Eagle1993

I think he wrote “separation” not “segregation”... reminds me of the SNL skit of too much violins on TV...😀

Welcome! This is a great group with a diversity of opinions and a ton of experience. I know it’s a few years out for her, but if you know the Troop she would likely feed into (if it exists) I would recommend checking to see how they plan to run. If they plan on keeping the Troop meetings completely single gender then I would go with @qwazse‘s option B above. If they will have coed meetings and outings (as linked Troops) I would consider option A a bit more. I’m CC of an early adopter Pack with 10 girls. We had 1 girls den and while it was functional it didn’t work as well for

I agree there have been a lot of changes and I have a lot of issues with with how they have rolled this program out. They made promises they never intended or could keep. 100% with you there. The YPT change is major and seems to be clearly impacted by adding girls. I think the membership fee increase is simply them trying to fill a budget hole But I just think sometimes a book is just a book. As long as the requirements stay the same I have no issues, in fact I support two different books. If they start reducing requirements for girls I’ll have a problem and I’ll jump on board tha

No. Nope. Sorry, wrong. The book is filled with gender pronouns and pictures of boys. Having a book in a different language or pictures of girls doesn’t change the program. If you show me that the girl book or the Spanish book has different requirements then you can make this point.

Venturing crews can be coed. There were complaints about the coed Cub Scout rank books were release that boy only packs now have books with girls. Now National releases a separate books and more griping. How much money on a book... hardly anything vs the dues of the girls coming in.

Really??!?!? Are you serious? If they changed the Boy Scout book to add some pictures of girls and changed some pronouns you would have went nuts claiming they “changed the program”. They are adding a girls book with picture of girls and adding “she” instead of “he”. They did this in a separate book so they don’t upset the existing boys and their leaders... and that is now an issue? WOW! Perhaps we need to add trigger warnings to any BSA announcements going forward so existing leaders can go to their safe spaces prior to hearing such things like there is a scouts BSA book with pic

Ok... at some point you’ll probably (hopefully) talk with the parents. One topic of discussion I would have is regarding YPT. I do think there are legitimate questions on how to handle YPT policy with non binary youth. If a scout identifies as a boy (regardless of birth gender) we are to treat him as a boy. Again, if a youth identifies as a girl the same policy applies. That then applies to tenting and bathroom policies. I do question how we should handle YPT for a non binary youth and would look to the parents for their input. I honestly don’t know how I would handle that situation

I don’t believe they would do this directly, but would pull in the appropriate YP resources. If a child is telling a scout leader that they are having gender identity issues AND are unwilling to have that discussed with parents you have several options. 1) Grant their wish and don’t tell their parents. 2) Ignore their request and talk directly with their parents. 3) Escalate to BSA professionals (SE/DE/SCOUTS First) who can have professionals investigate prior to telling parents. I recommend #3 based on what I saw when I was a youth. Feel free to chose your own path.

Im not saying ignore it, I said pull in your DE/SE or report it. I would expect the professionals would come in and review the situation to ensure the scout is not in danger or an abusive household. If it is determined that everything is ok at home after their investigation and professional review then no issue with telling the parents. Abuse at home is not always apparent and a scout who tells you they are having gender identity issues may be more likely to be abused. If they tell you not to tell their parents you should be seeking professional input.

If a scout does not want their parents to know of this situation then a leader should pull in a professional scouter. This could be evidence of a scout who is in an abusive relationship at home (or many other reasons) and I wouldn’t expect any volunteer to have to navigate the situation. Ignoring a scout who tells you not to tell their parents and simply going over their head is irresponsible and possibly dangerous.

There are definitely worse things than that and scouters should be careful to not self appoint themselves as Psychologists. No issue with discussions with the parents (if Scout is ok with that) and COR to ensure the unit can provide the scout a safe scouting experience.

I would emphasize @Cambridgeskip point.... talk with the scout FIRST before telling the parents. If the scout is comfortable with a discussion with the parents... great! My guess is that is probably the case but it is good to check. If they tell you to not tell their parents, then pull in your DE/SE for support. You will need professional support. Some parents are NOT understanding and can be physically and emotionally abusive. If a scout believes he is safe confiding something to his Troop, goes home to find out a parent was told, and they beat the crap out of him it could be psychol

In our pack 60% of the girls that are joining come from families that did not have sons in the pack. Just one data point. I do think sisters will account for a lot, but I also see former Boy Scouts who only had daughters start to come back to the program. I still concur that there will be a volunteer shortage and why many linked Troops will act as coed.

Will be hard to measure due to LDS exit. You’ll have to look at councils with little to no LDS to see real impact. Note that BSA has been losing boys for 30 years. The real question is if the rate of loss of boys increases in non LDS councils. I’m not sure if it will and if that rate of loss increase will exceed the rate of additional girls. I also wonder, as @Eagledad mentioned,if the girls/parents who initially join now may push through program issues while eventually everything settles back on the actual program performance. It may take several years to really see the impact of al

I have no problem requiring all parents who spend a week at summer camp to take a background check, but BSA should differentiate between parents that may be frequently around youth vs scout leaders. I would like to see a separate form that would allow a background check at no cost to the unit. No need to make up positions for these parents or have them take YPT or charge a fee for staying overnight at camp for a few days. I completely understand BSA requiring the background checks as state and local laws are being implemented left and right increasing the requirements. In addition, ther

That is true, but the vast number of packs that I am aware of do major recruiting drives in Aug - Oct. In addition, very few Packs were early adopters and that group ended with ~7k girls. At my District Meeting, most of the Packs decided to include girls. My pack was the only early adopter in the District. I would expect the 10k to increase substantially by October. As far as Troops, I do expect that DEs will be expected to ensure all girls have Scout units to transition to. They will have to act fast given the age of the girls. One interesting note from District Meeting was

I don’t doubt there were complaints complaints (just go to powwows.com forums and search on Boy Scouts or Order of Arrow). Instead of outright banning the ceremony I wish they setup some rules or guidelines along the lines of working with a tribe. There is very little taught about NA culture in our school systems. OA and aspects of Boy Scouts should be used to teach accurate aspects of their culture (both past and current). If a OA chapter doesn’t want to be part of this... no problem. But if an OA chapter and tribe work together, it would be a powerful experience. My limited O

It varies a lot. We have 5 family trips planned this year plus a council run day camp. Some are camping, others are overnights. In previous years we had 2 but have slowly built up to 5. In my area you’ll see anywhere from 1 to 6 based on discussions with other Packs. Den meeting frequency varies as well ... from weekly to 1 per month.

BSA just past the 10,000 mark for girls in Cub Scouts with nearly 4,000 Webelos. It will be interesting to see these numbers after fall recruiting when most Packs add new members. Will update if I see more numbers in October. That will be the interesting one.

Packs are being told that boy and girl dens can meet at the same time and place. Many in both the volunteer and professional ranks know the current idea of having 10-12 new leaders to cover all grade levels won’t happen at most of any Pack. In addition, having 5th grade girls have co den meetings with Lions or Tigers is a farce. We tried it this Spring and while functional... it didn’t feel like true Den meetings. In my Pack, we left it up to den leaders and families of those dens if they want girl and boy dens to meet together or separate. 100% of our 12 den leaders voted to have boy

Is everyone checking with their feeder packs on their plans & if they have 5th grade girls? My one concern is that Packs add 5th grade girls but don’t have a feeder Troop ready by crossover. That would be a tough situation. My Troop seems to be prepping to add girls and has talked about a recruiting campaign at the Middle School. We will see how many are interested.

Is this really a problem that must be solved? Has there been Tigers shooting themselves or others? Now our local Cub Scout camps don’t allow Lions or Tigers (too young) so it won’t impact us much if any directly, but my biggest concern is this is now another new rule that someone will have to track and enforce. If this wasn’t causing a problem then why add the rule. I have faith the range masters were able to make the call if a particular Tiger was too young or immature.

Looks like the train will continue. https://www.railpassengers.org/happening-now/news/blog/a-win-for-the-national-network-and-the-southwest-chief/

One hard part about parenting that I never thought of was having kids who don’t enjoy the same activities you did as a kid. I always thought I knew how I would raise my son... I had the formula down (sports, music, Scouts, class). When I was watching him meander out on the field I realized that his formula will be different than what I was raised on. I still challenge him but it won’t be the same. Too many parents stick with their initial formula and push it to the extreme. I’ve seen kids at little league that should never be on the field. Not that due to talent but enjoyment.

Talking with parents, concussions are definitely hurting football enrollment but not soccer. Football in our area is having trouble fielding full teams.... Sports specialization is starting incredibly young. When I was a kid you played rec sports until Junior High when travel would start. Even then, you could be a multi sport athlete rather easily. As a parent I have seen the changes. Travel soccer starts at 6. With my son I resisted the change (and he wasn’t that into soccer). By 8 all of the talented players (and coaches) were in select and we were left with parents yelling