Welcoming Girls into the Scout Program - Part 4
Morphing from "Boy Scouts" into "Family Scouting" with Memorandums of Understanding"
Some things that have happened already
• The program name for "Boy Scouts" (age 11-17) was changed to "Scouts BSA."
Click here to see the official announcement, and
click here to see a related article in the NY Times by reporter Maya Salam.
• A few years back, Northern NJ Council started running three "Family Camping Weekends" each spring. Camp Lewis was upgraded with flush toilets, and the three districts were each tasked with running one of the weekends. Three Rivers was in charge of the recent May 5-6 weekend.
• When BSA National announced that girls are now eligible to join Cub Scouting, NNJC wanted to ensure that every single Cub Pack was aware of what was going on, and so they mailed a Memorandum of Understanding to the Institutional Head of each Chartered Organization. District Execs were asked to follow up.
The memorandums have two parts, with Part-1 being new and Part-2 being old and familiar. Part-1 is a check-off choice of, in effect, "Yes, we will let girls into our Cub pack" or "No, we're not ready for girls." (The familiar Part-2 contains stipulations that the Institutional Head agrees to each year when he/she signs the annual recharter papers, things like finding appropriate unit leaders and providing a space where the unit can meet, etc.)
