First the "Official Statement", then I'll give you some background and insights.
This week, the National BSA Board of Directors approved an expansion to allow participation in specified Scouting programs for both boys and girls on a local decision level.
Three Fires Council looks forward to offering families an important additional choice in meeting the character development needs of all their children. The needs of today’s families are at the core of the BSA’s mission, to improve the lives of young people. Families today are seeking opportunities to meet the developmental needs of both girls and boys.
Recent surveys of parents not involved with Scouting showed high interest in getting their daughters signed up for programs like Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, with 90 percent expressing interest in a program like Cub Scouts and 87 percent expressing interest in a program like Boy Scouts. Plus, more than 90 percent of current Scouting families and leaders believe the BSA programs are relevant to boys and girls.
Starting in the fall of 2018, families can choose to sign up their sons and daughters for Cub Scouts. We will support our chartered organizations and units in serving our communities.
While we don’t have all the details at this time, we wanted to acknowledge this exciting new opportunity to bring the benefits of our Scouting to the entire family. In the coming weeks, we will be working closely with our operating committees to iron out the many details necessary to welcome both boys and girls into our programs.
We will deliver a program for older girls that will enable them to earn the Eagle Scout rank. Details of this new program will be announced later in 2018, projected to be available in 2019.
“This decision is true to the BSA’s mission and core values outlined in the Scout Oath and Law. The values of Scouting – Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Kind, Brave and Reverent, for example – are important for both young men and women,” said Michael Surbaugh, the National BSA’s Chief Scout Executive.
Although known for its iconic programs for boys, the BSA has offered co-ed programs since 1971 through Exploring and since 1998 with the Venturing program.
For more information, please review the official statement from National BSA Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh.
In the meantime, we’ve put together some talking points and frequently asked questions to help you in communicating at the district and unit levels.
With the help of all our volunteers and Scouting parents, we will continue to accomplish incredible things for young people and the communities we serve.
Please see the attached supporting documents for your reference.
Yours in Scouting,
A few things:
1. If you are not a current volunteer (and I only know of two others on this board- Chris and Charby), I don't want to hear about how this or other matters "Are ruining Scouting". How the hell do you know ?? You are NOT involved. And Scouting has to evolve to meet the needs of youth and their families. Did you bitch when they updated the Scout Handbook ?? We are now on the 13th Edition. That means Scouting as changed, significantly enough, 13 times, over the past 107 years. Merit badges have come and gone. I don't hear anyone bitching that Rabbit Raising, Bookbinding, Farm Arrangements, along with Cotton Farming, Grasses, Legumes, and Forage Crops, (among others) are gone; while Space Exploration, Nuclear Science, Digital Technology, and Composite Materials have been added (among others).
2. I was part of the "conversations" that were held with volunteers at the Council level. The feedback we got from not only the parents of current scouts, but also from parents of scouts that had "dropped" the program, but also from parents with youth currently not in the program consisted of these major points:
A. There are about 40% of families that consist of single parents.
B. Even for two parent families have each child involved in multiple activities leaves them little time as the are constantly running from one activity to another, especially with multiple children. So that somewhat early on, there is the push to "choose" one activity per child.
C. Having one activity that all their children can participate in, especially if it is a character building program like Scouting, would be very high on their list of activities, even ahead of most sports.
3. Girl Scouts are not delivering a Character Building program nor an Outdoor Program like Cub and Boy Scouting provide.*
4. The Chartering Organization can still decide whether to admit Gay and/or Transgender Scouts and Leaders. They will also be able to decide to have All Male and/or All Female and/or Mixed Gender Units. (as Committee Chair for a Cub Scout Pack, I meet with our Chartering Organization on Tuesday to present them with the options and allow their board to decide the direction they wish to take. I will meet with the Chartering Organization Rep for my son's Troop tomorrow to begin the conversation with him. He also sits on the Council Committee, so I have a fairly good ideas where he stands.)
5. The standards will remain the same. Unlike the military that has different standards for Physical Fitness, girls will have to meet the standards for both Cub Scout Achievements along with Rank and Merit Badges for Boy Scouts. There will not be "Boy Standards" and "Girl Standards".
6. Girls have participated in Boy Scouts since 1968 with Explorers, and since 1998 with Venturing. So this is nothing new to Scouting, and we have years of experience with Co-Ed activities. (In fact, we even have the experience of the failed Camp Fire Girls/Kids to draw from.)
7. We did "negotiate" with the GSA regarding a merger of some sorts. Talks broke down over.....wait for it.....COOKIES!!!
8. Most Cub Scout Packs are already camping with the entire family coming along. In fact, our campouts are advertised as "Family Camping"
not "Dad and the Boy(s)". And we frequently have the siblings, and often the entire family, to include the moms, attending. So they are there anyway. Same with Pack meetings. Mom and/or Dad want to be there to see little Timmy get his Bag o' Bling. They can't leave little Suzy at home by herself, so she gets drug along to the meeting.
9. The GSA is also severely lacking when it comes to an outdoor program and camping. Why ?? Most moms don't camp. Especially, by themselves, and then with a bunch of teenage and pre-teen girls. It just doesn't happen very much.
% Go back and read what BSL wrote, the girls are being seriously under-served.
* - I have personally talked with several Girl Scout leaders. They are appalled at the lack of program materials from the GSA. Where I can go into a Scoutshop (or order online) a book that has all the 2-4 page lesson plans to accomplish all the required and optional objectives for a year. There is nothing like that for Girl Scouts. Leaders have to develop everything on their own. In contrast, when I was Den Leader, at the beginning of each school year, I would ask parents which achievement they wish to lead. (It wasn't going to be me talking at EVERY. DAMN. MEETING.) And read off the list of "Things to be Done" Each parent would volunteer to conduct one meeting. I would hand them the 2-4 page "Lesson Plan" and say "Here's what the goal is, you don't have to do everything in here as long as the boys get the gist of what's required." And then setup the calendar so we all knew who was doing what and when. Oftentimes, if the parent wasn't the Subject Matter Expert, they knew someone who was and we would either to visit them, or they would come visit us. For example, when the boys were to earn their Readyman (First Aid) Webelos Pin, I asked a buddy of mine who was firefighter/paramedic to help. He invited us to his Firehouse on a Friday night when he wasn't working. Friday nights were homemade pizza nights.
He had a table and chairs setup out on the equipment floor, and began the class. About five minutes in, the Alarm goes off, followed by the location and nature of the alarm. A bunch of firefighters come busting out the quarters door, they jump into their bunker gear, then onto the engine and Ambulance, and then go roaring out into the night. The boys are just sitting there:
DUDE !!1 THAT WAS THE COOLEST THING EVER !!!!
It took a couple of minutes to get the boys refocused on the task at hand, but despite several alarm calls that night, managed to get through the curriculum for the pin. The boys really had a great time making pizzas with the fireman (who enjoyed it as much if not more then the scouts). I had a couple parents tell me how much I sucked, because it was going to be very, very hard to top that night.
&Again, I asked a buddy, sent him the 3 page lesson plan and said "Make sure they get the gist of this." The Girl Scout don't have anything like that.
% The wife of my Cubmaster is the Girl Scout Troop leader (They have twin boys in 3rd Grade and Daughter in 7th Grade). The daughter frequently hangs out and participates in boys' Den meeting because "what they do is cooler then I do in Girl Scouts" (her words, not mine). They recently earned the Whittling Chit. She looked right at her mother and asked "Why don't we get to play with knives?" The mom has lamented that she has an extremely hard time recruiting other moms to go on campouts, to the point where most are cancelled (unless in someone's backyard.) Driving several miles to an actual campground is out of the question, unless it has cabins along with flush toilets and showers (and even then it's iffy for most moms). There are finally the awards. Most everyone knows what an Eagle Scout is. They may not know exactly how it's earned, but they know it's a "BIG DEAL", and something that is not easy to achieve. Has anyone every heard the "Gold Award" ?? Buehler, Buehler, Anyone ? It's the Girl Scout equivalent to Eagle Scout. But hardly anyone has heard of it or knows what it is. Their daughter who is already well on her way to the Gold Award has already said she wants to quit Girl Scouts and join Boy Scouts as soon as she can. Why ?? "Because they do the cool stuff." Again, her words. As BSL said it simply boils down to this:
The girls want to do the stuff the boys are doing, which is what GSA used to do, but then they lost the whole scouting part of the organization and screw 'em if they can't figure out what they did wrong.
&- I was really concerned that the our group of 9 year old boys wouldn't sit still for more then five minutes when the one Mom did the scrapbooking lesson. The boys bought 5-10 pictures each and she supplied all the rest of the materials (we paid five bucks per scout, but I know she probably supplied several hundred dollars in Creative Memories supplies.) Anyway, the other dad there, and I, were shocked that all 10 boys sat and diligently worked on their scrapbook pages for over an hour. Other then the occasional comparing of work, they weren't ever bored or bouncing off the walls like we expected. We never had to redirect them to get to work, they were bound and determined to have the "coolest" scrapbook page.
