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I think the biggest challenge will be working with schedules regarding religious obligations. Your troop, or the patrol that the scouts join may have to adjust accordingly, possibly camping from Friday evening until Saturday evening. On the flip side, one group of guys learning about another group of guys' vision of Duty to God is generally a positive experience for all.

She doesn't know who they are yet. She might have to ask to visit a troop during their parent night/court of honor. (I'd take her over an FOS presenter any day of the week.) Besides the troops, there are other churches, other schools, the local newspaper (here you might want to have an adult party be the contact, but the pitch should be hers), lemonade stands. And after all that, she falls short? She will have met dozens of youth and adults around her community. That will count for a lot! Like you said, there are other towns. But she has to count the cost of added commute time, etc ... My point is, when it looks like scouters will disappoint, the best people to sell scouting are scouts. It might not work. But sometimes there's more to be gained from trying and failing than from waiting for others to step up the way you think they should.

Tough love time (Hawk's already heard this pep talk) ... We parents and unit and district and council scouters can beat drums for these one or two girls here and there and never find a finger-hold to get a BSA4G troop up and running. The responsibility for starting a patrol then a troop, rests squarely with the youth. These girls need to dig really deep and ask other girls if they'd like to hike and camp together every month. This probably means talking to strangers ... every girl in their class ... every sister of a boy scout ... even if she is a couple of years older. Once they have their gang of five, they need to list all of the potential sponsors in their community (every church, every fire hall, every knitting group) and knock on a lot of doors, until they find someone with the brains to realize that their good name would benefit from underwriting such girls. Then, they go down the list of adults of highest integrity who they know and trust, approach them and say, "Have we got an offer for you -- forty hours a month for the time of your life. " They keep asking until they have at least two -- at least one being female-- of SM material and a few committee. They may fail -- in some districts failure will be inevitable. But, if they fail, they will know it was not for lack of trying. If they succeed, they will have so much to be proud of, down to the first CoH where they hand out those Scout ranks. Parents, put away your lawnmowers. It's time for these 11 year old girls to shine.

@dbautista5, welcome to the forums. As a former Crew Advisor, I can tell you that venturing is not the lead to follow. I only say that because they come in all over the map with a vague vision of where to go. So the interest survey that we give those late teens is more of a Chinese menu of take it or leave it. Here's how I lay this all out from comparing my scouting experience with that of friends and strangers (including present company): A troop forms with a built-in vision: the pinnacle experience of hiking and camping independently with your mates. Achieving that vision needs someone to qualify to take their mates hiking and camping: the first class scout. That person needs mates : a patrol. And those mates need to see that person as their leader. The patrol needs to master skills that will make them first class scouts. The skills need to be laid out in an organize fashion with benchmarks for mastery ... that's the advancement method. The skills need to be applied: the outdoors method. So, the most important leadership position -- especially in a new troop of just one or two patrols -- is the patrol leader. As the troop accumulates gear that patrols will share, it will need a quartermaster, as it accumulates patrols, it will need patrol leaders. As they have a bunch of first class scouts who want to continue rank advancement but thriftily share literature, the troop will need a librarian ... but for now focus on building a vision for the scouts coming through your door. Do they know who they want to be their mates? Do they have an idea of who's closest to qualifying to take their troop hiking and camping? Your advantage is that well-trained girl scouts understand getting organized and making plans. They also know a lot of songs, how to have fun. So chances are, these kids can pull themselves together. What you need, IMHO, are places for them to go. Locations to hike to. Community leaders to visit. People to serve. Nice camping spots. And, adult leaders to fall in line with the options your giving these scouts.

As an ASM, easily 40 hours/month. But ... to keep up Guard Certification and Wilderness First Aid (I've fallen behind on both) that averages another 4 hours a month over their cycles. Further, to stay sharp orienteering, and be fit for World Jamboree, I participate in as many Orienteering Club events as possible ... another 4 hours/month. Then, YPT which is effectively an annual exercise in our council ... let's say 10 minutes a month that I'm not getting back. And talking with you all so that I have my scouter hat on straight when facing parents ... I don't even want to know what that amounts to.

@Podscouter, welcome to the forums. You are describing the Laurel Highland's Council, and it sounds like you are in one of the former Penn's Woods Council. I'm from the western side of "The Bridge Over Westmoreland County." I'm not calling you out for anything personal. It's just that in recent years this council has been put forward as a case study. So, calling a spade a spade will give people a chance to talk about their opinions. Your part of the state has so much to offer, so camp closures their would indeed be a real disappointment. And the people who live in these districts are top-notch. Ignoring them would be the true tragedy in all of this.

Moderators, please delete @shortridge's insulting reduction of the unisex argument to mere anatomy. It is demeaning and disrespectful of Americans (Mormons, Muslims, and other sects) who think highly of different gender roles.

@RennyTompson welcome to the forums! Every troop has different rules. Patrols within a troop have different rules sometimes. So a talk with your PL/SM will probably resolve this. What I would do: in my field notes (one that wasn't ruined in the wash), I would make a list of each thing I bought, how much, and the cost. If I can't remember the cost of each thing, I would just note the total at the bottom. I could always go back to the store and get the price. Then I sign my name and date. My buddies usually accept scouts' honor as they happily consume the shrimp scampi and fettuccini Alfredo that I've prepared for them.

Scramble like heck. Call your caouncil venturing committee. Let your DE know. Community college APO, church youth leaders. And ... GS/USA commissioners. You might get your leader, you might not. But you'll feel better trying.

Have you seen boys at camp? Ever? It is theirs, for a week, payed for with their own fundraising. Their own family's investment. Conversely, this is "your girl's" program for but one week of the summer at one location. Are you so deluded that you think we can force 10 troops who've demanded a certain unisex comraderie for their boys from their council? How would you block access to their purchasing power? Unlike racial segregation which reinforced financial disparity and access to quality education, unisex eduction opportunities seem to have produced none of those ills. Thanks to the charity of my Venturers, I've visited GS/USA camps, and those kids were having a snot load of fun. Are you really afraid that your daughter's and the boys' troops who willingly share camp with her will not have as spirited a week as those troops who choose a B-O or G-O week? If that's true, then you're making the unisex folk's case.

The story is pretty close to home. I'm pretty sure the next round of false accusers won't think twice about how other false accusers were punished. What I would like is these young people to reconcile and make restitution. Then I would like one of them to study law and exercise it so well that she could be nominated to the Supreme Court.

Woah, Short, don't drink the bath water! The message that it sends is that if you come to camp, we'll do our best to make sure you're with guys who are okay with you being in their 'hood.

A little of the rails, Perdi. But since you put it out there ... @ItsBrian, take that as a rhetorical question. Answering to strangers on the Internet is likely to get your dander up. Hashing it out with whoever you'd trust as a reference is likely to get you somewhere.

I'm saying many theists don't believe other theists have a lock on morality and its origin. It's a divided house.

Well this is a demand planning challenge. My troop, for example, would be happy to share camp with BSA4G units. Our week is our week -- down to the trees we hang clotheslines from. What other troops come and go in other camps is immaterial at this point. If we can put up with boys from MD, we can put up with girls from anywhere else. So, a council doesn't just have to think about the number of BSA4G units that are out there, but the number of troops who would only come to camp if no BSA4G units are there. @shortridge's council is betting that they can fill their weeks if 25% are B-O camps. Other camps will make different bets. Some might have some BSA4G units who ask for G-O weeks. It's not a new concept. SBR effectively did this back when they hosted the GS/USA jamboree. So, I can foresee camps in really diverse councils making 3 types of weeks available -- possibly 4 as GS/USA has shed a lot of properties and many of those girls are still asking for a summer camp.

I think this is an over-generalization. Knowing the mind of God as it pertains to the matters of men is not uniform among theists. Even in this camp, we have those who think God's hand rests with the mighty.

I don't see a problem with this. If a soon-to-be-young-adult wants to put their shoulder to the wheel at this window of opportunity, no problem, I'll gladly support them. If another S2BYA's timing precludes it, no problem, I can point them to other summits and if they help me lead my unit I most definitely will support them.

God rest him, and bless his family.

Not knowing young women who want BSA4G, let alone Eagle rank, I guess I don't have a dog in this fight. I guess if there are some 17 year old boys who regret passing on scouts, this might be recruiting opportunity. However, having concluded that BSA's membership decline was preceded by National's imposition of the ageist policy on rank advancement, I must say this does not encourage long term membership or direct requirements to be more fieldwork and less bookwork. The age deadline should be removed. Any man or woman of integrity willing to serve as a direct contact leader for a year or so should be permitted to persue rank advancement. The era of "hurry-up" rank advancement should come to an abrupt end.

Welcome to the forums @SarahPeas! Too soon to tell. Ask me in another 20 years. My daughter is taking the long road to fame and fortune ...

I forgot about some of the goofy replies that I posted on Bryan, that upon reflection make good sense, like why I always mix up "chip" and "chit". I can see how, for cubs, all of that can be an abstraction.

@Eagle94-A1, do you have a reference? I've never dealt with Whittling Chip ... never had one as a bear while whittling my PWD block ... don't think my sons had one. So I never gave much thought as to how it would be used.

At the end of the CoH, our TC's Eagle advisor was invited to speak, gave an excellent description of how he counseled scouts with their projects. It was excellent, but I fear that I would misquote him if I tried to list his all of key points, but I really liked one bit of advice to the boys (which, indirectly was a hint to parents): pick a beneficiary who excites you and a project that you'd be proud of. @robert12, don't lose the forest for the trees. Visit roundtables and encourage your leaders to think out of the checkbox and on the above terms. At a local park, I made an orienteering course whose controls were former Eagle projects of the troop, some more than two decades ago. I sent the map to former SMs to double-check my way-points and make sure I didn't leave out any scouts or mistake their projects for someone else's. They were thrilled to see how their troop literally dotted that park! So challenge scouts: years from now ... whose map will your project be on? P.S. - On my "to do" list is a map covering our community and the many projects by scouts at large.

Facts not in evidence: what laws the Chin made fell along racial lines https://www.zum.de/whkmla/sp/0910/hersheys/hersheys5.html#ii To Merlyn's main objection ... Jesus did address slavery, but not in a way that we would at all find comfortable. The theme of "ultimate toppling" was at the forefront of Jesus' teaching. (E.g., Make peace with your enemy while he is far off ... Lazarus the leper and the master who wouldn't employ him.) That is, if you sought to be a master with select servants -- effectively casting others out and subjecting them to disease and decay -- you could expect to rot eternally while those outcasts would hold sway in the "bosom of Abraham." He later began to model Biblical servitude, which his disciples didn't like at all ... to the point of insurrection on the part of one. Subsequent ancient Christians took this quite seriously and pagan sources are on record mocking believers lack of finery.

For a while Son #1's pack did do a dad-only class of cars. I thoroughly enjoyed it. But, it does add a lot of time to a long day. So they eventually dropped it.