OFFICIAL NEWS RELEASE: Girls as Youth Members, All Programs

[Tampa Turtle]

A lot of issues:

 

(1) Will the program work with girls?

(2) Will BSA honor the wish of units to stay Boys only?

(3) Do Scouters feel they can trust BSA national leadership anymore?

(4) Do individual scouters want to stay around and see if it works or go away?

(5) What will 'Family Camping" do to the Patrol Method?

[lakes_stu]

But what if you cannot get enough interest,both girls and volunteers, to create separate all girl units? That's the dilemma

 

If you have space (and BSA ever allows it), allow girls to join your existing pack/troop. Don't change your programme though, keep doing what you have always done well. That's the answer.

 

Sorry if this sounds a bit blunt, it is not my intention to offend or upset. I just feel that Leaders can continue to focus on delivering a great programme without having to worry too much about gender.

Edited October 13, 2017 by lakes_stu

[RememberSchiff]

Well stated @@njdrt-rdr , @@Tampa Turtle 

 

IMO, more scouters will leave over National's lack of trustworthiness and leadership and invasive Family Camping than girl membership. 

Edited October 13, 2017 by RememberSchiff

[Peregrinator]

I don't see how these changes "Ruin" the character of scouting. To say otherwise is to say every other member of the World Scouting movement is doing Scouting wrong, or improperly. 

 

Yeah wouldn't want to say that WOSM and its member associations are bad even though many have made a hash of the Law and the Promise, would we?

[Peregrinator]

Boys acting differently around girls has been my main reservation about all this.  I have seen it happen.  On the other hand, the photos, videos and descriptions that Cambridgeskip and others have posted over the years suggest to me that in the UK the kids seem to do what they need to do regardless of gender.

 

I'm sure that scouts in mixed units can do whatever they need to do, the real question is whether the individual character can be brought out in each in such units. I'm really skeptical about that.

[Tampa Turtle]

I asked Son#2 (turning in his Eagle paperwork next week), ex-SPL super-scout what his intentions were when he ages out in less than a week. His biggest concern was not the girls but BSA's continual watering down of the outdoor program and if he wanted to come back as a young ASM to carry on and teach that institutional knowledge. He was a maybe but only if a lot of the existing boys he knows don't bail.

 

He thinks it was not a big deal as other countries mix scouts but also thought "the people in charge clearly do not know what they are doing by how they announced this"

[Hawkwin]

@Tampa Turtle Regarding how they announced this, I am not sure how they could have done it much differently. There is virtually no way they could have shared this news with scouts prior without it having been leaked to the media.

 

Any pre-announcement made to anyone other than everyone at the same time would have resulted in BSA losing the narrative. Someone else, perhaps someone opposed to the change, would have been the first to scoop the story and BSA would have lost whatever advantage they have in controlling the message.

[NJCubScouter]

I'm sure that scouts in mixed units can do whatever they need to do, the real question is whether the individual character can be brought out in each in such units. I'm really skeptical about that.

 

Well, admittedly character (or the lack thereof) is usually a difficult thing to identify in a photo or video.  What I have seen in those posted by @@Cambridgeskip are mixed-gender groups of kids having fun and, more importantly, not being afraid of being made to look like a fool in front of the opposite gender.  It is a limited "data set", but it is what we've got.

[Sentinel947]

Yeah wouldn't want to say that WOSM and its member associations are bad even though many have made a hash of the Law and the Promise, would we?

So American Boy Scouts as much as we complain about its faults is the pinnacle of Scouting worldwide?

[hicountry]

A lot of issues [hicountry] :

 

(1) Will the program work with girls?...Probably but with a lot of modifications, training and discomfort and compromises. This is another step in the feminization of America

(2) Will BSA honor the wish of units to stay Boys only?.....Down the road, probably not, anyone watching how things work, they cave on most everything eventually

(3) Do Scouters feel they can trust BSA national leadership anymore?....Is this even worth asking ? Anyone not willfully ignorant, clueless or otherwise, BSA has demonstrated over and over they cannot be trusted

(4) Do individual scouters want to stay around and see if it works or go away?....Some will and some won't we shall see. BSA will probably keep mum about this like trustable/accurate Membership numbers the last couple years have been hard to come by

(5) What will 'Family Camping" do to the Patrol Method?...Totally destroy it. My wife was horrified when she heard the news and this was number one on her list of how familys and particularly ditzy helicopter parent and primarily moms will disrupt everything with their entitlement, protect their son attitudes. She saw it when I ran the troop and that was from parents calling and emailing and discussing things at meetings. My issue with adult males mainly centered around unreliability issues.

 

Anyone want to speculate if the increased membership fees to cover legal costs are in anticipation of legal problems to come their way from GSUSA ? You may say there is no grounds for lawsuits but this is America, you can sue a ham sandwich if you want to. Yes GSUSA has brought his upon themselves, the last CEO bailed due to the pressure she was getting for being an arrogant and spiteful jerk. They have tried to bend to the lefts demands and modified their program and where did it get them ?? about a 1./3 membership loss over the past decade. Their troop structure is a joke and they keep dumbing down their program.... and ....does this sound familiar.....not listening to the scouts and volunteers.

 

As I said, don't sweat this too much, trail life is an alternative and there are others too. [hicountry]

Edited October 13, 2017 by RememberSchiff
Changed response font color for readibility.

[krypton_son]

I guess since anyone can join, why not: http://www.trendolizer.com/2017/10/boy-scouts-to-allow-old-men-into-cub-scouts-program.html

[Hawkwin]

Wow, Girl Scouts are losing their heads over this:

 

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/girl-scouts-slam-boy-scouts-decision-accept-girls-134608349--abc-news-topstories.html

 

"The Boy Scouts' house is on fire," Girl Scouts told ABC News in a statement today. "Instead of addressing systemic issues of continuing sexual assault, financial mismanagement and deficient programming, BSA's senior management wants to add an accelerant to the house fire by recruiting girls."

[krypton_son]

Wow, Girl Scouts are losing their heads over this:

 

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/girl-scouts-slam-boy-scouts-decision-accept-girls-134608349--abc-news-topstories.html

 

"The Boy Scouts' house is on fire," Girl Scouts told ABC News in a statement today. "Instead of addressing systemic issues of continuing sexual assault, financial mismanagement and deficient programming, BSA's senior management wants to add an accelerant to the house fire by recruiting girls."

I can't disagree with that.

[Hawkwin]

You really think we have systemic issues of sexual assault, financial mismanagement, and deficient programming?

 

Really? Might there be quite a bit of hyperbole in all of that?

[Tampa Turtle]

@Tampa Turtle Regarding how they announced this, I am not sure how they could have done it much differently. There is virtually no way they could have shared this news with scouts prior without it having been leaked to the media.

 

Any pre-announcement made to anyone other than everyone at the same time would have resulted in BSA losing the narrative. Someone else, perhaps someone opposed to the change, would have been the first to scoop the story and BSA would have lost whatever advantage they have in controlling the message.

 

I am sure there PR consultants who could have advised them on better ways to handle it. Not my area of expertise. There seem like there are plenty of folks (including those who agree with the decision) who did not like the way it was announced. It seems like you are saying there was no way National could have improved upon the exercise. I don't bu that.