Some very good and humorous responses here but let me shed a little light as an Asst. Scoutmaster in my 9th year with one Eagle and another achieving Life in 5 days. The main drivers behind this are money and number of new scouts or lack thereof. We have seen Troop sizes diminish greatly over the last decade. We now compete with sports constantly, 2 working parent families, and a slowly dwindling interest in outdoor things among today’s youth. Plus by the time they get to high school Scouting isn’t considered to be that “cool”. Compounding this is the LDS leaving because of Scout policy regarding admitting Gay Scouts. Probably other reasons too. Bridging 3-5 Webelos into a Troop is considered a really good year.
Because numbers are down it means revenue is down. Add to that a lot of families with daughters are very interested in the Scout program and what it offers relative to Girl Scouts. It also simplifies their life if both kids are involved in the same activity the same evening. The decision is not popular with the Girl Scout organization as you can imagine as they are hurting for membership as well.
Compound this with the fact that getting parents to volunteer to be Scoutmasters, Asst. Scoutmaster or just help by volunteering time to the Troop is an absolute nightmare now. Adults just aren’t stepping up any more and it sets a bad precedent for their scouts. Scouts with involved parents do far better and those of us that are involved need a lot more help. We are burning out.
Our Troop will respect the policy but we haven’t gotten much guidance yet and we will be learning via trial and error. For the most part I don’t have a problem with it and it might help the young men to better respect women. I do strongly feel though that there needs to be some Boy only, and Girl only, opportunity and activities whether it be the summer camps or whatever.
Originally Posted by LeftCoast
Parental participation is a big problem with troops. My older brother made Eagle, I made Life, a member of Order of The Arrow, and yes we all started as Cub Scouts. The troop dwindled down to the point of being three from my family, and two from another family that showed (maybe) up once a month. The troop stayed open just long enough for my brother to finish his Eagle, and then my dad closed it. The boys in the troop dropped out because, like you said, it was not cool, parental lack of participation (my Dad was their babysitter), and yes the other kids involvement in sports.
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