Girl scout parent involvement

[Anonymous]

Cub scout at K to 5th grade is mainly troop leader & den leader run with minimal parent supports or volunteers. How about girl scout at K to 5th grade level? Our girl scout troop leaders seem to be stressed out and often ask for parent volunteers to lead or plan the meetings/outings. We have 16 Daisies bridging to brownies in this fall.

I overheard that our cookie leader may step down, and troop leaders really want some parents to step up to help out to plan and lead occasionally instead of just dropping off their girls or stepping on the side chit chat as moms hangout. Unfortunately we do not have many parents interesting in devoting time doing so. I am not a troop leader, but I have helped out a few times to lead and run the meeting. It is not easy for me, but at least I have tried my best. I am a bit worried about this troop's future. Do other girl scout troop normally rely on other parents to help out at early elementary school level?

[Anonymous]

Yes its a lot. I was an assistant troop leader for a few years. We couldn't go on a camp out because no one would take the camping training. I did the first aid training because no one else would. I think the GS organization makes it harder than it needs to be as well, but its very heavy on parent involvement.

[Anonymous]

I only have sons, so can't speak to GS specifically. But any of these organizations - including Cub Scouts - do rely 100% on parent volunteers. Even the people that you're calling the "Troop Leaders" are, in fact, parents just like you. If your Cub Scouts pack wasn't begging for new volunteers, it's only because enough other parents had already stepped up. If you want the Troop to succeed, then yes more parents will need to step up and start leading some aspect of it.

The good news is, there are usually a variety of volunteer positions available. If running meetings isn't your thing, there are probably some behind-the-scenes roles you can do instead, which may not be as visible to you now but would relieve a lot of stress for the few leaders who are trying to do everything. My advice is to reach out to the current leaders to have a conversation about what you can do to help, and be honest with them about where your interests, strengths, and availability fall. They'll help identify a role that'll help the Troop and work for you.

[Anonymous]

Ours has kind of been the opposite - Cub Scouts expects parents to be involved with everything (rotating meeting leaders and parents need to stay for all of the meetings and activities), and Girl Scouts (1st-4th) has been led by a few moms and is drop-off (maybe with occasional volunteer asks).

That said, our GS troop isn't particularly active/involved (all of the girls are overcommitted to other activities/sports) and I think is going to fold next year in part due to the moms being burned out.

[Anonymous]

Yep this is typical. GS requires a ton of parent direction that only gets more intense as the girls get older. I have been a troop leader for four years and am extremely burnt out because it is a lot of work and the parents are resistant to helping. I would also say that at least for our troop, the girls who have stayed are largely ones who are neuodivergent or at least quirky and don't participate in other activities, so the meetings can also be very difficult to manage. If the troop would not fold without me, I would absolutely quit.

[Anonymous]

The culture varies by troop, but expecting parental involvement is typical and usually makes for a better troop.

[Anonymous]

Our troop went through a few iterations. When DD was in 1st grade, there were two leaders who were very involved and did all the meetings/planning. They both ended up moving and another mom inherited the troop but was too busy to take it on full-time and so we operated on a co-op model: each family signed up for one meeting and a job per a year and had to plan. No one wanted to be in charge of cookies or camping so we didn't do those.

[Anonymous]

GS Troop cookie manager here.

Our troop has never asked parents to lead meetings, but we ask for volunteers to do other things, including being a driver, a chaperone on trips (including overnights), someone to manage the fall product sales, someone to be a cookie manager (my role), someone to take the camping/outdoor lead (learn how to start fires and all the safety around that), work a shift at cookie booths, etc.

GS doesn’t survive without parent involvement. That being said, leading meetings is usually a troop leader role, so that’s unusual.

[Anonymous]

Op here. We do not have first aid certified & campout leader in our troop so we cannot do any campings. However, I know that there are a few Daisies' dads are doctors & eagle scouts but no one wants to come forward. Those dads can definitely step up to be first aid certified or campout leader if they want to.

Our 16 Daisies are quite handful, but it seems like that no one wants to break them into 2 separare troops. They all are from the same school. It is sometimes difficult to make them all listening. One way to make them listening and being quiet is to keep them really busy.

[Anonymous]

Anyone who signs up for troop leader should expect to lead ALL of the meetings themselves, without parental help, period. There are always two troop leaders to share that responsibility, and they get to choose whether to meet weekly/biweekly/monthly according to what works for them.

Our troop was pretty low-key, so most of the time, our meetings would just be a circle-time style routine, an activity checked out from the GS HQ library, and a snack, which the parents would take turns bringing. I know a lot of troops go way above and beyond this. If the parents are pushing for anything EXTRA beyond barebones meetings, and the troop leaders can’t/don’t want to do it all, then THE PARENTS NEED TO HELP.

Beyond the meetings themselves, anything extra that the troop does, whether it’s cookie sales (not every troop does this!), going on field trips, camping, parents should expect to help. If they don’t, then they shouldn’t expect anything beyond a basic GS meeting.

[Anonymous]

Our Cub Scout troop was heavy on parent involvement.

[Anonymous]

For our Daisy troop, we ask that every family register at least one parent so they can be background-checked and count toward the GSUSA ratios. We tend to have the same 7 or so parents at meetings and helping with hikes, etc., but then everyone came out of the woodwork to come camping and we had to explain we couldn't bring 50 people to the campsite.

There are a lot of moving pieces. Some roles are a heavy lift - Trook Cookie Manager, Troop Money Manager, and Troop Leaders are the hardest, First Aider and Cookout/Campout Volunteer require a lot of training but aren't called upon as often. If you want to not be dead weight but also not have an extra part-time job, just register as a Driver/Chaperone, volunteer to help with a few meetings or lead one, or be the Troop SHARE Chair.

[Anonymous]

My daughter is in a brownie troop. I’m the money manager. The two troop leaders and I plan most of the events. We encourage parents to lead or organize an event. A few parents have hosted in their home or planned or suggested an event. I would say half the parents have led one event over the past 2 years. The other half just attend or drop off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is in a brownie troop. I’m the money manager. The two troop leaders and I plan most of the events. We encourage parents to lead or organize an event. A few parents have hosted in their home or planned or suggested an event. I would say half the parents have led one event over the past 2 years. The other half just attend or drop off.

Me again. My sons did cub scouts and we never planned anything. The pack had a monthly meeting and a monthly all age event. Then our den leader held meetings every other week. Sometimes we would do an outing but mostly attended the all age monthly outing and just went to the every other week meeting.

Very different from Girl Scouts where there are no all age meetings or events. Our troop does participate in some service unit events.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who signs up for troop leader should expect to lead ALL of the meetings themselves, without parental help, period. There are always two troop leaders to share that responsibility, and they get to choose whether to meet weekly/biweekly/monthly according to what works for them.

Our troop was pretty low-key, so most of the time, our meetings would just be a circle-time style routine, an activity checked out from the GS HQ library, and a snack, which the parents would take turns bringing. I know a lot of troops go way above and beyond this. If the parents are pushing for anything EXTRA beyond barebones meetings, and the troop leaders can’t/don’t want to do it all, then THE PARENTS NEED TO HELP.

Beyond the meetings themselves, anything extra that the troop does, whether it’s cookie sales (not every troop does this!), going on field trips, camping, parents should expect to help. If they don’t, then they shouldn’t expect anything beyond a basic GS meeting.

Not sure where you are getting this- this varies by troop. Parental expectations for a troop should be that the troop leaders will run it the way that the disclose they will run it. If a troop leader wants to run a troop with the expectation that they can lead ALL of the meetings, period, then that is fine. However, if. troop leader says that he/she will not run the troop unless parents help lead some or all of the meetings then that is fine, too. There is no universal method here. The DC based service unit has gotten away from having one designated troop leader or even requiring that a troop leader be at each meeting.