Stay at same troop or transfer to new troop

[Anonymous]

I need advice. I have 2 months to think about if DD wants to stay at same Daisy troop or transfer to different troops next year. I have talked to a few moms, and no one wants to make decisions now. Pros for staying at same troop are 1) 95 percent of girls are from same school/same grade 2) meeting location is close by. 3) troop leaders are nice. Cons of this troop are 1) I don't know what I should expect from Daisy troop, but I wish there are more exciting activities. We only once have done a meeting outside of a meeting room style. Our troop leaders are not that experienced and they all have a few kids to manage. 2) some moms treat this troop as mom hangout groups, and some don't help or they just nonstop chatting on the side the whole time. Some moms are not that friendly as well.

DD has no preference if she wants to stay at same troop or transfer to other troop next school year. She has made a little bit deeper friendship through this troop. I am not a leader material. We have no other troop preferences because I don't know how other troops are like. I am fine with staying or transfer. DD partly does not mind meeting/playing with same girls from school , but she partly wants to make new friends. She has not made any close friend yet through scout or school. She is the type that can play with girls and boys.

Will brownies be more exciting in terms of activities? How do you decide to stay or leave?

[Anonymous]

Nice and close by? I would stay.
How about you step up as troop leader and start initiating more activities!

[Anonymous]

Stay at the same troop or leave GS and do something like 4H

[Anonymous]

Stay. You are describing GS at that age, so other troops will be the same.

[Anonymous]

Stay- Daisys is about introducing the ideas of scouts, leaders are learning, and the more exciting stuff comes later. What worked for us over the years was rotating who planned activities. This is parents in the younger years and scouts in the older years. SO for a weekly meeting, the parent who is an artist would do an arts badge and a nurse/doctor/dentist might team up for a health care or first aide badge. Then work with your troop to plan a few bigger things each year. we always did a camping trip and usually a museum type activity.

[Anonymous]

Daisy troops are pretty indoorsy, especially year 1. You can bring up that you want them to do outdoorsy stuff (and think about what you mean - hikes? Camping?) but be prepared to help out. You don't have to become a leader but you should be background checked as a volunteer/driver at a minimum.

My troop is wrapping up Year 1 now. We basically earned the Daisy petals, promise and law, made friends, and that's it. Everyone wants to camp next year so we'll be working toward that, and one mom wanted to plan a hike this spring so she just suggested it in the troop WhatsApp and is going to run point.

[Anonymous]

What's exciting to you and exciting to a small child are different things. My kid got excited seeing a bench that had seating two ways, one time.

Why aren't you all dropping the kids off and leaving? You don't need to be there unless it's some sort of Mommy & Me daisy troop. Isn't this for your kid? As long as she's having fun your issues with parents are irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

I was a troop leader for my girls when they were in Daisies in kindergarten. It’s really hard because the lessons provided by GS are minimal, boring, and always feel like they’re for younger kids than the age you’re working with. The only money you have to work with before you do cookie sales the first time is what you’ve collected in membership fees. You try to keep membership fees down because you don’t want any girl’s financial situation to be a barrier to participation. There are extremely rigid rules for any activity that involves actually going anywhere because of liability issues. Did you know you have to have a designated first aid person accompany the troop? There’s extra paperwork that has to be submitted if the troop will cross state lines, even if the destination is only a 30 minute drive from everyone’s home elementary school. We tried to do a fun craft at every meeting. That only happened because I spent hours diligently searching the internet for crafts that could be completely quickly by little kids with minimal help and inexpensive supplies, which I paid for out of pocket.

To have a troop that does really awesome things, you will need to pay a higher membership fee until you’ve been through cookie sales a few times, you’ll need a couple cookie selling all stars, you’ll need to require parental involvement from all families, with various responsibilities delegated, and you’ll need the person/people in charge of outings to be willing to jump through hoops to make them happen. By our third year of scouting, we had some money and had figured out how to delegate: each family was responsible for leading at least one meeting, and each family had to take on one of the following responsibilities: procuring and distributing cookies during sales, managing the money during cookie sales, supervising booth sales, being the general money manager, attending the monthly informational meetings for area troop representatives, planning and executing outings. That was when we got more active.

[Anonymous]

I have been a GS leader many times. It is supposed to be a drop-off activity, but since the pandemic, it is less so, in my experience.

I would stay, and ask the leaders what you can do to research field trips for next year. There is usually a parent meeting to kick off the new year, and you can say that you hope for more trips and more independence by girls during meetings.

There are many places kids can go that don’t cost much, like the fire station. If you look on the GSCNC website you can find lots of activities run by the Council, and the service unit is also a resource.

[Anonymous]

Switch to Scouts. GS was a disappointing experience because of the limitations the organization places on leaders. It's enormously burdensome for even the most dedicated leaders.

[Anonymous]

You aren't going to find a different experience anywhere else and you will be driving longer and having to make new friends.

[Anonymous]

Gently, the leaders are not that experienced because Girl Scouts is homegrown. You form your troops and assume roles and grow into it. It is a ton of work to be a troop leader so please be appreciative of what these women are doing and if you don't like it, get involved yourself.

[Anonymous]

In the second year of Daisies, our troop leaders banned the moms from meetings or even staying in the same general vicinity and things improved SIGNIFICANTLY. The first Daisy year is more learning than activities - they'll do a lot more and be able to make a lot more of their own choices as they get older. Also if you're interested in helping, organize a field trip/outing outside of the weekly/monthly meetings - the whole troop doesn't have to attend, it can be choice and whoever is available will attend. My daughters have both had some fun experiences this way - I (not the troop leader) once organized a trip to an Alpaca farm and 6 out of 12 girls came. They had a blast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Switch to Scouts. GS was a disappointing experience because of the limitations the organization places on leaders. It's enormously burdensome for even the most dedicated leaders.

If you mean Boy Scouts ,just say Boy Scouts. So tired of BSA mommies claiming the word "scouts". Also, BSA requires HEAVY involvement from the parents. It's too much for those of us who have jobs.

[Anonymous]

Scouts, which is the program formerly known as Boy Scouts, is the far better choice. While I caught on to this thread quite late, you should keep in mind that Scouts uses the outdoors as its classroom, where GSA has become more of a career orientation and social activist training organization. Just choose what you want for your girl. In our case, out girl loves going camping every month and working toward a distinction (Eagle Scout) that has national and life-long advantages.