Scouts BSA DC Troop 248 for Girls - Scoutmaster Answers Your Questions
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| Is BSA open / friendly to transsexual volunteers/ students? |
cburkhardt
Member Offline
Member Offline
|
Non-discrimination Policy
Scouts BSA Troop 248 for Girls welcomes everyone. Potential adult volunteers need to pass a background check and must be approved by a representative of our Chartered Organization, which is All Souls Episcopal Church. Because our Troop welcomes everyone and this posting is about what we will be doing, further comment on my part is probably beyond the scope of this posting. I am not a part of the BSA national organization and do not want to speak for them, but their full BSA policy is here: https://www.scouting.org/about/membership-policy/. If people want to discuss this in more detail, I invite them to start their own posting. And, I note there was some discussion on those issues on postings earlier last fall. |
Anonymous
That's good. Reason I ask is because I know of another troop that is trying to get started for girls. Unfortunately there are only two adult females at the moment associated with the troop who are willing to do overnight activities. Lots of dads but just not a lot of moms (or other adult females). Unfortunately, it has just dawned on them that this will severely limit the amount of weekend camping and high adventure activities they are able to do. If one of the two moms isn't able to go caving, or whatever, that weekend... they can't go caving, even if they have 5 dads willing to go. |
Anonymous
While this may be true, isn't is also true that camping, hiking, and other outdoor activities are a key component to advancement requirements? I.e. a scout cannot advance even to the rank of Tenderfoot without going camping, and cooking in the outdoors. She can't advance to Second class scout without going camping a couple of times, and hiking 5 miles. The other rank requirements have even more outdoor requirements. |
Anonymous
|
Female Leadership
We have been planning this launch for over a year and recognized and addressed those those issues long ago. Have your girls visit us. We include strong and experienced female troop leaders. New Troop Hat for Girls Check out our website tomorrow and you can view the custom hat we had manufactured specially for Scouts BSA Troop 248 for Girls. Our girls thought the professional baseball hat sold by the BSA looked over-sized on them and that the BSA emblem was too-subdued. So after some focus group activity we had our own hat manufactured. It is a “cadet” style cap in the identical BSA green, but with a bright-red/yellow-outlined BSA emblem (complete with the full-color Eagle). The girls received them last Saturday with great enthusiasm. |
Anonymous
|
Outdoor Component
You might not have read my entire comment. My point is that the BSA extensively uses the outdoors as its classroom to teach decision-making, personal fitness, leadership and other key character/building capabilities that last a lifetime. It is true that young people become quite experienced in the outdoors in the process. All of the things you say are true. Girls are, absolutely, able to do all of this and will benefit by the degree of rigor of BSA outdoor programming just like a century of boys have |
cburkhardt
Member Offline
Member Offline
|
Thanks to Scouts BSA Troop 666 for Boys
We are so thankful to Scouts BSA Troop 666 for Boys (National United Methodist Church in DC) for having given us a very complete wilderness first aid kit. It is the kind a physician or nurse could do surgery with. We are starting from scratch, and are assembling our equipment. With many under-resourced girls who will need sleeping bags, etc. our volunteer committee has it’s work to do. |
Anonymous
|
Scouts BSA requires that at least one male and one female adult leader would be present on any activity, and that includes camping, backpacking, zip-lining sailboating and any other kind of activity inside or outside.
Never heard of this? A female is required on an all boy trip? Rare for my troop. Is it only for all girl troop? Why? |
cburkhardt
Member Offline
Member Offline
|
Requirement of Women at BSA Activities
Women must be present during any BSA activities that include girls. That is a requirement that applies to all BSA programs — from Cub Scouts BSA through Venturing BSA. Scouts BSA Troops for Boys events at which no girls are present do not require the presence of women. I was overly-broad in my use of language and stand corrected. |
Anonymous
I wonder if that just hasn't been updated from the coed Venture/Sea Scout days. It seems odd that a male and female Scout Leader would need to participate in a single-sex girls outing. |
Anonymous
| I agree (NP here). Two women are sufficient for a Scouts BSA for girls troop outing. No men necessary. |
cburkhardt
Member Offline
Member Offline
|
Youth Protection
This posting is about what our Scouts BSA Troop 248 for Girls will be doing. Because we have many fathers as well as mothers as registered leaders in our group, it will be rare for us to not have both a man and a women present during every actiivty. We will meticulously obey the requirements of the BSA youth protection program and the "Safe Church" requirements of the Episcopal Church. Further, we will follow the general health and safety standards of the BSA. They regulate things like who can drive a carpooling vehicle, etc. All of the policies are linked to this page: http://scoutsbsadcgirls.org/adults/policies/. Parsing the details of the programs is interesting, but probably beyond the scope of this posting. |
Anonymous
In Girl Scout Outdoor training, they taught us to make bedrolls! That's an easily affordable alternative to expensive sleeping bags. wool blanket or cheap slumber bag, bedsheets, and plastic tarp. Works great! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erY8U3lH7G4 |
cburkhardt
Member Offline
Member Offline
|
Equipment
Thanks for the reminder that camping equipment need not be expensive. The nature of camping equipment is much lighter, smaller and less expensive than is was even 10 years ago. We are adopting a best-practices approach right from the start with Scouts BSA Troop 248 for Girls, and are encouraging minimalism. |
Anonymous
Are you taking donations? My DS is done with scouting and we have quite a bit of camping equipment including a nice backpack purchased for Philmont, as well as various mess kits, sleeping bags, foam pads, etc. We may still have a backpacking tent. |