Were you a girl scout or brownie leader? Give me your advice...

[Anonymous]

Tell me the good/bad/ugly and share your tips for success.

Also, if you have advice about the new "journeys" or just doing badges without a journey, I'd like to hear your thoughts. (especially the Wonders of Water journey).

[Anonymous]

I did it for 5 years. Get a co-leader you trust. If you are not organized, really think twice about it, I just did not have the discipline. Make sure parents are willing to help do one meeting a year if not more. Your location and time need to accommodate water, heating up stuff and being able to go places for more than one hour.

If you are doing with your daughter make a pact with another parent that they are the disciplinarian for your daughter because you will make them miserable living up to your standards when all they want to do is have fun.

I did enjoy it and it gave me insights into my daughter I would not have had otherwise.

[Anonymous]

I've been doing it for two years, and I love it. I have a co-leader with whom I work really well. She has a lot of creative ideas, and I'm a good implementer. She is terrible about email, and I am super email-organized. It has worked beautifully.

I am a teacher by training and am used to planning curriculum, so we tend to plan in three-month chunks. We identified goals in the beginning when our troop formed that we wanted the girls to achieve and also had them identify goals, and then we plan each meeting to meet some of the girls' goals (and ours as well - though ours are pretty much theirs in adult language). We have found that by planning in 'blocks" or themes of a few meetings, it is much easier to decide what to do and to make it meaningful. Initially we met every three weeks but within a few months of the troop forming decided this wasn't enough, so now we meet every two weeks. The girls themselves love the meetings, and we see the richness of what they are learning, so it works well.

I would be happy to chat with you about this off-list if you would like, if you want to post an email address. I should add that I work fulltime and also do other volunteer work, so if I found this onorous, I would not be able to do it. I really find it satisfying and a lot of fun.

[Anonymous]

OP here: Thanks for the advice. Did you do a "journey" or just go on your own plans? I see that the journeys add continuity, but they seem kind of elementary (below the level of girls and kind of slow).

Did you do events that cost money (like $30 for girl scout council-sponsored events) -- and were parents accepting of that or did they chaffe at the thought of spending $30 for a memorable event? I would like to do a few of these in the fall, but I'm afraid there may be parents who won't shell out $30 to learn about sailing on a sailboat or doing a cave adventure (both are related to the journey theme/badges).

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I just finished my 3rd and final year as leader. I took over after another leader already had the girls for 2 years. She had an "all just for fun" attitude. I wanted it to be more than the glorified play date, and planned to make it more enriching for the girls. I always struggled with that transition - with both the girls and parents. So set the tone right off the bat. Figure out what you envision for your troop - focus more on fun? skills? service projects? outdoors? then decide what you want from your parents. I would insist on a co-leader (I never had one), a cookie mom, and a camping mom. Figure out what you will expect from each girl for cookie sales (such as 125 boxes per girl). Have a meeting with parents only before they complete registration, and make all of this crystal clear. Some may back out if they don't agree with the direction you would like to take the troop. That's ok. better off if they aren't involved.

We did a journey one year. Never again. It gets very complicated, and the girls got tired of it. these are take action projects instead of service projects. the difference: a service project is collecting food for a food pantry. A take action project would be starting your own food drive that will continue after your involvement. Yeah....

In our council, the leader decides how much to ask for troop dues (which is in addition to $12 registration fee). Not sure if it's like that everywhere. I always asked for $50, which is very high compared to some troops. But then I would avoid any troop activities that required the parents to pay throughout the year. I thought it was better to have them pay it up front when they can choose to back out if they think it's too much. I would sometimes ask the girls to bring $5-$10 to pay for their own meals, but nothing more than that. When events would come up that I couldn't pay for with troop funds, I would bring it up as an individual event if possible, that the girls could go to on their own if their parents chose to pay for it. Never did anything as a troop that we couldn't pay for with troop funds. I never had a parent complain about the $50.

Easy and big money makers for us were garage sales. the girls learned a lot and could easily make $600-$700 in a two-day sale.

Don't slack off on some of the formalities, such as saying the GS Promise at the start of each meeting, wearing their vest/sash, Kaper chart. It reminds them what it's all about.

We used to meet for 1-1.5 hours twice a month, and then had a field trip about once a month. the last two years, we kept up the field trips but only met for 2 hours once a month. we all liked that A LOT better. the meetings were much more efficient, and we all liked having an extra free night each month.

I tried having parents take turns leading the meetings. It never went very well. Many of them simply weren't that comfortable working with the kids or even being in that mode. It lacked any continuity since everyone's style was different. Maybe have designated tasks that parents rotate helping with at each meeting - such as bringing snacks, help with set up and clean up. But you don't want to give them any tasks that the girls are able to do. Have the girls help with everything they possibly can.

Enjoy this experience!

[Anonymous]

13:03 again. i could go on all day here. lol!

I just wanted to share with you one of my best ideas as a leader. each month I designated a girl to be our "caring and sharing coordinator". She would come up with a service project and coordinate it with the girls. I just asked that they choose something that will not require money from their parents and they needed to let me know how much meeting time they would need, or if they needed it to be one of our monthly field trips. some examples - one girl printed out 10 no texting while driving pledges for each girl. The girls were to have all 10 signed by teens and adults and then returned them at the next meeting. Another girl had us help at a bingo night benefiting an animal shelter. We also made cards for the children's hospital, and rounded up all our extra pencils for The Pencil Project.

this concept went over very well. It gave each girl/family an opportunity to share and work for a cause that's near and dear to their heart. the first yer, I did not ask them to come up with ideas that did not required their parents' money. They did stuff like care packages for soldiers, adopt a family at Christmas, food drive. All wonderful causes, but you can imagine that it got to be too much for some parents.

[Anonymous]

I am just finishing a year as a leader. I won't be returning. Despite my repeated requests for parental involvement, only one family participated in any way at all. I had one family who never paid troop dues. No one would be the cookie parent so we did not sell cookies. Which means we must exist on the troop dues which I told them I would keep low since I anticipated that we would have cookie sales to pull us through the second half the year. Wrong. I have tried to come up with interesting things to do in each meeting. We have done some service projects for the school, some really neat crafting, some outdoor stuff. Several of the families have told me how much their daughter enjoys being in the troop and any time anyone has asked, "is there anything I can do to help," I respond with a list of three or four choices and a smile and I get nothing. I work full-time and don't have time to continue this process for another year so I am not returning.

And then there is the service unit BS. Beware. In the middle of the year, there is International Day which is a thinly veiled fundraiser for the service unit. If you have older kids in the troop, just know that the event is scheduled during a Saturday morning, you know, prime game time. It is mandatory and if you don't show up the entire service unit knows since your table display will be empty. So there isn't any, "oh I must have totally missed you there it was so crowded!" Your troop is assigned a country which the girls must research and make a poster about. The girls must also make crafts representing that country to sell. If you have Daisies or Brownies, have fun with that. We spent 2 meetings on the poster and one on the craft and I spent a morning that I will never get back at the horribly managed event. We sold out of our craft and our proceeds HAD to be donated to the service unit. Our contribution was less than $30. I would have written the check myself in order to avoid going. None of the girls from our troop were able to attend except my daughter and my co-leader's daughter because they all had basketball games or other sports commitments. And my family paid for all of the supplies since I did not want to spend our paltry troop funds on the supplies and none of the other families, except my co-leader, paid any share of the amount or responded in any way to my request for contributions.

Also, I would caution you. One of the girls in the troop takes up about 90% of our attention. She needs constant supervision, redirection, boundary setting, etc. Be aware of kids who require extra effort and consider asking an older girl scout to help out at your meetings. I didn't realize the problem until too late in the year. If I were to return, I would find an older girl scout to come and help with every meeting.

[Anonymous]

My experience as a Troop Leader was very similar to PP 15:21. The girls were nice and we had good meetings and interesting outings but the other parents barely pitched in and most of the work and expenses fell on me. Priror to our first meeting there was a parent only meeting where the time commitment and $$ commitment from each family was spelled out and all the families were on board and gung ho but when it came time to actually do something there was only 2 other Mom's who would help out. We had meetings 2x per month and of the 20 girls in the troop, I uusually ended up driving 6 girls home after waiting around another 20 minutes after the meeting ended for the late parents to come. I felt like it was a low budget place for these other parents to park their kids after school. When the troop disbanded after 4 years there was only one "thanks" and one parent said "I didn't really get what the point was". I think GS are great and I admire all the troop leaders and volunteers who spend so much of their time and efforts on it but I had a very bad experience. I don't know if some people are selfish or oblivous.

[Anonymous]

Not a leader but my daughter is a GS. I don't really like the direction of things with a journey and the bronze star? I wish the girls could just do projects that interested them. Last year it was water related all year. My daughter wanted to drop out...but I do really appreciate our leaders who are great!

[Anonymous]

21:12 here. We don't do journeys at all. Instead, we leaders have worked with the girls to identify goals for each year, and then we use those, along with our own goals for the troop, to design projects. No project lasts more than 2-3 sessions, and often it's less, though we do ensure continuity/connection from one meeting to another. For example, we have placed a lot of emphasis on women's history month. Last year we taught the girls about Title IX one week, then had a bunch of AU field hockey players come and talk to the girls about playing sports and what is needed to play at the college level. It was all about health, fitness, taking care of your body, setting goals, balancing priorities, etc. And then we did a session where the girls learned field hockey. This fall, then, we went to cheer on the AU field hockey team, who remembered us and were trhilled to have us there. The experience and related activities really resonated with the girls (and the moms).

In our troop, we ask almost nothing of the parents so are not disappointed when they don't do anything. We also have a $100 troop fee so we have plenty of money each year to do whatever we want to do. We are very careful about communicating with the parents what we are working on and what our goals are, so that we have a lot of parental support (if not their time or effort). Overall, it's been almost entirely positive. I know we have a great troop - I think after reading the other responses, we may have even a better troop than I had realized!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:21:12 here. We don't do journeys at all. Instead, we leaders have worked with the girls to identify goals for each year, and then we use those, along with our own goals for the troop, to design projects. No project lasts more than 2-3 sessions, and often it's less, though we do ensure continuity/connection from one meeting to another. For example, we have placed a lot of emphasis on women's history month. Last year we taught the girls about Title IX one week, then had a bunch of AU field hockey players come and talk to the girls about playing sports and what is needed to play at the college level. It was all about health, fitness, taking care of your body, setting goals, balancing priorities, etc. And then we did a session where the girls learned field hockey. This fall, then, we went to cheer on the AU field hockey team, who remembered us and were trhilled to have us there. The experience and related activities really resonated with the girls (and the moms).

In our troop, we ask almost nothing of the parents so are not disappointed when they don't do anything. We also have a $100 troop fee so we have plenty of money each year to do whatever we want to do. We are very careful about communicating with the parents what we are working on and what our goals are, so that we have a lot of parental support (if not their time or effort). Overall, it's been almost entirely positive. I know we have a great troop - I think after reading the other responses, we may have even a better troop than I had realized!

Thank you for your great ideas! I was wondering how to use the journeys for the my 2nd year Daisys and know I think we may go your route. I wasn't too impressed with the journeys and I thought the girls would get bored. I'm going to review my plan for next year.

[Anonymous]

I've been a leader for 4 years and I really like it. I have Brownies and we meet 2x a month. We did do a Journey this year but the girls did not enjoy it and neither did I. I feel like they are not done well at all. The girls love working on the badges and doing outdoor activities.

I also happen to be in a great service unit. Our SU does an international day as well--Thinking Day, which is a Girl Scout tradition. Ours is held on a Friday night, and no money is made. Instead, each troop presents a country, makes food to share with the rest of the SU (last year we had Greece so be got spanakopita from Costco and cut it into tiny pieces) and creates a display board about the country. It ranks as one of my girls' favorite events.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, pushed submit too soon.

Tips for success:

*Be organized. There's a lot of paperwork and it can be hard to keep track of.
*Don't do everything. Ask for help and make it clear that the girls might miss out on some opportunities if you don't get help.
*DON'T be cookie parent & leader. It's too much.
*Overplan for meetings. Our worst meetings have been when we have run out of things to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:21:12 here. We don't do journeys at all. Instead, we leaders have worked with the girls to identify goals for each year, and then we use those, along with our own goals for the troop, to design projects. No project lasts more than 2-3 sessions, and often it's less, though we do ensure continuity/connection from one meeting to another. For example, we have placed a lot of emphasis on women's history month. Last year we taught the girls about Title IX one week, then had a bunch of AU field hockey players come and talk to the girls about playing sports and what is needed to play at the college level. It was all about health, fitness, taking care of your body, setting goals, balancing priorities, etc. And then we did a session where the girls learned field hockey. This fall, then, we went to cheer on the AU field hockey team, who remembered us and were trhilled to have us there. The experience and related activities really resonated with the girls (and the moms).

In our troop, we ask almost nothing of the parents so are not disappointed when they don't do anything. We also have a $100 troop fee so we have plenty of money each year to do whatever we want to do. We are very careful about communicating with the parents what we are working on and what our goals are, so that we have a lot of parental support (if not their time or effort). Overall, it's been almost entirely positive. I know we have a great troop - I think after reading the other responses, we may have even a better troop than I had realized!

Thank you for your great ideas! I was wondering how to use the journeys for the my 2nd year Daisys and know I think we may go your route. I wasn't too impressed with the journeys and I thought the girls would get bored. I'm going to review my plan for next year.

I have second year Daisies this year. Last year we did the journey related to gardening and this year we did the journey on animals. I agree that they seem below the girls' level. We really used them for the general themes and as a very loose planning guide. For example, last year a community garden gave us a plot to use with the troop so our project was related to taking care of that plot and helping with mainentainence of the community areas of the garden.

With the animal journey, we spent a couple meetings on how to take care of pets and then related that back to how girls take care of themselves. We learned about animals around the world and tied that in with World Thinking Day and learned about animals in the country we had chosen. We visited a stable where police horses were kept and learned about all about how the horses work with officers and then learned about other service animals. I like that there was a general theme, but we never used all the materials in the leader's guide and we often consolidated the ideas for a couple meeting from the guide into one.

One more annoying thing from about the Journeys-- Throughout all of this, I tried to help my new, first year Daisies earn petals and that was pretty hard to do. Last year, for the first half of the year our meetings were centered on an aspect of the GS law in order to earn a petal. Once we started in on the journeys, that didn't happen so even our second year Daisies have yet to earn their last petal.

[Anonymous]

My advice - don't take it too seriously.

The Journey thing - never really got the point myself and just went with the loose themes and then handed out the patches. I mean why belabor the point just to get a patch? As long as the girls participate and seem to enjoy it, isn't that the point?

Service unit - never attended a meeting or participated in any events and no one ever said a word about it.

Cookie sales - never did them.

Meetings - once a month for 90 minutes.

Dues - $50 for the year.

Snacks - parents provided with no problem. Sent an email asking they be sent in with their daughter day of the meeting.

Extra supplies - parents provided with no problem. Sent an email asking they be sent in with their daughter day of the meeting.

If you don't have enough parent volunteers or parents are not interested, that's ok. Just don't plan activities and events that require it. Maybe your troop does no field trips, maybe no camping but that' the way it goes.

And the PP is right, there can be girls who take up too much attention. My advice - require their parent come along to chaperone meetings (or some other responsible adult) or the girl can't attend. Did this twice - in one case, the parent sent a teenage babysitter and the other time the girl suddenly was very compliant in meetings.