I'm a little late to this thread (maybe that's a good thing???), but I will comment on a few things based solely on my experience with Boy Scouts and personal observations over the years (Eagle Scout, 2003; Asst scout master for 2-3 years following; many camping/backpacking/hiking/summer camp trips during those years).
- The feasibility of any youth co-ed trip in the outdoors (i.e. no gender specific toilets and showers) seems implausible at best. Little girls and little boys peeing/squatting in the woods on the same trip with opposite genders constantly present seems like a poor idea. Also to consider, 10yo little Joey walking up on trip leader Jane squattin in the woods, doesn't foster a positive situation. I can think of many trips I took with other scouts that we either didn't have leaders immediately present (i.e. "wilderness survival" training where several scouts hiked into the backwoods away from the group to sleep under a tree and fend for themselves for the night), or, leaders were not in the vicinity and didn't have a clue what might have/could have been going on for sometimes hours on end. With horny 13yo boys running around on a camping trip with girls they have a crush on, seems to create the perfect environment for all kinds of sexual promiscuity. My experience in scouting, and the opinion of others in my troop, was that anytime a female chaperone was around, it was "weird". It felt odd having a woman authority figure in the context of boy scouts. Was that sexist? I dunno, maybe. Certainly times have changed, but if I wasn't the only one that felt that way, was the entire majority in the wrong? You decide.
With that said, I have participated on a few co-ed backpacking and camping trips that did not have facilities, and it went without issue, but the groups were very small, very tight knit and were very well supervised, constantly. There would be no practical way (that I observe) of this happening based on my scouting experience. To each, their own.
- Some have mentioned financial hardships for BSA. I would agree their operating budget has probably declined in recent years. Is it due to declining involvement and membership? Very possibly. But I know that for many troops that are chartered by a church or religious entity, costs are subsidized by the charter, and as BSA has moved away from its founding "religious" tenets, they have lost those charters, thus losing some of that subsidy. I also think BSA would benefit from revisiting their popcorn fundraisers (which is mandated by many troops). I mean, who doesn't love buying overpriced, disgusting popcorn?? (\sarcasm) I remember when my troop was forced to move from selling citrus, hams and turkeys around the holidays to "boy scout popcorn". Our fundraising plummeted. I hated selling the popcorn. People actually wanted to buy the citrus and hams, instead of making a pity donation in return for some awful scout popcorn.
- To close this, at this time in life, I don't have a dog in the fight. I grew up through scouting but don't participate or donate any longer. My kids (girl and boy) are too young to participate. However, based on decisions from BSA in recent years and how they choose to operate their organization, I do not see myself or my kids participating in the future. As I told my father-in-law recently (when this unfolded), I will pass on my knowledge and experience in all-things-scouting to my kids, but perhaps without "help" from BSA (camping, hiking, shooting, fishing, citizenship, leadership, tree identification, etc). Scouting introduces some very valuable lessons, experiences and requirements for youth as they grow and mature, but as I have observed, I feel that some of it has been watered down in recent years.
My $0.02.
