I suspect Eagle1993 is correct about splitting the baby. To me it further erodes my confidence in the BSA now that they announced coed Troops. For the last 5-6 years the BSA continued to tout the benefits of single-sex environments, but oddly only for the Scouts BSA program. Now we need a 10-month pilot to find out that coed is just as good if not better. So their arguments over the last 5-6 years are suddenly incorrect? Or, they never had any evidence of it to begin with but made the arguments so as not to alienate certain groups? Tired of the nonsense. Talking to regular people at that food truck might really be a good idea. What do people think the BSA is vs. what does BSA tell itself it is? BSA gets so wrapped up on "leadership development, "instilling the Oath and Law," etc. I'm not so sure most regular people who aren't in the BSA orbit see it that way. 

I expect each time they did risk/benefit tradeoff discussions.  They may have been better talking with 3 guys at a food truck.  These decisions really started with Dale (perhaps you could argue it goes back to their partnership with the Mormon Church).  I'm sure each time they weighed the risks of change and did their best.. but clearly the end result has been failure. 1999- Keeping Gay scouts out... To prevent angering the Mormon Church, BSA fought to keep gay scouts out. In 1999/2000 there was limited blow back.  However, that grew over time and as the USA opinions on gays changed, BSA was clearly behind the times (similar to their delayed response to desegregation in the 1960s). 2013/2015 - Gay scouts/leaders admitted.... They stopped listening to the Mormon Church and realized the nation passed them by.  They probably made the decision 5 years too late, but it is what it is.  The damage was done for corporate donors, United Way and progressive areas.  However, I expect this started the clock for the Mormon Church to leave. 2018/2019 - Girls admitted... They knew the Mormons were leaving and felt they needed a new group of youth to recruit.  They wanted to minimize the impact to existing scouts so they attempted to minimize changes (single gender, BSA name stays the same, etc.).  They attempted to split the baby.... 2020 - Mormon leave BSA 2020-2024 Covid/Bankruptcy caused further damage 2025 - Scouting America.... They decided to go all in on relaunching BSA.  I expect they believe the BSA brand has been tarnished and they need a relaunch.  BSA membership and financials are atrocious so I expect they are more willing to be aggressive. What else is changing going forward?  I don't think a name change alone will do anything.  Perhaps it's time for them to talk to a few guys at the food truck.

BSA mentioned this, which is why they added girls but kept girls in their own den and Troop.  The idea was that it would prevent any loss of boys while also adding girls.  Clearly that strategy didn't work, which is likely one reason why they are adding fully coed options.  No point in keeping them separated if it didn't keep scouts/scouters from quitting and many packs/Troops operated like coed units anyway.

I gave up referencing myself a while ago, so I won’t link to the thread that shows this data, but here goes anyway … while BSA was mulling over including girls in packs and troops (under the corporate double-speak “family scouting”), there was a WOSM census that revealed that membership declined in nearly every European country immediately after their scouting organization incorporated girls. Recovery to where they would have the same number of boys as they did before desegregation would take decades, if it has occurred yet at all. The UK took 25 years. So, if BSA is indeed about serving more youth, the strategy chosen is a very long term one — quite an anomaly for any American organization.

Just curious..did the BSA do any risk analysis on any of these decisions?    Or did they ask 3 people at the food truck and 2 said yes so they plowed ahead?