It's OK for us to be a little different. For all our troubles, the US is still exceptional in many respects. We've gifted the world airplanes, the telephone, the internet, Post-It notes, and sliced bread. Clearly, we're getting a few things right over here. 🙂   I respect that your experience may have been different from mine and believe yours to be valuable too, but most kids in the US already get 8 hours of mixed-gender interaction in school. Many extra-curriculars, aside from athletics, are also integrated. Boys and girls already have ample opportunities to interact. The single-gender path for youth in that difficult pre-teen stage is actually one of the few value propositions that the BSA (SA?) offers. Aside from athletics, where else can they still have that experience?

This isn't a big difference, but since so few others on the forum scouted gender integrated themselves I'll write it out also - sometimes we ditched the tent when backpacking and brought two tarps to construct a lean-to either on private land with permission to take a few .. what's the English word for young tall tree about as thick as a wrist? anyway, them, or where the SM had dropped the precut tall thin debranched trees for us to work with in advance. But this didn't really change how we slept in terms of relative body location - it's even more important to huddle together in the lean-to than a tent, especially if the.. what's the English word for the slow-burning parallel log fire that makes the "heat curtain" at the open end of the lean-to? anyway, the heat curtain fire doesn't burn that strong, the cold creeps in now just sideways but from your feet too, so nobody ever suggested anything different from the whole patrol in the same lean-to.

Also unveiled was new Distinguished Conservation Service Award.  Procurement order for National Supply is already in. Guess no one told that committee about the brand change... Or will they play this rebranding like Scouting/USA? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouting/USA  

Just had a conversation with someone connected... his explanation was to this effect:  The corporation named the "Boy Scouts of America" will Do Business As "Scouting America", and there is ongoing discussion as to what the various program names will be. Cub Scouts, Scouting America Scouts, Scouting America Venturing, Scouting America etc.

No, it was a summer model without a wood stove, but all the combined body heat also did help on chilly spring, summer, and fall nights. We did lie right next to each other (resulting in quite a bit of trying not to step on your patrolmates when you needed to pee in the middle of the night), helping hold on to our warmth. But backpacking with a cast iron wood stove and fuel for it would have been a bit much 😄