Female Junior Staff?

[Sturgen 10]

Since my first little opinion post caused such a heated debate I thought I would put this one forth:

Ought Boy Scout resident camps hire female junior staffers (under 18)?

It has been my experience that this causes nothing but trouble, no matter how strict regulations and supervision is relationships form and kids sneak off into the woods for some reason or another. As far as I am concerned for senior staff this is just a part of life and being legal responsible for themselves I see no reason to restrict the hiring of female senior staff dramatically, although romantic relations should be discouraged of course. However for youth this is a different matter all together, during those eight weeks the senior staff, the camp director and ultimately the council are responsible for the safety and wellbeing of the youth, the presence of female junior staffers can cause some rather drastic issues to arise.

 

[NWScouter 9]

We have had very little problem with female under 18 on staff. I would say the percentage of problem staffers is the same for male and female both under and over 18. In fact at one of our camps this year a young lady I have know since she started on staff at 14 (CIT) will be our Program Director.

I believe that a well recruited and supervised staff makes for the best summer camp.

[nldscout 18]

Explain to me how a 14yr old female could have been on Staff? She must be a Member of the Boy scouts to be a staff member.

[OldGreyEagle 5]

She was a Venture Crew Member?

[nldscout 18]

OGE

According to my math, she must be over 21 to be program Dir. Which means that was 7 yrs ago when she started. I don't think venturing was around then.

[OldGreyEagle 5]

Venturing started August 1, 1998 so maybe its a reach but it could happen, then again, she could have been a member of a tradiitonal Explorer Post, they have had females since 1971.

 

Anyway, I wish her and her staff well

[NWScouter 9]

Yes she was a member of Explorer Post 407, which became Venturing Crew 407 in which she is now an adult leader. She is also a grad of Idaho State in Outdoor Recreation and a Brotherhood Member of the OA.

I recently heard that you dont need to be a member of a unit to be on staff, the registration may be from the council level.

Her postion last year at camp was High Adventure director which inclues our climbing tower and COPE.

[Fat Old Guy 11]

Call me an old fogey but any time that you throw teenaged boys and girls together for an extended time, you're asking for trouble. Attachements will develop. Someone will be jealous. Group morale will be impacted. That's not even mentioning the possible by-products of the attachments that will be showing up March or April of the next year.

[Eamonn 61]

To the best of my knowledge our council has never had a young female on summer camp staff. We have had a few females on staff. The Aquatics Director for a number of years was a female.

I am all for women in Scouting and female Venturers. I am not so sure about young females on camp staff with no real female leadership. I am of course supposing that the Program Director and the Camp Director are both male, which is maybe a little bit more then chauvinistic on my part.

Then there is the question how young is young?

I don't think that a girl under 16 ought to be part of the camp staff, yet I know many 17 year olds that might be able to do a good job.

The other question that comes up is why? Why is a camp looking for "Outsiders" to fill camp positions. Many if not most of the people that I know who have served on camp staff look upon it as belonging to part of an elite group. Don't we have enough Boy Scouts to fill the positions? It is after all a Boy Scout Camp.If and when we get to having resident Venturing Camps I think that we will of course have to staff it with Venturers both male and female.

Eamonn

[Sturgen 10]

To my understanding a girl under 16 cannot be part of a staff because they cannot be a member of the BSA. I am not saying that a 16 or 17 year-old girl is not capable of working on a camp staff, more as to what FOG was getting at. As to why camps are looking for outsiders, at least it has been my experience that the council treats its temporary camp employees so poorly that it forces a high turnover, those who stay are able to put up with the BS for the sake of the boys and a love for the camp. You can only turn over so many individuals before you are forced to draw from an outside population. Unfortunately these are some of the most incompetent individuals.

[NWScouter 9]

Explorers and now Venturers start at age 14 or completing the eight grade and are co-ed. Venturing is for young men and young women ages 14 to 20. (http://www.scouting.org/nav/enter.jsp?s=vy) Plus as I said you don't have to be in a unit to work at summer camp you can be registered as a council employee.

[OutdoorThinker 10]

I feel that as long as the girl is a) a registered member of BSA through a crew and b) she has been hired based on her capability to do the job she should be able to work at summer camp, whether she is a 15 year old Venturer who will be a junior staffer, or a 21 year old female ASM who will be the Program Director.

 

Girls and guys can most definately live and work together for an eentire summer without their difference in gender getting in the way of things.

[nldscout 18]

I think you would have to judge the young lady as a person, just as you should judge the young men you are hiring. Although this may call for some increased vigalance and supervision, I think it depends on the person. The problem is if a camp has one bad experiance with a young female staffer as ours did a few years back, they will never do it again unless forced to.

 

Now some accuse us in the BSA as being old fashioned in our views and that the GSUSA is so much more liberal and forward thinking. Can you see a GSUSA camp hiring 14-18yr old male youth for staffers? Not in my lifetime. Heck a male can't even be primary leader in a GS troop

[Eamonn 61]

I have no idea how the camp staff are treated in other councils? I like to think that the staff that work at our resident camps are treated well. While the hours are long and the food can be repetitive. The people who apply for the jobs know this before they apply.

Maybe they can or could earn more working in a fast food restaurant or doing something else. But they know what the pay scale is before they take the job.Still there is something about being a Staffer. The Summer that I did it as the international camp staff member was for no pay and it cost me a round trip ticket from London to New York. In lieu of pay the BSA laid on a tour of the east coast. Still to this day I feel that I belong to that very special group and that in some way I have ownership of that camp. Not the estate but the history and feel of the place. I really would like to see more Boy Scouts share in this feeling. While females might be able to do as good a job or maybe even do a better job. At the end of the day it is a Boy Scout Camp. I kind of like the idea that the youth staff are Boy Scouts.

Eamonn.

[willysjeep 10]

We have had female venturers on staff. We have cabins across the lake from the scout camp that were part of a little hole in the wall fishing resort in the 70's. We call them te "family side" for a reason. the families of staffers and even to some extent the families of campers can rent a little cabin. There are allways vacant cabins, so female staffers bunk together in one. This combined with the mile walk and all of the old adult staffers who rent cabins over tere there have never been problems. Plus the girls mother was on staff, I'm sure that helped.