Girl Scouts say Boy Scouts are stealing recruits

The president of the Girl Scouts is accusing the Boy Scouts of seeking to covertly recruit girls into their programs while disparaging the girls’ operations.

NEW YORK — Inflaming a century-old and mostly cordial rivalry, the president of the Girl Scouts of the USA is accusing the Boy Scouts of seeking to covertly recruit girls into their programs while disparaging the Girl Scouts’ operations.

“I formally request that your organization stay focused on serving the 90 percent of American boys not currently participating in Boy Scouts ... and not consider expanding to recruit girls,” wrote GSUSA President Kathy Hopinkah Hannan in a letter sent this week to the president of the Boy Scouts of America, Randall Stephenson.

Top leaders of the two youth organizations, both struggling to stem membership declines, conferred this month about possibilities for coordination. But Hopinkah Hannan, in her letter, said she came away from that discussion feeling the Boy Scouts had already committed to an expansion of coed programs that would damage the Girl Scouts.

The tough tone of her letter dismayed Boy Scout leaders, said BSA spokeswoman Effie Delimarkos.

“We are disheartened to see the Girl Scouts pull away from the possibility of cooperation to help address the needs of today’s busy families,” she said Wednesday.

The Boy Scouts have some coed programs dating back nearly 50 years, but this year there has been extensive discussion within the BSA community about expanding opportunities for girls beyond existing coed programs, such as Venturing and Sea Scouts.

No final decisions have been made, Delimarkos said, stressing that boys-only programs would remain at the core of the organization.

However, she said, the BSA — in response to requests from families — “has been exploring the benefits of bringing Scouting to every member of the family — boys and girls.”

To the Girl Scouts, such exploration amounted to a show of disrespect.

“Despite offering to engage in a constructive, collaborative sharing process, we were disappointed in the lack of transparency as we learned that you are surreptitiously testing the appeal of a girls’ offering to millennial parents,” Hopinkah Hannan said.

Delimarkos, in response, said the BSA, as an organization, has never disparaged the Girl Scouts and deeply respects its programs.