How does Girl Scouts work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just venting that my daughter would love to be a Girl Scout and I’d totally be a leader but she was the only one at her school that signed up. We were offered to join a neighboring schools troop, but she would be the only one that didn’t attend that school. Feels like I’d be setting her up to be the outcast. I’m so sad about it.

Give it a try: my daughter is the only one in her troop from a different school. You can always leave if it doesn't work out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just venting that my daughter would love to be a Girl Scout and I’d totally be a leader but she was the only one at her school that signed up. We were offered to join a neighboring schools troop, but she would be the only one that didn’t attend that school. Feels like I’d be setting her up to be the outcast. I’m so sad about it.

Give it a try: my daughter is the only one in her troop from a different school. You can always leave if it doesn't work out.

+1 for this. When my daughter was in GS, 1/3 of the small troop ended up being from other schools, and it was fine. Often they are close enough geographically that they'll end up being in the same MS or HS, or the same sports leagues.

We've found it really beneficial to have our kids make friends from other schools through activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just venting that my daughter would love to be a Girl Scout and I’d totally be a leader but she was the only one at her school that signed up. We were offered to join a neighboring schools troop, but she would be the only one that didn’t attend that school. Feels like I’d be setting her up to be the outcast. I’m so sad about it.

Give it a try: my daughter is the only one in her troop from a different school. You can always leave if it doesn't work out.

+1 for this. When my daughter was in GS, 1/3 of the small troop ended up being from other schools, and it was fine. Often they are close enough geographically that they'll end up being in the same MS or HS, or the same sports leagues.

We've found it really beneficial to have our kids make friends from other schools through activities.

+2. Our troop has kids from at least 4 schools (the "home" school plus two immersion schools and a private school) and there's no in-group out-group dynamic that I can see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just wish GS would fade away. They make a big push at the beginnging of elementary and get all the girls hyped up. I didn't want to be the parent who said "no we aren't doing girl scouts its dumb" but it is. The activities are boring and lame and I can't wait for DD to agree on her own.

It is what you make of it. If you're not willing to volunteer to make it fun, then no, it won't be fun.

My 9yo's troop does a LOT of fun things - they've been on two ropes courses, two overnight campouts, community service projects, and many other things I can't remember. My daughter LOVES it and her troop leaders are amazing. A lot of other parents volunteer to help chaperone, etc., which helps a lot.

I lead my younger child's troop and we are not as awesome, frankly, but the kids are younger and last year we asked parents to help us plan activities and literally only one parent offered to help. My co-leader and I both work full-time and it's too much for us to plan meetings and activities, we need help and no one wants to help.

+1 we have had some great troops, but when they're young it takes parental inspiration and effort. We've done kayaking a few times, overnight camping, museum visits, historical walks, rock climbing, volunteer events, etc.

My kid goes to private school and has always been the only one from her school in the troop (usually the girls are from a few different schools), but after a while the kids get to know each other and they make friends. I've just searched the council website for openings or asked around about open troops.

I was a girl scout all the way through school and it was a great experience for me. As I got into high school we were very self directed and did a lot of volunteering, outdoor activities, and I joined a travel troop that focused on fundraising to be able to take international trips. Girl Scouts is great because of the flexibility- you can really take it where you want to go and choose from so many activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Forming new small troops every fall from scratch with little more than a seminar to learn "here is how you must do it yourself" regulations. Are these basic issues with the current business model? Seems like forming larger ongoing troops that are capable of welcoming more girls and that are less likely to die-off in a few years might make sense. These small troops seem self-programmed to avoid welcoming new members and dissolve after a few years leaving nothing behind. It might be difficult to build or even maintain GSUSA membership in this new environment when girls have such difficulty accessing the program. When a girl wants to join so many of these other organizations they can easily find out where to go and how to join. There is just something about this that does not work quite right.

I think the issue is that parent leaders want to volunteer for THEIR child’s troop and drop out when their child does. There may be few longtime volunteers. But yeah, it’s a definite barrier if you can’t join an existing troop after Kindergarten. I would’ve volunteered to be an extra parent volunteer if my child joined, but I was told there wasn’t room for her. One extra child! They said no, you need to start your own troop. Felt very cliquey.