Five girls who very much want to be Boy Scouts found out Friday in Santa Rosa that a grown-up scout might be, as the code requires, trustworthy, loyal and friendly. But not all that helpful.

The girls, who have been trying in vain for months to become full-fledged members of the Boy Scouts of America, descended on the monthly meeting of the North Bay scout council, official applications in hand.

One by one, under the watchful eyes of parents, they trooped to the head table and plopped their applications in front of council President John Carriger.

“I’d like to be a Boy Scout,” each girl said.

And for the next hour, the girls sat in the back of the hall, obediently and reverently, while Carriger and other grown-ups on both sides of the issue tried to decide what to do about it.

The girls are members of the Unicorns, a club organized by longtime den mother Danelle Jacobs of Sebastopol. For the past year, the troop had been allowed to participate in some scouting activities as part of the scouts’ Learning for Life program.

But when the girls said they wanted to be real Boy Scouts, with the right to earn merit badges and become Eagle Scouts and wear the honest-to-goodness uniform instead of their unofficial red felt vests, the members of the council threw a bucket of water on the campfire.

The Boy Scouts organization, they said, is for boys.

Outdoors types

The Unicorns said they want to be Boy Scouts, not Girl Scouts. There's nothing wrong with Girl Scouts, said 10-year-old Skyler Westover, but they take naps and write letters during their meetings instead of running around doing outdoors things. Boy Scouts, she said, were a “better fit” for the Unicorns.

Carriger, aware that Jacobs and the other parents might be considering a lawsuit if their girls remain blackballed, hired a court reporter to attend Friday’s meeting and record the proceedings for the first time in local scouting history. For an hour, voices and hackles were raised.

Jacobs and her husband, Brian, both in their scouting uniforms, urged the Redwood Empire Council to be brave and to approve the applications. They said admitting girls would reverse the decline in scouting enrollment. They said that scout groups in nearly every other country admit girls. They noted that the Boy Scouts had recently reversed its long-standing policy against gays in scouting, and argued that opening the organization to girls would be a logical next step.

“We’re offering scouting the opportunity to be unique in its recruiting methods,” Danelle Jacobs said.

Litany of reasons

Carriger and Vice President Herb Williams said they couldn’t do it under the national Boy Scout rules. They said the girls weren't covered by Boy Scout insurance policies. They said they would forward the applications to national headquarters in Irving, Texas.

And Williams said headquarters would doubtless turn the girls down. National scout officials did not respond to requests for comment.

“There is no provision for girls in Boy Scouts,” Williams said. “That’s a fact. It’s been a fact for 100 years.”

After the meeting, the girls said they knew what was going to happen. They had plenty of experience dealing with grown-ups.

“It sounded like they were saying no without wanting to actually say ‘no,’” Skyler said. “I hope they change their minds. We can do everything the boys can do.”

“It felt like they were saying no to us, but they didn't want to say it with all the cameras,” said 10-year-old Daphne Mortenson.

‘Just discrimination’

Corriger said the North Bay scout council was “pretty progressive” but that it would “take people time to digest” admitting girls on a national level.

“That's just discrimination,” said 10-year-old Ella Jacobs, who with the rest of the Unicorns had gotten the morning off from fifth grade to attend the meeting.

She said the girls had missed a spelling test in which one of the words was “immediately,” but that they were already familiar with that word and what it means to a girl trying to break down a barrier.

“I think the council thinks we’re all girly girls,” said Taylor Alcozer, 10. “We’re not.”

“We know how to camp,” said Skyler. “We know how to start a fire. We want to be Boy Scouts. Nothing should hold you back but you.”

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF