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Girl Scouts Suing the Boy Scouts


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We were coming back from an outing last week, stopped for lunch, saw the Girl Scouts were selling cookies nearby so we wandered over and bought some cookies, talked about our recent outing, heard abou

As a DL for a female den, I try to never use gender terms. My girls are "scouts." If I start to say, "hey girls" I quickly correct myself and call them "scouts." Using gender terms is a crutch I, as a

What we have here is a great opportunity for BSA to correct a bad branding decision.  Who are Scouts BSA?  The public doesn't know.  It has no history, no identity.  You have to explain it, and it goe

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If you go to the facebook page “Girl Scouts are you listening?”, you will see how GSUSA leaders feel about the lawsuit.  I know some may feel differently, but I really find it hard to imagine how with the application and all the discussion that occurs at a sign up night, that parents could possibly be confused and think they are signing up for the Girl Scouts.  

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1 hour ago, Setonfan said:

If you go to the facebook page “Girl Scouts are you listening?”, you will see how GSUSA leaders feel about the lawsuit.

It had been a while since I looked at the "GSUSA, Are You Listening?" page.  And I just now found there mention of an interesting document "GIRLS at the CENTER VOLUNTEER ACTION GUIDE".  Here is a link to one council's version of the guide: http://bit.ly/2MVGLbm which is four pages of do's and don'ts for Girl Scout volunteers.  

A couple of interesting ones:

Quote

Do not publicly compare Girl Scouts unfavorably to Boy Scouts (including on social media), when acting in your volunteer role.

And why might the GSUSA higher-ups be worried about Girl Scout volunteers doing this?

Also:

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Do not refer to Girl Scouts as "Scouts" or "Scouting".  Do not use terms like "Scouting" or "Scouts" to refer to Girl Scouts.

This is quite a change from the Girl Scouts' past.  The foreword to the Girl Scout Handbook of 1930 starts with a quote from Baden-Powell " 'How did Scouting come to be used by girls?' That is what I have been asked.  Well, it was this way . . ."     In my personal experience I have often heard Girl Scouts addressed as and referred to as simply "scouts",  particulary in settings where there were no Boy Scouts around where there was no chance of confusion as to which type of scouts was being referenced.

 

 

Edited by Treflienne
fixed a typo
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Found this to be interesting 

“Girl Scouts of the USA prohibits events co-sponsored or co- branded with the Boy Scouts.”

“Do not participate in, allow, or promote any co-sponsored or co-branded events or programs that use either Girl Scouts’ name, logo, colors, or likenesses together with Boy Scouts.
This includes long-standing events like Scouting for Food and Pine Car Derbies.”

Yep... screw the hungry if Boy Scouts are involved.  What a load of crap.   My sympathy for GSUSA went down a few notches...

Edited by Eagle1993
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Finished reading that GSUSA guideline.  I have no problem showing the uniform, emphasizing their unique brand, ensuring GSUSA money is spent on GSUSA events.  Recruiting separate... sure.  Many valid points.   

Telling a Troop of Girl Scouts that they can no longer participate in Scouting for Food because it is a BSA event crosses a line.  It crosses the line of an organization more self interested in $ than doing service. I haven’t seen that and GSUSA in my area still does some joint BSA activities when it involves community service... I hope that remains.

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10 minutes ago, Eagle1993 said:

Finished reading that GSUSA guideline.  I have no problem showing the uniform, emphasizing their unique brand, ensuring GSUSA money is spent on GSUSA events.  Recruiting separate... sure.  Many valid points.   

Telling a Troop of Girl Scouts that they can no longer participate in Scouting for Food because it is a BSA event crosses a line.  It crosses the line of an organization more self interested in $ than doing service. I haven’t seen that and GSUSA in my area still does some joint BSA activities when it involves community service... I hope that remains.

Also the bit about no joint pinewood derby events just seems silly.

Edit: didn't see your post above and should have quoted that one.

Edited by malraux
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8 hours ago, Setonfan said:

If you go to the facebook page “Girl Scouts are you listening?”, you will see how GSUSA leaders feel about the lawsuit.  I know some may feel differently, but I really find it hard to imagine how with the application and all the discussion that occurs at a sign up night, that parents could possibly be confused and think they are signing up for the Girl Scouts.  

It was made abundantly clear at the school nights I attended as a Unit Commissioner that they were signing up to be Cub Scouts, and a part of BSA.

We had one school night where we were in the school cafeteria and the GSUSA folks were in the Media Center at the same time.  We were instructed to make sure that we asked every parent coming in with a girl if they were there to join Cub Scouts or Girl Scouts.  If they replied Girl Scouts, they were sent across the hall to the Media Center.  No poaching, no confused parents.

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Missed sales opportunity? If a parent said they were there to sign up their kid for Soccer, Band, 4-H,  Girl Scouts, ...I would ask them " Say while you are here, could I tell you about our Scout program?..." 

Informed not confused. Not poaching either. Girl Scouts may think they have dibs on all girls coming in to join "scouts", but that is simply not true. 

My $0.02,

 

 

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7 hours ago, Eagle1993 said:

Found this to be interesting 

“Girl Scouts of the USA prohibits events co-sponsored or co- branded with the Boy Scouts.”

“Do not participate in, allow, or promote any co-sponsored or co-branded events or programs that use either Girl Scouts’ name, logo, colors, or likenesses together with Boy Scouts.
This includes long-standing events like Scouting for Food and Pine Car Derbies.”

Yep... screw the hungry if Boy Scouts are involved.  What a load of crap.   My sympathy for GSUSA went down a few notches...

That is truly shocking. It's childish and totally unscout like. I was going to ramble on for a bit but I am somewhat lost for words.

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My wife is our daughter's Girl Scout troop leader and a lifetime Girl Scout. So is her mom.

We both disagree with the BSA decision to add girls to the regular program and prefer the previous program of boy only troops with co-ed Venturing and Sea Scouts. I'm NOT opening up that can of worms.

When we talked about this lawsuit, she agreed that suing over the use of the word "scouts" was wrong.

Refusing to associate with BSA over this is petty and will not accomplish anything. GSUSA is making a difficult situation worse.

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Those of you wondering how people can confuse the two organizations are missing the point.  Most of the parents I deal with have never been involved in scouting in any way, shape, or fashion.  Even if you use the terms BSA and GSUSA, they assume they are divisions of some greater single entity.  

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