The Boy Scouts of America today announced that it will rebrand to Scouting America, reflecting the organization’s ongoing commitment to welcome every youth and family in America to experience the benefits of Scouting. The change will go into effect on February 8, 2025, the organization’s 115th anniversary.
This announcement also comes as the organization celebrates the fifth anniversary of welcoming girls into Cub Scouting and Scouts BSA programs. Scouting America currently serves more than 176,000 girls and young women across all programs, including over 6,000 who have earned the rank of Eagle Scout.
“Though our name will be new, our mission remains unchanged: we are committed to teaching young people to be Prepared. For Life,” said Roger A. Krone, president and chief executive officer of Scouting America. “This will be a simple but very important evolution as we seek to ensure that everyone feels welcome in Scouting.”
Scouting America builds on the organization’s 114 years of helping America’s youth. Its ongoing goal is to provide young people with a safe environment where they can learn meaningful life skills and have fun, educational experiences, fostering their growth and future outcomes as leaders, and be prepared for life. At the same time, values instilled by the Scout Oath and Law help prepare young people for lives of purpose and impact.
More than 130 million Americans have been through Scouting programs since its founding in 1910, and currently, more than 1 million youth, including both men and women, are served by 477,000 dedicated adult volunteers in local councils throughout the country. To date, more than 2.75 million youth have earned Scouting’s highest rank of Eagle Scout.
In addition to supporting the nation’s youth, Scouting America will continue to be an important asset to strengthen our communities, having provided more than 7 million hours of volunteer services for community improvement and other projects across the country annually.
“Scouting America provides a welcoming, safe environment where youth can become the best version of themselves by learning from and respecting each other,” said Krone. “I encourage everyone to join us and experience the benefits of Scouting.”
26 comments
Imagine being upset by this.
Imagine being the Girl Scouts and not being upset by this…
Some countries have long established scouting orgs that have always been coed, and that’s fine. But everybody knows this is pandering and woke-ification combined with desperation.
There goes bear but slide at camp Wolfeboro.
bare butt??
We have had girls in Scouting for years, and we still teach Duty to God and Country, Duty to Others, and Duty to Self.
Will Girl Scouts be changing their name as well?
That depends entirely on the Girl Scouts of America. They are a completely different corporation.
The GSA did sue the BSA for allowing girls to join and were laughed out of court by the Judge who said they were just trying to get publicity.
Yes. They are going to be called “Scout Trucks” and transition to simply driving around selling food to raise money for the moms to earn pretend badges for their kids. Which is what they do now.
Xim Scouts. Nice ring.
As long as its for the inclusion of girls I’m ok with it
BS and not Boy Scouts, absolutely ridiculous!
Girl Scouts is next up for attack!
The Girl Scouts have been partnered with Planned Parenthood practically forever.
I was not keen on this when first announced some years ago. I still have reservations, but it is more based on tradition. From one viewpoint, why can’t guys have a group of just guys? Developed as an organization for boys and was that way for decades. Not much more of an argument than that. That said, seeing the girls that were part of my son’s troop, these girls were just as much into the scouting adventure as the boys. Had to learn the same skills, meet the same standards for advancement, take the camping trips, etc. That changed my mind overall about it. Not sure it enhanced my son’s growth any, nor can I say it was detrimental. Just that nagging in the background, why can’t groups, like guys, have something for themselves. Not much of an argument, but still, an argument.
BSA, as it currently stands, does a lot of their troop meetings and planning separately, and then join up for events and opening/closing parts of their meetings. Even then, for overnights and such, they are separated into different sites or cabins and often do their joint events separated to a degree (ie New Scout Overnights the boys teach the new scouts one thing and the girls work on teaching another thing, but it’s the same event). The boys get plenty of “bro time” and, honestly, most of them don’t seem very concerned with “bro time”.
The problem with GSA is that the program (at least in the Claycord area in the 80s) was very weak. As a child I wanted to do everything my Boy Scout friends were doing, but there wasn’t anything for me, and Girl Scouts didn’t provide the same comprehensive programming. I think it’s fantastic that the girls have this as an option.
My son is in scouts and when asked what he thought about girls in the troop, he looked at me confused and said, “I don’t care, why?” They really, truly, don’t seem to care. It seems like it’s only a certain type of adult who does.
Jessica, may be same troop. I agree with all you said, which is why my reservations are based on traditions, and the concept of taking away the “just a group of guys,” old man thinking.
Interesting take.
My 10 yr old son has been in scouts for three years. He doesn’t understand why girls need to join when they have Girl Scouts.
He also made the comment, “Girl Scouts don’t let boys participate in their troops, why are we forced to do so”?
A bit hypocritical, and this coming from a ten year old…
@The Grant
Your son isn’t the only one who doesn’t understand this.
Since the bankruptcy, rules for the safety of our youth have been strengthened. No adult of either sex is allowed to be alone with a youth of either sex at any time. On outings, youth may share a tent only with their own parent, or with another youth of the same sex and age.
Programs for older Scouts, including Explorer Posts, Venture Crews, and Sea Scout Ships have been coed for decades.
In 2018, girls were allowed into Cub Scouting. Depending on their chartering organizations, Cub Scout Packs can be all boy, all girl, or mixed.
About 2019, girls were allowed to join traditional Scouting programs, now called Scouts BSA. A Scout BSA Troop is only all boys or all girls. Troops have always been able to work with other Troops, but now, Boy Troops and Girl Troops can also work together.
When I was a Girl Scout leader, we did sell cookies, but we had an outdoor program more like the Boy Scouts did.
You mean changing it to They Them scouts?
What’s next…. Drag Queen Story Time?
Find your “True Self”?
Gee…. I wonder what they’re getting at.
Makes it more inclusive. What’s up with Girl Scouts? They need to get in line, why are they so exclusive!
Can we just say what’s real? What’s “upsetting” about this is that, while the Boy & Girl Scouts organizations have provided many benefits to young people throughout their respective histories, this is an LGBTQ gender issue. With the elimination of the word “boy”, any individual can “identify” as whatever it feels like on any given day. Yes, I used the word IT. This identifier is all encompassing. How the heck else is anyone supposed to know which pronoun to use on each different day so as not to offend? C’mon, MAN!
This is BS girls these days need to stay in their own Lane There is no place in Boy Scouts for a girl they have their own group. It’s called Girl Scouts and they have to change your name because some girl doesn’t realize that she’s not a boy Unreal the What this world is coming to today?
For those who care about facts, here is an excellent discussion of what the name change means: What our organization’s name change means — and doesn’t mean — to Scouts and leaders.
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