Oh, boy, did the Boy Scouts of America announce a big change last October.
The organization, now 108 years old, said it would begin officially accepting girls starting this year.
But it's not so revolutionary to Michael McNamara of Bryant, who is the father of three girls as well as Cub Master of Pack 12 that meets at Pulaski Heights Methodist Church in Little Rock
His daughters -- 7-year-old Leyann, 10-year-old Melyni, and 13-year-old Aszureigh -- already have been involved for years.
He says, "They always went because, the thing about all this is, Cub Scouts has always been family-oriented, and the girls have always been there, they just weren't able to earn the ranks. This has just allowed them to come in and do the exact same thing and earn all the badges."
His girls aren't alone in wanting to be involved.
H.G. "Butch" Walker, development director for the Boy Scouts of America's Quapaw Area Council, says, "Over the years we have always had situations where ... girls sitting in the classes are sitting there going, 'Gosh, I wish I could do that.' ... There has always been a certain amount of demand that's been expressed for girls to be able to participate."
For the benefit of the girls, and also for the parents, according to the organization's research.
Walker says, "With the increasing pace of life and families being busier than they've ever been, many, many families were looking for a single program that could serve all of their kids' needs."
Families can now officially enroll their children (kindergarten through fifth grade) in Cub Scouts. A separate program for older children (ages 11-17) will be offered beginning in 2019.
"To ensure that the program name makes all participants feel welcome, the Boy Scouting program name will change to Scouts BSA in February 2019 and participants will simply be known as 'scouts,'" though the organization will continue to be known as Boy Scouts of America, according to a flier from the Quapaw Area Council, which serves 39 counties.
But while girls now will be part, Walker says, "It's actually technically not coed."
Wait, huh?
"The reason is it is still a single-gender program at the fundamental levels," he says.
With Scouts BSA, he says, "There will be no girls being added to any Boy Scouts troops. There will be new units, new groups being formed for girls. All troops will be either all boys or all girls."
And at the Cub Scouts level, where larger packs are organized into dens according to grade, there will be separate dens for girls and boys.
But there already is a whole separate organization for girls. And it's not very happy with the Boy Scouts scouting out its membership.
"The need for female leadership has never been clearer or more urgent than it is today -- and only Girl Scouts has the expertise to give girls and young women the tools they need for success," Girl Scouts of America has said in a statement. "We're committed to preparing the next generation of women leaders, and we're here to stay."
And what about the people who think Boy Scouts should just be for, well, boys?
At the Scout BSA level, Walker says, chartering organizations can make that call: "Boy Scouts works by partnering with organizations in the community: churches, schools, other organizations. ... No chartering organization is being told they have to take boys or girls. They get to choose what kind of program they want to run. If a chartering organization -- a particular church, for example -- has a conviction that they don't want any girls in this program, they can run it this way and that's fine."
Still McNamara thinks including boys and girls is beneficial to everyone.
"All these girls that have brothers that are in the Cub Scouts are now able to go and be just as big of a part of it when before they were kind of in the shadows," he says. "And the parents don't have to go to a meeting here and then have to go to a meeting somewhere else. ... Cub Scouts, to me, is perfect because everyone's together and all the same night."
Interested boys and girls in kindergarten through fifth grade can attend the Quapaw Area Council's Join Scouting Night at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the elementary schools closest to their homes. The cost is $20 or less. Visit QuapawBSA.org or call (501) 664-4780.
All that being said, none of the above column would have made much of a difference to a young Jenny Christman, whose Scouting career was both unsuccessful and short-lived.
After a brief stint in Brownies -- where she refused to wear the hat and ate far more cookies than she ever sold -- she attended the Girl Scouts initiation ceremony. But upon noticing that none of her little friends were there, she -- a total follower who didn't absorb all those leadership lessons -- asked her mom if they could leave. "Sure!" said her mom, content to go home and watch TV and raise a total quitter.
Oh, look -- time to quit writing!
Earn your email badge:
jchristman@arkansasonline.com
What's in a Dame is a weekly report from the woman 'hood.
Style on 08/21/2018