Boy Scouts snag a new leader in Boston
Like a couple of our pro sports teams, the Boy Scouts of America is in rebuilding mode.
The BSA had been losing members for years when it filed for bankruptcy in February 2020 amid allegations of sexual abuse from tens of thousands of former Scouts. A month later the pandemic hit, disrupting troop activities and the recruitment of new members.
The organization emerged from Chapter 11 this April after winning approval of a financial restructuring that included the creation of a $2.4 billion victims compensation fund. Now comes the hard job of making Scouting relevant and appealing to a new generation of boys and girls. (The BSA opened its ranks to female troops in 2019.)
Locally, that challenge will fall to John Judge, who has just been named scout executive and chief executive officer of the Boy Scouts Spirit of Adventure Council, the largest BSA organization in the region. The new leader of the pack is an Eagle Scout who, earlier in his career, worked in development and marketing for the predecessor of the Spirit of Adventure Council.
“My focus is on building the brand and reestablishing trust,” Judge, 56, said in an interview.
Judge is taking over from Jonathan Pleva, who had served as interim CEO since 2021 and will stay on as chief operating officer.
“I was looking for someone who could successfully grow a nonprofit [and] bring fresh air into the organization,” said Dave Clayman, board chair of the council and an Eagle Scout whose Concord firm, Twelve Points Wealth Management, is named for the 12 points of Scout Law.
Judge ran the Appalachian Mountain Club for nearly a decade before being appointed CEO of Trustees of Reservations, the country’s oldest land trust, in December 2021. But he and the Trustees board parted ways after less than a year, citing “differences in their respective visions and approach.”
“It wasn’t a good fit,” said Clayman, who has known Judge for 30 years. “I’ve been in jobs with a bad fit, too.”
The Spirit of Adventure Council,
with a staff of 14 full-time and 65 part-time employees, supports about 8,000 Scouts and more than 3,700 adult volunteers. It runs youth development programs in Boston and 75 other cities and towns in Eastern Massachusetts, and operates the New England Base Camp in Milton and another site in New Hampshire.
Judge said his priorities include recruiting more Scouts — membership stood at about 9,000 just prior to the pandemic — and upgrading the council’s digital capabilities to make it easier for kids and volunteers to sign up.
Another important task is fund-raising. BSA councils across the country lost donors and corporate sponsors amid the sexual abuse scandal and fights over allowing girls and gay youth to join.
Judge, who was born in Dorchester and spent a lot of time there, believes that Scouting can make a big difference for city kids.
“I want to connect kids to green spaces, do more with [the Department of Conservation and Recreation], and get camps closer to city kids,” he said.
Most of all, he aims to make Scouting fun and useful.
The BSA has been incorporating more STEM education — science, technology, engineering, and math — into its programs. Scouts can now earn merit badges for robotics, video game design, and nuclear science.
What isn’t changing is the emphasis on values — the 12 points of Scout Law, including being trustworthy, loyal, and helpful — that have been at the center of Scouting since its founding more than a century ago.
Can the BSA make a comeback? It will be an uphill battle, but for Judge, the effort is more than a job.
“Scouting gave me a voice and agency,” he said. “I learned . . . to be a person who fights for what is right.”
The world has changed since the BSA was at its peak in the 1960s and 1970s. But striving to do what’s right remains an honorable goal.