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Outside Magazine: Boy Scouts Should Allow Girls


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So being mostly single-gender is the BSA's "unique flavor"? I guess I've been wrong all these years, because I thought the unique flavor of the BSA was leadership development, outdoor skills, community service, adventure, character development, Eagle, etc... 

 BSA has always said that the unique method is the Patrol Method.  

 

The rank is "Eagle Scout."

Edited by TAHAWK
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I think he was heading in that direction with that monkey business yacht story.  :)

 

Good point.  At least he had the discretion not to come out and say what he was talking about there, but there was no reason for him to be in that neighborhood anyway.  Hopefully it went over most of the boys' heads.

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In college I majored in business administration.  In my finance class it was "common knowledge" that General Motors was the epitome of the business world and it's business GNP rivaled that of many nations in the world.  It was too big to fail.  Well 40 years later it did. What they dddn't realize there were other car manufacturers out there that came in and gave them real competition.  They spent their time mimicking them.  Ford did the Mustang, GM followed with the Camero.  Ford did the Maverick, GM followed with the Chevette, etc.Japan step up it's game and the race was on.

 

They had their day with the '57 Chevy and over the next 60 years they ended up "just blending in with the others".  Toyota is the flagship in today's world for manufacturing acumen.  Even non-car manufacturers are trying to catch up with the model they represent.  The #1 lesson that people today haven't figured out is that by reverse engineering anything to see why it's successful it wastes time and the leader is long gone on to other things in the mean time.

 

This is what the BSA is doing today.  Instead of establishing and charting a course and sticking to it, they are merely copying the success of others and end up a day late and a dollar short.  Had they stuck with what was working and building on that, they would have been miles ahead today. 

 

The programmatic panic of the 1970's changed the advantage of the BSA and they haven't figured out how to get it back except by copying the path of other more successful programs.  This will do nothing more than keepng them a day late and a dollar short.

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The "strenuous life" program is co-ed.  Just same standards.

 

co-ed simply because they didn't want to bother policing it.  They state themselves that it was designed for men. 

 

That's irrelevant to my point, which was how long until the BSA removes age discrimination and opens the program to all ages to serve the modern family.  But you knew that. 

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Ever notice that the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) is now called the Family Y?  I often wonder what percentage of the membership is Young Men.......  I know that their focus, intent and mission today is not what it was when it was started.  Is this the route BSA is taking?

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co-ed simply because they didn't want to bother policing it.  They state themselves that it was designed for men. 

 

That's irrelevant to my point, which was how long until the BSA removes age discrimination and opens the program to all ages to serve the modern family.  But you knew that. 

 

Yep.  I just don't think BSA will ever remove the age boundary.  The program is for youth.  Maybe 18-21.  But not all ages.

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Just curious, what makes you dislike the Venturing program?

His crew was an unproductive social group. Attendance and success in executing planned activities was lower the Boy Scouts. MOOT seemed to be catered affairs.  Not for me,  I felt like a chaperone at a high school dance. that said I am sure there are more involved crews out there.

Edited by RememberSchiff
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Just curious, what makes you dislike the Venturing program?

 

 

His crew was an unproductive social group. Attendance and success in executing planned activities was lower the Boy Scouts. MOOT seemed to be catered affairs.  Not for me,  I felt like a chaperone at a high school dance. that said I am sure there are more involved crews out there.

 

Sounds like the Crew Advisors needed some training in how to train their Crew members and leadership.

 

I have found that when this happens its the adults who checked out first; the kids just followed their lead.

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Ever notice that the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) is now called the Family Y?  I often wonder what percentage of the membership is Young Men.......  I know that their focus, intent and mission today is not what it was when it was started.  Is this the route BSA is taking?

 

a scouter used that as an example to me as to why this is the right move.  that there used to be a Young mens and a young women's CA and now theres just a combined YMCA.  My thought is, the YMCA is just a glorified gym now. They actually used to have a mission statement and were dedicated to the development of young men, and young women.  So if that's the goal here, to change BSA into a glorified camping program, great! otherwise, this argument in defense of co-ed scouting is comparing apples and dump trucks. 

Edited by Gwaihir
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Yep.  I just don't think BSA will ever remove the age boundary.  The program is for youth.  Maybe 18-21.  But not all ages.

 

ok, but now 18-21 is no longer legally youth.  So the purpose is already defeated.  Conversely, the ACA defines youth as up to age 26 and we've already acknowledged and accepted the age of maturity is now in one's 30's.  I could easily see the BSA shifting their alignment to meet this modern family need.  Again, the focus here is "modern".  We need to accept that times change and 18 years old just isn't the cut off for youth anymore.  37 year old boy scouts seems like a good plan to increase membership and revenue.  

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