More important than ever 

For more than 110 years, the Boy Scouts of America has helped change the lives of millions of young men and women, teaching the values outlined in the Scout Oath and Law.

The organization continues that mission, and those in the program know the life-changing opportunities Scouting provides both youth and adult leaders. One challenge, though, is meeting the needs of today’s families, addressing busy schedules, cost prohibitions and different priorities in diverse communities.

“We need to be creative and flexible in how we make Scouting available,” Sorrels says. “That includes how we embrace families.”

It’s an ongoing conversation that will call on the voices from everyone. That includes Scouts, too.

Sorrels served as the co-chair for the World Scout Jamboree , held at the 2019 Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia. For that event, which hosted more than 40,000 Scouts from around the globe, adult leadership recruited a team of Scouts, nicknamed the “Dream Team,” to provide input and help execute what they wanted out of the jamboree.

“A group of adults can sit around without talking to the youth they’re trying to serve, and they’re not going to be able to deliver a successful program that the youth are going to respond to,” he says. “We need to listen to the young people we’re trying to serve.”

That’s why he highlighted a couple of youth-written letters in his NAM presentation. One, penned by a Scout named Jack, requested that his pack to meet again — the unit had not had a meeting in nearly a year.

A recent Harvard study on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic found that two-thirds of the study group, which consisted of youth ages 7 to 15, showed clinically significant signs of anxiety and depression. However, research shows that those troubling effects can be reversed through positive experiences and challenges, structured routines, exercise and less screen time.

Sounds like Scouting can be an answer, just as it has been for more than a century.

“We do a very good job of talking about the passion and the experience of Scouting within the Scouting family,” Sorrels says. “Something we’re working very hard on is communicating the value of the experience to non-Scout families.”

As National Commissioner, a role first held by one of the BSA’s founders, Daniel Carter Beard, Sorrels sees his role as supporting local Scouting.

“I think of myself as being the guardian for our front-line volunteers who are out there serving America’s youth in units or working in district committees or council advancement committees — Scouting happens locally,” he says. “My fundamental job is to try to do everything we can to partner with them, to collaborate with them and to make them successful. If we do that, we’ll serve more youth and preserve the mission of Scouting, which at the end of the day, that’s the most important thing we’re doing right now.”

The path ahead

The leadership is in place for the BSA to step up post-pandemic and post-bankruptcy to fulfill the needs of American families. Teamwork will be needed for the next step.

“Our volunteers have to reach out and embrace and partner with their professionals,” Sorrels says. “We’ve got to build a collaborative team like we never have before. We’re going to have fewer professionals, and that means that we as volunteers will step up even more to help move us forward.”

In the end, parents, unit leaders, council executives, national staff — we all have the same goal: to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes.

“It has to support the local councils because that’s where Scouting is delivered,” Sorrels says. “We’ve got to deliver the resources they need to be successful.”