The Annual Operating Plan Driving Scouting

The BSA’s Journey to Excellence (JTE) program is aimed at driving continuous improvement for all components of local Scouting operations. The program’s standards are based on Kaplan and Norton’s “balanced scorecard,” which was selected by Harvard Business Review as one of the “most important management practices of the past 75 years.” Many leaders in for-profit and not-for-profit industries have adopted the balanced scorecard approach with award-winning results.

Local council JTE scorecards establish and then measure progress in delivering our mission in five main areas: Finance, Membership, Program, Unit Service, and Leadership and Governance. How did we do compared to 2011? The numbers speak for themselves—nearly two-thirds of councils increased their overall performance or remained at the Gold standard, while 94 percent earned Bronze, Silver, or Gold JTE status. Other key statistics include the following.

Membership

3—The number of consecutive years the number of Boy Scout–age youth has increased
3.3—The percentage of growth in the Exploring program over 2011
4—The number of consecutive years overall retention has grown across all programs, to 70.9 percent from 70.6 percent in 2011

Finance

85—The percentage of councils that improved their JTE scores in the Finance criterion

Program

2.3—The percentage growth of Cub Scouts earning a rank—a key factor in retention
3.1—The percentage growth of Boy Scouts earning a rank
13.4—The approximate number of hours, in millions, of community service provided by BSA youth, or 4.85 per member