Scouts BSA DC Troop 248 for Girls - Scoutmaster Answers Your Questions

[Anonymous]

Hello, thanks for getting this discussion started. My daugter’s schedule is full this semester—will there be another opportunity for her to sign up for the summer or fall?

[cburkhardt]

Patrols -- also clipped from our web site:

"Every girl also belongs to a smaller 5 – 8 member group within the Troop called a Patrol. At the beginning of each semester each Patrol elects a girl to serve as Patrol Leader and another girl as Assistant Patrol Leader. These girls run the Patrol meetings. Each Patrol selects a name and the members wear a patrol patch and have a Patrol flag and a cheer. Members of Patrols usually become good friends because they work together with each other on projects and earning advancement ranks and merit badges. When the Troop meets on Saturday mornings we break-up into Patrol meetings for part of the time to learn and plan things. When we go on hikes, camping or other activities we often break-up into our Patrols to do things. For example, all girls in a Patrol put their tents near each other when we go camping. Patrols often compete against each other to sharpen and demonstrate their Scouting skills."


You can see this page at: http://scoutsbsadcgirls.org/about/troop-organization/.

To fill in a bit, your daughter would be in a patrol, which is a subgroup within the Troop. The patrols meet at the same time and in the same place as the Troop. Girls are formally assigned by the Scoutmaster Staff into a patrol. Scouts BSA works best when a girl is in a patrol that has some friends, but also some new girls who are outside her current group of friends. This teaches girls how to negotiate the making of new friends and the accommodating of different personalities. We would certainly let your daughter and her friend be in the same patrol. Having Patrols also lets girls have a chance to exercise leadership, because we elect new patrol leaders each semester.

[cburkhardt]

Daughter is busy this spring - What about the fall?

We will certainly welcome her this fall if that is when wants to begin. Our fall open house "welcome party" will be on September 14. Here is a good hint though. Give strong consideration to having your girl join us at the very end of this semester so she can go with us to the week of residential camp on June 30 to July 6. That way she can bond with our girls and start the fall as a known part of the group. By the way, summer camp that week costs a hard-to-believe low of $400. Food, program and all. I don't know how the BSA does it but they really offer the least expensive camp week around.

[Anonymous]

Yikes. That is expensive. My son's troop is a fraction of the price because they fund raise. Fundraising is often a key part of executing an Eagle project. And our campouts are about $35 and we go monthy.

Other than that it sounds good.

[cburkhardt]

Expensive?

A lot of other youth groups do engage in product sales fund raising. We have taken the decision that rather than put the energy of our families and girls into the fundraising, we would put it into program. We did a pretty thorough survey of girl parents and found that they really did not want fund raising obligations that are so prevalent in other girl youth service organizations. A related issue is that product fund raising is often quite difficult and sometimes dangerous for children from under-resourced families of our City. We view ourselves as wanting to draw from the entire city in terms of geography and economic circumstance, so that was on our mind as well. For those children we have built a capability to subsidize their participation. Remember, that fee structure effectively includes at least two weeks of room and board during our campouts. Compare that to what people pay for children to attend away games of sporting groups and school ski clubs. Our program is very cost-effective in comparison. We are going to have a first-rate, front-ranking program and there will be no nickel-and-diming of parents in our Troop. Of course after a year or so of operations we will re-examine our fee structure. It will be lowered if we end up with excess retained funds.

[cburkhardt]

Camping Frequency.

Our Troop will offer a camping trip seven times a year (three 2-night trips in the fall and four in the spring. BSA recommends that Scouts BSA members participate in at least four of those. In addition, we will offer a week of residential camp at Goshen Scout Reservation and an optional special trip later in each summer (this year we visit the International Jamboree for 4 days). In addition, we will offer day hikes at least four times each year. So, we have a fully-loaded outdoor program for our girls.

[Anonymous]

cburkhardt wrote:Camping Frequency.

Our Troop will offer a camping trip seven times a year (three 2-night trips in the fall and four in the spring. BSA recommends that Scouts BSA members participate in at least four of those. In addition, we will offer a week of residential camp at Goshen Scout Reservation and an optional special trip later in each summer (this year we visit the International Jamboree for 4 days). In addition, we will offer day hikes at least four times each year. So, we have a fully-loaded outdoor program for our girls.

I am the PP. I do wonder how it compares to the boy troops. In our area, Boy Scouts camp every month, including winter. It's just interesting to me the girls are taking a different approach.

[cburkhardt]

If you take a look at our event schedule for the next 12 months you will see that we will offer a camp experience every month during the school year except for December. I’m sorry if my comments have led you otherwise. BSA national guidelines recommend a youth participate in no fewer than 4 weekend camp outs plus a week of residential summer camp. I think most of our girls will do much more than 4 weekend camp outs. Because we are starting off-cycle this year (in February instead of September), our first camp out this year will be early march (Snyder) to be followed by the spring camporee and a May campout. We will do second period at Goshen (Olmsted) and then hit a fully-loaded year of camping for 2019-2020. This will be a robust camping and hiking program. We surveyed girl parents when designing the schedule and were told that the families definitely wanted robust and frequent outdoor programming,and that is what we will offer.

[Anonymous]

How are you establishing meeting days/times? I am part of another future girls BSA troop and our biggest obstacle is finding a day/time that works for the majority of interested participants.

[cburkhardt]

Meeting Time Choice

Our parent formation group surveyed parents of girls on a number of things, including meeting times. We chose Saturday mornings from 10 to Noon. Reasons included that with one exception, this was an almost conflict-free time. The exception is girls youth soccer, but we also became aware that after many years of soccer, girls are often looking to do something different. We are a city troop, so we also wanted girls to be able to travel at a safe time to participate, including by bus or metro. Saturday morning is great for that. Finally, we meet longer than most troops, because we only meet twice a month (the first and third Saturdays, the fourth weekend being for our monthly outdoor activity). There are some exceptions to that pattern, but they are driven by school schedules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son just got his Eagle Scout and I wish my DD could gave had the opportunity to...but timing is too late for her. Anyway...part boy scouts was always "boy lead'. You seem very organized etc...but I hope you will let the troop form it own identify in terms activities and focus. Maybe meeting with community leaders is great....or a total turn off. Our kid leadership meets once a month to plan as they wish with adults only offering guidance. Reading your description seemed really different from the scouting I know.

The way the scoutmaster talks about how they will be doing so much camping and hiking makes it seem like it is not girl-led. That said, since there are no existing troops for them to go into, and most of the girls will be younger, the start will need to be adult led. I just hope the scoutmaster backs off and lets the girls lead it.

[Anonymous]

cburkhardt wrote:If you take a look at our event schedule for the next 12 months you will see that we will offer a camp experience every month during the school year except for December. I’m sorry if my comments have led you otherwise. BSA national guidelines recommend a youth participate in no fewer than 4 weekend camp outs plus a week of residential summer camp. I think most of our girls will do much more than 4 weekend camp outs. Because we are starting off-cycle this year (in February instead of September), our first camp out this year will be early march (Snyder) to be followed by the spring camporee and a May campout. We will do second period at Goshen (Olmsted) and then hit a fully-loaded year of camping for 2019-2020. This will be a robust camping and hiking program. We surveyed girl parents when designing the schedule and were told that the families definitely wanted robust and frequent outdoor programming,and that is what we will offer.

Mom of a Boy Scout here. The boys in our troop camp almost monthly, but the boys pick the locations. The boys also decide what merit badges they want to work on during the meetings. Make sure this isn’t focused on what the parents want, but what the girls want.

[Anonymous]

cburkhardt wrote:Daughter is busy this spring - What about the fall?

We will certainly welcome her this fall if that is when wants to begin. Our fall open house "welcome party" will be on September 14. Here is a good hint though. Give strong consideration to having your girl join us at the very end of this semester so she can go with us to the week of residential camp on June 30 to July 6. That way she can bond with our girls and start the fall as a known part of the group. By the way, summer camp that week costs a hard-to-believe low of $400. Food, program and all. I don't know how the BSA does it but they really offer the least expensive camp week around.

Summer camp for new scouts is -not-fun. The camps really work on getting them as close to first class as they can. This means a lot of classes.
After that, summer camp is a blast.

Camp Minsi (Poconos) is a phenomenal Boy Scout camp.

[Anonymous]

cburkhardt wrote:Daughter is busy this spring - What about the fall?

We will certainly welcome her this fall if that is when wants to begin. Our fall open house "welcome party" will be on September 14. Here is a good hint though. Give strong consideration to having your girl join us at the very end of this semester so she can go with us to the week of residential camp on June 30 to July 6. That way she can bond with our girls and start the fall as a known part of the group. By the way, summer camp that week costs a hard-to-believe low of $400. Food, program and all. I don't know how the BSA does it but they really offer the least expensive camp week around.

Girl Scout Sleep away camp is about the same cost and many religious based camps are the same. The Girls Scouts have long established summer camp programs that you might want to consider.

[cburkhardt]

Girl Led

Thanks for the thoughts on the importance of having the girls do the leading and the adults do the advising. Because we are starting from scratch and had no girls to actually help us pick the early months of activities, the best we could do is survey the girl cubs who are graduating into the troop and their parents. Once we are actually formed we will immediately begin incorporating the girls into the leadership process. They will help plan the fall activities in advance, for instance. We will probably skew to younger-aged girls at the start, so it will take a bit of time. Our women and men assistant scoutmasters have experience in boy troops and understand the importance of this.