Photo by Paula Merritt / The Meridian StarKen Kercheval, Choctaw Area Council Boy Scouts of America Executive and CEO, said the organization is welcoming girls after years of requests from girls and families.

When leaders from the Boy Scouts of America visit schools to recruit new members, one thing almost always happens.

Girls want to join, too.

“I just know from talking to anywhere from first to fifth graders in the fall — in my 27 years — girls have always begged, ‘we want to join the scouts,’ ” said Ken Kercheval, Scout Executive/CEO of the Choctaw Area Council.

The Boy Scouts announced in October it would allow girls to join the Cub Scouts beginning in 2018, and the decision came after “years of receiving requests from families and girls,” a statement said.

But there have been mixed opinions about this historic move, as some people might have the wrong idea about the inclusion of girls into the organization.

“People stop me and ask, ‘how’s it going to work putting them all in the same tent?’” Kercheval said. “And that’s just not going to happen. We’ll have conversations with our charter partners and sponsors, and it will be their choice whether they want girl programs.”

According to the statement, the board “unanimously approved to welcome girls into its iconic Cub Scout program and to deliver a scouting program for older girls that will enable them to advance and earn the highest rank of Eagle Scout.”

Cub Scouts are organized in packs and dens.

Kercheval said the local charter organizations will choose one of three situations: two separate packs for each gender; girl dens and boy dens within the same pack; or they can choose to just serve boys.

As for camping trips, “there will be one week for girls and a week for boys — a girl program and a boy program,” Kercheval said.

According to the statement, “the organization will also deliver a program for older girls, which will be announced in 2018 and projected to be available in 2019, that will enable them to earn the Eagle Scout rank.”

While many saw this as a win for young girls who want to participate in what Boy Scouts has to offer, this move was not well-received by the Girl Scouts of America.

Girl Scouts President Kathy Hopinkah Hannan wrote in a letter to BSA President Randall Stephenson, “We were disappointed in the lack of transparency as we learned that you are surreptitiously testing the appeal of a girls’ offering to millennial parents,” an October Washington Post report said. “Furthermore, it is inherently dishonest to claim to be a single gender organization while simultaneously endeavoring upon a co-ed model,”

Hannan blamed the BSA’s declining membership, which has “dwindled by a third since 2000,” the report said.

Kercheval agreed that membership has taken a hit, especially over the last decade, but things are looking up for the local council.

“We’re actually going to end the year with a five percent increase in membership,” Kercheval said of the council, which serves Lauderdale, Clarke, Newton, Kemper and Neshoba Counties in Mississippi and Choctaw County in Alabama. “We’ll finish the year with about 1,200 scouts in all our programs combined — Cub Scouts, Webelos, Boy Scouts and Venturing and Exploring – two coed programs for ages 14 to 20.”

Pack 2 Cubmaster Ricky Follin said he supports the program, but it will most likely be more of a strain on the volunteers than the scouts themselves.

“In some respects it’s going to be easier on families with small children that can put both in the program,” Follin said. “Cub Scouts is all about family and families doing things together.”

Kercheval agreed.

“Finding the parents willing to be volunteers — those are the same challenges we’ve had and those are the ones we’re going to have,” Kercheval said.

This won’t be the first time girls have been welcomed into BSA programs. The Exploring and Venturing programs are co-ed programs that have operated under BSA’s umbrella for several years.

The BSA also ended a ban on openly gay scouts about four years ago and started allowing gay troop leaders in 2015. Earlier this year, BSA announced it would allow transgender boys to participate.