Re: Female on Campoput

Before I get shot and hung, I want to point out that my wife started
camping with the troop at the same time the boys did. She is a Brotherhood
member of the O-A and is a valued member of our Pimaree (Mexico - US
encampment) staff.

I am going to play devils advocate and relate a view expressed to me by a
very cabable Scout leader a few years back. A new family moved into the
area and the husband and wife announced that he was going to teach XYZ merit
badges and she was going camping with the troop. He, the committee
chairman, said not in our troop. If she goes, I stay home (not just the
CC, but the SM, ASM's etc). They were not at all comfortable camping with
this guys wife WHEN HE WAS NOT ALONG.(The husband did not camp.) BSA has
rules about co-ed camping, but the reality is that the rules do not always
work. I know of some examples as recent as Jambo 97.

If these leaders are not comfortable camping with a women, then the unit
and the women are going to have to take the necessary measures. No one
ever complained to me about my wife being on the campout with US (I was
always along). Send her alone and the talk will start. It may not be
right or correct, but it is reality.

Back in 1981 (the dark ages) this actually happened. One of the
ASM's had just married a pretty and younger (but not that much) women and
she was an ASM or acting like one. (I was a UC for this troop). At one of
the troop committee meetings one of the mothers (wives) complained about
her going on the
campouts. The Scoutmaster told the committee that all parents, including the
mothers were welcome to come on any and all of their campouts. His only
rule was that when they were camping, HE was mom, not them. I am not sure
if he ever stopped the gossip, but to my knowledge, none of the other
mothers took him up on the camping offer.

Chris Haggerty, Sierra Vista, Arizona
Catalina Council Advancement Chairman
Instructor Trainer for Water Safety, American Red Cross, FtEHuachuca Station
E-mail: haggerty@primenet.com or chaggerty@bpa.arizona.ed

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