After the organization Boy Scouts of America (BSA) became gender inclusive on Feb. 1, 2019, freshman Megan Poretsky, along with 176,234 other girls, decided to take the opportunity and join BSA.
The Boy Scouts program is very different from Girl Scouts, causing a wave of young girls to join once they were allowed. In Girl Scouts, members are not expected to learn or know the same skills taught in the BSA, such as cycling, shooting and camping. Instead, they learn different skills, like money management, goal setting and decision-making.
“I never found that spark with Girl Scouts,” Megan said. “I never found something that really made me want to be active and want to have a leadership role.”
BSA provides Poretsky with the outdoor experience and skills she originally wanted to gain from the program. Jeff Poretsky, Megan’s father and Chair of Troop 614, offered to put Megan in a separate all-girls, orthodox BSA troop.
“I’ve been waiting for years for the United States of America to catch up with the rest of the world with scouting being for all youth,” Jeff said.
Although Megan is not a founding member of her troop, she is a patrol leader. This means she plans events, creates the calendar and leads some of the meetings and events.
“She is the youth leader, she’s in charge,” Troop Leader Jeffery Cohen said. “She sets the calendar with the help of the other scouts, and I just follow along and make sure that those things happen.”
Megan’s troop is scout-run, meaning that the adult’s role is only to supervise. This teaches empowerment, leadership and independence skills that members can take with them throughout their lives. Scouts learn how to lead a hike and how to interact with other people in unique situations.
Megan’s troop consists of four girls including herself. Although small, the group’s size allows them to get tasks done efficiently, and work to understand each other.
“I really like how tight-knit the whole community is,” Meghan said. “We all communicate really well with each other, and we’ve all really become like our own family.”
In the early days of the troop, the biggest challenge they faced was that none of the girls knew anything about scouting. Many of them had previously done Girl Scouts, but did not know the depth of BSA scouting.
“The closest [to understanding scouting] was my child, who had older brothers who had been in various scouting programs,” Cohen said.
However, the troop did not let that stop them. They continued with recruitment, traditions and other activities that make scouting life fun for members.
The biggest challenge that they currently face is that there is a male leader for an all-girls troop. To address this, the girls hear from women in and outside of their communities who talk about things unlike what the BSA talks about with their boy troops such as women’s empowerment and health.
“There are some topics that need to be covered with girls that may be less appropriate and perhaps more uncomfortable to have an adult male talking with the girls about for those times,” Cohen said. “I have reached out to either some of the female adults involved with this group or females in the greater community to come in and talk to them.”
Megan is very fond of the friendships she has made throughout her experience in scouting with BSA. The friendships she made are one of the factors that have made her come so far in her scouting journey.
“I think I chose an all-girls group because I wanted a group of girls that I can really trust,” Megan said.