Local council reviews decision to admit girls

The board of directors of the Boy Scouts of America voted unanimously Wednesday to allow girls into the century-old organization.

“We strive to bring what our organization does best — developing character and leadership for young people — to as many families and youth as possible as we help shape the next generation of leaders,” Michael Surbaugh, the group’s chief scout executive, said in a statement.

Greenwich Council Executive Kevin O’Shea said it would take some time before local councils worked out the implications of the decision.

“We just received the information, so we’re reviewing it,” he said.

The Greenwich Council of the Boy Scouts of America has about 550 young people involved in Scouting programs, and is one of the oldest councils in the country. As such it has taken a leadership role in membership issues in the past, and occasionally adopted a different policy than the national organization, such as when it allowed openly gay scout leaders to participate before the national ban was lifted in 2015.

Greenwich resident Ernest Thompson Seton was a founder of the Scouting movement in America. He started the Greenwich council in 1912, two years after the incorporation of the Boy Scouts of America, and he co-wrote the first Boy Scouts of America Handbook.

The national organization said that, beginning in 2018, girls will be allowed into its Cub Scout program, which has been limited to boys in the first through fifth grades or between the ages of 7 and 10.

A separate program for older girls will be announced next year and is expected to be available in 2019. That program is expected to enable girls to earn the coveted rank of Eagle Scout.

The announcement of the policy change was immediately met with criticism from the Scouting organization for girls. Girl Scouts of the USA officials said it strains the century-old bond between the two organizations.

Girl Scouts of Connecticut CEO Mary Barneby said in a statement Wednesday that her organization would remain committed to providing “an all-girl, girl-led and girl-friendly environment” for female scouts.

“Girl Scouts is an organization over 100 years old with time-tested methods and research-backed programs that speak to the strengths of girl-leadership development. We are the organization creating ... the female leadership pipeline,” she said. “Girl Scouts is, and will remain, the Scouting program that truly benefits U.S. girls by providing a safe space for them to learn and lead.”

National Girl Scouts leaders suggested the BSA’s move was driven partly by a need to boost revenue, and they contended there is fiscal stress in part because of past settlements paid by the BSA in sex-abuse cases.

The BSA recently increased its annual membership fee for youth members and adult volunteers from $24 to $33, but Surbaugh said the decision to expand programming for girls was not driven by financial factors. He expressed enthusiasm at the possibility that the changes could draw hundreds of thousands more girls into the BSA ranks over the coming years.

The announcement follows many months of outreach by the BSA, which distributed videos and held meetings to discuss the possibility of expanding girls’ participation beyond existing programs, such as Venturing, Exploring and Sea Scouts.

Surveys conducted by the Boy Scouts showed strong support for the change among parents not currently connected to the Scouts, including Hispanic and Asian families that the BSA has been trying to attract. Among families already in the Scouting community, the biggest worry, according to Surbaugh, was that the positive aspects of single-sex comradeship might be jeopardized.

“We’ll make sure those environments are protected,” he said. “What we’re presenting is a fairly unique hybrid model.”