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The first girl Eagle Scout


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C'mon. That's not going to happen.

 

It would put girls 3.5 years behind boys on the Eagle trail - 10.5 years old as the start for boys and 14 as the start for girls. Why not just open up the entire Boy Scouting program to girls? Such a halfway measure makes absolutely no sense.

 

I concur with John. Source, please?

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I received this email from a friend and long time Scouter.

 

Some interesting news from NOAC. Centennial uniform being redone and shorts are on the way back. As you have already heard, Goshen is out for a number of reasons.

 

The big news. Venture girls are going to be allowed to earn rank advancements with the ability to earn Eagle and join the OA. The announcement has not been made and maybe done quietly. The Girl Scouts have major problems especially financially and probably will be gone in 10 years or less.

 

The parts of the New BSA are just now being announced and there are more surprises yet to come they say.

 

I have known him for over 15 years.

 

 

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Somehow I doubt that after 97 years, that GSUSA is going to vanish without a trace.

 

In order to allow a 14+year old girl to earn Eagle the entire program would have to be redone in MAJOR ways, not just slipping it in quietly under the radar.

 

Whoever told you this obviously has a few axes to grind.

 

Or thinks he is being humorous?

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Combine this with the American Heritage Girls announcement a few weeks ago, and some gears in my brain start turning...

 

I'm not 100% sure that I'm in favor of a co-ed Scouting program, but I'm not 100% against it either.

 

In one way, I know that boys and girls do have very different needs developmentally, socially, etc. and single-gender scouting cn be a good thing for them in that regard, esp. with male role models, etc. being needed.

 

On the other hand, other countries have had co-ed scouting for a while, and it seems to work ok for them.

 

And from an entirely personal level, I've got 3 boys and 1 girl. I really like what the BSA is, and what they represent, and I'm really not all that pleased with GSUSA, and some of their stances or lack thereof on various issues. (I don't want to turn this into a debate on said issues/stances.)

 

If the BSA could incorporate girls, without damaging what makes their current program as good as it is, I wouldn't have a problem with it. But I think it would be better to either start at the bottom and go up, or to do it all at once. Starting with the oldest group first and working backwards from there doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

 

And I really don't want to run both a popcorn and a cookie sale each year. :)

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"Somehow I doubt that after 97 years, that GSUSA is going to vanish without a trace."

 

The Scouting Association (formerly known as Boy Scouts) in the UK is now co-ed at all levels (though in is a unit option and not all units have chosen to admit girls) and yet the Girl Guides (equivalent to GSUSA) is still going strong.

 

If the BSA ever admits girls into the Scout and/or Cub levels, I suspect that GSUSA will continue to exist as well.

 

Someone posted a couple months ago that admitting girls was under discussion. There was no proof then either and I am really skeptical that the folks in Texas would even think about such a move.

 

Still, National never ceases to amaze me. It would be interesting to hear something that was more concrete than I heard it from someone I

who is really well connected...

 

Hal

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Ok, I agree it's out there....but as I have 14 year old twins (boy/girl) I'm interested.

 

The boy is a Life Scout, and girl is a GS Cadette (working on Silver). Both have joined the new Venture Crew at our CO as well.

 

JFS&G lets say they include girls in Boy Scouts (probably need to be renamed "Scouts"), how much other than 2 deep leadership to include a female leader would really have to be revamped?

 

Existing Merit badges - don't think so, girls would probably do better than boys in a lot.

 

Rank Advancement - don't think so, as we see in our Venturing Crew, girls make good leaders.

 

Troop size & camp attendance would increase.....all good things for the SE

 

My daughter was not challenged in GS anymore (they never really did have a summer camp or camporees like her brother), and is enjoying Venturing.(This message has been edited by dg98adams)

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Funny, you mention having twins... I have triplets (kinda). Thanks to an adoption and unexpected pregnancy, we have 3 3 year olds, 2 boys one girl.

 

Of course, I'm not sure if I could handle all three of them in the same tiger den. :)

 

But it would be really nice to have them in the same organization.

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Note folks that the rumor doesn't state that girls will join Boy Scout troops and earn Eagle. It says that girls in Venturing Crews could earn Eagle. I find this hard to believe as a 16 year old boy joining a Venturing Crew who had not already been a Boy Scout and achieved a certain rank is also not elligible to earn Eagle......if I remember correctly. Anyone have a better handle on boys in Venturing Crews earning Eagle than me?

 

Edited part. Without going into more detail, what I found was this. A Venturer who earned First Class as a Boy Scout may continue to work on Star, Life and Eagle while being a Venturer. That kind of leaves the girls out since they can't be a Boy Scout and earn First Class before joining a Crew.(This message has been edited by sr540beaver)

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Maybe this is just a ploy from the CSE's office to increase membership, heck maybe they are getting desperate watching boy scout numbers falling. That said I am sure that even the CSE would not allow that to happen, but I have been wrong before, lol.

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The time for a Venture girl to earn eagle would be 4 years, 14-18. Its not unreasonable. Most boys check out or at least stall out between 14 and 17 on advancement. They could also extend it to 21 for girls giving them 7 years to complete as they would be considered youth.

 

The problem I see with GSUSA is they have a great program for elementary age girls, but then don't have a challenging/outdoor program for middle and high school girls. My daughter was active through about 4th grade, then lost interest.

 

 

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