Dues increase raises questions about Boy Scouts' financial health

[TexasTowelie]

The Boy Scouts of America, now 103 years old, is going through a lot of changes this year.

The BSA, which is based in Irving, announced last week that it is raising annual membership dues from $15 to $24 per Scout — a 60 percent increase — beginning Jan. 1, 2014.

Chief Scout Executive Wayne Brock made the announcement at the BSA’s annual Top Hands Meeting, a gathering of senior Scout professionals that took place in Washington, D.C.

Brock said the fee increase is the first since 2010 and is necessary to offset “rising administrative costs.” Deron Smith, a BSA spokesman, also said the fee increase will offset increased technology and insurance costs.

More at http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2013/09/boy-scouts-announce-annual-membership-fee-increase-for-2014-raising-questions-about-whether-the-organization-is-hurting-financially.html/ .

[MADem]

1. That is a freakishly large increase.... nt

[d_r]

2. ok wait a minute

I just want to make sure that I am not reading more between the lines than you wrote. Because I am pretty sure you didn't mean it and so I need to double check.

"raises questions about Boy Scouts' financial health"

I'm pretty sure that people are going to use this to imply that there is financial difficulties because they are letting boys who are gay join.

That's not what this is, right?

ETA because that's what the blog post linked to is doing:

"A group of disaffected Scout leaders are meeting this weekend in Nashville to announce formation of a new youth development group to compete with BSA. John Stemberger, a Florida lawyer and Eagle Scout, said the new group’s name, uniform and structure will be unveiled at the meeting.

BSA’s current membership policy prohibits openly gay men from volunteer and staff positions within Scouting. But Stemberger predicts will be only a matter of time before court rulings knock down that remaining barrier.

The BSA once boasted of five million members back in the 1950s when the United States’ population was about half of what it is today. BSA now claims 2.2 million members. And it will be interesting to see whether headquarters will openly acknowledge how many members remain after annual registration for 2014."

[TexasTowelie]

4. d_r

The headline that I used for this thread was the hyperlink from the front page of the DMN Website at http://www.dallasnews.com/ . I didn't use the headline from the actual story because I thought that it would exceed the maximum length allowed for a thread subject line, although I did not actually check to verify that assumption.

I hope that clears things up, it was unintentional beyond the consideration of the length of that subject line and I apologize for any confusion that has resulted.

[d_r]

5. I knew that was not what you meant

just saying you know

[aikoaiko]

3. I'm surprised it still so low.

My 8-year old son's soccer if $55 twice a year.