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The Boy Scouts of America is changing its name to try to recruit more members after years of scandals and financial troubles. Starting on February 8, 2025, the organization's 115th birthday, it will officially be known as Scouting America.
The group's president and CEO, Roger Krone, made the announcement during its annual meeting in Florida on Tuesday (May 7). He said the name change is part of the Boy Scout's focus on inclusion and recruiting new members.
"In the next 100 years, we want any youth in America to feel very, very welcome to come into our programs," Krone told the Associated Press in an interview before announcing the change.
The number of Boy Scouts has been declining since reaching a high point of five million members in 1972. By 2018, there were just two million Boy Scouts, and the number continued to fall during the COVID pandemic. Currently, there are around one million members, including 176,000 girls, who were allowed to join for the first time in 2018.
In recent years, the Scouts have been plagued by a sexual assault scandal in which 80,000 men claimed they were sexually assaulted as children by adults in the organization.
As a result, the Boy Scouts were forced into bankruptcy. Last year, the group emerged from bankruptcy with a $2.4 billion plan that would allow it to operate while paying compensation to the men who were abused.