Part Four -- Scouts BSA for Girls Course Corrections?

[HashTagScouts]

20 minutes ago, Eagledad said:

I agree with qwazse, but I wonder how much of the enthusiasm was generated by passionate adults. I didn't get a comfortable feeling about the youth level of enthusiasm from this form. Of course this is an adult forum, but some of the adults seemed hell-bent and creating success stories. However, the Venturing Crews program does have some success with active girls.

Barry

No disagreement from me on that. Stated long ago, Spirit of Adventure Council was the source of the "metrics" BSA stated as the evaluation that all parts of their programs were a fit for girls the same as boys, and that there was a large interest for girls to participate. The outside consultant the BSA used to make that evaluation also lived here in MA. Girls from that Council involved in Venturing sat in focus groups. Never once did I ever hear an actual statistic, only generalities. 

However, all of that is now in the past. It is a reflection on the BSA today what happens today, and troops folding up after only a few years, not a great look. Can't undo the past, but going forward, I would like to see Councils use more discretion on units -including boy units. If you are trying to start a troop in a geo location where there are no other units within 30 miles, and only have 5 youth to start, OK. If you are trying to start a unit in a geo location that has multiple units within 30 miles, and you only have 5 youth, there should be a long pause to evaluate why it should happen. Stability is going to be necessary to win back confidence for some families/donors after the past few years of bankruptcy drama. 

[Jameson76]

6 hours ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

 I do not know about other councils, but in my council the perceived attitude is you are on your own. Not only is there no support helping existing units that are struggling, but there is no support for creating a needed second girls' troop in my district.  There is a lot of interest for a girls troop in one section of my district, but instead of the pros helping start the unit, instead they send them to a units 45+ minutes away one way. It doesn't work like that.

In our council unless you are raising money, they could care less.  No marketing, no support to new or old units.  Remember, Scouting is about the cash and keeping the pros paid.  As long as they can keep cashing in on the cache and history of BSA, they are happy

[Eagle94-A1]

23 minutes ago, Jameson76 said:

In our council unless you are raising money, they could care less.  No marketing, no support to new or old units.  Remember, Scouting is about the cash and keeping the pros paid.  As long as they can keep cashing in on the cache and history of BSA, they are happy

Pretty much the same in my neck of the woods. No support for recruiting, no marketing etc. Worse, district level events have no professional support except ordering patches. And even then, they will short you on the patches trying to save a buck.

Only 1 unit had any contact with our last DE, and that was for an FOS presentation.

[MattR]

Some of these problems are working themselves out on their own. In our district there are now two girls troops that have folded into ours. We now have the largest girls troop with 12 scouts. I'm not sure if that is great news or bad news. Anyway, having equal numbers of boys and girls right from the start was a pipe dream.

That also means a one stop activity for all the kids is also, partly, wishful thinking.

Also, since the GSUSA model works so well for cub aged scouts, why not use that? Form a neighborhood den, grow it till they advance to a troop and then disband it. It might help eliminate parent burnout.

[HashTagScouts]

22 minutes ago, MattR said:

Some of these problems are working themselves out on their own. In our district there are now two girls troops that have folded into ours. We now have the largest girls troop with 12 scouts. I'm not sure if that is great news or bad news. Anyway, having equal numbers of boys and girls right from the start was a pipe dream.

That also means a one stop activity for all the kids is also, partly, wishful thinking.

Also, since the GSUSA model works so well for cub aged scouts, why not use that? Form a neighborhood den, grow it till they advance to a troop and then disband it. It might help eliminate parent burnout.

In our town (and I heard similar from parent of one of our girls that lives in a neighboring town), the existing GSUSA units are not exactly the most welcoming to newbies. The council contact basically told parent they should go and start their own unit, which this is a single mom who really truly is going in ten different directions all the time, so being the unit leader was not what she was looking for.

[InquisitiveScouter]

On 1/19/2023 at 2:35 PM, Jameson76 said:

In our council unless you are raising money, they could care less.  No marketing, no support to new or old units.  Remember, Scouting is about the cash and keeping the pros paid.  As long as they can keep cashing in on the cache and history of BSA, they are happy

Character matters 😜

 

[Eagle94-A1]

My DE is apparently recruiting in one area. Instead of starting  girls' troop, he trying to send them to an existing girls' troop 45+ minutes away. They do not want to spend the time following the 12 Steps to Starting a New Unit. Instead they are focused on "In School Scouting" units.