Catherine Rusoff
The Boy Scouts of America is changing its name for the first time in its 114-year history and will become Scouting America. It’s a significant change as the organization comes out of bankruptcy after a flood of allegations of sexual abuse and seeks to focus on inclusion.
The tradition-rich organization has made seismic changes after decades of turbulence, since finally allowing young gays to welcome girls into all its ranks. Aiming to increase membership, the Irving, Texas-based organization announced the name change Tuesday at its annual meeting in Florida.
“Over the next 100 years, we want any young person in America to feel very, very welcome to participate in our programs,” said Roger Krone, who took over last fall as president and CEO, in an interview before the announcement.
The organization began allowing gay youth in 2013 and ended with a blanket policy ban on gay adult leaders in 2015. In 2017, he made the historic announcement that girls would be accepted as Cub Scouts starting in 2018 and into the main Scout program – renamed Scouts BSA – in 2019.
There were nearly 1,000 young women in the inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts in 2021, including Selby Chipman. The all-girls troop she was a founding member of in her hometown of Oak Ridge, North Carolina, has grown from five girls to nearly 50, and she thinks the name change will encourage even more girls to realize they can join.
“Girls were like, ‘Can you join the Boy Scouts of America?’” said Chipman, now a 20-year-old college student and assistant leader of her troop.
A few days after the announcement that girls would be allowed, Bob Brady got to work. A father of two girls and a proud Eagle Scout, the New Jersey lawyer eagerly formed an all-girls troop. At his first weekend meeting with other troops, the boys were happy to have the girls involved, but some adult leaders seemed concerned, he recalled. His worries seemed to disappear as the girls led a traditional celebration around the campfire.
“You could see a change in the attitude of some of the doubters who weren’t sure and realized, wait, these kids look exactly the same, just they have ponytails,” Brady said. Her daughters are among 13 girls in her troop and 6,000 girls nationwide who have achieved the vaunted rank of Eagle Scout.
Like other organizations, the Boy Scouts lost members during the pandemic when participation was difficult. After a high point in the last decade with more than 2 million members in 2018, the organization currently serves just over 1 million young people, including more than 176,000 girls and young women. Membership peaked in 1972 at nearly 5 million.
The Boy Scouts’ decision to accept girls into all its ranks strained ties with the Girl Scouts of the USA, which sued, saying it created confusion in the marketplace and hurt its recruiting efforts. They reached a settlement after a judge rejected those claims, saying both groups are free to use words like “beaters” and “beaters.”
While camp remains an integral activity for the Boy Scouts, the organization offers something for everyone today, from grand adventures to merit badges to robotics and digital technology, Krone said, “Anything kids want to do today, they can do in a structured way. within the scouting program.”
The Boy Scouts’ $2.4 billion bankruptcy recovery plan took effect last year, allowing the organization to continue operating while compensating the more than 80,000 men who say they were sexually abused as children while in the Scouts.
Angelique Minett, the first female president of Scouts BSA, is excited about the future of Scouting as she sees the youth council of about 20 people from across the United States help guide the program, raising issues important to them, such as sustainability and things that they would like to see changed, like the fit of some uniforms.
“When we think of Boy Scouts, we think of us and camps, but those are a means to an end,” Minett said. “We’re actually teaching kids something much bigger. We’re teaching them how to have courage, we’re teaching them life skills, and we’re teaching 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 hopes people start using the name right away.
“It sends a really strong message to everyone in America that they can come to this program, they can bring their authentic self, they can be who they are and they will be welcome here,” Krone said.
