The Virginia Headwaters Council Boy Scouts of America Waynesboro is reprioritizing and focusing on the organization’s future in the Valley.
“As far as the national scouting program, membership has been declining since the 1970s,” said Virginia Headwaters Council BSA Waynesboro President Steve Hammond. The decline is attributed to the abundance of activities available to today’s youth and the need for parental involvement with BSA. Parents are busy with jobs in 21st century America.
Then membership declined more during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Hammond, when councils could not hold regular meetings or camp activities. The United States has 250 Council BSAs.
“COVID was particularly difficult for us,” Hammond said.
The local council felt the effect financially.
Hammond was a scout as a boy, then an Eagle Scout when he lived in Salem, Va. In 1999, his son joined the Scouts and Hammond got involved as an executive. He said each council usually has six or seven paid employees, but have had to cut back recently with declining membership.
After alleged incidents of sexual abuse within the BSA, the national organization filed Chapter 11 in early 2020 to compensate victims.
“We’re evolving from that,” Hammond said of the national organization’s financial situation. Each local council, including Waynesboro’s, was required to make a contribution toward the lawsuit settlement. And now Waynesboro’s council has debt.
BSA Waynesboro has been in the building on Hopeman Parkway since sometime in the 1970s when it was donated by local scouts for whom the building is named.
“It was a difficult decision,” Hammond said of putting the building for sale.
Hammond said that remote work for BSA employees could be in the future.
“The focus of what we do is developing youth and if we have to spend that money — it’s a sacrifice we have to make,” Hammond said of selling the building.
An aggressive membership policy is how the local council hopes to remedy membership. Scouts pay a fee at the beginning of the year to the national organization for membership.
Hammond said that if local youth saw the activities available on the weekends through the BSA, they would want to join. Scouts still earn patches for events and badges for merit. Camp Shenandoah in Swoope is BSA Waynesboro’s camp site.
“We’re proud of our program. We think it is the best program in the world for youth development and leadership training,” Hammond said.
The BSA develops better citizens and leaders for the future of America.
“Scouting is continuing and still a very vibrant program,” said Sue Hart, Assistant Scout Executive for the Virginia Headwaters Council BSA Waynesboro.
She said the Waynesboro organization is not only not laying off staff, but is promoting staff from within. The building on Hopeman Parkway is for sale.
“Only because it’s a big building. We don’t use half of it most of the time,” Hart said. “We’re just living up to the ideals that a scout is thrifty.”
BSA Waynesboro has a new building in mind, but is not able to discuss the possibility yet. The organization still has its council and camp activities.
“We’re growing,” Hart said of the 1,700 scouts in Waynesboro, Staunton, Augusta County and Charlottesville that are part of BSA Waynesboro.
“We’re excited about the changes taking place,” Hart said.
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Rebecca Barnabi
