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posted by CoolHand on Friday October 13 2017, @12:41AM   Printer-friendly
from the somebody-get-the-popcorn dept.

A major shift from the Boy Scouts of America:

Irving, Texas – October 11, 2017 – Today, the Boy Scouts of America Board of Directors unanimously approved to welcome girls into its iconic Cub Scout program and to deliver a Scouting program for older girls that will enable them to advance and earn the highest rank of Eagle Scout. The historic decision comes after years of receiving requests from families and girls, the organization evaluated the results of numerous research efforts, gaining input from current members and leaders, as well as parents and girls who've never been involved in Scouting – to understand how to offer families an important additional choice in meeting the character development needs of all their children.

"This decision is true to the BSA's mission and core values outlined in the Scout Oath and Law. The values of Scouting – trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind, brave and reverent, for example – are important for both young men and women," said Michael Surbaugh, the BSA's Chief Scout Executive. "We believe it is critical to evolve how our programs meet the needs of families interested in positive and lifelong experiences for their children. We strive to bring what our organization does best – developing character and leadership for young people – to as many families and youth as possible as we help shape the next generation of leaders."

[...] Starting in the 2018 program year, families can choose to sign up their sons and daughters for Cub Scouts. Existing packs may choose to establish a new girl pack, establish a pack that consists of girl dens and boy dens or remain an all-boy pack. Cub Scout dens will be single-gender — all boys or all girls. Using the same curriculum as the Boy Scouts program, the organization will also deliver a program for older girls, which will be announced in 2018 and projected to be available in 2019, that will enable them to earn the Eagle Scout rank. This unique approach allows the organization to maintain the integrity of the single gender model while also meeting the needs of today's families.

I'll admit it, I was a little surprised by the announcement. As a longtime member of the BSA and an Eagle Scout, I find this extremely interesting. I know some who are dead set against it, and others who are totally for it. My personal opinion is that it will be a good thing, both for the BSA and for the young men and women who become part of the organization.

The biggest loser in all of this will probably be the Girl Scouts. I can see their membership numbers dwindling rapidly if/when this takes off.

As a side note, Scouting has been co-ed in many countries for decades.

Both the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts have seen decreasing membership in recent years, and both have been trying to find ways to increase their membership. In this context, they now seem to be butting heads:

The Boy Scouts will soon include girls, and not everyone's happy about it.

The 107-year-old organization announced Wednesday that younger girls will be allowed to join Cub Scouts and that older girls will be eligible to earn the prestigious rank of Eagle Scout.

[...] For months, Girl Scouts USA had a notion BSA would try to start recruiting girls. In August, Buzzfeed News obtained a strongly worded letter in which GSUSA President Kathy Hopinkah Hannan accused the BSA of courting girls to boost falling enrollment numbers.

From the letter:

We are confused as to why, rather than working to appeal to the 90 percent of boys who are not involved in BSA programs, you would choose to target girls.

What are your thoughts? Were you ever a boy scout, or a girl scout, or did they ever affect you in any way? And do you think the BSA should be praised for opening their doors to girls or should they be castigated for 'targeting' girls who would be better off staying with their own kind?


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @03:00AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @03:00AM (#581524)

    Scouting USA?

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Friday October 13 2017, @01:40PM (2 children)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday October 13 2017, @01:40PM (#581740)

    For those who don't know Scouting history that was a motto from the BSA's 1970s "vatican II moment".

    Much like vatican II the peak happened and then it was time to change everything and since then its been continuous decline although surely it could never be the fault of the changes LOL.

    Unlike vatican II, most of Scouting/USA got rolled back in the 80s and things did improve quite a bit.

    Its an interesting compare and contrast of organizational response to lack of support of massive reorganization. The scouts did a successful rollback; the church my wife attends is about 75% 80+ yr senior citizens and will be closing soon. You can draw graphs and trendline models and estimate the date the last white catholic dies or leaves the faith in the USA, and its surprisingly soon. Reality of course has no obligation to follow a trendline, LOL.

    • (Score: 2, Informative) by cmdrklarg on Friday October 13 2017, @02:48PM

      by cmdrklarg (5048) Subscriber Badge on Friday October 13 2017, @02:48PM (#581779)

      the church my wife attends is about 75% 80+ yr senior citizens and will be closing soon. You can draw graphs and trendline models and estimate the date the last white catholic dies or leaves the faith in the USA, and its surprisingly soon.

      And nothing of value will have been lost. Good riddance.

      --
      The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @05:54PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @05:54PM (#581903)

      There are some huge Catholic families. As long as this behavior is somewhat inherited, by culture or DNA, there will be exponential growth.

      Start with 65 million people, but only 1 million are prone to large families. Generation by generation, the number of people will decline, but if you focus on the descendants of the 1 million oddballs you will see population growth. So the next generation has 32 million that make small (1 kid) families, and 3 million that make large (6 kid) families. Then it is 16 million and 9 million, the low point at 25 million total. Then it is 8 million and 27 million. Then it is 4 million and 81 million, above the starting point and the slow breeders have become insignificant. Then it is 2 million and 243 million. Then it is 1 million and 729 million. Then it is 0.5 million and 2187 million. Then it is 0.25 and 6561 million. Then... look, we're well past today's world population.

      The only chance of failure is violence from other populations that grow even faster. That could be muslims.

      The above is of course why "demographic transition" is not long-term stable. We can not help but fill the world to capacity, likely with an occasional overshoot.