The Boy Scouts of America organization was started in 1910 by a Chicago publisher named William Boyce. At that time of its conception in the states, there were other loosely structured youth organizations. Some outdoor oriented programs were using the name “Boy Scout” and some using others, and there were already a number of troops using several different variations of the British Scouts. William Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America and turned it into more of a business structure. William Boyce based the headquarters in Washington, DC, rather than Chicago and worked to recruit key youth professionals to design and operate the program professionally and like a business. William Boyce then provided key funding for the infancy of the organization in order to get it off the ground.

The YMCA stepped into help operate the Boy Scouts of America during its first years when it was fledgling. YMCA executive Edgar Robinson was first to suggest that William Boyce use the YMCA as it was already in a position to provide structure to his idea of the Boy Scouts of America. Robinson set up the first Boy Scouts of America office in Manhattan, and recruited official John Alexander to be the Boy Scouts of America’s first managing secretary. Boy Scouts of America then quickly established a central office and worked on developing a temporary handbook that all Scouts could use as a basis for outdoor education. They also began campaigning to absorb the other outdoor-types of youth organizations into the Boy Scouts of America. Only one organization held out past 1912 that tried not to join which was publisher William Randolph Hearst’s military oriented group called US Boy Scout organization and was founded three months after the Boy Scouts of America in 1910. If you wish to learn more about the Boy Scouts of America than feel free to click on our other articles for more helpful information.