Posted on 01/17/2015 12:09:54 PM PST by NKP_Vet
DALLAS (Reuters) - Membership in the Boy Scouts of America took a steeper tumble during 2014, the first year under a policy that allows openly gay youth to participate, than in recent years of a decade-long decline.
About 2.4 million youth participated in the nearly 105-year-old Texas-based scouting program, representing a 7.4 percent decline over 2013 enrollment of 2.6 million youth, Boy Scout officials said in a statement on Friday.
Enrollment declined by about 6 percent in 2013. BSA officials said that decreasing participation is a trend that most youth organizations are facing.
"There are many factors that go into a family's decision to join and participate in Scouting. This includes, but is not limited to, the limited amount of discretionary time of parents and kids," the BSA statement said.
The number of adult volunteers dropped to 981,000 in 2014, down from slightly over 1 million 2013.
The new membership policy that allowed gay youth in the organization for the first time split the organization between those who embraced the non-discriminatory change and conservatives who stood by traditional values. Trail Life USA was founded last year as a breakaway organization based on Christian standards.
In an effort to increase membership, the Boy Scouts introduced new technology programs and more outdoor activities. Also, former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates became national president and a new "High Adventure Base" opened in West Virginia last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
the boy scouts are dead to me
Which is exactly what their aim was from the beginning.
Also, child rape mysteriously increased. hmmm
According to whom?
Some truth to that statement. BSA National is beholden to corporate America for donations. LGBT activist organizations have successfully penetrated U.S. corporate boardrooms with their message. The membership of BSA's National Executive Committee (~25-60 members), which is recruited by the BSA professionals, led the charge in changing BSA's membership policy. And will do so again for open homosexual adult members.
I googled "membership in the Boy Scouts of America numbers graph" to get the other. It's the fourth image.
I can't absolutely vouch for the data and couldn't get to the page the second graph came from and don't have a chart for the most recent years, but my understanding is the membership in the BSA was in decline for a long time. The small rally around 1998-1999 was a surprise though.
Right wrong or otherwise parents will keep their children out.
“Way to go Robert Gates! He fostered the mess in Iraqi and now he is ruining the BSA”.
Let’s not forget Gates was the architect of getting rid of DADT and letting sodomites openly serve. Gates, another gift from RINO George W.Bush, who also gave us John Roberts.
Maybe people don’t like sexuality flaunted into their kids’ faces? Maybe the whole point of the BSA was about boys developing NON-SEXUAL friendships. Guys can be good friends with other guys, but the whole issue here is the same reason why some sane parent would not want a 31 year old man like me with their 15 year old daughter. Seriously, people are so FoS that they don’t care what happens to anyone or anything else, or see why some parents would take issue.
The BSA lost all focus and then they hired Gates to rub in the homo agenda even deeper
In summary, the BSA’s recent move hasn’t mattered for its’ decline, in part because those who complained were not interested in having their kids in there in the first place.
A lot of scouting families pulled out I bet
I was in Scouting during its Golden Age 1950’s to very early 1960’s this current organization may be gone FOREVER!!!
There’s no need to bet, because if a chapter of the BSA, didn’t show that their chartered scouting conduct would not change, which it could if they really wanted it too, then there is no need to stay. Plus you don’t trust an environment where someone is with what they are attracted to. It’s not discrimination considering that plenty of the same parents who wouldn’t want a 30 year old homosexual with their son, would not want a 31 year old man who is attracted to women with their teen daughter.
If a charter under the BSA, which can choose to not permit homosexual behavior among it’s scouts, chooses to change it’s policy, it’s their choice, and their fault.
Liberals never seem to get, that no sane man is going to send his son on a camping trip with a homosexual.
Well, it has been having a lot of problems. Accepting homosexuality will not reverse the decline. The real elephant in the room for a lot of organizations has been retaining youth as they get a little older, and the loss of family structure as well. 40 percent of children now live in single parent families, a lot of those are also in poverty, too, in short, the family structure that allowed for families likely to enroll their kids in youth problems is decaying, and te loss of youth in organizations is suffering as a result. You don’t have that many of those middle-class two parent families right now, which is the main group from which a great deal of Boy Scouts come from. Then there’s the cultural trend of not belonging to religion = cool, so that might have a little to do with it too.
Just like no sane parent would like to leave his daughter with High Hefner in the mansion.
They should have asked former Scouts for donations, instead of looking to big donors. As the old joke has it, they "put all their begs in one ask-it," instead of going after the alumni one by one. Scouting meant enough to me that I would have been glad to donate, but they never asked me. Now that they've sold out their principles, I wouldn't give them a dime.
There is nothing “clean” or “morally straight” about sodomy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.