Girls in Scouts BSA in the News (and in recruiting numbers)...

[Ranman328]

Case in point.  I just received this email with this news letter advertisement.  Decisions like this are the reason boys and families are leaving the program.  They are making exceptions for allowing girls to go to the World Scout Jamboree but not the boys.  I understand wanting to get the most participation but you can't make exceptions for one group and not allow the other the same exception.  This will open the door for questions to be asked and other exceptions to be made elsewhere and then where does it stop.

There's a lot happening in mid-April 2019! Share your favorites with your Scouting network!

World Scout Jamboree Registration Is Still Open!

The 24th World Scout Jamboree (WSJ) will be held at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia, July 21 - August 2, 2019. Some 50,000 Scouts from 170 countries will take part in this once in a lifetime experience. Troops and Crews are doing unit shakedowns in April-May; many Scouts BSA Troops for girls will gather in Charlotte, NC a couple days before the start of the WSJ to conduct the shakedown with other members from across the country, before traveling to the WSJ as a group. Scouts must be between 14 and 17 years of age at the start of WSJ. To encourage participation by new Scouts BSA troops for girls, the 1st Class requirement has been waved for these units. For more information, contact Jay Eidson, NCAC International Representative and BSA North East Region Commissioner.

[Eagle94-A1]

9 minutes ago, Ranman328 said:

To encourage participation by new Scouts BSA troops for girls, the 1st Class requirement has been waved for these units. For more information, contact Jay Eidson, NCAC International Representative and BSA North East Region Commissioner.

 And we were told that the standards would not be changed.

 

Regarding membership losses, I can only go by what is happening locally. With all the membership changes in the past 7 years, Scouting is dying. We went from 5 packs in city limits to 3, and one of those is LDS so they will be gone by the end of the year. While the troops remain, they are smaller than ever. Troop I am currently in had over 30 Scouts 7 years ago, and now we are down to 11.  Ditto all of the other troops save 1. And that troop's CO uses the program as an outreach for the CO. They are extremely active with biweekely and weekly activities in addition to  meetings. A lot of resources are dedicated to the troop.

[cocomax]

News Story:

 

How the Boy Scouts are Teaching Girls about True Womanhood

BSA’s troops for girls are proving, ironically, to be a bulwark against the muddy seas of gender confusion.

 

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jenfitz/how-the-boy-scouts-are-teaching-girls-about-true-womanhood

[Cburkhardt]

I will stay with my prediction that we will have very significant Scouts BSA girl enrollment increases these next few years.  I do not see anything out there that will equal our outdoor program for girls, as the other girl-only organizations seem inalterably focused on social issues, activism, religion or semi-academic topics at the junior high and high school ages.  Those organizations will not be able to compete with us on the outdoor opportunities.  Just like Venturing, Scouts BSA will dominate that age group for girls on the outdoor opportunites. 

On the boy side, I am not ready to agree that we have lost what is good about scouting for all-boy troops because any of the recent changes.  I do not want to individually pick on my fellow posters, but there is a tendency to select an individual policy change, recent isolated event or personal policy view on a BSA policy and generalize what is more of a specific situation into a global impact.  I think Pink's view that the 2020 post-LDS-departure boy numbers will be our base to build from.

[MattR]

On 4/19/2019 at 11:25 AM, cocomax said:

News Story

It's always fun to read something that just flat out does not fit in to the usual ideas. I certainly don't know how many kids are confused about their sex but my guess is every kid is confused about how they fit in. And the beauty of scouts is everyone is welcome. The only expectation is to try.

[Cburkhardt]

Scouts BSA youth membership grew 2.2% at end of April compared to April last year.  From 708K to 723K.  Cubs is up 1.1% over same period from 840K to 850K.  No girl-specific numbers available yet, but it can be concluded that we would still be losing membership if we had not welcomed girls.  

[malraux]

I heard 15k girls in scouts bsa at the last news from council. 

[qwazse]

15 minutes ago, Cburkhardt said:

Scouts BSA youth membership grew 2.2% at end of April compared to April last year.  From 708K to 723K.  Cubs is up 1.1% over same period from 840K to 850K.  No girl-specific numbers available yet, but it can be concluded that we would still be losing membership if we had not welcomed girls.  

It's not to hard to infer that if we've attracted 10K+ girls, then we've attracted 5K or fewer boys -- zero gains in boys if @malraux is correct. What's important in all this is the number of transfers from LDS units. If there haven't been many, then staying even represents a lot of new recruitment/crossover of boys.

Edited May 9, 2019 by qwazse

[malraux]

From the new Bryan on scouting post today:

Quote

(And join they have. In less than three months since Scouts BSA launched on Feb. 1, 2019, more than 15,000 girls have registered in 2,049 Scouts BSA troops across the country!)

So the numbers from my council seem to be mostly accurate.

 https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2019/05/13/heres-how-new-scouts-bsa-members-can-request-an-eagle-scout-extension/

[mrkstvns]

Interesting post.

If the numbers are right, and 15,000 girls joined about 2,000 troops, and if it's still the case that troops aren't truly co-ed, then that works out to having an awful lot of very small troops with an average 7.5 scouts each...

[fred8033]

5 minutes ago, mrkstvns said:

Interesting post.

If the numbers are right, and 15,000 girls joined about 2,000 troops, and if it's still the case that troops aren't truly co-ed, then that works out to having an awful lot of very small troops with an average 7.5 scouts each...

I'm betting 90% are paired with a pre-existing troop for equipment, committee and probably also a scheduled of activities and events.  

[ParkMan]

I'd imagine that there are lots of small troops.  Regardless of whether you are paired with an existing troop or not, the troops for girls still need to do the outreach to get new members to join.  It will take some time for troops to get to 20-30 members.

[TMSM]

Did the BSA provide any information on how much it cost to make the changes to allow girls enter Boy Scouts? Just curious on the return of investment and if there is any correlation between $ spent and scouts the number of new scouts. 

My prediction is slow growth for girl troops maybe adding 1 to 3 girls per year although that will put some into the double digits. My hope is that in 3 years they can grow to have enough scouts for 2 Patrols and an SPL.

 

[MacBrave]

We had the first girls troop in our county visit our troop meeting just a few days ago.  The SM of the new troop wanted her new scouts to observe how youth leadership runs the meetings, puts on the program, etc.    They are struggling to get enough numbers right now, think they may have 5 girls signed up,  3 of them visited.   

 

  

[Eagledad]

6 minutes ago, MacBrave said:

We had the first girls troop in our county visit our troop meeting just a few days ago.  The SM of the new troop wanted her new scouts to observe how youth leadership runs the meetings, puts on the program, etc.    They are struggling to get enough numbers right now, think they may have 5 girls signed up,  3 of them visited.   

If they run their program like yours, they will likely grow because independence is very appealing for youth this age. They just need to know there is something like this out there. 

Barry