IRVING, Texas: To promote inclusion and amid possible bankruptcy and sexual abuse claims, Boy Scouts of America has announced that it will change its name to ‘Scouting America’ after 114 years.
Aiming to boost its declining membership numbers, the Irving, Texas-based organization announced the name change this week at its annual meeting in Florida.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Roger Krone, who took over last fall as president and CEO, said, “In the next 100 years we want any youth in America to feel very, very welcome to come into our programs.”
The name change will officially take effect on February 8, 2025, coincident with the organization’s 115th birthday.
The organization began allowing gay youth in 2013 and ended a blanket ban on gay adult leaders in 2015.
In 2017, it announced that it would accept girls as Cub Scouts as of 2018 and into the flagship Boy Scout program, renamed Scouts BSA, in 2019.
The Girl Scouts of the USA, a separate organization, has clashed with the Boy Scouts due to the latter’s recruitment of girls.
A wave of reaction to the change on social media included criticism that the word “boy” will no longer appear in the name, including from Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
Despite having over two million members in 2018, the organization has just over one million youth members, including more than 176,000 girls and young women.
Membership hit a record high at some five million in 1972.
David Aaker, vice chairman of the national branding and marketing firm Prophet and professor emeritus at the University of California-Berkeley Haas Business School, said rebranding could risk alienating supporters who think the change is unnecessary.
“It is a one-time chance to tell a new story,” Aaker said.
