Issue 648 – July 21, 2020

Issue 648 – July 21, 2020

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(The correspondence immediately below is from in July 2018. I’m offering it to you here because I believe it calls up an issue that has—I certainly hope—been put to rest, as a result of the huge enthusiasm of girls everywhere, many of whom have grabbed on to SCOUTS BSA “like nobody’s business,” as my Dad used to say!)

Hey Andy,

You’ve been a great resource for me and I really enjoy reading your columns, which are right on with the tenets of Scouting. But I want to express to you my personal opinion about the name change. It appears to me that it is motivated by GREED! I believe the BSA is chasing after the members and dollars that they lost when they took a different tack on being “morally straight” and the LDS churches abandoned them.

Almost fifty years ago, I was one of the first two Eagle Scouts in my community—an achievement I’ve always been proud of, especially since my mother was my Den Mother in Cubs and my father was a Scout when he was a boy, and he passed Scouting’s ideals on to me when I became a Scout. But now I’ve seriously contemplated returning my Eagle medal to the BSA National Office. I don’t care whether you publish my name or not—I’m just disgusted! I hope you’re sympathetic to my pain, and I thank you for your time.

If there’s anything you can share with me that might change my mind, I’d sincerely appreciate it. Thanks. (Name & Council Withheld)

Thanks for taking the time to set your thoughts and feelings down in writing, and for writing to me. But keep in mind that my “mission” here is to help folks better deliver the Scouting program. I’m not here to “change” anyone’s opinions… They belong to you, and I respect them as yours. With that established, here are my thoughts on the issue you raise…

I earned Eagle in 1957, at age 15, and I’m happy to say I’ve never regretted it, although I do notice that we all sort of make a bigger deal out of it than we did i0n the 1950’s. Back then, you did it or you didn’t—your choice. I know I was in the minority, but so what! Guys like me but, instead of Scouts, earned a dozen Varsity in high school were in their own minority too.

I think what Scouting offers is a smorgasbord of opportunities, and my wish is that all Scouts succeed in reaching their personal goals—whatever they may be. I know several guys, for instance, who are Life rank and Vigil Honor in the Order of the Arrow. I know others who are First Class rank and have completed treks at Philmont Scout Ranch and the Northern Tier Canoe Base, and then sailed out and back from Sea Base! I know another guy who was Star rank and a crack shot at our council’s summer camp rifle range; he’s now a long-retired instructor from the U.S. Marine Corps Scout Sniper School. These were their own goals and they achieved them.

Yes, you could send your Eagle badge back. If you do, it will join others that have been sent back for a variety of reasons., but it still remains that, as a Scout, you did it—you went all the way to Eagle. This can’t ever be changed. (Steven Spielberg, among others, returned his Eagle medal to the BSA over the “gay” issue some years ago, but this doesn’t change the fact that he’s still an Eagle Scout.)

As for organized religious groups becoming (or not becoming) chartering organizations for BSA units, this is a decision to be made by each of those groups as they follow their own beliefs and goals. Jehovah’s Witnesses, for instance, have never embraced the Scouting programs as sponsors, apparently because Scouts pledge allegiance to the American Flag as a symbol of the USA, and include “duty to country” in the Scout Oath. To me, this is unfortunate, but who am I to question, much less challenge, the fervent beliefs of others? So, if the LDS Church chooses to abandon the BSA’s programs after more than one hundred years of a solid alliance, that’s their decision to make. You might also notice that the LDS Church hasn’t ever embraced the Girl Scout (GSUSA) program, not so much because of any conflict of doctrines but more likely because the GSUSA outright owns all of its troops, which are controlled completely by each GSUSA council rather than by chartered partners, as the BSA has done from the outset.

The BSA is an educational organization with three goals: to instill a sense of responsible citizenship in youth, to instill a code of values that help youth make the right ethical decisions throughout their lives, and to promote mental and physical fitness. (I would argue that there’s a fourth goal: to instill the life-concept of service to others.)

The “classroom” used throughout the BSA is the out-of-doors, and the “tools” for teaching are largely outdoor-oriented skills. (“First Class Scout” is what it means: This Scout can handle himself in virtually any outdoor situation he or she is thrown).

GSUSA troops have similar goals, but the methods to achieve them are quite different: Many of the methods are at-home-skills based. This is attractive to many girls; many stay with the program and go on to earn the Gold Award (considered comparable to Eagle Scout). But, apparently to an almost equal proportion of girls, the home-skills approach is nowhere near so appealing as what Boy Scouting offers (especially to girls who have Boy Scout brothers!).

Extending this, if the BSA can enlist girls not served by, or who have no interest in the programs of, the GSUSA and, by doing so, instill the values both organizations promote to this “new” group of non-served girls, I’m wondering where the harm is.

My first “girlfriend”—when I was a teenage Scout—wasn’t a Girl Scout but she was a Campfire Girl. She was really cool. She could climb trees (no “proper” girl would ever do this, my mother indignantly pointed out), swim without a swimming cap (outrageous in those days!), tie knots as well as any Scout, and bury arrows in any bull’s eye, at any distance! (Today we’d say, What’s not to like!) If Boy Scouts had been SCOUTS BSA she would have signed up in a heartbeat—and more to everyone’s benefit!

I won’t deny that there’s money in membership. As a Freemason, Rotarian, Barbershop Harmony Society member, and more, I’ve never encountered anyone who recommended reducing or—worse—closing membership opportunities. But money isn’t what’s important at ground-level. Here on the ground we want to tell our story and instill the values of our movement to as many as possible.

A few years ago, I’m on-site at staff development for a “NAYLE” (National Advanced Youth Leadership Experience) course. The youth staff—all late-ish teens who “run” the course from start to finish, with a few of us “gray-hairs” in the background—is seven guys and one girl. Now you’d think, with a ratio like that, and all hand-picked for smarts, team-skills, and personal leadership, that that one girl would be mince-meat in a day or so. Not happenin’ – This was a girl who was simultaneously all girl and one of the guys. The staff’s teamwork was the best I’d ever seen, and much of it had to do with how all eight worked with and for one another.

I was envious. I’d been a youth leadership course staffer when I was a teenager too—when there were no girls. This was better by far! This helps both sides of the gender equation work out how they’re going to interact with the other, and this is fabulous!

So Yay! for SCOUTS BSA with troops for boys, and troops for girls. Should a happened years ago, but it’s not too late!

Well, I may not have covered everything here, but I think I’m pretty close… What you do with these thoughts is 100% up to you, but I do hope you’ll hold onto your medal, Brother Eagle! You earned it; you get to keep it—and it’s among the few things in life nobody can ever take away from you!

Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay positive!
Happy Scouting!
Andy

Have a question? Facing a dilemma? Wondering where to find a BSA policy or guideline? Write to askandybsa@yahoo.com. Please include your name and council. (If you’d prefer to be anonymous, if published, let me know and that’s what we’ll do.)

Although these columns are copyrighted, any reader has my permission to quote or reproduce any columns or column parts so long as you attribute authorship: “Ask Andy” by Andy McCommish.

[No. 648 – 7/21/2020 – Copyright © Andy McCommish 2020]