Boy Scouts of America changes name to Scouting America after 114 years to ‘boost inclusion’ after allowing girls to join – even though they already have their own division
Boy Scouts of America is changing its name for the first time in its 114-year history in an effort to “promote inclusivity.”
The Texas-based organization will become Scouting America as it hopes to improve participation despite declining membership.
The historic change is the latest in a series designed to bring the troops into the 21st century, including allowing gay youth and welcoming girls into all ranks.
It comes as the organization emerges from bankruptcy following a flood of sexual abuse claims.
“Over the next 100 years, we want all of America’s young people to feel very welcome in our programs,” Roger Krone, who took over as president and CEO last fall, said in an interview before the announcement.
The Boy Scouts of America is changing its name for the first time in its 114-year history in an effort to ‘drive inclusivity’
The name change announcement at the annual meeting in Florida came on the fifth anniversary of welcoming girls into Scouting. Pictured: Roger Krone, president and CEO of the Boy Scouts of America
The Texas-based organization will become Scouting America, an initiative intended to address declining membership and a desire to focus on inclusivity.
The announcement came during the annual meeting in Florida to mark the organization’s fifth anniversary of welcoming girls to Cub Scouting.
Boy Scouts of America began admitting gay youth in 2013 and ended a blanket ban on gay adult leaders in 2015.
In 2017, it made the historic announcement that girls would be admitted to Cub Scouts starting in 2018 and to the flagship Boy Scout program – renamed Scouts BSA – in 2019.
There were nearly 1,000 young women in the first class of female Eagle Scouts in 2021, including Selby Chipman.
The girl group she co-founded in her hometown of Oak Ridge, North Carolina, has grown from five girls to almost 50, and she thinks the name change will encourage even more girls to realize they can join.
“Girls said, ‘Can you join Boy Scouts of America?’” said Chipman, now a 20-year-old college student and assistant scoutmaster of her troop.
Within days of announcing that girls would be admitted, Bob Brady went to work.
As the father of two girls and a proud Eagle Scout himself, the New Jersey lawyer eagerly formed a girls’ troop.
The name change announcement at the annual meeting in Florida came on the fifth anniversary of welcoming girls into Scouting
“Over the next 100 years, we want all young people in America to feel very welcome in our programs,” said Roger Krone.
During their first weekend meeting with other troops, the boys were happy to have the girls involved, but some adult leaders seemed concerned, he recalled.
Their worries seemed to melt away as soon as the girls led traditional cheers around the campfire.
“You could see a change in the attitude of 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 nationwide who have achieved the vaunted Eagle Scout rank.
Like other organizations, the Scouts lost members during the pandemic, when participation was difficult.
After peaking over the past decade with more than 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 in 1972 at nearly 5 million.
The Boy Scouts’ move to accept girls throughout its ranks strained its relationship with the Girl Scouts of the USA, which sued, saying it caused confusion in the marketplace and hurt their recruitment efforts.
They reached a settlement agreement after a judge dismissed those claims and said both groups are free to use words like “scouts” and “scouting.”
Cars drive past the Boys Scouts of America headquarters in Irving, Texas, Feb. 12, 2020
A woman walks out of the Boy Scouts of America national headquarters in Irving, Texas, Nov. 1, 2019
While camping remains an integral activity for the Boy Scouts, today the organization offers something for everyone, from grand adventures to merit badges for robotics and digital technology.
“Anything kids want to do these days, they can do in a structured way within the scouting program,” Krone said.
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 while scouting as children.
Angelique Minett, the first female president of Scouts BSA, is excited about the future of scouting and the involvement of the group’s youth council on issues ranging from sustainability to the fit of some uniforms.
“When we think of scouts, we think of knotting and camping, but those are means to an end,” Minett said.
‘We are actually teaching children something much bigger. We teach them how to have perseverance, and we teach them life skills and we teach them how to be good leaders.”
The organization will not officially become Scouting America until February 8, 2025, the organization’s 115th anniversary. But Krone said he expects people will start using the name immediately.
“It sends a very powerful message to everyone in America that they can come to this program, they can bring their authentic selves, they can be who they are and they will be welcome here,” he said.