Another service, the Chicago-based National Collegiate Scouting Association, launched in 2000, says its network has about 600, 000 student-athletes.

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"America needs Scouting, and our policies must be based on what is in the best interest of our nation's children, " a Scouts spokesman said in a statement.

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Australia-based Michael Baden-Powell, who has been involved with Scouting for more than 50 years, told Radio 4's PM programme that "belief in a higher being" remained at the "core of the movement".

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This alternative scouting organization has its roots in a Boy Scout troop based in New York City's East Harlem neighborhood and sponsored by the Unitarian Church of All Souls.

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Beane employs an approach called sabermetrics, which relies on evidence-based analysis in areas such as evaluating players, measuring game activity, and scouting.

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