Current Events > Boy Scouts finalize plans to include girls, will drop the word "boy"

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/05/02/boy-scouts-scouts-bsa-girls-joining-cub-scouts/572036002/

The Boy Scouts of America doubled down Wednesday on their quest to become the scouting program of choice for boys and girls, announcing it will drop "Boy" from the name of its signature program.

Chief Scout Executive Mike Surbaugh also unveiled the group's new "Scout Me In" marketing campaign aimed at promoting inclusiveness.

Cub Scouts will formally accept girls starting this summer. But Saurbaugh said more than 3,000 girls nationwide already enrolled in the BSAs Early Adopter Program and are participating in Cub Scouts ahead of the full launch.

Boy Scouts of America claims almost 2.3 million members, down from 2.6 million five years ago. That includes Venturing and Sea Scouting programs, the latter allows membership up to 21 years of age. In its peak years, Boy Scout of America had more than 4 million participants.

The program for the older boys and girls will largely be divided along gender-lines, with single-sex units pursuing the same types of activities and providing a path to the prestigious Eagle Scout award.

Girl Scout, alarmed by the encroachment of BSA, are developing their own campaign to recruit and retain girls. Girl Scouts, founded two years after Boy Scouts, currently claim a membership of about 1.8 million.

That last part is interesting. I'm guessing a lot of girls will be "Scouts" and "Girl Scouts" between the two programs. Either way, the boys are losing their tree house.
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Ok
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This is stupid
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I guess boys just can't have any space just for boys now?
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What happens when a female scout gets pregnant? Or sex in General? It's going to ha ppen they better be prepared.
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Better start letting boys into the Girl Scouts now. Boys want to sell cookies too.
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shockthemonkey posted...

I like the idea of getting girls out in the wild and learning the same skills as Boy Scouts, but I also like the idea of boys having a space away from girls. Male bonding is important.

This.

Also, why is it just Boy Scouts that have to be accepting of both genders?

Can't we have all three? Boy, Girl and Scouts?
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Can boys join the Girl Scouts?

jesus christ I grew up in a rural village with like 200 people. there were girls in scouts and it was literally never an issue. at one point all the leaders were women.
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Honestly a unified scout organisation is probably the best choice. Give boys and girls a chance to develop different interests and find what they are good at.
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BalisticWarri0r posted...

Can boys join the Girl Scouts?

no
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creativerealms posted...

Honestly a unified scout organisation is probably the choice. Give boys and girls a chance to develop different interests and find what they are good at.

This. And it'll eventually end up that way
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Surprise!
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Asherlee10 posted...

Bloodychess posted...

BalisticWarri0r posted...

Can boys join the Girl Scouts?

no

They should be able to

Agreed.
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shockthemonkey posted...

I also like the idea of boys having a space away from girls. Male bonding is important.

I agree with this.

The change just seems unnecessary and stupid.

Like was this even an issue or did they make it one?
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The girl scouts are a fucking gang. Those little ankle bitters are like the fucking mafia when it comes to cookie sells
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I think it's important to have boys only clubs and girls only clubs. No matter what liberals would have you believe, boys and girls are different.
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The Girl Scouts should be more inclusive like the Boys
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Can boys join the girl scouts ?? if no then they should chamge that.
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Wow. More trying to indoctrinate our kids with ignorant, incorrect stuff.
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Why don't we just combine both Scout clubs
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shockthemonkey posted...

I like the idea of getting girls out in the wild and learning the same skills as Boy Scouts, but I also like the idea of boys having a space away from girls. Male bonding is important.

They will be separate, at least at the older levels.
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Asherlee10 posted...

Bloodychess posted...

BalisticWarri0r posted...

Can boys join the Girl Scouts?

no

They should be able to

Stop shedding light on male inequalities, it takes away from the oppressed female narrative.

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are fundamentally different organizations that don't offer remotely the same experiences.
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tremain07 posted...

The girl scouts are a fucking gang. Those little ankle bitters are like the fucking mafia when it comes to cookie sells

I've never seen the mafia set up a table outside the entrance to Walmart tbh.
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DevsBro posted...

tremain07 posted...

The girl scouts are a fucking gang. Those little ankle bitters are like the fucking mafia when it comes to cookie sells

I've never seen the mafia set up a table outside the entrance to Walmart tbh.

They guilt you into buying the damn things

Every time they set up I leave with like three boxes

It's extortion is what it is
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I have no issue with this other than it putting the two organizations in direct competition
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as a former Boy Scout from a troop backed by the local Mormon church, this is cool but kinda weird. i don't think my experience was normal though, my troop was always very uptight. not in a strict way, they were just... Mormons, lol

Asherlee10 posted...

I quit Girl Scouts on Day 1 because it was boring and too girly.

Same thing happened with my cousin. She thought Girl Scouts would do similar outdoor things as Boy Scouts.

averagejoel posted...

there were girls in scouts and it was literally never an issue. at one point all the leaders were women.

Similar to my experience. We had a mom of one of our scouts as Scout Master for about 3 years. Also the sisters of other scouts were always super involved in our troop activities. They would camp, canoe, volunteer, etc.
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Just get rid of both. Scouts are dumb lol
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DezDroppedFreak posted...

DevsBro posted...

tremain07 posted...

The girl scouts are a fucking gang. Those little ankle bitters are like the fucking mafia when it comes to cookie sells

I've never seen the mafia set up a table outside the entrance to Walmart tbh.

They guilt you into buying the damn things

Every time they set up I leave with like three boxes

It's extortion is what it is

I generally just walk past and they leave me alone.
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My daughter loves cub scouts so far. It's something the boy scouts have been planning for a few years and tried to just get the two organizations to merge, but the girls scouts wouldn't even discuss it. Then once the boy scouts announced they were going to allow girls to join they threw a hissy fit and complained that they should have been consulted.
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MrK3V posted...

Just get rid of both. Scouts are dumb lol

It was never my thing either, but if kids want to have fun outdoors while learning skills why not let them?
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I wish they had girls in Boy Scouts while I was in it. It would have made for more fun 12 years of my life.

That said, I did appreciate a boy's only place growing up. It sounds like a lot of the activities will still be gender-divided though with the boys and the girls largely sharing infrastructure and organization, which sounds fine.

Personally, I think this is an overall good change. BSA as it currently exist isn't sustainable. It's never been "cool" but its numbers are dropping off. Adding girls will give it a new pool of people to recruit. It's also great for girls who wanted to do scout activities because although Girl Scouts is a perfectly decent organization, it really isn't a Boy Scout equivalent from an activities perspective.

And I know that BSA always had its Venture Scout branch that allowed girls to join but that never had the same popularity and was always an after-thought. Hopefully they can re-absorb that back into BSA proper. Some consolidation would be good to keep the BSA from getting stretched too thin.

Assuming most decent size troops operate with the standard one meeting a week and one camp-out per month set-up, I think the best scenario would be for weekly meetings to be co-ed. Since that's where the shared organizational structure and leadership would come in. From a camp-out perspective, I'd say every third camp-out should be co-ed, with the other two being split by gender. Camp-outs are where most the activities take place anyway, so you could have some boys or girls only bonding time, but still enough joint camp-outs to feel like a unified troop.
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Asherlee10 posted...

I'm not saying that boys and girls shouldn't have some separate activities, but this isn't one of them, I don't think.

I am also inclined to think that the more integration of the sexes that is started and continued in childhood would have some great benefits for social development.

im basing this on nothing but my own experiences but i think it is a pretty positive thing for boys to have access to positive male role models & to let them develop in some environments exclusively with other boys.

i do agree it's extremely important to have integration of the sexes but it seems to me in today's day & age that there are very few activities for exclusively boys, outside of some team sports. especially as boys get older and start going through puberty, it's good to have some people there to kind of direct them on actual masculinity, otherwise most of their formation is going to be through shit they see on tv or whatever
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DevsBro posted...

DezDroppedFreak posted...

DevsBro posted...

tremain07 posted...

The girl scouts are a fucking gang. Those little ankle bitters are like the fucking mafia when it comes to cookie sells

I've never seen the mafia set up a table outside the entrance to Walmart tbh.

They guilt you into buying the damn things

Every time they set up I leave with like three boxes

It's extortion is what it is

I generally just walk past and they leave me alone.

Well you must be a wizard then
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The new God of War game alone makes up for the Boy Scouts dropping "Boy"
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Eagle Scout here,

Are they going to drop the shitty religion stuff while they're at it.

I had to pretend I believed in God back in the scouts.
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looking back on my experience as a whole, this is a huge move that should have been made eons ago. the BSA has always been held back by the moral majority

DezDroppedFreak posted...

DevsBro posted...

DezDroppedFreak posted...

DevsBro posted...

tremain07 posted...

The girl scouts are a fucking gang. Those little ankle bitters are like the fucking mafia when it comes to cookie sells

I've never seen the mafia set up a table outside the entrance to Walmart tbh.

They guilt you into buying the damn things

Every time they set up I leave with like three boxes

It's extortion is what it is

I generally just walk past and they leave me alone.

Well you must be a wizard then

People do seem to have a sixth sense with me and avoid talking to me. Unless I'm peeing. Then they want to talk about everything under the sun and I want to punch their lights out.
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I was an explorer like 14 years ago. It falls under bsoa learning for life division and they had been letting in girls at least 5 years before I started.
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