Cburkhardt

Eagle1993: My views on Scouts BSA Troops for Girls regard program quality and feasibility at the unit level. What specifically are the "drastic changes" you seek? I'm guessing you are focused on the above-unit levels.

Most of the conversation in these postings regards two questions: “Is what our lodges do with regard to the depiction of Native American culture ever going to be accepted by the larger Native American community?” And: “Is the continued engagement by youth members of the Order of the Arrow in the representation of Native American culture fundamental to the achievement of BSA goals? The answer to both questions is no. It is impossible to envision a time when Native American communities will broadly accept the depiction of their culture by our young people through costumed depictions o

The lack of mid-course corrective suggestions tells me BSA is using a great approach with the all-girl Scouts BSA troops. I’ll admit I struggled a bit to come up with the above suggestions I made. We just need to keep with the current approach and do more of it — just like with the boy troops.

The principal thought about Scouts BSA for girls is that it is so dramatically different as a program from GSUSA at the 11-18 age group that we are not in competition with them. I do not believe the girls in our troop would be happy in a GSUSA unit because they are looking for the rigorous and frequent outdoor programming we offer. I recall being shocked by the fighting words used by their national leadership when we first opened to girls. They have not been harmed by our program opening to girls and I was surprised they were not more confident in their own offerings at the time.

Unit Level. Adapt unit web sites to more directly explain the relevance of Scouts BSA to girls. Form advisory committees of outstanding women in the community who can present as role models during unit meetings. Target and recruit outdoorswomen from the community to join the Troop Committee. Council Level. Assure long term camp bathroom facilities are better managed. There is some youthful teasing of Scouts entering and exiting these facilities. This should include entirely separate facilities. Task commissioners to work with girl troops on growth, including organizational and oper

What suggestions do you have to upgrade the Scouts BSA program for girls? This can include operational matters at the unit and council level, as well as suggested program or management changes at the national level.

I used to think there were two things that one could never change in Scouting: our properties and OA. That is really not true. Evolving these aspects of Scouting does happen in a positive manner when the first and final analysis prioritizes the best interests of our young people. The regularly-involved unit leader perspective is that OA is “twisting in the wind” with regard to its long term role and continuing relevance. This is solely because the controversial aspects of the program have not yet been processed. I can see why this is so, because we have all been dealing with so many

The program belongs to the young adults who are involved. We cannot go wrong by letting them take the lead on what form the Order of the Arrow needs to take in the future. That is how the seemingly unresolvable challenge of evolving this program can be effectively handled. In the 1970s I was influenced greatly and had possibilities in life expanded through peer and adult examples I was able to observe while serving as a Chapter Chief and in in multiple Lodge offices. I was ceremonies chair and led an honorable dance team with advice from local Native Americans for several years as a yo

Girls participating in Scouts BSA love the program and it serves them well when troops are well run. I’m glad that does not seem to be questioned in the comments. So, it is really a matter of market penetration to establish, maintain and grow quality girl troops. We can do that effectively during the next five or so years as we continue to recover from – well – just about everything that has challenged the BSA these last twenty years. We can’t expect in four years to have developed the deep bench of leaders who have a particular interest in forming and supporting girl troops – especial

The impacts of adding Scouts BSA troops for girls and Cub Scout dens for girls have been tremendously positive in the lives of involved young women. My observation these past five years is that our Scouting program in all of its aspects (outdoor, advancement, leadership, etc.) impacts girls just as significantly and positively as boys. I have seen the very techniques that have proven so effective with boys work as well with girls without modification. Girls who reach First Class receive a boost in capability unsurpassed by any other program experience for girls. I have seen them do bet

Mr. John's2: What have been the key determinants of the good quality of your girl troop's program? What in your view causes your girl members to stay active with your troop? Do the girls have the same level and frequency of opportunities that the boys do?

Altadena: I'll bet over 90% of our girl members in Scouts BSA are in linked troops, so please do not take my observations as "anti-linked" in any way. It sounds like your two troops are doing a great job of operating the linked concept as it was envisioned. My first question on evaluating the presence of girls in Scouts BSA focuses on the roll-out process, and my key observation is that those who rolled-out the program focused almost exclusively on forming linked units. The stand-alone troops I am aware of were formed without much (if any) assistance from district or council folks. I thin

I like Ducktape’s idea of engaging in an effort to recruit adult unit leaders not necessarily related to one of the youth members. 3 of our 11 ASMs are such people and are among our strongest participants. They all have previous Scouting experience and have significantly upgraded the quality of the member experience. This reminds me of something our committee did when I was a council VP for the old Exploring program (which previously combined the current Venturing and Exploring programs into one program unit). We visited Chartered Organizations and asked them to identify adults to be u

A few thoughts on my second question: Outdoor Program. The Scouts BSA troops for girls in our district offer good outdoor program for girls. All three troops do monthly campouts and summer camp. All three have good representation of strong outdoorswomen among their scoutmasters, which I believe makes a huge difference (and is required by YPT). All have participated in district camporees at a credible level. What is good about this is how unremarkable and mainstream the outdoor program is in these all-girl troops. The early speculation that all-girl units would go “glamping” and enga

Question Two: Do girl members of Scouts BSA experience quality programming? Share specific facts from what you have observed about local all-girl troops. I encourage everyone to approach this by putting yourselves in the shoes of these scouts and sharing what you see working or not working for them in your nearby all-girl Scouts BSA troops.

Full Sash of Merit Badges. In our four years we have had only one youth member like this. While she did not earn every badge, she earned most of them over four years. She is an outstanding Scout who prioritizes her scouting experiences over other extracurricular activities and is simply deeply entrenched in the program. Blanket Extension. I've already stated my view that it was unnecessary for the roll-out and caused those of us then-forming the all-girl units an unnecessary complication. I speculate that it might have been devised as a PR move. It might also have been a response

I hope one of our readers who has a firm grasp on membership numbers could discuss the big picture on the membership decline. There is such a tangle of issues that will have contributed to the decline (especially the bankruptcy and its many impacts) that I am unable to authoritatively opine on whether adding all girl dens/troops was a net membership add or subtraction. All I can do is share my actual experience as a “big troop” scoutmaster When we started four years ago, we were the only girl troop in our district. We were not always welcomed and I personally absorbed a lot of negative

Girl Attention Spans. Our stand-alone, all-girl Troop uses longer meeting times as a result of focus groups we conducted with parents during the roll-out four years ago. Our practical experience is that our girl members will participate over lengthy periods of time. Even after two hours they regret ending the meetings. That was not my experience in all-boy troops. I think the best course is to do what works for your unit and in our case these longer meetings are more satisfying to the girls and families. Saturday Morning Meetings. During the roll-out we surveyed the families

GSUSA sensibilities could have been handled better during the roll-out. For example, better guidance on how to refer to our all-girl program during promotions would have helped. Further, socially conservative persons acquired an inaccurate structural understanding of how Scouts BSA operates. I still read conservative writers and converse with uninvolved conservative adults who vigorously claim we are a fully co-ed program.

Qwaze: Regarding GSUSA, I do not know the details of their program, but have regular exposure to deeply-involved adult leaders. The GSUSA relationship and how to evolve it is a worthy subject for a significant discussion in a special thread by someone well-informed. My summary view is that the organizational cultures, unit operations practices and internal governance/policy approaches are so fundamentally different that broad cooperation at levels above the unit are unachievable. GSUSA rules also prohibit cooperation with BSA at the unit level. It is difficult to start something produ

Qwaze: I agree that one horrible incident of sexual assault on a female scout might have a significant impact on female youth enrollment. So, I am an especially strong supporter of YPT. I used to think of myself as unusual in that regard. Today, my practical experience in my units informs me that almost everyone involved in Scouting is strict on YPT matters. How could we not be, given the detailed examination of our organization failings in this regard? I am for soldiering-on with highest vigilance on these issues and continuing to offer our program in gender segregated units.

MattR: Our all-girl troop meets twice a month on Saturday mornings from 10 to Noon. The PLC meets immediately before every other meeting. The attention span of girls this age allows us to cover the program, in addition to our monthly campouts. The remaining “free” Saturday each month is often when optional service projects, hikes and other activities take place.

Thanks everyone for the great comments. And for the rest of you, please consider contributing to this month-long series of conversations. Here are some reactions to the thoughts shared. They are primarily based on my personal experience in founding an all-girl Cub Scout den, which became a feeder that helped form our all-girls Scout BSA Troop for Girls in February, 2019. We have 50 girls, a 14-member Scoutmaster staff and reasonably active number of parents and Troop committee members. We have done summer camp every year, sent two crews to Philmont this year and have had five Eagles so fa

Here are a few thoughts on my first question. Timing. The starting date for all girl troops on February 1 seemed odd. It caused us to do everything off-cycle, such as recruiting chartered organizations. Young people usually don’t think of joining new things in February. It required us to work harder and through the Christmas holiday for no apparent reason. Linked Troops. There was overwhelming encouragement by management to form all-girl Troops at chartered organizations that already had all-boy troops. I think a great opportunity to expand Scouting to other potential chartered