Boy Scouts of America changes name to Scouting America after 114 years to ... trends now

Boy Scouts of America is changing its name for the first time in its 114-year history in a bid to 'boost inclusion'.

The Texas-based organization is set to become Scouting America as it eyes flagging membership.

The historic change is the latest in a series designed to take the troop into the 21st century, including allowing gay youth and welcoming girls throughout its ranks. 

It comes as the organization is emerging from bankruptcy following a flood of sexual abuse claims. 

'In the next 100 years we want any youth in America to feel very, very welcome to come into our programs,' Roger Krone, who took over last fall as president and chief executive officer, said in an interview before the announcement. 

The announcement came at its annual meeting in Florida, on the fifth anniversary of welcoming girls into Cub Scouting.

The organization began allowing gay youth in 2013 and ended a blanket ban on gay adult leaders in 2015. 

In 2017, it made the historic announcement that girls would be accepted as Cub Scouts as of 2018 and into the flagship Boy Scout program - renamed Scouts BSA - in 2019.

There were nearly 1,000 young women in the inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts in 2021, including Selby Chipman. 

The all-girls troop she was a founding member of in her hometown of Oak Ridge, North Carolina, has grown from five girls to nearly 50, and she thinks the name change will encourage even more girls to realize they can join.

'Girls were like: `You can join Boy Scouts of America?´' said Chipman, now a 20-year-old college student and assistant scoutmaster of her troop.

Within days of the announcement that girls would be allowed, Bob Brady went to work. 

A father of two girls and a proud Eagle Scout himself, the New Jersey attorney eagerly formed an all-girls troop.