Women on Campouts

I joined Troop 102 because I observed that women were among the leadership
of the troop, and that they participated as equals in troop activities with
the male leaders. We have had women leaders on most of the campouts over the
past several years, and that has been positive nearly all the time. The only
gender-related negative experience we have had with a mother on a campout was
a very young mother of a new scout just crossed over from cubs. She was clearly
attracted by the older boys and flirted with them rather shamelessly. Needless
to say, she's gone; unfortunately her son is gone too.
Any volunteer organization, you have problems that can be tricky to deal
with. Certainly our troop has had its share of inter-personal problems;
sometimes the problems are with male leaders, sometimes with female leaders,
but it's really rare - well, I guess unique - to find a problem that is clearly
gender-related.
And on the positive side, women leaders bring a wealth of knowledge and
experience that the men leaders might not have. We need all the good leaders
we can get, and the odds are that half of the potential good leaders are women.
Tony Preus
Troop 102, Johnson City

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