Posted on 04/19/2025 3:35:31 PM PDT by fwdude
IDAHO FALLS — Stakeholders with the Grand Teton Council and other local community leaders gathered Wednesday to discuss ways of increasing membership for the Scouting program after a massive drop in numbers five years ago.
The Grand Teton Council is part of Scouting America, formerly the Boy Scouts of America, and covers eastern Idaho and parts of western Wyoming.
Since 2019, the Grand Teton Council and Scouting America have struggled to maintain and grow their membership after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stopped using the organization in lieu of starting its own youth program.
“We lost 95% of our membership, and along with that was a lot of adult leadership,” Grand Teton Council District Director Elias Lopez said during the meeting. “We retained 1,500 out of 23,000 (youths).”
Along with the LDS departure, Lopez said their financial support also disappeared.
Lopez said they are on track to meet their membership numbers to maintain their charter with the national program, but they lack the ability to create new Scout units and find financial support.
“We can still do it, but we need everybody’s help to do this,” Lopez said.
Part of the discussion involved where and how Scouting can be used to help kids and adults who struggle with mental health or addiction within the community.
Idaho Falls City Councilman John Radford expressed concerns about a crisis of loneliness in the community and how groups like Scouting America can combat the problem. He said the growth of eastern Idaho has created more opportunities for people to become involved in the organization.
“One of the things we’re most concerned with in the city is that our youth are in crisis,” he said.
Radford asked Bonneville County Sheriff Sam Hulse about suicide rates, and Hulse said that the rates of suicide in the younger generation have been higher, and attempted suicides by juveniles have become almost a weekly occurance.
Audrey Preston, vice president of membership for the Grand Teton Council, said this issue also affects those on the opposite end of the age spectrum, and that Scouting could help them out by offering them leadership or mentorship roles.
She asked Hulse what he’s seen, and Hulse responded that Idaho typically ranks in the top 10 for suicide rates, but specifically, those over 70.
Hulse referenced the works of Thomas Joiner, a psychologist focused on suicide rates. He said one of the main factors for suicides in the older generations, specifically men, is losing a sense of purpose or belonging.
“It’s prevalent in the male population, and we would love to say that with all the emerging resources we’re seeing that drop, but we are not. We do see it exponentially and continue to climb,” Hulse said.
Radford and Preston pointed out that Scouting is a possible avenue to help those members of the community.
“They need us, and they need to be involved. There’s so much power in knowing that you have people depending on you, and just those connections make a difference,” Preston said.
Radford said growing up as a Scout helped him learn to be a good kid and exposed him to the lives of other community members.
He said his Scoutmaster was a nuclear engineer, which allowed him to learn that people could get that educated.
“I could seek a master’s degree or a PhD,” Radford said. “Scouting is that for us right now.”
Lopez said it’s vital for the 1,500 currently in the program to know that they have access to these community leaders. One way they have access is through programs like the Explorer’s Post through the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office. The program allows, Scouts to learn about become a law enforcement officer.
Hulse said those teens learn the reality of becoming a deputy and about the profession, which helps to keep them out of trouble.
“I do think scouting is one of the things that we’re getting right, and we’re so thankful for our Explorer scouts,” Hulse said.
For those wanting to learn more about Scouting America or the Grand Teton Council, contact Lopez at (208) 522-5155 or visit tetonscouts.org.
Go woke. Go broke.
Well, that takes care of the scoutmaster shortage.
“What about religious roots?”
That is the one thing that went bye-bye and then the organization collapsed.
To be honest I was never a scout, I used to beat the pussies up.
My father never forbade me from joining, but told me all costs were on my “Nickle”.
Since my family provided lots of outdoor, hunting, fishing, and learning activities the scouts looked pretty dull by comparison. I just missed” out on the “group” belonging.
Which in hindsight was no great loss.
Not all kids get that sort of opportunity, but the watered down politically correct Boy/Girl Scout way of doing things was, frankly a joke. Letting homosexuals run rampant was an even bigger mistake! I don’t care about your adult sexual issues, but parents are responsible for their kids sexual maturity, not some hired or volunteer instructor.
My own Boy Scouts experience in the 1970s and 1980s was miserable. Entitled rich kids, entitled rich parents, those of us from the wrong side of the community were ostracized and belittled. The original mission may have been awesome, but, in practice, there’s no magic in Boy Scouts. There were no outdoors experiences, there were no transformative projects, there was no moral or civic teaching. It’s only one Boy Scout group but from my perspective they have always been an entitled elitist social club that is better gone and forgotten. If the national organization couldn’t see how bad things were at my group, they deserve no respect at all. They reaped what they sowed.
Go back to 2013. No gay boys, no gay leaders, no girls.
Actually, go back to 2010 and turn down the offer of the WV campground. They spent $750,000,000 on that boondoggle. Their financial backers forced them to take desperation measures including being forced to go all gay.
Trail Life USA is everything BSA used to be and then some.
The original Boy Scouts should have held tight to their values after winning the Supreme Court case to set membership standards.
Instead, they allowed staff and big, woke corporate contributors and Robert Gates to stand the organization on its head.
BSA would have been better off with a membership of 100,000 and values than an organization with an aspiration of three million without honor.
When Boy Scouts went to war – the Gray Ranks of Poland
https://dorindabalchin.com/2021/05/06/when-boy-scouts-went-to-war-the-gray-ranks-of-poland/
The troop went to Camp Goshen for summer camp. It would be the only time I went to summer camp during my membership in Scouts. I had earned 2nd Class and was working on 1st class and merit badges at camp. I earned 3 and a mile swim patch. I also fulfilled the balance of requirements for 1st class.
By the time my family moved from Springfield, VA back to Chula Vista, CA, I had earned my Star. The new troop had lots of old friends from prior days living in Chula Vista. I rapidly completed the Life requirements. More merit badges followed. Many required riding a bicycle 25 miles to a counselor's house. My dad was at sea and mom had prior commitments for my sister...not that she didn't help A LOT in getting to many merit badge appointments. I passed my Eagle Board of Review on April 12, 1972.
Scouts was an outstanding organization then. I learned about the imperfections after leaving the troop. One assistant scoutmaster was prosecuted and sent to prison for molesting young children at the daycare his wife ran. Some of the younger scouts had been molested by other scouts. It wasn't very nice. Very disappointing. While I was working on advancement in the ranks, the "gay" community in San Diego was firing off lawsuits against the Balboa Park Scout Camp and Fiesta Island facilities. They were also actively seeking involvement with the troops. The most disappointing development was the national level "leadership" caving to the homosexuals. That hastened the demise of the organization. The LDS church supported the BSA as the basic young men's program. When the national BSA leadership caved, the church leadership decided to sever ties with the BSA. The LDS and Catholic sponsorship of troops with a very significant part of the financial health of the BSA. It is a shell of the former organization.
there are some alternatives to bsa
The radical woke agenda and sexual predators go together like romance and restraining orders.
The Goodies had their take on scouting and it’s one of their best episodes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoutrageous
It used to be on Youtube but a lot of Goodies have been removed.
They’re definitely don’t play around with boycotts.
No mention as to why LDS dropped the Homo Boy Scouts and created an alternative scouting group to prevent their young boys from being raped by grown men.
The moment you take the victimhood route all support from normal folks ends.
Yeah, of course you must not turn away struggling kiddies. But, if you mainline them we know from experience what path you have taken.
It’s like the comment I left at this article. In an effort to become all “inclusive” the scouts anctually excluded their time-honored core principles.
As an assistant scout master, I left when they left God.
“To God and my country ...
And morally straight”
That’s a sticking point for the leaders of this group now.
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