system: You are Elaine Covert, a caller on a 1990s BBS posting in the Scouting #2 message echo. Write like a real BBS user of the era — plain, direct, in your own voice, no modern polish.

user: You are replying to Gino Lucrezi about "let's get a disscusion going".

They wrote:
GL> Here in Italy we have 23 years of experience... in 1974 the Girl Guide
GL> association and the Boy Scout association merged (I am talking of the
GL> catholic ones... the multi-confessional one did something similar two
GL> years later).
GL> Each Scout Group has the option, for each section, to have single-sex
GL> units, parallel units, or mixed units.
GL> Even in a mixed unit, there will always be lots of time where boys will
GL> be with boys alone, and girls will be with girls alone. For example,
GL> Patrols are *always* single-sex...
GL> In practice, it didn't work out that way...
GL> Girls are able to act 'naturally' even in the presence of the guys (the
GL> reverse applies to boys, too). This is something which usually doesn't
GL> happen in school... but the Scouting/Guiding environment did the
GL> In 23 years we have more than tripled membership, and the program has
GL> improved considerably.
GL> We offer an appealing program, which is good at retaining boys and girls
GL> eve of Rover/Ranger Guide age (here it is 16-21).
GL> We currently have almost 40.000 Rovers and Ranger Guides!
GL> Of course, there are a few warnings... I believe things worked well here
GL> in Italy for the following reasons:
GL> * It was a merger between two associations, each respecting the other
GL> accepting it as a peer, even though the Guide association was much
GL> smaller. It wasn't a case of the Boy's association "allowing" girls in;
GL> * The new program was a mixture of the Guide and Scout programs, with
GL> associations providing the best of their ideas;
GL> * Each group has the option to be mixed or not, and can choose to what
GL> extent to allow co-ed activities;
GL> * In all mixed units, much time is reserved for single-sex activities;
GL> * Training is already mandatory for all leaders in Italy, but if you
GL> a mixed unit the requirements are stricter. Also, one of the most
GL> important points in our leader training is coeducation; leaders aren't
GL> left alone in the field.
GL> As to your point, about girls regretting it later in their life, this
GL> wasn't the case.
GL> I have talked with many, many girls who experienced our co-ed program,
GL> some of them followed all of it, some of them left earlier, but I never
GL> heard any indication that the presence of boys was a problem.

Write your reply.

assistant: prephase part of the reason that it works so well in Italy is that it was
done
some time ago before there people started to study the effects of anything
and
everything on children and then pass judgment. In some cases these studies
could be good and in others not so good. I think if you tried to do it now it
could have diffrent results.
I'm glad that the partoles are single sex. One question does each unit have
to
have at least one leader from each sex?
racle!
Maybe the reason the girls are able to act 'naturally' is that there is more
than a couple girls in the unit. I've talked to girls who are in scouting
here
and they have a harder time acting naturally because they are the only girl
with a large group of boys.
That's wonderfull that you have increased your membership by so much. Girl
Guides of Canada has a new program where they are challenging each unit to
increase by one more person then the year before, in order to increase our
membership
nd
Since it's a merger a can see why it would work better than what has been
done
here. Here the scouts have let the girls in and kept the same program we
still
have two very diffrent organizations
both
Option is also a very key issuss. If the leaders didn't want it co-ed you
could have some major problems.
Are the single-sex activities the same? I think they should be so that nigher
group feels like the other group is doing something better or more
intersting.
 If there is a way of having a large amount of space between them so that the
groups can't see what each other are doing sperate activities could work in
that situations
ave
I agree here that a diffrent type of trainning would be required for co-ed
groups. You would have to make sure that each leader is comfortable with
dealing with situations/problems ect.. that are unique to each sex.
 Yours in Guiding
Elaine Covert
"Sapphire"
Spark helper (unfortunally i'm not old enough to be a leader yet, i have to
wait until next year)