To discuss Family Scouting, we first must know the history and how we got here today.

Cub Scout Pack 279 has a long tradition of encouraging scouting to be a family activity. We have always welcomed parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters to join us at outings, pack meetings, and den activities. Last fall the Boy Scouts of America announced a major change to our program. Beginning in 2018-2019 scouting year, the Cub Scouts would begin accepting females into the program in a policy change called “Family Scouting.”

Clearly girls and boys have their differences, but there is no question they deserve equal opportunities and treatment to become better students, stronger leaders, and healthier citizens. For many families, the BSA Cub Scout Program is the right program to encourage that growth.

This change to the BSA policy should not come as a shock as most of the world already enjoys co-ed scouting. In fact, even here in the USA, the BSA has programs like Venturing and Stem Scouting that are co-ed programs.

This spring, the New Birth of Freedom Council asked for at least one Pack from each school district to step forward and offer “early adoption” of Family Scouting. So many girls and families had heard about the change, they were eager to join. It speaks to the quality of the scouting program for sure.

The leadership of our sponsor organization – St. James Church – and Pack 279 and Troop 276 sat down last month to talk about what it means to be leaders. St James Church feels strongly that we seize this opportunity to lead and show other Packs in the area what leadership around Family Scouting looks like.

Early adoption would mean offering Cub Scouts to girls in grades k-4 for the remainder of this school year. Then in the fall, the Cub Scout program would be opened to K-5 to boys and girls.

The National BSA organization has said that Scout Troops for grades 6-12 will need to be single gender Troops. This is in full recognition of the developmental and emotional differences between young women and young men, but the Scouts of America and our Council are encouraging at least one sponsoring organizations in each school district to consider supporting at least one male and one female troop.

St James Church, Boy Scouts Troop 276 and Cub Scout Pack 279 are going to work hand-in-hand to help stand up an all-female Troop as a partner to our Pack and Troop in time for bridging in 2019. This will ensure any females from the CV school district have a BSA Troop to join and continue their scouting adventure in grades 6 and beyond in the 2019-20 school year.

So here is the news tonight.

• IF you are a girl in grades kindergarten through fourth grade, and IF you like adventure, and IF you want to work hard while having fun, and IF you want to be a Cub Scout in Pack 279, you MAY pick up your youth application, complete it and join our pack tonight!
• Young ladies joining anytime in the next three weeks will have their first official Pack meeting in uniform on Thursday, March 15 when we bridge the Arrow of Light den into the Boy Scouts. Your first den meetings will be that following Sunday.
• You will wear the same uniforms as the boys, earn the same adventure loops, beads, and ranks. You will learn from the same leaders and have as much fun (or more) as the boys already in the Pack.
• And IF you are a girl and join before the end of the school year, there is no charge to join. That’s right, free membership. We do not want the cost to be a barrier, especially when we hope to learn as much from you in the next few months as you will the program.

All girls will have membership in a special Den of female scouts in addition to your work in the den of your grade level. That female den will be mentored and lead by our female Tiger leader Serena Fedor. Serena will be working closely with Assistant Cubmaster Michael Fedor and Cubmaster Matt Weitzel and the parents of our first female scouts to ensure everyone has a great experience.

In fact, whether we planned it or not, every Den in Pack 279 has a female leader helping to plan and run the program today. This ensures our commitment to Youth Protection will be ready for Family Scouting day 1. It also ensures the changes we need to make as a pack to welcome female scouts will be front and center at every level of the Pack.

To the leaders of our Pack, thank you for your thoughtful consideration about Family Scouting. Thank you for your commitment to stand the program up early. Thank you for the work you will do in the days and weeks ahead to ensure our first female scouts have fun and feel safe and welcome.

And to the boys already in the Pack, let’s remember that a scout is helpful, friendly, courteous, and kind. We need your help as young leaders in our pack to make sure every young lady that joins us is treated as you would want to be treated.

As we speak, Camp Tuckahoe and others in the area are being renovated to provide equal facilities for female scouts. That means Cub Camp and Webelos Resident Camp this June are open to all scouts – male and female – in our Pack.