Boy Scouts to get new name after 108 years as girls join group @boyscouts @girlscouts #ScoutMeIn

Boy Scouts to get new name after 108 years as girls join group – New York Post.

For 108 years, the Boy Scouts of America’s flagship program has been known simply as the Boy Scouts. With girls soon entering the ranks, the group says that iconic name will change.

The organization on Wednesday announced a new name for its Boy Scouts program: Scouts BSA. The change will take effect next February.

…the Boy Scouts — the program for 11- to 17-year-olds — will now be Scouts BSA.

…

The name change comes amid strained relations between the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of America.

Girl Scout leaders said they were blindsided by the move, and they are gearing up an aggressive campaign to recruit and retain girls as members.

Stats from the article:

The Boy Scouts say current youth participation is about 2.3 million, down from 2.6 million in 2013 and more than 4 million in peak years of the past.

The Girl Scouts say they have about 1.76 million girls and more than 780,000 adult members, down from just over 2 million youth members and about 800,000 adult members in 2014.

Read more.

Based on the articles and quotes from the Girl Scouts, it appears this was not expected. The Boy Scouts of America have launched “Scout Me In” – detail here, which add girls to the cub scouts.

Both the Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts use Adafruit guides, products and more to teach STEM, we’ve had a few meetings and email exchanges with some of the upper-level folks over the years, we’ve been focused on encouraging modern skills and fun projects. Things move slow for large organizations so we did a round of skill badges to keep up with current technology (3D printing, etc).

Skill “badges” that are real electronic badges, to “electronic sashes“…

We’re going to email some of our contacts and see what’s possible again, for both organizations for future ideas and projects for young folks regardless of what scouting program they’re in.

6 years ago, I wrote “Time For Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts 2.0?” on MAKE, some things have changed, some have not. Some addition “scouting” news over the year here at Adafruit too…