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GS 10/12
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Boy Scouts announce plans to admit girls to the Cub Scouts (UPDATED WITH STATEMENT)
Oct 11, 2017 | WNCN (CBS 17)
By AP / Staff
The Boy Scouts announce plans to admit girls to the Cub Scouts and establish new program for older girls. -
Local reactions to girls being allowed in Boy Scouts
Oct 11, 2017 | Fox 8
By Kim Wynne
Interview: http://myfox8.com/2017/10/11/local-reactions-to-girls-being-allowed-in-boy-scouts/ Amanda Wyckoff says it came as a shock Wednesday when the Boy Scouts of America announced it was letting girls join. -
Boy Scouts to let girls into Cub Scouts, will develop program for older girls
Oct 12, 2017 | Greensboro News & Record
By AP
Cub Scout membership will likely increase next year when the Boy Scouts of America begin admitting girls into that group, a local Boy Scouts’ official said Wednesday. -
FOX8 News at 9:00A
Oct 12, 2017 | WGHP (FOX )
By Greensboro, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30052778?token=3f7f8044-6411-41b3-8a35-73d3e972b8f7 -
Good Morning Show
Oct 12, 2017 | WFMY (CBS)
By Greensboro, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30052783?token=3f7f8044-6411-41b3-8a35-73d3e972b8f7 -
FOX8 News at 6:00A
Oct 12, 2017 | WGHP (FOX)
By Greensboro, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30052989?token=3f7f8044-6411-41b3-8a35-73d3e972b8f7 -
North Carolina News at 6:00AM
Oct 12, 2017 | WNCN (CBS)
By Raleigh Durham
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30052994?token=3f7f8044-6411-41b3-8a35-73d3e972b8f7 -
News Channel 12 This Morning
Oct 12, 2017 | WCTI (ABC)
By Greenville, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30053012?token=3f7f8044-6411-41b3-8a35-73d3e972b8f7
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Broadcast Media Coverage
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Boy Scouts announce plans to admit girls to the Cub Scouts (UPDATED WITH STATEMENT)
Oct 11, 2017 | WNCN (CBS 17)
By AP / Staff
The Boy Scouts announce plans to admit girls to the Cub Scouts and establish new program for older girls.
The announcement was made after “years of receiving requests from families and girls,” the Scouts said.
“This decision is true to the BSA’s mission and core values outlined in the Scout Oath and Law. The values of Scouting – trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind, brave and reverent, for example – are important for both young men and women,” said Michael Surbaugh, the BSA’s Chief Scout Executive.
The Boy Scouts said it aims to make “convenient programs that serve the whole family more appealing.”
“The BSA’s record of producing leaders with high character and integrity is amazing” said Randall Stephenson, BSA’s national board chairman. “I’ve seen nothing that develops leadership skills and discipline like this organization. It is time to make these outstanding leadership development programs available to girls.”
Starting in the 2018 program year, families can choose to sign up their sons and daughters for Cub Scouts.
Existing packs may choose to establish a new girl pack, establish a pack that consists of girl dens and boy dens or remain an all-boy pack.
Cub Scout dens will be single-gender — all boys or all girls.
“I’m excited about that news. Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts is a family program. We’ve had siblings of cub scouts around a lot of times,” Stuart Thomas, a Scout Leader for Troop 214 in Raleigh said.
“I don’t see why they just don’t blend it and call it scouts. And have just one big group,” Andrew Buschine, a former scout said.
The Girl Scouts — North Carolina Coastal Pines released the following statement:
Research shows that girls learn best in an all-girl, girl-led environment, which is why Girl Scouts – North Carolina Coastal Pines is committed to providing a safe, inclusive space in which girls are free to explore their potential and take the lead with programs designed for and with girls. From learning to engineer robots to outdoor adventuring to earning the highest award our program offers, the Girl Scout Gold Award, where girls make a sustainable impact locally and globally, only Girl Scouts offers the time-tested, researched backed programs that empower girls to raise their hands, make their voices heard, and change the world. Girl Scouts is, and will remain, the best youth leadership development program for girls in the world.
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Local reactions to girls being allowed in Boy Scouts
Oct 11, 2017 | Fox 8
By Kim Wynne
Interview: http://myfox8.com/2017/10/11/local-reactions-to-girls-being-allowed-in-boy-scouts/
Amanda Wyckoff says it came as a shock Wednesday when the Boy Scouts of America announced it was letting girls join.
“It took us back a little just because we weren't brought to the table for that option,” said Wyckoff, outside recruitment manager for Girl Scouts Carolinas Peaks to Piedmont in Guilford County.
It’s an organization she says that still plans to be around and serve girls despite the Boy Scouts opening its doors to both genders.
“We will continue to have our camping trips that serve girls,” Wyckoff said. “We're going to continue to have our programming which serves girls.”
“I don't see from the standpoint of Girl Scouts how it's going to challenge anything that we've been doing,” she said.
A statement on the Boy Scouts website says girls can join Cub Scouts starting next year.
The group will also come up with a program for older girls, allowing them to earn the highest rank of Eagle Scout.
“That's not going to deter us from what our main mission has been from the beginning,” Wyckoff said.
Wycoff says, if anything, she thinks the changes will help bring more girls to their troops.
“By no means are we saying that Boy Scouts doesn't have something great to offer,” she said. “But, we know and have the research that shows that girl-led programming is what they really need to flourish in our society.”
Some parents say they have a lot of questions on why the change is needed.
“I understand the equality and girls can do anything a boy can do but just confused as to what the purpose is behind it,” Cathie Roberts said.
“There's Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts,” Kevin Stewart said. “It's called Girl Scouts for a reason and it's called Boy Scouts for a reason. What are they gonna change it to just Scouts now?” he said.
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Boy Scouts to let girls into Cub Scouts, will develop program for older girls
Oct 12, 2017 | Greensboro News & Record
By AP
Cub Scout membership will likely increase next year when the Boy Scouts of America begin admitting girls into that group, a local Boy Scouts’ official said Wednesday.
“For many years, families have expressed interest in opportunities for girls to experience and benefit from the leadership and character development programs like those traditionally offered to boys through the Boy Scouts of America,” said Steve Wilburn, the chief executive of the national organization’s Old Hickory Council. “So, we expect a positive response when girls are given a chance to participate in Cub Scouts starting next fall.”
In its latest momentous policy shift, the Boy Scouts of America will admit girls into the Cub Scouts starting next year and establish a new program for older girls based on the Boy Scout curriculum that enables them to aspire to the coveted Eagle Scout rank.
The Old Hickory Council in Winston-Salem has 4,525 youth members and 2,136 adult volunteers in eight counties, including Forsyth County and seven counties in Northwest North Carolina, according to its website.
Ed Martin, the chief executive of the Old North State Council of the Boys Scouts of America, declined to comment on the national organization’s announcement on opening its Cub Scouts to girls. Martin pointed to the Boys Scouts’ statement about the matter.
The Old North State Council, which is based in Greensboro, covers eight counties in the Piedmont North Carolina.
Under the new plan, Cub Scout dens — the smallest unit — will be single-gender, either all-boys or all-girls. The larger Cub Scout packs will have the option to remain single gender or welcome both genders. The program for older girls is expected to start in 2019 and will enable girls to earn the same Eagle Scout rank that has been attained by astronauts, admirals, senators and other luminaries.
“Many groups currently underserved by Scouting, including the Hispanic and Asian communities, prefer to participate in activities as a family,” the Scouts said in its statement.
Founded in 1910 and long considered a bastion of tradition, the Boy Scouts have undergone major changes in the past five years, agreeing to accept openly gay youth members and adult volunteers, as well as transgender boys.
The expansion of girls’ participation, announced Wednesday after unanimous approval by the organization’s board of directors, is arguably the biggest change yet, potentially opening the way for hundreds of thousands of girls to join.
Many scouting organizations in other countries already allow both genders and use gender-free names such as Scouts Canada. But for now, the Boy Scout label will remain.
“There are no plans to change our name at this time,” spokeswoman Effie Delimarkos said in an email.
Boy Scout leaders said the change was needed to provide more options for parents.
“The values of scouting — trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind, brave and reverent, for example — are important for both young men and women,” said Michael Surbaugh, chief scout executive.
The announcement follows many months of outreach by the BSA, which distributed videos and held meetings to discuss the possibility of expanding girls’ participation beyond existing programs, such as Venturing, Exploring and Sea Scouts.
Surveys conducted by the Boy Scouts showed strong support for the change among parents not currently connected to the scouts, including Hispanic and Asian families that the BSA has been trying to attract. Among families already in the scouting community, the biggest worry, according to Surbaugh, was that the positive aspects of single-sex comradeship might be jeopardized.
“We’ll make sure those environments are protected,” he said. “What we’re presenting is a fairly unique hybrid model.”
During the outreach, some parents expressed concern about possible problems related to overnight camping trips. Surbaugh said there would continue to be a ban on mixed-gender overnight outings for scouts ages 11 to 14. Cub Scout camping trips, he noted, were usually family affairs with less need for rigid polices.
The Girl Scouts of the USA have criticized the initiative, saying it strains the century-old bond between the two organizations. Girl Scout officials have suggested the BSA’s move was driven partly by a need to boost revenue, and they contended there is fiscal stress in part because of past settlements paid by the BSA in sex-abuse cases.
In August, the president of the Girl Scouts, Kathy Hopinkah Hannan, accused the Boy Scouts of seeking to covertly recruit girls into their programs while disparaging the Girl Scouts’ operations. On Monday, Latino civic leader Charles Garcia, just days after being named to the Girl Scouts’ national board, wrote an opinion piece for the Huffington Post calling the BSA’s overture to girls “a terrible idea.”
“The Boy Scouts’ house is on fire,” Garcia wrote. “Instead of addressing systemic issues of continuing sexual assault, financial mismanagement and deficient programming, BSA’s senior management wants to add an accelerant to the house fire by recruiting girls.”
Instead of recruiting girls, Garcia said the BSA should focus on attracting more black, Latino and Asian boys — particularly those from low-income households.
The BSA recently increased its annual membership fee for youth members and adult volunteers from $24 to $33, but Surbaugh said the decision to expand programming for girls was not driven by financial factors. He expressed enthusiasm at the possibility that the changes could draw hundreds of thousands more girls into BSA ranks over the coming years.
The Girl Scouts, founded in 1912, and the BSA are among several major youth organizations in the U.S. experiencing sharp drops in membership in recent years. Reasons include competition from sports leagues, a perception by some families that they are old-fashioned and busy family schedules.
As of March, the Girl Scouts reported more than 1.5 million youth members and 749,000 adult members, down from just over 2 million youth members and about 800,000 adult members in 2014. The Boy Scouts say current youth participation is about 2.35 million, down from 2.6 million in 2013 and more than 4 million in peak years of the past.
Earlier this year, the National Organization for Women urged the Boy Scouts to allow girls to join. NOW said it was inspired by the efforts of a 15-year-old New York City girl, Sydney Ireland, to emulate her older brother, who is an Eagle Scout.
Unlike the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts have maintained girls-only status for all their programs. The empowerment of girls is at the core of its mission.
“We know that girls learn best in an all-girl, girl-led environment,” said Andrea Bastiani Archibald, a psychologist who provides expertise on development for the Girl Scouts’ national programming.
The Boy Scouts’ new policy on girls was hailed by Zach Wahls, an Eagle Scout who played an active role in pressuring the BSA to end its ban on gays. However, he urged the Boy Scouts to take one more step and end its exclusion of atheists and non-believers who do not profess a “duty to God.”
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Oct 12, 2017 | WGHP (FOX )
By Greensboro, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30052778?token=3f7f8044-6411-41b3-8a35-73d3e972b8f7
Rough Transcript: the girl scouts, they're not just about peddling cookies ... they're about producing leaders. "we go back to 1890 with ou candy heritage." plus -- more on the swet history behind one local business. this is a break little girls these days grow up 9:11 AM9:12 AM9:13 AMbelieving they can become anything . even boy scouts. the organization just announced it will acept girls. but taking the limits off the dreams of little girls is something the girl scouts have been working towards for decades. gayle rose is the chief operating officer for girl scouts carolinas peaks to piedmont. she's with us this morning. 9:14 AMgirl scouts is the best girl leadership organization in the world, created with and for girls. we believe strongly in the importance of the all-girl, girl-led, and girl-friendly environment that girl scouts provides, which creates a fre space for girls to learn and thrive. the benefit of the single- gender environment has been well-documented by educators, scholars, other girl- and youth-serving organizations, and girl scouts and their families. girl scouts offers a one-of-a-kind experience for girls with a program tailored specificaly to their unique developmental needs. at girl scouts, we are the girl experts, and for more than a century we have provided millions of girls opportunities for adventure, inspiration, and valuable mentoring. offering hands-on, girl- centered learning in stem, the outdoors, and entrepreneurship, and abundant opportunities to develop invaluable life skills, girl scoutshelps al girls take the lead early and often. the girl 9:15 AMscout leadership experience pairs girls with strong, caring female role models and mentors who prepare them to take the lead from age 5 to 18 and into adulthod. and were backed by more than 10 years of experience and expertise in the field. 9:16 AMif you'd like more information check out the website .... w-w-w be a girl scout dot com or cal 1-80-672-2148
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Oct 12, 2017 | WFMY (CBS)
By Greensboro, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30052783?token=3f7f8044-6411-41b3-8a35-73d3e972b8f7
Rough Transcript: this stirring a lot of debate today on wfmy news to com after years of receiving requests from families and girls boy scouts of america will now allow girls to be part of its programs starting next year girls between seven and ten years old will be allowed to join the cub scouts then in twenty nineteen a separate program for older girls will be created allowing them to earn the top rank of eagle scout that a boy scout said he made the move because quote the values of scouting are important for both young men and young women talk to parents about what they want for their kids and what we heard is that they want their sons and daughters to have a place where they can comes a family participate in exciting activities the lead character leadership development. not every girl must want to do the a girl scouts you i dont i was new things that the boy scouts you well when for word first leaked about this plan the head of the girl scouts wrote a letter requesting the boy scouts quote stay focused on serving the ninety percent of american boy is not currently participating in boy scouts both organizations have declining membership numbers
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Oct 12, 2017 | WGHP (FOX)
By Greensboro, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30052989?token=3f7f8044-6411-41b3-8a35-73d3e972b8f7
Rough Transcript: it's an announcement that's sparking a lot of reaction ... girls wil son be allowed to join the boy scouts. the change goes into efect next year. the boy scouts of america made the decision to let girls join cub scouts after geting years of requests from families. the carolinas peaks to piedmont girl scouts chapter says the decision was a surprise - but they believe it will bring more girls to their program. we will continue to have our camping trips that serve girls. we're going to continue to have our programing which serves girls. i don't se from the standpoint of girl scouts how it's going to challenge anything that we've been doing. a program for older girls, allowing them to earn the highest rank of eagle scout wil start in 2019. the chief operating officer for the girl scouts in our area wil be joining us in the studio this morning.
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Oct 12, 2017 | WNCN (CBS)
By Raleigh Durham
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30052994?token=3f7f8044-6411-41b3-8a35-73d3e972b8f7
Rough Transcript: a big change coming to the boy scouts of america. the board of directors agreed to allow girls into the program. there are 2.3 million kids and adults part of the boy scouts. organizers say the change will help busy families consolidate programs with their children.>> it may cause some competion but i do think they are slightly different programs. i love the girl scouts and i hope they continue to be successful.>> scout leaders admit it may change the dynamics the girls have a lot to contribute girl scouts say research shows girls learn best and all girl and girl lead environment
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Oct 12, 2017 | WCTI (ABC)
By Greenville, NC
Video Link: http://app.criticalmention.com/app/#clip/view/30053012?token=3f7f8044-6411-41b3-8a35-73d3e972b8f7
Rough Transcript: boy scouts of american announcing yet another major change.. it's allowing girls into some of its programs. the decision...was unanimous among its board....but it's getting pushback from its century old partner... the girl scouts. a mother out of the triangle says she's not too happy about the move.. the girls scouts- north carolina coastal pines says quote "research shows that girls learn best in an all- girl, girl-led environment..." they believe that having only girls together offers an: "...inclusive space in which girls are free to explore their potential...' the organization says the decision comes after years of getting requests from families and girls.
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