If all levels of Scouting went coed

[Oak Tree]

What all would have to change?

 

You would need some new youth protection guidelines.

Presumably you'd want to train leaders on how to deal with boys who are showing off all the time :-), but would that really be a big deal? Other countries do it all the time.

 

Would you need a new name for the organization? I think this would be a branding transition. Can you really call it BSA? Maybe you could call it Bodacious Scouts of America but stick with the BSA brand and fleur-de-lis.

 

Other than figuring out a few new protocols for showering at summer camp, how big of a change would it really be?

[OldGreyEagle]

Other than losing the members of the He-Man Women haters club, not much, use the Venturing Youth Protection rules and have at it.

 

The Council Camp I attend already has male/female adult and youth showers (4 count them, 4 shower rooms) so it wouldnt take much.

 

As big as a woman's guy as I am, (not sure how that will come across) but I am not so sure we should have Co-Ed scouts. The Venturing program has shown me that the girls come in and take over things quite handily most times and the boys let them. It might be good to have a males only program. (for the youth) where the boys can mature at their own rate

[Eagle92]

A few comments,

 

1) I've seen how it's worked with other countries and I would use then as potential models. It can work.

 

2) Keep the option of letting the COs decide to go coed, keep it all male, or go all female.

 

3) I think GSUSA will have a conniption as I know that many of our Venturers come from their ranks already b/c they are dissatisfied with the program.

 

4)In referecne to YP, definately have to go with the VYPT model alrady in place.

 

5) As for showing off scouts, etc, from my expereicne it will happen intitally, but over time it the "newness" for lack of a better term wears off. When i was in the UK i asked about this and the same answer from all Scouts was the same, they are just part of the troop.

 

6) From my experience, the "ladies taking over" can be a factor. I saw this first hand with my Sea Scout ship many years ago, and was one fo the reasons why I left. However if the girls, and more importnatly their parents, can buy into the BSA model, it can be successfull. I've seen that with Venturing crews starting up.

 

7) Where am I hearing these rumors of a possibility that BSA may go co-ed. there are several. A) from folks here who came back from NOAC B) from other folks I knwo personally who went to NOAC C) professionals i've come into contact with.

 

To be honest, I don't think going coed will be as abig a deal to the youth as it will to the adults. Then again I could be wrong.

 

 

[SR540Beaver]

OGE,

 

I've started a new club. The "he-man, woman hate 'em but can't live without 'em" club.

[OldGreyEagle]

Sounds like the leading entry for the name to replace BSA!

[dg98adams]

How about Sensational Scouts of America?

 

Or is "SSA" just backward thinking? Hmmmmm

[Mafaking]

 

 

OldGreyEagle

"As big woman's guy as I am...."

 

Hey a like a little meat on the bones too but let's not get carried away.

 

 

 

 

OK,

OGE didn't really say that but that what I read at fisrt.

 

 

[scoutldr]

I can't afford to join another club...I'm already a Scouter and an Ilk.

[theysawyoucomin']

We could double at amount of people that would complain about advancements, that would be great!!

 

 

There is already venturing.

 

I think it would be horrible.

[Chug]

Girls make excellent Scouts. Scouting here in the UK has been completely co-ed for a number of years, and none of the predictions the doomsayers claimed would happen ever materialized.

 

I doubt if the Girl Scouts will notice much difference, Girl Guiding here certainly didn't.

[Pack212Scouter]

I would be against it. Why does everything have to be co-Ed? Males and females are different. Neither is better, just different. Most everything else is co-ed these days. Boys need a place to hang with "the guys" and girls need the same. My daughter loves doing outdoors stuff too, but my son loves the times when it's "just the men"

[moxieman]

I have to agree with Chug based on what I've observed with my neighbors to the north in Scouts Canada. Coed works.

 

For example, at the Moosehorn International Camporee back in September, it was one of the coed Scouts Canada troops that beat out everyone else in several events. The only exception was the dinner cooking competition. They tied...each other. It was the one event where they decided it was going to be Boys vs. Girls. The two patrols tied, and beat out all the other units at the same time. Most of the scouts in that unit were first or second year scouts too.

 

Show-off? No. More like the boys stop slacking off 'cause they don't want to look bad in front of the girls.

 

For several years, my brother and I served on staff at a Scouts Canada Night Hawk event (all night hike with competition stations along the hike--picture a camporee but at night). The coed Canadian units did better at our teamwork station than non-coed units from either side of the border.

 

Oh, and the USA is one of the last countries (I think Isreal may be one of the only others) where all sections of scouting isn't coed. Isn't it time we move into the modern era?

 

So, going back to the original question, what would have to change?

 

The thinking of the adult leadership.

Need to sell it to the parents and one of the ways to do so is to show how well it works elsewhere.

Guide to Safe Scouting would just need a little tweaking and as someone else pointed-out, you can use the Venture section as a starting point for those tweaks.

BSA would also have to have some serious talks with GSUSA to avoid any "misunderstanding". BSA would also have to drop the B and become Scouts America or something else that is more encompassing of a coed organization.

 

It wouldn't be the first coed scouting movement in the USA. Look-up Baden-Powell Scouts. Coed is already here. We just need to catch-up.

[Lisabob]

"BSA would also have to drop the B and become Scouts America or something else that is more encompassing of a coed organization."

 

Well then. For those who have had the misfortune to have the "Boy" part of the red lettering on their new uniform shirts come off, just think - you're already prepared for the eventual change!

 

Here we all thought it was poor workmanship when in reality, it was just the BSA beginning to prepare us all for the change to co-ed scouting. Those clever dogs.

[Nike]

I would personally like to see BSA and GSUSA merge to form Scouting America with same sex groups and Venturing as a co-ed link for the older kids. I'd also like to see BSA's program used as a model to finally give Girl Scouts some kind of foundation.

 

BSA historians: Was there an effort back in the 20's or so to merge BSA and GSUSA that ended in vicious recriminations?

[TEllett]

I'd support that.