Female Venturers and Sea Scouts

[LovetoCamp]

Could those who have experience in a co-ed crew or ship please tell me what the advantage would be for our co-ed ship to truly go co-ed. Do co-ed crews work better? Do they last longer? Are they more youth-led? Are they more active? Is there more achievement?

 

Thanks in advance for any answers!!!!

 

 

[scoutldr]

You're "co-ed" but not "truly co-ed"...please ... my imagination is running rampant here.

[LovetoCamp]

We want them to join, but no girls have joined yet.

[Bob White]

I knew a guy like that in High School. He was sort of going steady and sort of not. By that I mean he was willing to date girls but he couldn't get any girl to date him.

[LovetoCamp]

and it's damaging our self-esteem. A junior who was a certified open water diver and was somewhat knowledgeable at sailing showed up at our open house. She and her mom seemed genuinely interested in joining, but we never saw or heard from them again.

 

Maybe it was our first wreck of a sailboat we displayed proudly, or could she, a junior, had noticed that she was among a mutinous band of freshman sea dogs???? Who knows, we never heard or saw from them again. Her loss.

[scoutldr]

Prior to Exploring going co-ed, circa 1971, our Post would often do things with the local Senior Girl Scout troops. Dances, Christmas parties, roller skating, spelunking, etc. When the membership opened up, many of them joined and quickly became officers in the Post. It was a natural transition for them, and since they already knew us, there was no uncertainty.

 

You might try it...

[lilleth]

Our crew is co-ed. Most of the girls are previoius GS. Mostly girls that wanted more of a challenge depending on their previous affiliations. It works out great. The boys and girls work together well at whatever they do and of course there is the underlying competition which serves to only have them push harder at whatever they endeavor.

 

[BadenP]

Lillith,

 

I work with two coed crews and the mix works great. The girls usually are more ambitious than the boys for advancement so they push the boys to keep up. Another good reason is quite frankly the girls keep the boys interested in remaining in much longer than in an all male crew. Most of all the Venture program provides a great program of leadership and coed activities for a wide range of interests. My teens are real excited this year with some new ideas for activities, and the crews keep getting larger each year. Good,motivated officers and a great program of activities will ensure you continual success. As Nike says, "Just do it."

[Grumpy]

I am a past-president of a co-ed Explorer Post. We were a very strong Post, with an equal number of gals and guys. The trick is having an environment that is nonthreatening to girls, and once a few join, they will tug their frineds to it. Our Post was general interest, so there was no High Adventure stuff going on. Allot of community service, camping, fundraising, movies, bowling, picnics. Some dating going on, but not much. Mostly everyone were just a bunch of friends. I couldn't imagine having the fun we had with just a bunch of guys. Just my $.02

[BurnsCrew440Advisor]

The Crew I advise is Coed. We started out in February with 5 girls and 1 boy, who was a Senior and just got his Eagle and turned 18.Our Officers except the Treasurer were and still are all girls. These young women have done a wonderful job. The young man has just left for the Air Force.And we now have 8 girls and 2 boys, one is the ASM of the Troop who pops his head in to meeting so see if he needs to know anything. Since the Troop meetings are the same time as Crew.

The President of the Crew has just got her Religous Bronze and has qualified for her Gold Award in February.Up until the beginning of this School year all the Crew had their VLSC and the new members are working on theirs now. Girls seem to do all the planning and the boys follow..

Hope this helps.

And by the way we live in a very rural area with a High school population of 160 kids.

[ynotcamp]

We also have a coed crew and it has been working well. Our cub scout program encouraged a lot of family activity and girls who had brothers in scouts enjoyed the activities and weren't able to participate as their brothers moved on to Boy Scouts. They were anxiously waiting to turn 14 and complete 8th grade so they could join the crew. These kids were not friends outside of the scouting program but have become a very close knit group.

 

Some leaders are concerned about the crew competing with the troop. I don't really think that is true. I think it actually keeps some of the boys involved in scouting longer.

[EagleInKY]

You are probably going to have difficulty getting that "first female". Maybe that's why you didn't hear back from the one. I would attempt a recruiting drive, aimed at the girls. Go to the Girl Scouts and the schools. And, get the boys to do some recruiting as well. Ideally, you'd recruit at least three, that way they won't feel as intimidated by your "freshman sea dogs".