I had some issues with the Girl Scouts. It became clear pretty quickly that they, much like the komen foundation, are about generating revenue more than anything else. I was the cookie "mom" for my daughter's brownie troop and will never buy another box of those cookies.
As Tez3 has pointed in the direction of Sir Baden-Powell, I will also point in that direction to a young woman who was inspired by him and his wife Lady Baden-Powell's venture into Girl Guiding. Juliette Gordon Lowe was interested in learning all things generally considered feminine AND masculine, believing that women's thorough understanding of outdoorsmanship, first aid, construction, woodwork, stonework and weaponry were just as important as the thorough understanding of cooking, cleaning, rearing children, cleaning, sewing for the frontier woman and the ladies who insisted on mentoring young women here.
The Girl Scout experience - at least in this area - has evolved into a club where girls spend much time in volunteerism, fundraising for trips and education. We have no rank now, but age group-based designations. We do have the opportunity to earn badges and awards, but the Girl Scout charter is not designed to serve the girls well.
For instance - Girl Scout cookies last fall were $4.50 per box. Troops selling these cookies receive approximately 65 cents for each box sold. Juliettes (girls without troop) earn 75 cents, I believe. Girls can only hold one more troop-based fundraiser for general activities per year and they must spend all the money they earn the same year they earn it unless they are saving for a designated trip which must be planned with the council TWO-THREE YEARS in advance. Only if they have a designated activity for which they must raise a lot of money, they can only raise funds 2x per year.
By contrast, Boy Scouts can raise funds whenever they please. They can craft items to be sold at almost any meeting or activity. The funds go into their Scout Account and the cost of camping or hiking trips comes out of that. If there is money left over in their account once they age out, THEY GET TO KEEP THE MONEY.
Training for Girl Scouts in this area is the most piss-poor thing I think I've ever seen. At "Advanced Camping Skills" training, one instructor couldn't even put up a tent. Only one leader had experience with lashing and only because she was exposed to BSA training. And don't get me started on how we were taught to "safely" carry an axe and mechete.
When we were on the Neighborhood governance system, we were extremely fortunate to have a few leaders who were not only active in Boy Scouts for their sons but whose husbands were Scoutmasters. We received the opportunity to stay at Camp Merriwether near Tillamook, Oregon where they have two archery ranges, a black powder range, a .22 range amongst others. You would not believe the hoops we had to jump through to allow 14 year-old girls and up the opportunity to fire black powder rifles let alone go at all. The politics behind this were just unbelievable. Amazingly, our council was far more ready to allow young girls the chance at archery claiming it to be much safer than guns. *sigh* We were able to do this only twice. The third year, we were shut down from attending *any* BSA camp where shooting ranges of any kind exist and shooting guns became a forbidden GS activity.
I co-chaired the neighborhood for two years right before we changed to the Vista/Service Unit model.
The Girl Scout promo line is "For Every Girl, Every Where" and while we still have "G-d" in the promise, it is made very clear that those objecting to the term may simply eliminate it. The organization, to their credit, has made a point of welcoming LBGQTA youth of all religious persuasions including Muslims. Many of the programs they have in place are designed for self-discovery and for understanding, tolerance and benevolence.
That said ... the ever-changing curriculum leaves a proving ground with few traditions, few incentives and a largely traditional-feminine resource base. I rejoiced in hearing young girls protest to the things they had to do as opposed to things their little brothers were doing that they couldn't and tired of hearing excuses as to why young girls shouldn't need to learn such things.
The women in our area are just not extensively trained in the things girls like my daughter wanted to do and there is no training module for these skills except in Boy Scouting. While some older leaders will encourage this, the council does not.
I buy cookies or donate the cost of a box for each girl scout who asks me simply because I know it is one of only two ways she can earn funds to accomplish damn near anything in her experience and with the hope that she might be able to effectuate progress as well.
In the meantime, GSUSA is wasting money by chasing new membership instead of fostering its existing membership in more progressive ways. Perhaps by the time I have a great-granddaughter the organization will be more worthy of time and financial investments.
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Training is the real key though, in my opinion. The more training the leaders of your Troop have had, the better your Troop will run and the boys will get more out of it. Even the occassional campout driver should have at least the minimum training. The more people know what is expected, the better everything runs.
