I hope some of the others here (especially the scoutmasters) return to this thread and see your last post, DoodleBob.
BTW, sometimes my posts are too brief and not clear enough. So, to make my opinion clear:
I agree with you 100% that BSA should not be co-ed. The parenthetical comment in my last post about some girls needing adventure, too, was only an added remark. The Girl Scouts (or some other organization) should provide those opportunities for girls.
That pitch that you said the BSA gave is interesting. They should’ve listened to your advice, DoodleBob. It sounds as if scoutmasters who have daughters wanted their girls to be involved. I have no daughters, so maybe that’s why I see things differently. When my boys were little, I knew many other mothers of boys. And we all complained to each other about the lack of programs for boys. Plenty of special girls-only programs that excluded boys, and some co-ed programs, but nothing for boys only. Except the Boy Scouts.
For the record, my boys probably wouldn’t have minded the BSA going completely co-ed. They’re out of it now, anyway, two of them grown now. But, as a parent, the way I see it, even if the BSA plans to keep boys and girls in separate troops, and not allow them to camp together, for example, it’s just one less thing boys are allowed to have.
Of course, the BSA has had co-ed programs for a long time. But, if the whole thing becomes co-ed, the BSA will change to accommodate.
For the record, I would’ve been a terrible scout. lol On those boy scout camping trips, my sons told me the troop couldn’t shower for days; they had to use the woods as their toilet; they’d become filthy dirty. One of my boys signed up for wilderness survival training where they had to go deep in the woods where each scout had to build his own shelter using sticks and branches, spending overnight in the dirt with bugs crawling all over him. As a young girl, I enjoyed adventure, but maybe not that much. lol
Well, at least the troops are doing their own thing, for now, and the higher-ups aren’t pushing the issue.
What I CAN say is that many current Scouts are against letting girls 10-14 into Scouting (as you said BSA has a coed program for girls older than 14). Their reasoning against girls isn't sexist, but rather many of them are afraid their sisters would join and bully them at Scouts IN ADDITION TO being bullied at home! As you note, Scouting for them is a refuge, where boys can be boys.
Again, all this could have been avoided had National spoke to a few boots on the ground. We also could have helped with the falling membership - active recruitment and building permanent supply lines is a key element to any Unit's success, and some Troops are better at it than others. Instead, we get the threat of bankruptcy (which is really a financial option and not the end of the world) and gigabytes of articles written by SINO (Scouters In Name Only) quitters like this guy who would cry like a baby if they had to earn Wilderness Survival (the merit badge for which your son signed up).
Btw, behind every successful Scout there is often a mother who deals with dirty socks etc. after a trip. Thank you for your service.