'We have always embraced change': Locals react to announcement of Boy Scouts name change to Scouting America

The Boy Scouts of America is changing its name to Scouting America, a move that is welcomed by a local Scouts affiliate and a former mayor.

The name change, which was announced Tuesday at a national meeting in Orlando, Florida, will go into effect on Feb. 8, the organization’s 115th birthday, a news release states.

“Our new name, Scouting America, is a much more accurate reflection of the youth we serve,” Jeff Duer, the Great Southwest Council of Boy Scouts of America Scout Executive, said in an email to the Journal. “Girls have been involved in various Scouting programs for decades in both our Venturing and Exploring programs.”

Duer said he was not surprised by the change. There are 1,265 Scouts in the Great Southwest Council — of which just over 17% are female, “so updating the name makes sense.”

According to the organization’s website, the announcement came as it celebrated the fifth anniversary of welcoming girls into Cub Scouting and Scouts BSA programs. The organization serves more than 176,000 girls and young women across all programs, including over 6,000 who earned the rank of Eagle Scout.

Former Albuquerque mayor and Eagle Scout R.J. Berry told the Journal that every organization wanting to thrive over time needs to be active and needs to grow. The change to Scouting America “sounds good to me, sounds right,” he said.

Making the organization more accessible to people will “add value to a lot of lives,” Berry added. “The lessons of scouting isn’t built around the name. It’s built around the lessons learned.”

Berry said he was an Eagle Scout in 1977 when he took a life-changing trip to the Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico, where he learned about leadership and “the rigor it takes to be an Eagle Scout.”

“It takes real work. The fact you’re around an organization that is trying to foster personal responsibility and skills that matter through your life, I think that matters,” he said. “I recommend it highly for anyone who wants to take a look at this organization.”

‘We have always embraced change’

According to the organization, more than 130 million Americans have been through Scouting programs since its founding in 1910, and currently, more than 1 million youths, males and females, are served by 477,000 adult volunteers in local councils across the country. To date, more than 2.75 million youths have earned Scouting’s highest 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,” President and CEO of Scouting America Roger A. Krone said in a statement. “This will be a simple but very important evolution as we seek to ensure that everyone feels welcome in Scouting.”

The organization began allowing gay youths in 2013 and ended a blanket ban on gay adult leaders in 2015. In 2017, it announced that girls would be accepted as Cub Scouts the next year and into the Boy Scout program — since renamed Scouts BSA — in 2019, the Associated Press reported.

According to AP, the move by the Boy Scouts to accept girls strained a bond with Girl Scouts of the USA, which sued, saying it created “marketplace confusion” and damaged its recruitment efforts. They reached a settlement after a judge rejected those claims, saying both groups were allowed to use terms like “scouts” and “scouting.”

Despite the ups and downs in recent years, people like Duer are looking forward to the organization’s next chapter.

Scouting America, Duer said, “is reflective of the path we want Scouting to charter for the next century as we invite all youth to be a part of Scouting America.”

“In many ways, Scouting is woven into American culture,” he said. “We have always embraced change, while recognizing and honoring our past, and I believe we will continue to do so.”