Since there has not been a decline in the birth rate for the ten years prior to 2003
, the only conclusion one can make is that parents are not choosing to enroll their boys in Cub Scouting. Can BSA's policy of discrimination be a factor in a parent's
decision on enrolling his/her son in a youth organization? Without other evidence, we are hesitant to draw such a conclusion, however, given the high profile (and
negative at that) the BSA has maintained for the past 15+ years on their insistence that they are a private religious organization that has the right to discriminate, it is at least a plausible explanation. One that is equal to any others.
In a memo sent to paid professionals across the country in January 2004, Chief Scout Executive Roy Williams directed them to -- "Fix Cub membership!"
Williams knows -- as we do -- that a strong Cub Scouting program is crucial to the continuation of the Boy Scouts of America. The problem we foresee are the methods Councils will resort to in an effort to increase their membership numbers.
As some have observed, Williams' directive is for all intensive purposes a directive to councils to falsify membership records. (For past and current fraudulent practices, click here.)
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While the numbers released for 2005 don't look good for BSA, imagine what the actual numbers would really foretell. As we'll explain below, the 2005 numbers were
manipulated at local and national levels to arrive at the most favorable figures, not the most accurate numbers of actual youth participating in Scouting at the end of the year.
Below is a compilation of BSA's actual membership figures from 1986 to 2005 (as of December 31 for each year). You'll notice several missing data points in the
table. The reason for this is that BSA National has not been very forthcoming with numbers as it once was. If you take a look at early BSA Annual Reports, you'd be
astonished by the number of facts printed in it's sometimes 800+ page detailed reports. (These are available as either House/Senate Documents in the US Serial Set issued by the US Congressional Information Service, for the years 1917-77.)
The Annual Reports BSA now prepares, are similar to those produced by unregulated "get rich quick" companies -- long on flowery language and pictures,
but a total lack of critical and important data. They don't even include detailed financial information other non-profit organizations do.
It took us several hours of researching both our paper files and Internet postings to assemble the information presented in the below table. If we had not retained
many BSA documents over the past 25 years, the below table would have been impossible to assemble. For a congressionally chartered non-profit corporation,
such a reluctance to provide this historical (much less current) information is a sure sign that BSA has something to hide.
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Yr
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Cub Scouts*
(6-10
year-olds)
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Boy Scouts*
(11-17 year-olds)
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Explorers/
Venturers*
(14-20
year-olds)
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Total
Traditional Members
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Total Available Youth(1)
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Learning for Life/
Exploring*
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Total
"Youth"
Members
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1986
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1,972,547
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1,043,798
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1,020,473
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4,036,818
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N/A
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4,036,818
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1987
|
|
|
|
|
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N/A
|
|
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1988
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2,147,699
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1,025,370
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1,055,267
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4,228,336
|
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N/A
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4,228,336
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1989
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2,155,976
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1,007,871
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1,083,068
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4,246,915
|
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N/A
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4,246,915
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1990
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2,167,062
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1,010,857
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740,753
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3,918,672
|
|
374,314
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4,292,986
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1991
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2,145,870
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988,270
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367,262
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3,501,402
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|
648,257
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4,149,659
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1992
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2,110,633
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975,589
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367,093
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3,453,315
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696,833
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4,150,148
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1993
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2,067,279
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979,192
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380,903
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3,427,374
|
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737,799
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4,165,173
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1994
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2,031,282
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978,608
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393,444
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3,403,334
|
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784,689
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4,188,023
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1995
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2,063,547
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989,343
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407,905
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3,460,795
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24,868,000
|
837,407
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4,298,202
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1996
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2,095,811
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1,000,078
|
422,366
|
3,518,255
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25,544,000
|
880,422
|
4,398,677
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1997
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2,152,387
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1,016,383
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455,268
|
3,624,038
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25,892,000
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949,583
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4,573,621
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1998
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2,171,987
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1,023,442
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188,010
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3,383,439
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26,104,000
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1,161,733
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4,545,172
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1999
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2,166,289
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1,023,691
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202,164
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3,392,144
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26,278,000
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1,373,615
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4,765,759
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2000
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2,114,420
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1,003,691
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233,858
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3,351,969
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27,249,808
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1,589,988
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4,941,957
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2001
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2,043,478
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1,005,592
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276,434
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3,325,504
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27,289,666
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1,697,701
|
5,023,205
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2002
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2,000,478
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1,010,791
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293,323
|
3,304,592
|
27,292,153
|
1,721,957
|
5,026,549
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2003
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1,914,425
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997,398
|
288,395
|
3,200,218
|
27,284,450
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1,555,226
|
4,755,444
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2004
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1,878,752
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988,995
|
280,584
|
3,145,331
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27,242,156
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1,680,522
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4,825,853
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2005
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1,640,685
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894,333
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238,469
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2,773,487
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27,211,000
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1,628,169
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4,401,656
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NOTES: * For those not familiar with BSA, or the changes that have occurred in the past 20 years in their programs, the above numbers can be misleading. At the start of the 1980's, Cub
Scouting was a 3-year program (3rd-5th grade). By the end of the 1980's, Cub Scouting was a 5-year program (1st-5th grades), therefore, while the number of youth members in Cub Scouting
increased from the 1970's to the 1990's, one must factor in the inclusion of two new age groups previously barred from participating. In 1990, BSA created the Learning for Life program, which had
previously been known as In-School Scouting, but greatly expanded and marketed it to schools. In 1998, BSA created the Venturers Program for the non-career awareness Exploring units. The
career awareness Exploring units were transferred to the LFL program. Then there is Varsity Scouting and Cub Scout Soccer . . . . but I think you get the point. (N/A = Not Applicable)
(1) The source of these numbers is the Population Estimates Program, Population Division, US Census Bureau. As the percentage of girls in Venturers is small, only males (age 5-17) are
included in this column. As you can tell, there has been no drastic decline in the overall number of boys available to join BSA from 1995-2005, and the available population of boys has been relatively
stable for the last 6 years. Projections for 2010 are for a total of 27,110,000 boys (5-17), again, no projections for a deep reduction in the available number of boys.
If you have any BSA documents which provide any of the missing data points, please feel free to send us an e-mail.
As previously reported, BSA has consistently refused to allow for an outside and
independent audit of their membership numbers -- even after federal authorities have investigated BSA for fraud. (This was the case in Chicago in the 70's and the Dallas and Birmingham councils are currently being investigated by the US
Government for such criminal activities.) For more information about past and current BSA membership scandals, click here.
Once again, those who've been active in BSA at the district and/or council levels know of the existence of so-called "paper units." These are units whose charters are
renewed each year, but which are actually not functioning, or units chartered to schools, just to obtain liability insurance, but make no pretense of operating a Scouting program.
Why does this happen? Because BSA measures the performance of it's District and Council Scout Executives on the basis of their membership numbers! If a
district has a net loss of several units over the course of a year, it may very well mean the job for the District Executive. Thus the incentive to BSA's paid professionals to encourage fraudulent registration is their own livelihood.
While BSA National's policy of harshly measuring it's paid professionals against membership numbers invites the fraud that has been exposed in Dallas, Chicago
and countless other councils, BSA National is not above massaging the numbers themselves.
For decades, it was the practice that when a organization chartered a BSA unit,
they received a charter to operate the unit for one year -- starting the month they originally signed the charter papers. Since units have to annually renew their charter
, units would be re-chartering throughout the year. However, in the past several years, BSA has strongly encouraged councils to renew all unit charters in December.
Remember, the only way BSA has to determine if a youth has dropped out of Scouting is when the unit renews their charter. If a previously registered youth is not
listed on the unit's charter renewal papers, then BSA will no longer consider them a member. However, according to Dave Rice, "all youth who have joined during a
year are counted as registered members until the end of charter, even if they have dropped out or moved. This makes the December membership figures as large as possible, with typically the lowest numbers in January."
For example, let's assume that a unit turns in it's charter renewal papers with only 10 active youth. If the previous year they had registered 15 active youth
members, the 5 who have since dropped out would still be counted in the December 31 numbers. But, if in addition to 5 youth dropping out of the program, several new youth had joined the unit since the previous December, then these new
youth would distort the numbers even further. In this scenario, BSA would count more than 15 registered youth at the end of the year for this unit, when in fact, by its
own charter renewal papers, the unit only had 10 active youth in the program. And if a unit actually folds during the year, the paid professional can simply decide to report this fact in January, rather than December.
There are other schemes available to local paid BSA professionals to increase/sustain their membership numbers. As funding from United Way and other
foundations and governmental agencies are usually dependent upon the number of youth being served, the more youth a council can show in their programs means more money.
However, given BSA's history of tampering with membership figures and its continual refusal to allow for independent audits, the only conclusion one can make
is that BSA's traditional membership program is failing to attract enough parents to sustain their previously attained heights! Especially when the Total Available Youth
(TAY) for BSA programs has not seen a corresponding decline -- on a national basis! Of course, taking a look at revising their exclusionary policies might give parents another reason to look at the Scouting program for their children.
What BSA has not bothered to look at is how people view openly gay and non-theistic persons. While polls indicate that a majority of Americans are in favor of
equal rights for gays/lesbians," a further inspection of such polls will always reveal
that Americans under the age of 30 have no problem with marriage equality for gay people, much less equal rights. For this generation, sexual orientation is not an
issue for them. And it is this group who are now (and will be) parents of children BSA is trying to recruit.
Another factor that has some impact to BSA is the growing number of
gay/lesbian parents raising children. Granted it is not a large percentage of the population, but these parents are the exact demographics that BSA has traditional
sought. These parent also interact with other parents in daycare centers, schools, work, community groups, etc. When the prospect of enrolling their sons in BSA comes around, they have firsthand experience with gay people and will decide
against allowing their sons to join an organization which teaches discrimination and intolerance.
While BSA National is placating the older generations found in its religious
chartered partners with it's stance on discrimination and exclusion. This stance is alienating itself from the very people (young parents) it is striving to attract to its
program. Thus the continuing and persistent decline in it's membership figures.
Maybe someday the folks in Irving will recognize the fact that society has
changed. Hopefully it will come to this realization before the younger generations come to the conclusion that BSA is out of step with American society and irrelevant.
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Please remember that BSA will (and has) say anything to make itself look good to the public. Thus, in the last few years, it has been including the membership in the Learning for Life program, whenever it reports total youth members. However, if you
hear BSA trumpeting membership of more than 3 million youths, then you should recall BSA's own sworn testimony regarding LFL:
Respondent's (BSA) Reply to Complainants' Proposed Findings of Fact - 5/18/98 ( in Roland D. Pool and Michael S. Geller v. Boy Scouts of America)
C. Learning For Life is Not Relevant
237. Learning for Life is a program of an affiliate of Boy Scouts of America which make available an ethics curriculum. Learning for Life is not a
membership organization. Neither the teachers that teach the curriculum nor the students who study it join Learning for Life or Boy Scouts. (Tr. 2465:21-2467:9 (Leet)). Learning for Life is "a whole different organization as far as
the Boy Scouts of America is concerned. It doesn't operate its program the way that the traditional program is operated." (Tr. 1113:18-114:2 (Carroll).) It is misleading for Complainants to discuss the Learning for Life program
alongside the traditional Boy Scout programs. (See Complainant's Proposed Findings of Facts 7, 100, 262.)
While the above is an excerpt of a sworn statement from BSA, don't be too surprised if BSA decides to changes it's mind. Little things like truth and honor do
not seem to matter to the paid professionals who inhabit the third floor in Irving.
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