Girl Scouts sues Boys Scouts for including girls

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I'm hearing out of this discussion is this:

1) Girl Scouts can and DO do cool things, say those who are in the knkow.
2) People who are NOT involved or not HEAVILY involved with Girls Scouts are not aware of this and mostly think of cookies when it comes to Girl Scouts.
3) Conclusion: Girl Scouts *have* moved and changed with the times, but needs to work on their PUBLIC BRANDING and IMAGE, because the message is not reaching those who are not involved.

Yes. I am a Girl Scout Troop Leader and there is so much inaccurate information being passed around. Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts are and are intended to be different organizations. I believe Boy scouts has always been very focussed on the outdoors, camping, etc. Girl Scouts spreads itself wider- camping and the outdoors is ONE aspect of girl scouts. But there is much more- Girl Scouts is about leadership and confidence, that can come with doing service projects, classroom activities, fun outings, cookie selling (business activities), or outdoor activities. What is special about GS is that it is only for girls. GS is also more troop based, so the activities more about bonding with a close group, not large pack campouts.

I have said this in response to Girl Scout posts in the past: Girl Scouts is what the troop makes of it. If you want more outdoor activities in the troop, then get the training and talk to the leader about it!!! I do not enjoy camping. So our troop does a lot of service projects and crafts. We focus on leadership and doing new and exciting things. If a parent is not happy with this and wants to more outdoor opportunities for the girls, then they should take the initiative and plan something, rather than treat me like the extended care teacher! All the parents on DCUM bitch about the lack of outdoor activities for girl scouts, but I want to know- Have any of you offered to lead an outdoor event? As far as the badges, Girl Scouts can also earn fun patches for doing anything. You are not limited to the patches GS puts out. So even if there isn't an official badge for fishing, you can still take your girls fishing! But it requires a parent to take the initiative to make it happen, especially in the younger years.

Overall, I think each entity should have remained separate.

That would be me. I’m level trained, first aid and camping trained. I can plan the camp out. But I need another parent that is FA or camp trained to go on a campout with me. Oh, and I need the girls to attend.....

You’re right GS is what the girls make it. In my DDs troop, they were only interested in indoor activities. Camping, hiking, canoing, ropes courses, fishing—-nope. Just not interested. I called the SU and Council to look for a more appropriate troop—they told me they would look around and never got back to me. I decided to start an outdoor troop—parents showed up for the interest meeting but when learning it would be mostly focused on outdoor activities, they decided not to register their daughter.

DD is becoming a Boy Scout in Feb because all of the things she enjoys are going to available to her with other like minded girls. I really don’t care what the umbrella organization is. I care that I found a group of girls that my daughter has similar interests. GS can make the opportunity available but can’t make it happen.

NP here. We have different adult volunteers (parents) acting as different roles for each of these: one is a leader, I am a co-leader, another is the CPR-trained parent, another is the camping parent, another is the cookie mom, another is the money manager, etc. Granted, we are a big troop. And we keep adding because more and more girls in their classes keep hearing how much they like it, so they join the following year too (some who dropped out in previous years even change their minds and return, because they realize it is really a substantive experience and not artsy-craftsy in the least.) We started out as Daisies and now they are 5th grade Juniors. We have 21 girls total. So, that is a lot of potential parents to pull from to fill all of these roles. It is mostly girl-driven. The parents participate because they know the girls like it so much and want to go to the events because all the other girls are going, so they step up and participate too. This year, we have done camping, archery, high-adventure ropes courses and it is only November. We are beginning work on the Bronze Award. We have studied girls in developing countries and hosted a Service Unit - wide event led by a former Peace Corps mom where girls got to dress up in native African costumes, baby-wear 20 lb babies ("bags of rice"), carry water, and view "Girl Rising" movie excerpts followed by discussion about the need for greater education and opportunities for girls in the developing world. We are not an artsy-crafts troop at all not that there is anything wrong with that but our main leader is a former engineer, so her brain doesn't really go in that direction when planning events, and the girls have responded in kind. When I read about other troops on here, I feel so fortunate for our very active troop, and very active adult volunteers.

(Girl Rising: https://girlrising.org/)