Second, it's clear from the comments that very few people posting on this matter actually know how Scouting works. In sum, all REAL power and control is vested at the local Troop level; National, sadly, lost its way and is a hot mess - it's a bit like the saga of the NRA HQ, where they lost sight of their core mission and, in large measure, deserve what they've wrought. But National doesn't call the shots at the Council and/or individual unit level.
Third, the Scouting program has a century of excellence in developing the character and leadership skills of young men. The combination of Merit Badges, skills attainment, outdoorsmanship, TRUE care for the environment, advancement, and testing and feedback has given America and the World some outstanding leaders. All of these "new" organizations, whatever their temporal merits, will be tested - the devil attacks goodness. Will these effective Canadians bolt again, whining about a modernity from which they retreat again to form another organization? Or will they, as countless Scoutmasters, Assistant Scoutmasters, and Troop Committeeman and women, repel the onslaught of leftists and stand true while National implodes?
Fourth, the admission of girls is NOT, as some clealy ill-informed people believe, a watering down of the program OR a comingling of the boys and girls, or some trans etc expansion. The boys and girls have separate Troops, separate meetings, and (generally) separate leaders. To be sure, some of these initiatives are driven by falling enrollment. At the same time, the Girl Scouts has lost its way at the national and (generally) local level, and girls craving leadership opportunities ain't gettin' it from the schools.
Now, I think it is a FAIR debate point, if a leadership program that has worked for boys for 100+ years will work for girls. But that does not negate the reality, that your average girl wanting to join Scouting BSA prolly doesn't want to hang with Antifa teens and cyber bully the "little people." As such, we should at least CONSIDER the potential upside of offering a program to girls that is steeped in tradition, patriotism, and the founding values of this nation.
Again, National lost its way, and is a disgrace...just like the GOP. But just like how Trump used the GOP's underpinning conservatism to galvanize tens of millions of individuals, Americans can do the same at the local level with Scouting. The Troops remain solid in large measure, run for the most part by conservative people. If anyone posting has gone through the effort to volunteer at their local Troop, work with the Scouts via Two-Deep Leadership, become an Assistant Scoutmaster, and join the Committee and STILL found rabid leftism, let them speak.
I’m not knocking anything you said DB, help me to understand. What do the initials in Scouting BSA stand for? I mean literally, not ideologically.
Very well written! Thank you.
My son achieved Eagle at 14. He was Senior Patrol Leader of a Troop with over 100 Scouts at the time he got his Eagle.
He had 94 Merit Badges at the time.
It can be done with hard work and time management. (Summer camps, Merit Badge Challenge Weekends, doing Merit Badges on the bus to and from campouts that were designed to earn a badge or two.) Two of those years he never missed a campout.
Unfortunately, you are correct that few posters here really understand how Scouting works these days. I’ve never seen a gay Scout Leader. Our Troop just wouldn’t allow it. There are no girls in these Troops. They have their own Troops. Council Reps are almost never seen except for the Eagle Board of Review guy. Never met a National guy.
For us, the Scouts is still a very conservative, solid organization at the Troop level. It has helped my son be the man he is today. Organized, dependable, honest. He has decided he wants to be a Judge - and after college, he will be going to law school.
THAT is what Scouting does.
I’ve been an Assistant Scoutmaster in my old troop, with a few years of Professional Scouting as a District Executive and Senior District Executive in between. I stepped aside when I got married and with my son a couple of years away from joining Cub Scouts, you better believe I’ll be the Cubmaster. Other than one coed troop, all the other Scouting units in my metropolitan area of almost 1 million are boy-only. What’s left of our council’s professional staff, now that all the District Executives have been laid off due to covid, are high enough in standing to be under the National Council’s control and dissent from them, even constructive criticism, can get one blackballed. They have to sell and push whatever National dictates, and sell it hard. But, there’s a way for volunteers to fight back. It requires organization and patience.