Order of the Arrow

I picked this up from the Wood Badge group at bookface. It’s apparently not open for negotiation. _______________________________________________________   Subject: *** National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT) syllabus UPDATES *** BSA Scouting U is announcing updates to the current National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT) syllabus.  These changes are effective on February 1, 2019: The minimum age requirement to attend NYLT will change.  All participants must be 14 years old or 13 years old and have completed 8th grade; there cannot be any exceptions.  
For 2019 only, an exception will be granted for girls to attend NYLT without first achieving the First Class rank; they must still meet age requirements and first attend Introduction to Leadership Skills for Troops (ILST.)  This will allow new troops to have trained youth leaders.
In most councils, NYLT will remain coed for the foreseeable future.  We suggest separate patrols for boys and girls, if you have sufficient numbers of each gender.
Beginning in 2020, all NYLT Course Directors/Scoutmasters are required to attend a Region/Area Course Directors Conference within 24 months prior to the start of his/her course. The individual who is listed as NYLT Backup Course Director/Assistant Scoutmaster on the "Request for Authorization to Conduct a National Training Course" form is also required to attend a Region/Area Course Directors Conference within 24 months prior to the start of the approved course.
Questions should be directed to David Ehrlich, Scouting U NYLT coordinator (dehrlich2@gmail.com), Tom Giugni, Scouting U, Vice Chair Leadership Development (tomgiugni@gmail.com) or Mark Nelson, Scouting U Team Lead, Leadership Development (mark.nelson@scouting.org) Thanks!         Mark Mark J. Nelson  |  Team Lead, Leadership Development BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
Scouting University 1325 West Walnut Hill Lane  |  P.O. Box 152079   |  SUM  273
Irving, Texas 75015-2079
P 972.580.2203  |  M 508.455.7504
mark.nelson@scouting.org

My educated guess is this came from the NRA safety and liability people. 

Gotcha.  But competition in itself isn't a problem.  Unless the GSUSA could somehow argue that the BSA was infringing on the GSUSA's constitutional mandate and it was therefore requesting an injunction on the basis that the BSA simply isn't allowed to offer Scouting programs to girls.  I didn't see that argument though.

Program existence requires recruiting at the early (earliest) ages. The Tiger program was created to complete against Campfiress new program change to recruit first graders. The new BSA (or whatever) membership policy is threatening the existence of GSUSA.  Barry

Not long ago, an experience shooter was just quizzed and demonstrated he/she could safety shoot for group as a prereq for entry into an instructor course. The add-on BIT ,was /is usually part of an instructor course.  In BIT, you learn how to "introduce a speaker" so be sure to take notes. Originally these courses were meant to train instructors who were volunteering to teach newcomers in low cost courses now it is more about the business of firearm training for profit. Depending on your area, NRA instructor and skills courses can be hard to come by, more expensive than in the past, and I think you also have to renew your instructor  training or run a certain number of classes.   My $0.02