Dh is a Cub Scout leader and I’m a Girl Scout leader. They’re pretty different IMO. Girl Scouts can vary pretty wildly and it’s based on the leaders. Growing up my troop was more girly with a lot more arts and crafts. I loved it. We learned how to knit, first aid, babysit and still camped 4x a year. I’m extremely crafty and it fit my interests. My current troop is more into outdoor sports, camping, electronics badges.

It’s hard to know what our rising Kindergarten girl will choose. She has a lot more exposure to cub scouts because they’re more family oriented. She’s also a bit more tom boy than my older dd. I’ll go to a Girl Scout interest event and see what she wants.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So called “boy scouts” no longer exists. The correct name is now Scouting America:

“Scouting America has collaborated with nonprofits and youth organizations to learn best practices and identify opportunities to support people and cultures through Scouting. We've also appointed diversity leads for each of our 14 Council Service Territories to partner with the leaders and troops within their territories to implement and advance our commitment to serving youth from all backgrounds.“

I find this so confusing - this organization seems to change its name every few years. Why is that?

Agree it's been confusing. Their first effort at rebranding wasn't popular (don't know why) so they settled on Scouting America. This one will stick.

My daughter is in 7th grade and her troop is still going strong.

My son's elementary school has a huge and very active Scouts pack. His den is maybe 1/3 girls.

Anonymous wrote:So called “boy scouts” no longer exists. The correct name is now Scouting America:

“Scouting America has collaborated with nonprofits and youth organizations to learn best practices and identify opportunities to support people and cultures through Scouting. We've also appointed diversity leads for each of our 14 Council Service Territories to partner with the leaders and troops within their territories to implement and advance our commitment to serving youth from all backgrounds.“

I find this so confusing - this organization seems to change its name every few years. Why is that?

Arlington has several active troops with large G troops. Scout troops have numbers and the designation B or G if it's boys or girls.
https://www.troop167arlington.org/
https://www.troopg104.com/

I know these two personally. If looking at troops in arlington, the ones with only boys seem to use T###.

GS is quite popular in ES in our area, but girls tend to drop in MS. My DD does Scouting America (formerly BSA), because she prefers the focus on the outdoors. She's in 9th and should earn Eagle sometime next year. It's been great for her, terrific focus on learning new skills, service, teamwork and leadership. Her troop is small though.

Anonymous wrote:My son did Boy Scouts through elementary school. He enjoyed it but wasn’t self
Motivated enough to do Boy Scouts. He missed most of those meetings due to sport conflict and don’t follow thru on the badges.

I tried for years to find a troop for my daughter, but they limited the size of them. The one t her school was full and the nearest was
Like 25 minutes away in traffic. It was also at a different school so not with her friends. That set up made no sense to me so she never joined.

That was our experience in Alexandria as well.

So called “boy scouts” no longer exists. The correct name is now Scouting America:

“Scouting America has collaborated with nonprofits and youth organizations to learn best practices and identify opportunities to support people and cultures through Scouting. We've also appointed diversity leads for each of our 14 Council Service Territories to partner with the leaders and troops within their territories to implement and advance our commitment to serving youth from all backgrounds.“

Our school (a dc charter) has an active troop. It seems to be most popular among Brownies and Juniors, less so Cadettes. It's not too much work if each parent plans one meeting and handles one cookie table. The campsite n WV is super fun.

It's very common where we live. So much so that there are multiple troops per grade for Girl Scouts.

My son did Boy Scouts through elementary school. He enjoyed it but wasn’t self
Motivated enough to do Boy Scouts. He missed most of those meetings due to sport conflict and don’t follow thru on the badges.

I tried fo years to find a troop for my daughter, but they limited the size of them. The one t her school was full and the nearest was
Like 25 minutes away in traffic. It was also at a different school so not with her friends. That set up made no sense to me so she never joined.

There are troops.

It's just not a popular thing like rec soccer.

We are in bethesda and lots of scouts. I will say that since pandemic it has been much harder to find parent volunteers so it’s putting stress on the system.

Hello!

I remember being a Girl Scout as a kid fondly. It taught me some skills and an ethos of responsibility and service at an early age that I consider important.

Are the scouts less common nowadays? None of our neighbors’ kids seem to send their boys or their girls. We live in MoCo. If it is less common than when I grew up in the 80s and 90s, are there other good EC options for early leadership, service, and making friends for young kids (ie, not sports teams)?

I do have a few friends and colleagues in other states whose girls still do sell cookies, so I know at least they do it.