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[quote=Anonymous]Girl Scout mom and leader and Cub Scout mom and leader and here.  I like both organizations, but their styles/  value propositions are distinct. We have lived in multiple locations and these are the consistent differences Inhave seen across the councils/ packs.

Girl Scouts
Single gender experience.  It is designed to be Girl-led.  That is both a plus and a major risk.  If you end up in a Troop with lots of girls who like arts and crafts and their moms are uncomfortable with engineering and the outdoors, then you spend a lot of time with glitter and cookies.  There are a lot of parents who “drop off” at Girl Scouts.  So the success of the troop is very leader and group dynamic- dependent.

In our troop we use a lot of tactics to get the girls to choose a variety of badge work and we keep an eye on the progressive outdoor-type skills so we can keep taking larger adventures as a troop.

There is also less infrastructure to support the troop leaders, most training is voluntary and relatively infrequently scheduled.  The electronic infrastructure is less robust (badge tracking/ communication/ websites) than what the Boy Scouts provide.  OTOH his allows the girls to be their own webmasters and communication directors.

The Girl Scouts do not require church or organization sponsorship.  So if you have a group of girls and can figure out a place to meet, you have a troop.  That is another factor that drives the variable quality.

Boy Scouts/ Cub Scouts
This is no longer a single gender experience.  The send are currently divided by gender, but that is already slipping in practice in my city due to small enrollment numbers of girls.  My son doesn’t mind since he has a sister, but it does Fundamentally alter the experience to some degree.  It might be an overall societal plus, but the jury is out on that.  I respect the leaders who have stepped up to lead the first girl dens.

There is a lot of structure and associated leader training in Boy Scouts.  In one sense that is helpful in creating a consistent experience across troops.  However, if your interests don’t align with the curriculum then you don’t have many choices.  You have to do the “core” requirements to advance.  We have lost some boys due to this, the requirements were too much when balanced against the optional badge work they were interested in.

The Boy Scout software programs are really helpful in keeping things organized and communicating with parents. There are also a lot of very dedicated volunteers who run Boy Scout leader training programs constantly.  So you can relatively easily get the leader certifications you need to do things like take the boys camping.  Since those activities are required, they have to make sure the leaders are equipped to run those badge experiences.

The Boy Scout troops do have to have an organizational sponsor.  So that can be a church or school or other group.  But that is a sign of some organized setup prior to launching a pack.  So there is already a critical mass of adults ready to help. I haven’t seen any Catholic Churches dumping Boy Scouts.

The product sales in scouting are really poorly run and there isn’t much for the boys to learn from it.  It is a real disappointment compared to the Girl Scout cookie sales.  But our Cub Scout helps with Girl Scout cookies and our Girl Scout goes along on family camp outs with the Boy Scouts. So we get a bit of the best of both worlds.

Both of my troops have kids with special needs.  The Boy Scouts do a pretty good job at providing guidance for being inclusive if you seek it out.  The rigidity of the requirements makes this critical.  And I suspect it will get harder as the boys get older.  The girl scouts’ girl-led  design makes inclusivity easier, but there is less guidance.

I think the Girl Scouts is wasting money suing the Boy Scouts.  They should use their resources more wisely and make more badges like the new space, robotics and engineering ones.  But the Boy Scouts should own that they went after girls because they lost the Mormons in an attempt to retain their membership numbers.[/quote]

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