If you never thought BSA was not obsessed with numbers, then take a look at some of BSA's early Annual Reports. Some of these reports could reach 800+ pages in length (compared to the 20+ page reports of today) and were filled with pages of tables of almost every conceivable Scouting data. Many tables were arranged by states, councils, regions, etc.
   The very early years of BSA's organization was a bit chaotic, to say the least. Registration in these early years was not of Troops, or even of Scouts, but of "Scout Masters." It was not until the beginning of 1911 that troops were first chartered, and October 1913 before Scouts were first registered.
   Whenever one looks at the number of registered youth and units from BSA, one must remember -- contrary to BSA's public position that it has not changed -- that BSA has indeed changed over it's almost 100 years.

   I'll try to refresh your memory of some of these changes:

• Scouting was originally only for boys 12 and older. That was dropped to 11 years of age.
   
• Sea Scouting, which became a part of Senior Scouting and then Exploring, now Venturing, was started in 1912.
   
• Cub Scouting was formally approved in 1933, adding boys as young as 9 years of age to BSA's numbers.
   
• Girls were allowed to join Exploring in 1969.
   
• By the end of the 1980's, Cub Scouting was expanded to a 5-year program, allowing 7 and 8-year-old boys to join BSA.
   
• In 1990, BSA created the Learning for Life program, which had previously been known as In-School Scouting. In some reports, BSA includes LFL numbers with traditional programs, causing a lot of confusion.
   
• In 1998, BSA created the Venturers Program for the non-career awareness Exploring units. The career awareness Exploring units were transferred to the LFL program.
   
• BSA created Varsity Scouting in the 1990's, as a result of pressure from the LDS.
   
• In an attempt to reverse years of membership decline in Cub Scouting, BSA has recently introduced Soccer and Scouting.

   By now you should realize that one cannot draw any conclusions of the increase or decrease of membership, just by comparing the number of registered youth and units from year to year. One has to factor in the myriad of program changes and additions, before one can make any type of statement. However, when looked at over a 5, or even a 10-year time span, then interpretations can be made from changes in membership.
   Having said this, one also has to remember that the numbers provided are probably not even the actual numbers at the end of each year. This is based on two important factors.
   BSA's reliance on numbers and increasing membership have resulted in the manipulation of membership figures. This is not only a well-known "secret" amongst Scouters, but was made public for the first time on a national scale in the in the 1970's, It originated in the Chicago Area Council, but spread to about 20 councils that publicly admitted wrongdoing. Despite the assurances made after the Chicago scandal, a string of membership scandals have surfaced every couple of years. Not too long ago, a federal grand jury was impaneled to investigate the Circle Ten Council (Dallas, TX) and the FBI is investigating the Greater Alabama Council. The numbers game played out in councils is well known to Scouters and too long to discuss here.
   The second reason is that the data is only as good as what was recorded. In this case, the assignment that a chartering organization actually is a Roman Catholic organization. I can recall looking at lists of Roman Catholic chartered units in my council, and noticing that some were not listed and some that were listed, were not Roman Catholic. Hopefully this has been fixed, but it is always a potential problem.
   Another factor to consider is that the BSA has a habit of changing annual membership numbers once they've been released. In many cases reports from within the BSA will have one number and several months later another report will show a different number, for the same reporting period. The same is true with historical numbers printed in Annual Reports. If I have a figure for one year from an earlier BSA document that is restated in a later BSA document, I will generally report the restated figure. Which is the correct number, I cannot say.
   The last issue to address is individual members. It is a fact that today, Catholic youth are not required to be members of Catholic chartered units. Additionally, non-Catholics are able to join Catholic units. (To my knowledge, there are few, if any, closed-Catholic only units in the BSA.) Therefore, the number of youth registered in Catholic chartered units cannot be used to determine the actual number of Catholic youth involved in Scouting. One rough approximation that has been used is the number of Scouts who attend National Jamborees. As just about all of the Jamborees Scouts attend religious services on the Sunday during the Jamboree, it has been extrapolated that approximately 25% of youth in BSA are Catholic, as about 25% of the Jamboree Scouts attend Catholic mass.
   The use of the Jamboree population as a sample set is not statistically valid given the self-selection of participants and the costs associated with attendance. However, until BSA provides for the option of noting a member's religious affiliation on their registration form, we'll never have an accurate number of Catholic Scouts. An alternative is to commission a study to determine the religious affiliation of BSA members. Until then, we have these numbers (I will attempt to update this table in the future, as time and information permits.):

All contents of this web site are Copyright ©1999-2011 David L. Peavy.
All Rights Reserved.
This web site is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by
the National Catholic Committee on Scouting, the Catholic Church,
or the Boy Scouts of America.

[Home] [Scouting & Youth] [Bibliography] [Pictures & Patches] [Inter Cath Scouting] [Miscellanea]

This page was last modified on Tuesday, May 10, 2011.