To Girl Scout or not to Girl Scout

[Anonymous]

GS isn't a big time commitment and doesn't really do much so it doesn't matter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GS is not a huge time commitment for my daughter.

Same. The downside is she doesn't get much out of it.

[Anonymous]

Not a big commitment but a good social experience for kids. Our troop met 2x a month and we usually had on average 1 field trip or special event a month. So 3x total. We had lots of kids in religious school Sunday mornings and others at church so we avoided planning for Sunday mornings (except we couldn’t avoid it for the very rare overnight). DD did gymnastics and ballet at the same time without issue. She also had Sunday school. The one thing to be aware of is troops run 100% on volunteer efforts so expect to volunteer in some capacity. We needed a first aider, cookie mom, camp certified adult. If you’re joining late, chances are those big roles are filled and you can offer to pick up badges from the GS shop, drive a carpool, help with a ceremony, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:GS isn't a big time commitment and doesn't really do much so it doesn't matter

It depends on the troop and the age. My daughters daisy troop was super active and met 2x a month. We moved and her brownie troop didn’t do a lot. Moved again and her current troop goes camping, does activities, and is super active. My child is also working on her silver award.

[Anonymous]

I’m a GS leader. You need to talk to the parents in troop because each troop has a different vibe. I think I’m well known as a relaxed accommodating leader that doesn’t impose a lot of requirements on parents. I pool my parents and my girls annually to see what they want to do differently or the same. My girls mostly do have a lot of commitments and busy parents (including me) so we make it work with lots of carpooling and flexible scheduling of activities. It would sort of irritate me if a girl joined and then never did anything with the troop though—especially if I had a waitlist (many troops do). Our troop generally did one meeting per month which was scheduled at a time when most kids didn’t do activities. Most girls attended most meetings but everyone skipped one or two due to conflicts. We also generally did one extra fun activity per month and I’d say we averaged abiut 75% participation at those (if attendance was less than 50%, I’d cancel it). I would say that if your daughter only wants to join because her friends do it, that’s not worth joining. If she wants to join because her friend tells about fun stuff that she’d like to do also, that is worth joining.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we were to do it again, I’d pick Scouts (or whatever Boy Scouts are called now) over Brownies/GS. The regular scouts do much more outdoor activities and camping.

My DD’s troop does camping all the time. That’s what her troop likes to focus on. That is a good thing about GS- the girls choose which activities to focus on.

Yes. If the leader is open to that. Ours isn’t. Or parent input.

[Anonymous]

I'd say 75% of the first graders at my daughter's school were involved in Girl Scouts (enough that there were two large troops) so your daughter may feel left out if you don't. Most drop by middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we were to do it again, I’d pick Scouts (or whatever Boy Scouts are called now) over Brownies/GS. The regular scouts do much more outdoor activities and camping.

My DD’s troop does camping all the time. That’s what her troop likes to focus on. That is a good thing about GS- the girls choose which activities to focus on.

Yes. If the leader is open to that. Ours isn’t. Or parent input.

Our leader isn't open to parental input. I offered to lead a hike but she said she had other activities planned. Our troop only does meetings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we were to do it again, I’d pick Scouts (or whatever Boy Scouts are called now) over Brownies/GS. The regular scouts do much more outdoor activities and camping.

My DD’s troop does camping all the time. That’s what her troop likes to focus on. That is a good thing about GS- the girls choose which activities to focus on.

Yes. If the leader is open to that. Ours isn’t. Or parent input.

It's very troop dependent. Our troop doesn't do much outdoors stuff because the only people that volunteer to be leaders or help in any way aren't that outdoorsy. But if it wasn't for them there would be no troop. So it's important like a PP said to figure out the troop's vibe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we were to do it again, I’d pick Scouts (or whatever Boy Scouts are called now) over Brownies/GS. The regular scouts do much more outdoor activities and camping.

My DD’s troop does camping all the time. That’s what her troop likes to focus on. That is a good thing about GS- the girls choose which activities to focus on.

Yes. If the leader is open to that. Ours isn’t. Or parent input.

Have you actually volunteered to get campout trained and plan and lead a campout? Because I have three parents who swore up and down they would get campout trained and do all the planning and leading for campouts, and guess what? It's three years later and they all keep saying "oh yeah, I need to do that" and then never do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we were to do it again, I’d pick Scouts (or whatever Boy Scouts are called now) over Brownies/GS. The regular scouts do much more outdoor activities and camping.

My DD’s troop does camping all the time. That’s what her troop likes to focus on. That is a good thing about GS- the girls choose which activities to focus on.

Yes. If the leader is open to that. Ours isn’t. Or parent input.

That stinks. I've been a leader and would have loved more parent help. Have you done any of the trainings? The trainings are pretty clear that it's supposed to be girl led. Obviously girl led for Daisies is very different than girl led for older Girl Scouts.

[Anonymous]

The GS business model seems pretty iffy. Troop adult volunteers control what happens and are easily able to ignore or reject suggestions from girls or parents. I guess your family's experience will depend on which adult leaders you select to spend time with your daughter. I would rather select organizations where there is consistency and assurance of what a girl will experience rather than a grab bag.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I sort of wished I'd nudged my DD into it a bit more. Mainly because the summer camp is so cheap and I wish we had that option for an over night!

I really dislike the cookie selling though.

As a child I did girl scouts until age 12, and sleep away girl scout camp is definitely a core memory...it was so great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we were to do it again, I’d pick Scouts (or whatever Boy Scouts are called now) over Brownies/GS. The regular scouts do much more outdoor activities and camping.

My DD’s troop does camping all the time. That’s what her troop likes to focus on. That is a good thing about GS- the girls choose which activities to focus on.

Yes. If the leader is open to that. Ours isn’t. Or parent input.

Have you actually volunteered to get campout trained and plan and lead a campout? Because I have three parents who swore up and down they would get campout trained and do all the planning and leading for campouts, and guess what? It's three years later and they all keep saying "oh yeah, I need to do that" and then never do.

We’ve never heard a peep about that being a possibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we were to do it again, I’d pick Scouts (or whatever Boy Scouts are called now) over Brownies/GS. The regular scouts do much more outdoor activities and camping.

My DD’s troop does camping all the time. That’s what her troop likes to focus on. That is a good thing about GS- the girls choose which activities to focus on.

Yes. If the leader is open to that. Ours isn’t. Or parent input.

Have you actually volunteered to get campout trained and plan and lead a campout? Because I have three parents who swore up and down they would get campout trained and do all the planning and leading for campouts, and guess what? It's three years later and they all keep saying "oh yeah, I need to do that" and then never do.

We’ve never heard a peep about that being a possibility.

NP here. Someone in your service unit is almost certainly running an encampment, and attending that may be an easier intro to camping than planning your own thing. You should sign up for the relevant announcements through the GS website.

If you want the troop to camp, an adult needs to take the live training, which you also sign up for on the website when it becomes available. Are you in the Nation's Capital council? There is a "Troop Camping Starter Guide" on the website under "Camp."