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Packs inviting girl scout troops to attend pack events


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The only joint events we have had with the Girl Scouts are recruiting events. The local elementary school prefers it that way.

 

We have encouraged non-scouts to help with community cleanup and service projects. They can use the hours for either scouts or school service hours.

 

 

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Not Girl Scouts, but with American Heritage Girls and now Frontier Girls. I know of a pack that had an AHG troop that did camp with them as alot of the Cubs also had sisters in AHG. With AHG no longer associating with BSA, that AHG troop became a Frontier Girls troop.

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Eagle94: What is Frontier Girls? I went to their web site but the difference between them and, say, the Girl Scouts was not immediately apparent. I did see a reference to "Traditional Values" but when I clicked on that the values I saw listed were "life skills, leadership, character building, teamwork and service to others." Nothing that really sets them apart. Nothing about... well, you know. And nothing about how leaders need to be members of a particular religion. I don't want to send this thread into Issues and Politics territory, just trying to get some idea of what this group is about. And Eagle, it is not clear from your post, does this Frontier Girls have some sort of agreement or understanding with the BSA, like AHG did? (Before, well, you know...)

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We had our annual Christmas decorating/cocoa drinking/cookie eating/carol singing get together for the Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts of our church/CO. Ornaments were all made by the Scouts and used to decorate the bushes around the church. After decorating the bushes we went into the gym/hall for refreshments and carol singing. Cub Pack and Girl Scouts alternated years to host event.

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I have heard of some local cub packs inviting girl scout units to join them for the pinewood derby (the girls built cars and raced as their own division). Our pack considered doing that one year, but the girl scouts weren't interested (those girls that were, raced in the siblings division).

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I think it's an interesting concept. There are definitely sisters who tag along to events anyway, so why not "legitimize" it and invite Brownies along for the ride? The Pack's insurance wouldn't cover the Brownies, I wouldn't think. (That's probably where it would get sticky.)

 

Healthy competition is not bad. And I know that our local council hosts a Circus Heritage Camporee in Baraboo, Wisconsin where both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are welcome.

 

At any rate, I think mixing the sexes together here in the US is not highly encouraged, as it is in most of the rest of the world. I'm glad I was able to get our new Venturing Crew up and running in January so that our Scouts' sisters could finally join them on the adventure. (Our Venturers are the older boys who came up in the outdoors-centric Troop.)

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Way back when, our Cub Pack was going to rent the school gym for a recruiting night of PWD, camp displays, games etc. We thought, hey, the Girl Scouts might like to take half the gym, so we looked up the Brownie leader (who happened to be the PTA president). When we suggested the joint "join Scouting Night", her response was , "Oh no, we have enough Scouts, we don't need any more". Her words. That was my introduction to the difference between the BSA and the GSUSA philosophies.

I suspect there are other GS leaders with a different outlook, but there you are.

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Way back when, our Cub Pack was going to rent the school gym for a recruiting night of PWD, camp displays, games etc. We thought, hey, the Girl Scouts might like to take half the gym, so we looked up the Brownie leader (who happened to be the PTA president). When we suggested the joint "join Scouting Night", her response was , "Oh no, we have enough Scouts, we don't need any more". Her words. That was my introduction to the difference between the BSA and the GSUSA philosophies.

I suspect there are other GS leaders with a different outlook, but there you are.

 

There have been up to 5 GS troops at our CO at once, each one had enough girls. It's stupid.

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But a Girl Scout troop is about the same size as a patrol in Boy Scouts, right? Or is that just a local custom here? (And I may not be recalling this with complete clarity; both of my daughters were in Girl Scouts, but they both quit about 20 years ago. I think one was in 7th grade, whatever the level is there, and the other was a Brownie.)

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Girl Scouts use a different unit model. IME there are advantages and disadvantages. More flexibility in decisions and activities, less support from other leaders are the two main differences I've found.

 

We have a local homeschool group that runs Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and American Heritage Girls meetings all at the same time. Sounds chaotic to me, but it seems to work for them. We have a pack meeting next week, we needed more participants so we invited a GS troop to join us. I'm looking forward to it!

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Not all GS troops as the same size as a patrol. Some have found that a larger structure that is similar to a CS pack or BS troop works for them.

 

There is a local GS troop that's about the same size as our pack. We regularly do joint activities - including campouts. It works out great.

 

The boys & girls get along fine. Some families have kids in both the pack & troop - it works out great for them. We've been doing this for years and have had a lot of success with it.

 

 

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