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“It’s 2018, and a person who identifies as a metronome still can’t join the Boy Scouts. Let that sink in,” That would explain the profoundly arythmic campfire songs.

Here's what I have observed in some committee meetings where I am. A few of the parents of Scouts who are no longer in the troop complain that current parents are not volunteering and honestly, they start to come across like the only ones capable of getting anything done. Do they go out and ask the current parents to volunteer? No. They put a note in the minutes saying they need someone to volunteer and then complain that no one shows up. I asked a mom from my former den if she would take over the wreath sale. She said yes as long as she doesn't have to attend committee meetings. Voi

I don’t think National counted on you, and I mean that in a good way.

I think you may be missing the point. The World Crest has been replaced by what I believe is a “Woman Power” symbol. It goes along with the text. As for the missing U.S. flag and rest of the out-of-place, missing and mis-colored patches, it is pretty clear that this cartoonist doesn’t know and/or doesn’t care about the details of BSA uniforming, beyond what he needed to do to make sure the reader understands that this is a Boy Scout uniform, so he could make his ideological point.

A DE cannot invite another unit to your event. I can't imagine myself going to all the time, effort, and expense of putting on a nice event at the school only to have the DE invite another unit in to freeload off of all my hard work. No way. If a DE wants to organize a second scout night at the school for the co-ed unit, he is free to do so, but he is not going to do it on my time and my dime.

Thanks for the clarification, Parkman. It sounds to me like things are not that far off kilter. One suggestion I would make is when the PLC has their annual planning meeting, they identify adult support for each event at that time...not wait until time for the event to wonder who will step up. This gives the adults time to plan their own calendar, as well. If no adults roger up when the event is proposed, then it comes off the schedule and you do something else. When the SPL presents his annual plan to the Troop Committee, he has a name attached to each event of someone who has agreed. T

You are not suffering from memory loss, at least not when it comes to the older Cub uniforms. Back in the days before the strip was changed to read 'Boy Scouts of America', it did indeed say 'Cub Scouts BSA.' Those of us who are old enough (I first joined in 1961, back when you had to 8 to be a Cub) remember that uniform; along with Lion being the top rank (no Webelos back then), rather than an introductory Kindergarten program. We also remember the brief period in the 70's when the Boy Scout uniform was changed to say 'Scout BSA', rather that the previous and current 'Boy Scouts of Ame

Just remember for those of you who feel like protesting. Target your protests correctly. Making a shirt/sign/slogan/banner/post/whatever that a girl who joins scouting is going to read that basically says to her, "You are not welcome here!" is not the message you want to send. It goes against everything inclusiveness that scouting is about. If you want to protest the name, target your protest appropriately.

No kidding. Note that nowhere in this thread do we see "Camp Fire Girls" or "Campfire". Mark my words, GSUSA, you're about to become similarly irrelevant ... and you've brought it all on yourselves. My goodness, with the NY chapter of NOW thumping on us on the one hand and apparently genuine appeals from young ladies seeking "Eagle Scout" on the other, the BSA was straining credulity to ignore the situation. Talk about a gift horse. If the GSUSA had promoted their Gold Award half as effectively as they've marketed Thin Mints and Do-Si-Do's we wouldn't be having this conversation.

I'm not going to get hung up on what the name of the program is called. I guess I should attend this month's committee meeting. I typically don't as an ASM. I still think the BSA is making a dumb decision by trying to have Girls Troops and Boys Troops. We are the largest troop in my town, and I don't think we'll get more than a patrols worth of girls that are interested, since the GSUSA troops in our area do fairly well. We don't have the spare adult leadership to accommodate separate troops. I'm perfectly ok if some units decide they want all male troops or all female troops. Or som

That's my guess as to what will happen here at some point. For the next 5-6 years, it will be separate. This will allow anyone who is in the program today to migrate through. Once that happens, we'll start to see the transition. That feels pretty fair to me too - if you join the BSA today, you kinda know where it's heading.

I understand the sentiment here, but in reality and in all practicality, does this really change anything for most troops? Let's think about it: When was the last time you said, in casual conversation, the full name, "Boy Scout Troop XX"? This came up for me back when the very idea of girls in the BSA first emerged as a real possibility and people were talking about what the organization would be called, what Troops would be called, etc. Someone said, "So what, we can't address our guys as 'Boy Scouts' anymore??" To which my response was, "When was the last time you addressed scouts dire

Fair enough question. The name of the Boy Scout program is changing to Scouts BSA. No one is going to call themselves a Scout BSA. Boys are likely to continue to call themselves Boy Scouts in a more formal discussion - but girls will likely just call themselves Scouts (since Girl Scout is actually trademarked). That being said - it is highly likely that everyone here has used the term Scout or Scouts to refer to the boys many times before. In all my years, I have never, ever heard a Scoutmaster, an SPL, a camp staffer, a Patrol Leader, etc. ever try to gather a group of scouts by holl

How inane and childish.

Just as some schools change mascots my guess is that some people will keep with the past name and call themselves Boy Scouts. Girls and the most of the next generation boys “scouts” will probably go with “Scouts”. That is what I have seen after mascot changes at schools that have flaired similar passions (older and current students stay with the previous version but the vast majority of new students move on). I was a Boy Scout and I expect many current and past members will continue to use that name. That said, it doesn’t mean the name can’t change going forward and I tend to agree havi

They had to come up with something, Scouts BSA isn't bad. The idea of Scout Me In as a marketing campaign actually is pretty clever.

If your troop committee is like mine, they're just hesitant to a new big project that doesn't help improve the program for their sons. The path in our troop is for some adults interested in doing this to spearhead it. 4-5 adults who are willing to work to make it happen. The rest of the committee will support it if they get it going. My recommendation: 1) figure out if you CO would be open to it. If no, then there is probably little point. 2) start talking about the possibility with folks. See if other parents are interested. If yes, develop a proposal and take it to t

For Millie's benefit, the law-related something in my background is that I am a lawyer, but I suspect that is not the kind of law-related something in Problem Mom's background.

If you have actual written proof (like emails from her) that Mom is saying she is the pack treasurer when she is not, especially if she is not even a registered leader, I would be sure to mention that if you speak to someone from council. Some of the other stuff they may or may not see as a huge problem, but I think they would definitely have a big issue with someone falsely holding themself out as a leader, and treasurer may be the most concerning of all.

As a former school Athletic Director, I have had a few incidents which resulted in a parent being banned from school grounds. Since the kids were not directly involved in the incidents, they were allowed to continue their participation in the activities. I have never banned a parent for being a general pain in the neck. It has always been for a specific and identifiable act. It seems to me if you have an "open forum" at your meetings, then you must accept the fact that somebody might express unpopular opinions. If the parent is actually posing as a registered leader, the best respon

If this were me, and I was Committee Chair (which is the person who should be doing the notifying), I would first contact the District Executive, or whoever is the professional at your council who is assigned to your district, for some guidance. You are going to want their support when Problem Mom contacts them, which she most likely will, so it makes sense to try to get them in your corner now. One concern I have is that I have never heard of removing a Scout because of the conduct of his parents. And, assuming that Problem Mom is not a registered leader, I'm not sure how you "remove"

No Boy Scout troop with a long and proud history is going to drop Boy and call themselves Scout Troop Xxx

How about - Scout Me Out - Not my Scout BSA Troop - Girls Aren't Boys - BSA forever!

I disagree - I'll support my scouts if this is what they want to do. They have been taught in school how to protest and they want to bring this issue to the public. We are a boy led troop so I am going to let them resist.

The name change is a direct result of making scouting coed (here I'm referring to both cub scouting and scouting scouting). And yes, "girls are not welcome here" is the sentiment we want to convey. It's not that we hate them (I have three daughters for which I wish I could find a quality female-only scouting program), it's that the purpose of Boy Scouts (puts dollar in the swear jar) has traditionally been, and in our minds continues to be, a program unswervingly designed to build boys into men.