DALLAS– After more than a century, the Boy Scouts of America is being renamed Scouting America, another major shakeup for an organization that once proudly resisted change.
The Texas-based organization was founded 114 years ago and has recently been embroiled in turmoil due to a flood of sexual abuse claims and bankruptcies. Now the organization is leaning toward a more inclusive message, as girls have joined from all walks of life.
“It sends this 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 welcomed here,” said Roger Krone, who last fall took over. president and director.
The change was announced Tuesday at the Boy Scout national meeting in Florida, but won’t go into effect until February 2025.
Here’s a look at what led to the change and why it matters:
The new name emphasizes inclusivity. Krone told The Associated Press that in the future they wanted a name that conveyed that all children and teens are “very, very welcome.”
He added that when people wonder why the organization needs a new name, he points to historically low membership numbers.
Like other organizations, the Scouts lost members during the pandemic, when participation was difficult. The high point of the past ten years was in 2018, when there were more than 2 million members. Currently, the organization serves just over 1 million youth, including more than 176,000 girls and teens. Membership peaked in 1972 at nearly 5 million.
Krone said that while the name is changing, the core of the organization remains the same. “Our mission remains unchanged: we are committed to teaching young people to ‘be prepared for life,’” he said in a written statement.
The organization began admitting gay members in 2013 and ended a blanket ban on adult gay leaders in 2015. In 2017, the organization made the historic announcement that girls would be accepted as Cub Scouts starting in 2018 and into the flagship Boy Scout two years later. program – renamed Scouts BSA.
More than 6,000 girls have now achieved the vaunted Eagle Scout rank.
There were nearly 1,000 teens and young women in the first class of female Eagle Scouts in 2021.
Before the announcement in 2017 that girls would be admitted to all ranks, the Boy Scouts announced they would allow transgender boys to enroll in their boys-only programs.
The organization said this week that all young people, including transgender children, are welcome as part of its membership policy.
When it sought bankruptcy protection in 2020, the Boy Scouts of America had been named in about 275 lawsuits and had told insurers they were aware of another 1,400 claims.
Last year, a federal judge upheld the $2.4 billion bankruptcy plan, allowing the organization to continue operating while compensating more than 80,000 men who filed claims saying they were sexually abused as children and teenage scouts.
Rebranding can risk alienating supporters who think the change is unnecessary, said David Aaker, vice chairman of national branding and marketing firm Prophet. But he described the Boy Scouts’ rebrand as smart, saying it starts a new conversation about the organization while not being so drastic that it strays too far from the original scouting mission.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tell a new story,” said Aaker, also a professor emeritus at the University of California-Berkeley Haas business school.
The National Organization for Women had urged the Boy Scouts to open membership to girls from all walks of life. Bear Atwood, vice president of NOW, said the name change “sends a message that girls are not only allowed to participate, but that they are welcome.”
Reactions online on Tuesday ranged from enthusiastic and supportive to those who decried the fact that “boy” is no longer in the name. “Wokeness destroys everything it touches,” state Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Republican from Georgia, wrote on the social platform X.
The Girl Scouts of the USA – a separate organization from the Boy Scouts of America – had objected to the Boy Scouts opening their doors to girls from all walks of life, and filed a lawsuit claiming it was causing confusion in the marketplace and harmed their recruitment efforts. The two organizations reached a settlement agreement after a judge dismissed those claims and said both groups are free to use words like “scouts” and “scouting.”
With that settlement in 2022, the Girl Scouts said both organizations “looked forward to focusing on their respective missions,” while the Boy Scouts said the agreement would bring “a new period of collaboration” between the organizations.
The Girl Scouts did not immediately comment on the name change from the Boy Scouts.
The Boy Scouts of America 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.
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Associated Press reporter Jim Vertuno in Austin contributed to this report.