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Charles Howard-Gibbon

Charles Howard-Gibbon
Member since : Oct-24-2008 (Verified)
1 Ideas, 47 Comments, 955 Votes

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Ideas Posted

The desire for our volunteers to go to the internet for their literature needs is inevitable -- and in many ways, is already occurring.

Putting all the simple, one-page two page forms, in PDF in easy to find function categories (like advancement, camping, finance, membership, etc.) on the national website would be the best.

For literature that is normally sold, like leader and committee handbooks, a subscription could be sold to have online access to PDF versions of the handbooks. These online subscriptions could be a complete access subscription, or tiered subscriptions according to basic and advanced needs.

I think a lot of Scouters (including myself), especially experienced folks, would appreciate the ability to get what they need, and print the pages needed for the immediate need.

This certainly would take time to research consumer desire, subscription structure, appropriate parameters, etc. but is something we should do. For my own hobbies and personal interests, I already participate in online subscriptions, and it just seems like it is time for the BSA to do the same.
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Comments Posted

I think it would be even better to have the advancement totals included as a column in the District Totals Report, and to have the youth membership totals (current) in a column on the District Advancement Report.

Percentages can be deceiving without seeing the numbers that create the percentages.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 1 month ago
I still prefer exploring the "One Charter to Rule Them All" change previously articulated by Tim McCandless.

Part of this concept would be to automatically roll up youth members in the units within a single organization on either birthdates or grade levels, like we currently do within packs. Particularly with units chartered by churches, this makes a lot more sense then collecting a lot of paper applications from families that don't see the need to fill out another BSA application just because a boy had a birthday.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 1 month ago
Consider changing the name for kindergarten age boys to something else. Lion was the historic name for what is now the 4th grade Webelos program. A more appropriate name for the youngest age group might be "Bobcats" or some other small animal.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 1 month ago
We already decided earlier this year to promote this same idea as part of our council BSA 100th Anniversary plan here in Monterey Bay Area Council.

The concept of Scouts wearing their uniforms to school is a good idea retrieved from past years. The idea of Scouters wearing their uniforms is an innovation. Having everyone wear their uniforms on February 8 is a wonderful way to promote the brand and celebrate the Scouting brotherhood.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 1 month ago
The physical maturity and skills needed to drive an ATV suggest that this program might be limited to Venturers and older Boy Scouts (age 14 and older).
Charles Howard-Gibbon 1 month ago
We are encouraging all of our Scouters to wear their uniform to work on Monday, February 8, 2010, and of course, the Scouts are encouraged to wear theirs to school
Charles Howard-Gibbon 2 months ago
I wish to second the comments from msaxon. Venturing is the preferred term worldwide for the high school age group, and the place to clear up the confusion is to eliminate the terminology "Venture Patrol".

If there is a need for an older boy patrol in the troop (and after 40 years of BSA experience, I'm not convinced of it), the 1970's-1980's concept of Leadership Corps is a much better fit. The Varsity and Venturing programs are designed to retain and recruit youth who are past middle school age programs, and desire social, educational, high adventure, sports, fun for their level of interest and ability.

The Rover Scout idea needs to be aligned with our goals for Venturing and the Order of the Arrow. Right now, I see O.A. as filling the need of holding onto college age youth that Rover Scouting does for other countries -- maybe by raising the officer age and/or including more Venturers, the O.A. could reach its full potential as the young leader program of choice for our older Scouts/younger alumni
Charles Howard-Gibbon 3 months ago
Having served in field service as a professional for 26 years, I believe that my success in helping my councils and districts achieve membership growth has almost always come from our efforts to partner with our council, district, and unit volunteers.

Every district I have served had a membership chair, and usually a membership team as well, to help with new unit development. We use the membership retention reports and district totals reports with commissioner staff as a tool to build district volunteer involvement with weaker units. Working with the council commissioner, council v.p. membership, and council v.p. operations, we search for ways to reach out to chartered organizations and involve district volunteers in all aspects of the process.

That being said, I personally participate in new unit development and some unit roundups where needed, as I feel the Scouters deserve my personal support and assistance. In some cases, I model good salesmanship for volunteers, so that they can do it for themselves on the second time around. The best way to maintain the volunteer/professional partnership is to work hard on the "we" parts of our conversations.

I do believe there are systematic barriers to membership growth. Our potential chartered organizations are becoming increasingly frustrated with our lack of options for serving girls under the age of 14 (especially those in the multi-cultural markets) -- we need to create and offer a Scouting or Scout-like program for girls alongside of the boys. The other critical need is directing our focus away from the artificial concept of units, and towards a focus on securing and retaining viable chartered organizations that truly partner with us on sustainable leadership and a "full family of Scouting" from grade 1 to college.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 3 months ago
Considering the need for healthy living (diet and exercise) with youth and adults, I would propose that this merit badge be revised to include some basic dietary education and lifestyle improvement (home cooking) as part of the requirements -- especially if it became required.

Cooking was a Eagle-required Merit Badge until 1972-73. I see no harm in bringing back to the required MB list -- just as Camping went off the required list in 1972-73 and then was put back on the list in around 1976
Charles Howard-Gibbon 4 months ago
This boy would be eligible to be a Tiger Cub based on completing kindergarten. I think the local pack and/or others misinterpreted the BSA membership requirements.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 4 months ago
The "preferred name" field in ScoutNET for membership cards is the certificate name. The need is to get other ScoutNET applications, like FOS billings, etc. to access this field by default.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 4 months ago
As a long-time Rotarian as well as Scout and Scouter, I would support personal involvement of Scouts and leaders. However, I do not think we should start making exceptions to the prohibition on Scouts soliciting money for BSA or other charities.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 4 months ago
This is a slightly different version of the same idea I posted several weeks ago, which is a subscription process to our Supply Division literature as online images.

Although it would be nice to have the youth handbooks included, my sense is the greatest need for online documents is for the printed adult leader pamphlets that currently come in varying degrees (from the "Highlights" pamphlets that are only a couple of dollars to Troop Program Features where the four shrink wrapped books total can be a significant purchase).

It would be more expensive to print an entire handbook from a color printer than to buy one, but the value of printing individual pages for particular meetings and activities would be worth a reasonable subscription price.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 4 months ago
I think we need feedback from National Registration Service on this concern.

My understanding is that a transfer membership is considered as "fully paid" as the previous paid membership, and that there is no magazine discontinuation. If, on the other hand, there is a "glitch" in the system, then it should be fixed.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 4 months ago
Having four 10 hour days rather than five 8 hour days would be my personal preference for American society, but since so few companies currently do it, being "in the lead" on this initiative would not be appreciated by our customers (volunteers), who right now wish we were open six days a week.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 5 months ago
I heartily agree with Tim's posting above -- in fact, I had thought about this myself many times. In my experience, the membership retention and volunteer retention is always better when boys are graduated through a program where are the parts are in sync with one another, and the leaders and adults of the different program levels are part of the same "Scouting family". Having separate unit committees under the same chartered organization is an obstacle to unity of purpose and simple communication.

Two benefits to this approach which is implied in this method:

Most units within one chartered organization only really need one treasurer, one secretary, one popcorn chair, etc. However, if the program level units were really large (lots of youth), this method still allows a consolidated unit committee to have two or more people splitting a function (for example, a Cub Scout advancement coordinator and a Boy Scout advancement coordinator).

The second benefit is obvious -- having one "Scouting family" with a continuos roster of youth and adults. Youth could be rolled up to the next level of the same basic organization -- unless the individual youth and his parents wish to transfer to another chartered organization, which would still be a personal prerogative.

But finally, going back to the heart of the question, there is no really good, necessary reason to have two or more separate committees within the same chartered organization. When organizing two or more units in most churches, urban settings, and rural settings, expecting those chartered organizations to support/sponsor two or more separated Scouting programs is a "deal-killer". For 25 years, I have informed volunteers of their option to consolidate the committees whenever possible, and those who have done it have always thanked me for keeping it simple.

So simple would be better. Allow each chartered organization to have a single unit committee, and then allow for division of labor within the committee according to the needs and desires of those involved. And making the charter renewal process simpler for everyone.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 5 months ago
My sense is that the idea of a Software Technology Merit Badge that embraces all possible electives such as cryptography, game design, website development, etc. within a single badge would be better received by our Scouts and Scouters (rather than narrowly defined topics such as the various technology interests suggested recently or in past postings).

Same with sports topics -- better to expand the electives within the existing Athletics, Sports, Shooting Sports, Snow Sports, and Water Sports merit badges rather than adding individual sports badges. To use a current example, Golf probably should have been included in the Sports badge rather than as a stand-alone topic -- why was it singled out for a badge any more than Basketball, Soccer, etc.? Otherwise, you will have 50 or more individual sports all deserving and/or demanding specific merit badge recognition.

Considering the number of postings regarding new merit badges, it would be helpful if our National Advancement Committee could publish the criteria for adding or deleting merit badge topics. My sense is that expanding well beyond the 120 or so merit badge topics is an expensive and time consuming effort that needs a strong sense of purpose beyond satisfying particular interest groups.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 5 months ago
It would also be very helpful to have mobile/cell phone numbers appear, along with business phone numbers, on the printed reports that come out of MyBSA. Right now, the only reports that show those numbers are the reports coming out of the ScoutNET modules
Charles Howard-Gibbon 6 months ago
If the previous unit leader or committee chair has signed an Eagle application, the new unit leader or committee chair should not be disrupting the process. Earning Eagle should be about affirming the Scout or Venturer's achievements, and not about the techinicalities of which current or former leaders have endorsed his application
Charles Howard-Gibbon 7 months ago
It would be a great idea to have one square knot to recognize a Venturer, Sea Scout, or Scouter who has earned the highest youth award in Girl Scouts USA, Girl Guides, CampFire USA, Boy Scouts in other countries, etc. (for example Queen Scout in Canada or UK).

Having such a recognition would validate and honor the experience of BSA Scouters raised in other countries. It would be also be a small incentive to recognize US Girl Scouts and CampFire members who join Venturing or Sea Scouting.

The recognition should be a single square knot to cover all circumstances. This is the process already in place for the Youth Religious Emblem square knot, Adult Religius Emblem square knot, and Community Organization Service Award.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 7 months ago
I think poison prevention is a topic that belongs in the sequence of requirements from Tenderfoot to First Class, rather than as a stand-alone merit badge.

It is hard for me to see what would attract Scouts to this badge as a merit badge topic
Charles Howard-Gibbon 8 months ago
Having been a career Scouter for a while, I remember when for a couple of years, the National Council only sent one magazine per household. For those not around at that time, there was quite a number of complaints from people who wanted the extra copies (husband, wife, and oldest son all wanted their own copies, because of collections, cutting out pictures, etc.).

The solution I recommend would be to add an "opt out" feature to www.MyScouting.org where it links with the magazine subscription of the individual who doesn't want it.

There is great value to marketing BSA with a paper magazine for adults. For those who don't know, many other non-profits still maintain their paper magazines as well, because they see the value. There probably would be a significant reduction in adult membership retention without the paper magazine.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 8 months ago
Since all of our charters expire in December, it would be very helpful if we could "turn off" the transfer option. The promote function is what we ask people to use, and works just fine for all of our units
Charles Howard-Gibbon 9 months ago
When ScoutNet was implemented nine years ago, it allowed multiple units within the same council to co-exist with the same unit number ("local number"). That is because the system has an internal number which many of us are now familiar with due to modules like Internet Advancement and Good Turn for America.

Adding a numerical prefix to a local unit number (based on a district) is unnecessary. It is a 1950's solution, and even back then it was unpopular. There is no good reason to do this anymore
Charles Howard-Gibbon 9 months ago
Having a BSA dress uniform is very appropriate attire for representing the BSA at community meetings and also works best for board meetings, district committee, and certain chartered organizations. If I were to wear a field uniform at some of these functions, it would create the misimpression to many, especially new people, that my role is direct service to youth. We want to create a similar impression that others create in representing their professions (clergy, police, airlines, fire service, military, etc.).

I concur that keeping the blazers and pants/skirts affordable should be a goal, and if that means working with retail stores, great.

The dress uniform is also intended for volunteers and older youth who want to present themselves in formal attire. It would be nice to back to the term "BSA dress uniform" or "Scouter dress uniform" and avoid the term "professional dress uniform". I like seeing our top-level volunteers in a BSA dress uniform, as the leadership of our organization is meant to be a partnership between volunteers and professionals.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 9 months ago
I would like to "second the motion" for Brian's comments. An "extreme sports" or "solo sports" merit badge that encompassed multiple sports as options would be preferable to creating individual merit badges for each sport of this type.

It would hopefully include solo sports that are specific to geography (such as surfing or snowboarding) but obviously not require those options for mid-continental Scouts who don't have access.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 9 months ago
The concerns here are valid, but I respectfully disagree with the solution recommended.

We need to emphasize the role of the chartered organization in overseeing unit finances, and allow for the owners of the unit to manage the committee within BSA guidelines. We should not restrict or require a unit committee treasurer when in many cases the chartered organization actually provides some or all of the finances or money-management function that the unit requires (such as in units chartered by churches and after-school organizations).

A better place for recommendation/regulation of the unit finance function would be in the leader and committee literature, and possibly also documents like Guide to Safe Scouting. The detail of unit treasury recommendations could be added to these publications.

Keeping the committee registration requirements flexible is essential to the efforts to maintain and expanding our Scouting membership.

Since most unit treasurers don't wear uniforms, and the function often changes within a calendar year, it seems to me that the pack committee patch is sufficient for the small number of pack or troop treasurers who would be wearing a uniform.

I agree that an online training for BSA unit finances, to especially include unit money-earning projects, and non-allowed methods (i.e. solicitation of cash donations) would be extemely helpful. Unit money-earning programs (dos and don'ts) are where much of the unit finance controversy exists.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 9 months ago
Removing the "Add new adult" feature from the charter renewal process would require the reregistration of non-functioning adults to complete the minimums required for an online submission, or result in delays required while the registrar manually enters the needed adults before the unit volunteer can finish the online submission.

In our council, we have gone to the "Strongly Recommended" message that goes with the charter packet -- in which we strongly recommend that new adult and youth applications be submitted first in September/October, before the electronic window opens in November. This has reduced somewhat (by about 50 percent) the tardy youth and adult applications submitted later in the last two months of the calendar year.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 9 months ago
I'm surprised that I'm the first one to comment on this.

We want our volunteers to contact the local council first (not the national council) when they have questions about Scouting. Direct customer service is a primary role for all of us "in the field" and we need to make it better locally, not send all public inquiries through an 800 number or such.

What we need to do is the local council search engine more prominent in the front page, with lots of color, explanation, etc. I would agree that the National Council should have its mailing address somewhere on the website in strategically placed webpages.

If there was a "join Scouting" e-mail address, hopefully if would be part of the zip code search engine, and redirect immediately back to the local council.

We don't want general inquiries about Scouting to have to stop for a day or two at the National Council, looking to be forwarded back to the local poeple who make Scouting happen, where it happens ("locally").
Charles Howard-Gibbon 9 months ago
The simple way to make this work would be to add a simple feature to the Internet Advancement report process, by which an additional page would be generated at the end of the report with headers like "no rank advancement in the last six months" and also a section like "Life Scouts age 15 and older".

I strongly discourage revision of the old-fashioned paper advancement forms -- they already have too much information on them as is.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 10 months ago
In my 25 years in field service, I have found that having one active unit commissioner who stays with the pack, helping the adults along with pack meeting and committee meeting, has proven more successful than a group of district adults who put on a great meeting one or two times, creating the sense of expectation that these district adults will be there to carry the pack along for an extended period.

I'm not saying this solution wouldn't work on a single night or a relatively unique situation, but there is no need to reinvent the wheel if we train unit commissioners on how to solve problems like this. And for new packs, commissioner service and chartered organization ownership, rather than "guest leaders" are generally the best solution to leadership recruiting
Charles Howard-Gibbon 10 months ago
I recommend allowing Venturers (both male and female) to elect fellow youth members if they met minimum requirements similar to Boy Scouts.

Last time I looked, the Boy Scout OA election requirement is First Class rank, 15 days and nights of camping (including 6 nights of long-term camping), and unit leader approval. I think the Venturing/Sea Scout requirement could be the same, with Venturing Gold Award or Sea Scout Able as an alternative to First Class.

If Venturers were active in OA, the OA would embrace the Venturing program more, and there would be less of a need (if any) for a council Venturing Officers Association (which functions much like an OA Lodge).
Charles Howard-Gibbon 10 months ago
The term "Lion" was originally used with 10 year old Cub Scouts (before the revision of Webelos), because 10 year olds were a little bigger, older, and wiser than the bears (9 year olds) and wolves (8 year olds).

I realize that a lot has changed, including introduction of Tiger Cubs in 1981-82, but it doesn't seem logical to call the youngest boys in our Scouting family Lions. Maybe we could call them Bobcats.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 10 months ago
I'm not sure why you or your council is doing all this "extra" stuff with Excel spreadsheets. With the Internet-based Rechartering (IR) system, unit volunteers can do a wonderful job of updating records, and the IR system has proven to be very popular with our Scouters.

I also recommend that your council considering re-aligning the charters to December 31 rather than February 28/29. The realignment to a calendar year in the three councils I have worked in makes membership management, FOS campaign card generation, and commissioner service all much better (and December has much less program and activity competing with the recharter process). Calendar year is also an easier way to explain BSA membership fees/pro-rated fees to new people.

It would be helpful if eventually we can get MyScouting and Internet Advancement (IA) to also access training course attendance records, so that unit leaders (through IA) and individuals )through MyScouting) could see and track completion of all basic, supplemental, and advanced training.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 10 months ago
It seems to me that what may be needed is a module within Internet Advancement Reporting, where the unit adult processor adds the missing, unregistered youth member similar to Internet Rechartering) generating a paper membership application with youth data filled for approval signatures. The printed new member application could then come in attached with the printed advancement report.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 11 months ago
We have a Sports merit badge to meet the needs of those who are interested in sports not served through the cycling, swimming, hiking, fishing, etc. badges.

We should be careful not to create merit badges that appeal to a fairly limited audience. Certainly, the sports merit badge fills the need for recognizing Scouts who are interested in team sports.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 11 months ago
My understanding is that dirt biking/motor biking is permitted as a Venturing activity, but not a Boy Scout activity (see policy under Guide to Safe Scouting, Unauthorized and Restricted Activities). This makes sense as someone who is 14 or older is usually physically mature enough to operate a motorbike, where as most 11 and 12 year-olds are not. We organized a "dirt-bike" Venturing crew with national approval and council-oversight in one of my previous councils.

As with my previous comments, creating new merit badges should only be done with great care, and consideration to the feelings of what we want to accomplish as a movement, not just what might be popular. Certainly, the cycling merit badge could be adjusted to include motorbiking as an option for Venturers if perceived as a need, but I don't recommend it, as the current Venturing award system seems sufficently elastic.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 11 months ago
I agree with previous poster "bsutilla" on a transfer form that would be a roster list of one or more Scouts transferring from another unit into the newly joined unit.

Each blank line could contain spaces for the full name of the Scout, current address, birthdate, and parent signature. The bottom of the form would be signed by the unit leader. It would probably look similar to the form currently used for additional enrollments in Exploring. Such a form would have sufficient validation of signatures to assure a council registrar or data entry clerk of the membership intentions of the unit and the individuals. This could also work for Boy Scouts transferring into a Varsity Scout team or Venturing crew, not just Webelos Scouts moving into a troop.

I only recommend this for transfers. New members would still complete the entire BSA membership application, so that parents would have the opportunity to read the disclosure information on the cover sheets of that form.

I also concur that National BSA should consider eliminating the transfer fee from the registration system. It is perceived as unfair by some families and leaders, and a nuisance by many others.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 11 months ago
Locally, we are getting a lot of feedback from people who believe that mountain biking creates a significant degradation of the natural environment (especially in regards to erosion as well as trail courtesy). I don't feel knowledgeable enough to agree or disagree with this assessment, but it is prevalent among the parks and recreation community.

Cycling merit badge certainly seems adequate to satisfy the need to recognize skill development in this sport/hobby. We should resist the desire to create merit badges that would be perceived as encouraging non-environmentally sound activities.
Charles Howard-Gibbon 11 months ago
Historically, local councils were formed when chartered organizations and communities gathered together with the intent of creating a summer camp and a council service center. As long as a council is offering one or both of these services, it continues to have a sense of purpose to the average Scouter or local citizen. If a council cannot afford to have either or both of these two functions, the customers will probably be satisified receiving its professional service and other support functions from a consolidated council operation.

So council executive boards are charged with making rational decisions regarding the long-term viability of the council camp and council operations. I don't recommend putting an arbitary minimum attendance number on camp certification, but rather a three-year track record on finances (camp cost centers). If a camp operation cannot at least break-even once within the past 3 years then that should be the criteria for National withholding certification.
The best part of the internet-based system for communicating service hours would be the Internet-based Advancement reporting (rather than charter renewal).

Many advancement chairs would probably be happy to add the service hours data to the process of reporting advancement (although there should be an opportunity to opt out).

If reporting service hours is best done annually, then do it as part of the Centennial Quality Unit Award form (which could be an online report linked to the charter renewal process). But let's not add the service hours reporting to charter renewal outside of the CQUA process -- charter renewal is complicated enough already.
Considering the number of volunteers and/or professionals who would be tempted to usurp the authority of the chartered organization for themselves, I strongly do not recommend electronic approval signatures (although I would consider the signed paper copy faxed as good as the ink and paper copy).

Our volunteers are just beginning the second year on online charter renewal, and they are very happy with it in most respects.

The part that they would like is the option of also completing the Centennial Quality Unit Award form online, and then printing it out for signatures at the same time as charter renewal. In northern California, most of our units recharter in December, and so this CQUA form is needed at the same time as the charter renewal.
I favor keeping the current system for two simple reasons:

1) As long as BSA wants to have pro-rated fees, it makes it much easier to explain the registration system by aligning the charter year with the calendar year (Jan. to Dec.). My fellow professionals and like-minded commissioners have done this for 23 years now in California, and the system is appreciated by volunteers. It also allows new families joining in the middle of the calendar year to "try Scouting" for a low pro-rate fee (e.g. $3.40 in September for 4 months, only $7.40 including Boys' Life).

2) Charter renewal is a tedious task, even with the online system, so the best time to do it is a month like December (a "slow month"), where BSA activities and trainings and weekend events taper off for a month. So again, calendar year rechartering works well, as you capture all your new youth membership before the end of the year, and give units up to 4 months to recapture the inactive youth before permanently dropping them.

Having been through the GSUSA registration system with my two daughters, it is extremely painful for troop leaders and parents to do membership renewals at the same time as new member recruiting (which is September-October). If there are councils that don't want to recharter in December, they can continue to do charter renewal in the old-fashioned way (during the first half of the new calendar year).
I would be willing to allow individual Scouters to upload to ScoutNET some information, such as a new address or phone number or e-mail, and I think MyScouting would be the way to do it.

I do not favor remote users being able to update more sensitive data such as complete name, birthdate, SSN, etc., as establishing and maintaining identity of each youth or adult is essential to youth protection as well as membership integrity.
I personally like the zip code search engines "Unit Finder" that National BSA websites provide to help interested people identify the chartered organizations and units in their area. If this could be linked to a national BSA mapping feature (zoom in, zoom out, stars on a map), that would be a plus.

In my last council, we found that trying to maintain our separate unit mapping system was problematic. It required different people to contribute information they wanted to post online about their unit(s), and then the information would get stale quickly. And there is a real benefit to the current zip code based "Unit Finder", which is that inquiries run through the council office, where staff can separate the truly-interested potential members from the wide variety of other people who want to "hawk their products" to leaders or be a nuisance to leaders for other reasons.
One of our biggest challenge is reaching out to non-white youth and families, and single-sex Scouting is a big obstacle, particularly with Latino families. The stop-gap measure of having after-school LFL groups doesn't work well, because the Girls still miss out on the unifroms and badges, and it conveys a subtle second-class membership. And trying to say that BSA does Scouting differently than the rest of the world doesn't wash at all with immigrant and first-generation families.

In the past 98 years, the differences between girls' interests and boys' interests have diminished quite considerably. Many girls, including my own two daughters, wanted to join the BSA long before they reached age 14.

With no disrespect intended, GSUSA is now more focused on programming that appeals to "modern girls" (see studio 2B program), and is not very similar to the BSA methodology. It is also structurally dissimilar to the BSA approach of chartered partner organizations, and so has less appeal to our BSA chartered partners. GSUSA is structured more like the YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, etc. with "company-owned" stores, where BSA does well with the "franchise" concept.

We should give chartered organizations the option of having co-ed packs. The program for those units could be structured with a preference for single-gender dens (since that fits with the playgroup dynamics of those age-groups), but a mixed den could be permitted for den leaders willing to do it. And there should be absolutely no penalty for chartered organizations that want to maintain boy-only packs, because that would probably still be the vast majority.

I myself don't see the need for sex-segregated badges or uniforms, but if that is needed to ward off complaints from GSUSA, then let's do it. If this requires the use of terminology separation (not using anything resembling GSUSA terms and distinctive programs), then let's make the adjustment and push forward. It is time that we give our customers what they want.
With all due respect, we already have a Communications merit badge. Maybe the Communications merit badge could be revised to include Website development, etc. as an optional requirement