If someone asks whether this is fair to Girl Scouts, how do you reply?

How are the outdoor camping facilities going to logistically handle boys and girls

High School Girls Joining to Make Eagle

If you have a girl age 15 or older who wants to make Eagle Scout, the detail concerning how to do that is beyond the scope of this blog posting. You would want to send an explanatory note to our Troop Committee at ScoutsBsaDcGirls@gmail.com with the particulars. Our advancement people would be in contact with you.

Scouts BSA Troop 248 for Girls anticipates that the preponderance of girls joining us will be age 11-13. However, we have made a specific arrangement to closely advise girls 15 and older who are joining. We are fortunate to have two women who have served as advancement chairs of other Scouts BSA Troops serving as advancement co-chairs. And our 7-member Scoutmaster Staff is ready to help them. Frankly, making Eagle in anything less than three years is an extraordinary challenge, but the one-time extension for both new girls and boys to make Eagle referenced by Aaron makes it possible. Incidentally, there is no waiver of any requirement during that extension time. But if a girl out there wants to do it, we are ready for her. We encourage these high school girls to consider joining us. They would be great role models for our younger girl members.

Anonymous wrote:Hello, thanks for getting this discussion started. My daugter’s schedule is full this semester—will there be another opportunity for her to sign up for the summer or fall?

Registration lasts for a full year. If she is interested I would encourage her to sign up now, even if she won't be active in Spring. But also yes, you can sign up for Scouts BSA at any time of the year; there is no enrollment period.

Anonymous wrote:My son just got his Eagle Scout and I wish my DD could gave had the opportunity to...but timing is too late for her. Anyway...part boy scouts was always "boy lead'. You seem very organized etc...but I hope you will let the troop form it own identify in terms activities and focus. Maybe meeting with community leaders is great....or a total turn off. Our kid leadership meets once a month to plan as they wish with adults only offering guidance. Reading your description seemed really different from the scouting I know.

Hi, I'm a BSA employee helping start new troops for girls. If your daughter is under 18 years old, she can still earn Eagle! BSA is doing a special one-time extension: any NEW SCOUT who joins this year (male or female) that is over 16 but under 18 can request an extension to give them a "reasonable amount" of time to complete Eagle.

More info: https://www.ncacbsa.org/blog/2018/10/03/eagle-scout-extension-in-2019/

Merit Badges

The national BSA organization regularly surveys youth members about what topics they would like to see covered by a merit badge. The current list of merit badges is on this page, along with the requirements to earn the respective merit badge: https://www.scouting.org/programs/boy-scouts/advancement-and-awards/merit-badges/.

Merit badges are established and updated when the national BSA organizations assembles national experts on the particular career, academic field, hobby, sport or other topic. Often a national professional association plays this role. With so many girls joining the BSA and its Scouts BSA program, there may be interest in topics especially requested by girls that are not adequately covered by current merit badges. I am sure the BSA would either establish new merit badges or revise/expand the coverage of existing merit badges in response. I looked over the list of the current merit badges and believe there will be strong girl interest in all of the existing ones. And boys will be interested in any new badges as well.

My choice of wording (girl-specific) was poor. I should have said something like girl-requested.

I'm a little beyond the scope of this posting, which is supposed to be about what our own Scouts BSA Troop 248 for Girls will be doing. I am not part of the national organization, can't speak on their behalf and don't want to get into their operations.

cburkhardt wrote:More good questions. Over the course of the year we will offer no fewer than six weekend camping opportunities (2 nights at a camp within 2 hours drive of the District), a full week of summer residential camp at nearby Goshen Scout Reservation, and an annual optional summer trip. This year the optional trip will be to visit the International Scout Jamboree in West Virginia.

So far we now have 18 adult volunteer leaders. Seven are on our Scoutmaster Staff (I hope to add 2 more), and the rest are on our Troop Committee. We welcome additional leaders as well, each of which must take Youth Protection Training required by the Episcopal Church and BSA. You do not need experience in youth programming to join us.


The BSA national organization regularly adds and subtracts merit badges based on the interests of youth members. I anticipate the national organization will be adding merit badges that address girl-specific interests and hobbies to the extent these are not already reflected in the huge number of merit badges already available. The principal "required" merit badges will remain the same (line camping, cooking, swimming, citizenship, etc.).

What are "girl-specific interests and hobbies"?

That is great to hear. Eight of the 14 girls we already have signed-up to join Scouts BSA Troop 248 for Girls were Webelos Cub Scouts at the Pack which meets at National United Methodist Church near American University. Girls in Cub Scouts BSA meet in either all-girl or all-boy "dens", which are 8-10 member groups. The girls had a splendid experience and several received their "Arrow of Light" awards (the top award in Cub Scouts). I highly recommend that Pack for girls not yet eligible to join our Troop. They also have a great all-boy Scouts BSA Troop. We had some joint Pack-Troop meetings there, and the Troop boys always treated the Pack girls with great respect.

We are an all-city Scouts BSA Troop for Girls, and look forward to one day welcoming your family. In fact, stop by one of our "Welcome Parties" this month so she can see what she has to look forward to!

I love this! Good luck! We have our girl in Cub Scouts and it's going great.

Will the Boys accept the Girls?

That is a great question. It is important to keep in mind that Scouts BSA Troop 248 is not co-ed and is all-girl. We meet at a church where there is no other Scouting organization. So, as a matter of practicality we will not be interacting with boys as fellow Troop 248 members during our meetings or other activities, such as campouts. Girls will elect their own girl leaders and they will lead only girls.

Scouts BSA troops that are all-boy will certainly be camping in other campsites when we are visiting BSA camp facilities and during "camp-o-rees", which are events when a large number of troops camp at the same place and have scouting skill contests with each other. In those circumstances I believe the all-boy troops will respect our girls. The girl members of Troop 248 will experience the same program as the boys and will be respected for their competency at scouting skills and character. Of course Youth Protection guidelines of the BSA and Episcopal Church mandate comprehensive protective measures related to matters such as privacy.

The BSA's high school-aged co-ed programs include Venturing BSA and Sea Scouts BSA. These programs have included girls age 14 (or having finished 8th grade) and above since the late 1960's. There has never been a problem with the acceptance of girls in those programs as either members or youth leaders. I was involved in those programs as a youth and adult and personally experienced how well-accepted girls are in the BSA. I think that long, positive track record of girls succeeding in the BSA is a great way to forecast success for how girls in Scouts BSA Troop 248 for Girls will experience our program.

How confident are you that the boys in scouting will be accepting of girls in scouting?

We will be delighted to welcome you to our event and our girls will be pleased to meet your daughter. If you are wanting to get a more detailed view of what the Troop will be doing you can read the Scoutmasters Letter on our web site: http://scoutsbsadcgirls.org/adults/scoutmasters-letter-to-prospective-parents/. If that is too long for you, we have a simple one-pager that can allow your daughter and you to get a quick understanding: http://scoutsbsadcgirls.org/adults/information-for-parents/. If she specifically wants to learn what our girls will be doing in the outdoors, she can look at a page written for girls discussing that: http://scoutsbsadcgirls.org/about/camping-and-hiking-in-the-outdoors/.

Thanks for getting this thread started. Tough questions and great answers.

My daughter has been asking about BSA Scouting to supplement her experiences in Girl Scouts. I went to your website— we will try to make one of the upcoming welcome parties. I’m sure my daughter would love to meet some of your members.

Thanks again!

Anonymous wrote:

cburkhardt wrote:Camping Frequency.

Our Troop will offer a camping trip seven times a year (three 2-night trips in the fall and four in the spring. BSA recommends that Scouts BSA members participate in at least four of those. In addition, we will offer a week of residential camp at Goshen Scout Reservation and an optional special trip later in each summer (this year we visit the International Jamboree for 4 days). In addition, we will offer day hikes at least four times each year. So, we have a fully-loaded outdoor program for our girls.

I am the PP. I do wonder how it compares to the boy troops. In our area, Boy Scouts camp every month, including winter. It's just interesting to me the girls are taking a different approach.

DP: You are misinterpreting that comment; it isn't a universal answer. Our Troop camps every month too, as do the girls who are already in (girls have been Venturers in the Troop for decades), and will soon be joining the Troop. Every troop is different. OP is just answering for hers.