BSA 2013 National Membership Study - Executive Summary
released 4/19/2013, key excerpts below ...
61% of scouters favored the current policy, 34 % oppose it.
61% of Boy Scout parents supported the current policy, while 50% of Cub Scout parents backed it (45% of Cub Scout parents opposed it).
51% of major donors support the current policy while 33% oppose it. But a majority of Fortune 500 companies want to see the policy changed.
The summary of findings said a policy change would cost the Scouts a minimum of 100,000 to 350,000 (13.5%) members. “It is believed any gain in membership because of a change to the membership policy related to youth and adults would be in the range of 10,000 to 20,000 (<1%) youth.”
BSA has been in a negative growth slope since 1973. The new Membership Standard adopted on 5/23/2013 to allow openly homosexual youth, but no adults, will add to the membership decline but not dramatically. It may take a year, i.e., early 2015, before BSA releases its annual membership statistics before we can judge how BSA membership has been affected.
Weasel words for...
I’m uncertain what this means. What was “the current policy” at the time this report was published?
Just to be clear, the results you’ve posted relate to the membership policy that was in effect before National conspired and conducted the National conference to essentially overturn the wishes of the 61% who wanted to retain the ban on open homosexuality in scouting.
A very sordid affair...our Council would not name our delegates so we could not petition them with our positions...they were kept incognito and voted to change the policy.
To date, not one representative has been made available to begin the process of explaining how to implement the new policy.
They refuse to answer any phone calls, emails or letters relating to the topic unless you’re kissing their a$$.
They will not clarify the “sexual preference or orientation” statement...meaning that if a genetic female has a “preference” to be male, or a male that wants to be female. It’s not like we can perform a “visual” check...
But for me, the complete loss of confidence in National, Region and Council were the final straw. They wouldn’t let the original survey results stand...they conspired with the mormons in SLC to gain their approval for the change and then essentially stacked the deck at the conference.
Hey BSA, spit!
Is that approx. it?
And they did this even though it would drive out an additional hundred thousand scouts, in a movement already in decades-long decline?
Why??
How did the gays, 2% of the population, exert this much pressure on Fortune 500 donors?