NORTH DAKOTA (KXNET) — Boy Scouts of America is changing its name to Scouting America.

Organization leaders say the name change isn’t quite official and that won’t happen until February, but troops are encouraged to start using the new name.

Troop 425 Committee Chairman George T. Smith says some people knew the change was coming when girls were admitted a few years ago.

In BSA, troops are either all-boy groups or all-girl groups however, the name change means girls are welcome to Scouting America.

It doesn’t mean they are allowing girls to join an all-boy group, which is one misconception, says Smith.

“The name is a little different, some people thought they were going to drop Boy and go Scouts of America instead of Scouting America but there have been no complaints and our boys and our troop have not complained or anything,” said Smith.

However, the troops can do joint activities together.

All girl groups can have male leaders and all boy troops can have female leaders, but when they go camping, they have to have at least one male and one female leader.

“A lot of people when they think of Boy Scouts one of the first things that comes to mind is the bankruptcy with the child abuse situation. So that might help it fade away a little bit but, there are a lot of people that happened years ago and it was wrong and it has been corrected,” said Smith.

They now have youth protection training and background checks to prevent things like this from happening.

Smith mentions they are in need of volunteers to help lead the little troops.

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