How does Girl Scouts work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the biggest surprises dual working parent families seem to have when their oldest hits school age is that all these activities they hear about kids doing require huge amounts of parent volunteer time. Its not like daycare, where you pay a fee and drop off. Almost every single activity your child does will involve a small amount or a large amount of volunteer time.

I send emails for our rec league every season begging for volunteer rec soccer/basketball/softball coaches and every season, without fail, a parent emails me to ask why we don't just hire some coaches. Every season.

Laughing but I totally understand those parents. I am an active volunteer in scouts and other groups .. but I would love to put money in the hat to hire an expert leader for some activities DD does. Some people (me) just do not have the personality or talent for certain activities (sports and theater). So I get it. If $500 would induce someone to coach, me and 4 other parents would have our wallets out already.

I have 3 kids. We pay a lot for tennis - clinic, private lessons and team.

The only activity that we know going in requiring time commitment is science Olympiad. We knew we had to coach.

I did not know or expect scouts was similar.

It sounds like you do private $$$ tennis. Rec sports need volunteers to run everything.

I guess it is private. They have played at the local pool and tennis, local rec center, racquet club and now country club. None of them required parent volunteers minus the pool and tennis club would ask for help organizing parties. It was more a potluck type sign up. Same with soccer. My kids have played both rec and travel soccer. They only asked for snacks.

It is hard enough just getting my kids to practice and games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the biggest surprises dual working parent families seem to have when their oldest hits school age is that all these activities they hear about kids doing require huge amounts of parent volunteer time. Its not like daycare, where you pay a fee and drop off. Almost every single activity your child does will involve a small amount or a large amount of volunteer time.

I send emails for our rec league every season begging for volunteer rec soccer/basketball/softball coaches and every season, without fail, a parent emails me to ask why we don't just hire some coaches. Every season.

Laughing but I totally understand those parents. I am an active volunteer in scouts and other groups .. but I would love to put money in the hat to hire an expert leader for some activities DD does. Some people (me) just do not have the personality or talent for certain activities (sports and theater). So I get it. If $500 would induce someone to coach, me and 4 other parents would have our wallets out already.

I have 3 kids. We pay a lot for tennis - clinic, private lessons and team.

The only activity that we know going in requiring time commitment is science Olympiad. We knew we had to coach.

I did not know or expect scouts was similar.

It sounds like you do private $$$ tennis. Rec sports need volunteers to run everything.

I guess it is private. They have played at the local pool and tennis, local rec center, racquet club and now country club. None of them required parent volunteers minus the pool and tennis club would ask for help organizing parties. It was more a potluck type sign up. Same with soccer. My kids have played both rec and travel soccer. They only asked for snacks.

It is hard enough just getting my kids to practice and games.

That's because, like you said in your previous post, you are "paying a lot of money." So the racquet club, country club, etc. takes that money that you pay, and uses it to pay an employee a salary to teach your children.

Scouts doesn't cost nearly as much as you pay for tennis--so there is no money to use for a salary to an employee. They depend on parents volunteering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the biggest surprises dual working parent families seem to have when their oldest hits school age is that all these activities they hear about kids doing require huge amounts of parent volunteer time. Its not like daycare, where you pay a fee and drop off. Almost every single activity your child does will involve a small amount or a large amount of volunteer time.

I send emails for our rec league every season begging for volunteer rec soccer/basketball/softball coaches and every season, without fail, a parent emails me to ask why we don't just hire some coaches. Every season.

Laughing but I totally understand those parents. I am an active volunteer in scouts and other groups .. but I would love to put money in the hat to hire an expert leader for some activities DD does. Some people (me) just do not have the personality or talent for certain activities (sports and theater). So I get it. If $500 would induce someone to coach, me and 4 other parents would have our wallets out already.

I have 3 kids. We pay a lot for tennis - clinic, private lessons and team.

The only activity that we know going in requiring time commitment is science Olympiad. We knew we had to coach.

I did not know or expect scouts was similar.

Girl Scout leader here. That’s the thing. People are used to volunteering for t-ball or science Olympiad, or willing to pay hundreds of dollars for figure skating or club soccer with a paid coach. But they pay just $25 or $35 to register on the Girl Scouts website yet are surprised that they also need to volunteer. I don’t know any activity that is both low-cost and has a low parent commitment, but that’s what people expect Girl Scouts to be.

And for everyone asking why paid employees don’t exist to run these programs:
1) what happened to civic engagement and the spirit of volunteerism?
2) how on earth are you going to find tens of thousands of people nationwide willing and able to work irregular hours?
3) how expensive and inaccessible would Girl Scouts be if you did pay for leaders’ time? I put in 10-50 hours of work per month (238 total last year) depending on the season, not including camping trips, and would expect far more than $20/hour babysitter wages. 12 families aren’t going to pay $10-20k in wages and it’s far more than cookie sales could cover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the biggest surprises dual working parent families seem to have when their oldest hits school age is that all these activities they hear about kids doing require huge amounts of parent volunteer time. Its not like daycare, where you pay a fee and drop off. Almost every single activity your child does will involve a small amount or a large amount of volunteer time.

I send emails for our rec league every season begging for volunteer rec soccer/basketball/softball coaches and every season, without fail, a parent emails me to ask why we don't just hire some coaches. Every season.

Laughing but I totally understand those parents. I am an active volunteer in scouts and other groups .. but I would love to put money in the hat to hire an expert leader for some activities DD does. Some people (me) just do not have the personality or talent for certain activities (sports and theater). So I get it. If $500 would induce someone to coach, me and 4 other parents would have our wallets out already.

I have 3 kids. We pay a lot for tennis - clinic, private lessons and team.

The only activity that we know going in requiring time commitment is science Olympiad. We knew we had to coach.

I did not know or expect scouts was similar.

It sounds like you do private $$$ tennis. Rec sports need volunteers to run everything.

I guess it is private. They have played at the local pool and tennis, local rec center, racquet club and now country club. None of them required parent volunteers minus the pool and tennis club would ask for help organizing parties. It was more a potluck type sign up. Same with soccer. My kids have played both rec and travel soccer. They only asked for snacks.

It is hard enough just getting my kids to practice and games.

That's because you were lucky and those teams had coaches step up and they didn't need to beg the parents. I coached my son's U8 team one season because no one volunteered. That was experience.

[Anonymous]

Our Scout Troop for Girls makes it very clear what is expected of parents. First, they pay dues for their girl that recovers the cost of the program. Otherwise, the cost of activities are highly subsidized by the adults who volunteer. I know that is not how it is supposed to work, but that is the reality. Even though there are meaningful costs, these are far less than non-Scout activities like travel teams, individual tennis, cheer, golf, ballet, rap, etc. We give tremendous value at a thrifty rate to these families and have nothing to be apologetic about. Second, each family signs up to drive Scouts to campouts and similar tasks. Short of requiring it, this ends up being foisted on the adults who volunteer. Another reason we require this is that the few non-helpful parents who slip through our system are somehow the first to complain that their girl is not receiving “enough services”, or that we “should have picked her up earlier so we could go out for dinner” -- as though we are their employees. Be up-front, or be walked-on.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the biggest surprises dual working parent families seem to have when their oldest hits school age is that all these activities they hear about kids doing require huge amounts of parent volunteer time. Its not like daycare, where you pay a fee and drop off. Almost every single activity your child does will involve a small amount or a large amount of volunteer time.

I send emails for our rec league every season begging for volunteer rec soccer/basketball/softball coaches and every season, without fail, a parent emails me to ask why we don't just hire some coaches. Every season.

Laughing but I totally understand those parents. I am an active volunteer in scouts and other groups .. but I would love to put money in the hat to hire an expert leader for some activities DD does. Some people (me) just do not have the personality or talent for certain activities (sports and theater). So I get it. If $500 would induce someone to coach, me and 4 other parents would have our wallets out already.

I have 3 kids. We pay a lot for tennis - clinic, private lessons and team.

The only activity that we know going in requiring time commitment is science Olympiad. We knew we had to coach.

I did not know or expect scouts was similar.

Girl Scout leader here. That’s the thing. People are used to volunteering for t-ball or science Olympiad, or willing to pay hundreds of dollars for figure skating or club soccer with a paid coach. But they pay just $25 or $35 to register on the Girl Scouts website yet are surprised that they also need to volunteer. I don’t know any activity that is both low-cost and has a low parent commitment, but that’s what people expect Girl Scouts to be.

And for everyone asking why paid employees don’t exist to run these programs:
1) what happened to civic engagement and the spirit of volunteerism?
2) how on earth are you going to find tens of thousands of people nationwide willing and able to work irregular hours?
3) how expensive and inaccessible would Girl Scouts be if you did pay for leaders’ time? I put in 10-50 hours of work per month (238 total last year) depending on the season, not including camping trips, and would expect far more than $20/hour babysitter wages. 12 families aren’t going to pay $10-20k in wages and it’s far more than cookie sales could cover.

I don’t think I would mind if the rules weren’t so ridiculous. Want to go on a hike ? You need a first aid trained person. Want to go camping? Person needs to go away for an overnight……

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the biggest surprises dual working parent families seem to have when their oldest hits school age is that all these activities they hear about kids doing require huge amounts of parent volunteer time. Its not like daycare, where you pay a fee and drop off. Almost every single activity your child does will involve a small amount or a large amount of volunteer time.

I send emails for our rec league every season begging for volunteer rec soccer/basketball/softball coaches and every season, without fail, a parent emails me to ask why we don't just hire some coaches. Every season.

Laughing but I totally understand those parents. I am an active volunteer in scouts and other groups .. but I would love to put money in the hat to hire an expert leader for some activities DD does. Some people (me) just do not have the personality or talent for certain activities (sports and theater). So I get it. If $500 would induce someone to coach, me and 4 other parents would have our wallets out already.

I have 3 kids. We pay a lot for tennis - clinic, private lessons and team.

The only activity that we know going in requiring time commitment is science Olympiad. We knew we had to coach.

I did not know or expect scouts was similar.

It sounds like you do private $$$ tennis. Rec sports need volunteers to run everything.

I guess it is private. They have played at the local pool and tennis, local rec center, racquet club and now country club. None of them required parent volunteers minus the pool and tennis club would ask for help organizing parties. It was more a potluck type sign up. Same with soccer. My kids have played both rec and travel soccer. They only asked for snacks.

It is hard enough just getting my kids to practice and games.

Rec soccer has all volunteer coaches and volunteers running all the admin. Did you not...notice? all the other adults were volunteering? LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the biggest surprises dual working parent families seem to have when their oldest hits school age is that all these activities they hear about kids doing require huge amounts of parent volunteer time. Its not like daycare, where you pay a fee and drop off. Almost every single activity your child does will involve a small amount or a large amount of volunteer time.

I send emails for our rec league every season begging for volunteer rec soccer/basketball/softball coaches and every season, without fail, a parent emails me to ask why we don't just hire some coaches. Every season.

Laughing but I totally understand those parents. I am an active volunteer in scouts and other groups .. but I would love to put money in the hat to hire an expert leader for some activities DD does. Some people (me) just do not have the personality or talent for certain activities (sports and theater). So I get it. If $500 would induce someone to coach, me and 4 other parents would have our wallets out already.

I have 3 kids. We pay a lot for tennis - clinic, private lessons and team.

The only activity that we know going in requiring time commitment is science Olympiad. We knew we had to coach.

I did not know or expect scouts was similar.

It sounds like you do private $$$ tennis. Rec sports need volunteers to run everything.

I guess it is private. They have played at the local pool and tennis, local rec center, racquet club and now country club. None of them required parent volunteers minus the pool and tennis club would ask for help organizing parties. It was more a potluck type sign up. Same with soccer. My kids have played both rec and travel soccer. They only asked for snacks.

It is hard enough just getting my kids to practice and games.

That's because you were lucky and those teams had coaches step up and they didn't need to beg the parents. I coached my son's U8 team one season because no one volunteered. That was experience.

Right? Talk about oblivious! That rec soccer team almost certainly had a volunteer parent or four coaching it. It sounds like you were lucky and happened to have a kid the same age/grade as parents that were enthusiastic and volunteered to coach before the organization needed to send out the annual "if we don't get a volunteer you don't get a team" email.

I am a Girl Scout leader. My girls pay $35 per year registration and that's it. Other than that, cookie sales and the volunteer time of an awesome group of parents cover everything. If you want your kid to go hiking and camping and do robotics and participate in democracy and you *don't* want to volunteer, you can do that. You can sign them up for paid courses at REI and the local art center and Pongos and Girls Inc. That will amount to several thousand dollars a year.
Or you can help out and volunteer to be part of a Girl Scout troop.

[Anonymous]

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.

My daughter just sees the GS meeting as a large play date with all her friends. The activities are secondary and take only a few minutes out of the meeting time. Otherwise it's just a monthly party and she'd have FOMO if we missed out. It's a small enough commitment that we just go along with it. I don't volunteer as a leader, so I don't want to minimize the work they do, but I wouldn't miss it either. But I see the appeal to the girls.

[Anonymous]

Re: training- I live on the West Coast and volunteers haven’t balked at the training, possibly because hikes and camping here can often be just 45 minutes from the city but in true wilderness so it is reassuring to have formal training for even for experienced adults. Facilitating outdoor experiences for kids is way different than backpacking on my own.

I would also not want to get sued by a parent if their kid fell on a hike and got hurt, and some parents from our school would be certainly be willing to take legal action. Training and Girl Scout bureaucracy offer me protection from such a situation.

The hardest part in our area is securing a training spot because so many want to do it, so the Council/national organization could definitely do better in facilitating those and offering more training opportunities.

[Anonymous]

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.

Or you could volunteer and lead whatever activities you want. It's lame because you want everyone else to put in the effort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the biggest surprises dual working parent families seem to have when their oldest hits school age is that all these activities they hear about kids doing require huge amounts of parent volunteer time. Its not like daycare, where you pay a fee and drop off. Almost every single activity your child does will involve a small amount or a large amount of volunteer time.

I send emails for our rec league every season begging for volunteer rec soccer/basketball/softball coaches and every season, without fail, a parent emails me to ask why we don't just hire some coaches. Every season.

Laughing but I totally understand those parents. I am an active volunteer in scouts and other groups .. but I would love to put money in the hat to hire an expert leader for some activities DD does. Some people (me) just do not have the personality or talent for certain activities (sports and theater). So I get it. If $500 would induce someone to coach, me and 4 other parents would have our wallets out already.

I have 3 kids. We pay a lot for tennis - clinic, private lessons and team.

The only activity that we know going in requiring time commitment is science Olympiad. We knew we had to coach.

I did not know or expect scouts was similar.

Girl Scout leader here. That’s the thing. People are used to volunteering for t-ball or science Olympiad, or willing to pay hundreds of dollars for figure skating or club soccer with a paid coach. But they pay just $25 or $35 to register on the Girl Scouts website yet are surprised that they also need to volunteer. I don’t know any activity that is both low-cost and has a low parent commitment, but that’s what people expect Girl Scouts to be.

And for everyone asking why paid employees don’t exist to run these programs:
1) what happened to civic engagement and the spirit of volunteerism?
2) how on earth are you going to find tens of thousands of people nationwide willing and able to work irregular hours?
3) how expensive and inaccessible would Girl Scouts be if you did pay for leaders’ time? I put in 10-50 hours of work per month (238 total last year) depending on the season, not including camping trips, and would expect far more than $20/hour babysitter wages. 12 families aren’t going to pay $10-20k in wages and it’s far more than cookie sales could cover.

I don’t think I would mind if the rules weren’t so ridiculous. Want to go on a hike ? You need a first aid trained person. Want to go camping? Person needs to go away for an overnight……

I've been a leader for seven years, and I'll be the first to complain about our local council. But I'm not sure I'm really bothered by those rules. Most physical activities have a first aider (it's just first aid/cpr - nothing especially complicated). I know my son's hockey league requires coaches to be first aid certified.
And camping is a pain in the tush, but you do it once and it's good for 10 years, with just a quick online certification at the 10 year point. And frankly - I'm glad we have a person in our troop who actually knows how to start a fire and cook in a box oven. It makes the experience a lot more valuable and consistent for the girls than if they just let any parent who went car camping a few times "teach" the girls what they "know"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just wish GS would fade away. They make a big push at the beginning 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.

your experience with girl scouts is not everyone's experience with girl scouts.

some troops are lame, and some are awesome. too bad have a lame one. it's probably because nobody will step up and help.

[Anonymous]

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.

A well run troop is girl-led, so you may think the activities are boring and lame, but evidently the girls don't. And if you have some ideas for what they should be doing instead - please jump in! I'm sure the leader would be thrilled for the help.