Tuscarora Council of Boy Scouts of America must follow vote
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on October 25, 2017 5:50 AM
Girls will be allowed to join the Boy Scouts of America after the national board voted in favor of it, and the local reaction to the move is mixed.
Jason Smith, Scout executive with the Tuscarora Council, which was founded in 1923 and covers Wayne, Sampson, Duplin and Johnston counties, said the decision is not left up to local councils and must follow the national vote.
"After the national vote, we've heard from folks that are happy about the decision and folks that are not happy about the decision," Smith said. "We've certainly heard from a lot of folks that have said, 'This is exactly what I want for my daughter,' just like we've heard from folks that say, 'This is not something that we should do.' There's definitely a subsection of our constituency that is interested and wants to see this happen."
Smith said the integration will not allow for co-ed dens in Cub Scouts or co-ed units in Boy Scouts.
"Currently all the dens are, obviously, all boys," Smith said. "Under the new program, which will be rolled out at some point in 2018, packs will have the option of having their traditional boy dens, but also including girl dens into the program as well."
The same goes for Boy Scouts in middle and high school.
"They also voted to create a new program for middle and high school girls that will follow the same advancement track as the traditional Boy Scout program, but it's going to be a completely new, completely separate program," Smith said.
"That'll be 2019 when that comes out. They're working on that now. We don't have a name or anything for it at this point yet."
Smith said the national board, based in Irving, Texas, made the decision after getting feedback from about 14,000 people on whether or not to allow what's officially called "family scouting."
The outcome of the survey was to steer the organization toward doing more family scouting and to allow the new programs to keep the same rank structure that already exists for Boy Scouts.
Smith said this allows girls who join Boy Scouts more opportunities that Girls Scouts might not give them.
"It's about options. Every program is not for everybody," Smith said.
"If there are girls, especially ones that want the type of programs that we offer in Cub Scouting or Boy Scouting that are heavy on the outdoors and things like that, then there will be programs available to them. Girl Scouts have a great program, Boy Scouts have a great program -- neither one of our programs are for everybody. So it's about having options that are there for our folks."
Smith said the council has seen girls already become interested in joining Boy Scouts for the more outdoorsy, rugged opportunities.
"We have a lot of sisters of Scouts that want to do the things their brothers are doing in the Boy Scouts, so this will give them that opportunity to do so," Smith said.
The Tuscarora Council serves between 3,700 and 4,000 Scouts.
There are about 1,500 scouts served in Wayne County by 46 units.