Are Girl Scouts the mean girls?

[Anonymous]

I led a troop when DD was in K. It was not cliquey. All were welcome. While some leaders limit numbers, I wanted to be as inclusive as possible and literally called every K parent. When kids expressed interest after the troop was established, I turned away nobody. In the younger grades it was a really heterogeneous group. Sporty girls. Girly girls. Quiet girls. Loud girls. Artsy girls. Outdoorsy girls. Some girls who had model behavior and others who climbed the furniture. As the years passed, girls dropped off and new girls came. In 5th grade there was some age expected grouping off within the troop as some girls were just naturally tighter. To deal with that, we mixed up those girls with other partners for activities and as roommates on camping trips. We did have one girl who attempted to wield power by exclusionary behavior which led my own DD to want to quit. Otherwise by middle school, the girls who were left weren’t what I’d call popular or cliquey (my own DD was painfully shy).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My girls are in Cub Scouts/Scouts because we couldn’t get a call back from Girl Scouts, despite multiple calls and emails to several different branches. One branch did call us, but it was well after we had already signed up for Cub Scouts. I chalk that more up to busy/high demand, maybe I wasn’t calling at the right time of year.

That said, thinking about the little girls I know how are in Girl Scouts—or ANY elementary kid—I would never in a million years label any child as a “Mean Girl.” If you want to have a go at the parents, have a go at the parents. But take a look at your thread title. My goodness.

I am a Girl Scout leader and on my local Service Unit team (the collection of troops in the area) and I genuinely have no idea how Scouts BSA does it! They seem to have an endless supply of spots for new kids, meanwhile we ***always*** have more girls that want to join than available troops and struggle so much getting new leaders to volunteer. Does Scouts BSA just not have the same adult/child ratio requirements? Are parents more willing to volunteer for their sons than their daughters? Do paid staff step up and run troops if they don't have volunteers? I would love to know how they do it.

I don’t know, but here’s what I know: even if you don’t have a spot, you do have a duty to promptly call back the inquiring parent and tell them you don’t have a spot. Or at the very least have some automated email or text script you can send. Not replying is unacceptable. If you can’t promptly respond to inquiries, you have no business being a troop leader.

Look, I am a troop leader and although I agree that you should get a call back or told by someone that the troop is full, I think it is a stretch to say that the not doing so immediately means that someone has no business being a troop leader. First of all, like another poster said, I have no idea how I would be contacted if there was an inquiry for my troop- I get an automated message when someone new signs up for my troop but I have no idea how an inquiry would get to me- perhaps the inquiry is actually going to the council and not the troop leader?

Second, if a troop is full then the leader's main focus is on the troop, not responding to emails. I have a full time job and plan meetings at night after the kids go to bed. I will go to the Girl Scout store to pickup badges on days that I am running other errands. I am a room mom for my other kid's class be cause nobody else signed up for it. I signed up to lead the troop because another parent begged me to do it- she leads a troop for her older daughter and couldn't fit in running one for her younger but she really wanted her to have the chance to be in a troop. I am stretching pretty thin doing all these things and the parents always talk about how their girls love the brownie troop I run. So it doesn't quite follow that I would have "no business running a troop" because I might not reply immediately to an email from someone I don't know (that might have gone to my spam folder).

[Anonymous]

[quote=named.

ous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My girls are in Cub Scouts/Scouts because we couldn’t get a call back from Girl Scouts, despite multiple calls and emails to several different branches. One branch did call us, but it was well after we had already signed up for Cub Scouts. I chalk that more up to busy/high demand, maybe I wasn’t calling at the right time of year.

That said, thinking about the little girls I know how are in Girl Scouts—or ANY elementary kid—I would never in a million years label any child as a “Mean Girl.” If you want to have a go at the parents, have a go at the parents. But take a look at your thread title. My goodness.

I am a Girl Scout leader and on my local Service Unit team (the collection of troops in the area) and I genuinely have no idea how Scouts BSA does it! They seem to have an endless supply of spots for new kids, meanwhile we ***always*** have more girls that want to join than available troops and struggle so much getting new leaders to volunteer. Does Scouts BSA just not have the same adult/child ratio requirements? Are parents more willing to volunteer for their sons than their daughters? Do paid staff step up and run troops if they don't have volunteers? I would love to know how they do it.

I don’t know, but here’s what I know: even if you don’t have a spot, you do have a duty to promptly call back the inquiring parent and tell them you don’t have a spot. Or at the very least have some automated email or text script you can send. Not replying is unacceptable. If you can’t promptly respond to inquiries, you have no business being a troop leader.

Look, I am a troop leader and although I agree that you should get a call back or told by someone that the troop is full, I think it is a stretch to say that the not doing so immediately means that someone has no business being a troop leader. First of all, like another poster said, I have no idea how I would be contacted if there was an inquiry for my troop- I get an automated message when someone new signs up for my troop but I have no idea how an inquiry would get to me- perhaps the inquiry is actually going to the council and not the troop leader?

Second, if a troop is full then the leader's main focus is on the troop, not responding to emails. I have a full time job and plan meetings at night after the kids go to bed. I will go to the Girl Scout store to pickup badges on days that I am running other errands. I am a room mom for my other kid's class be cause nobody else signed up for it. I signed up to lead the troop because another parent begged me to do it- she leads a troop for her older daughter and couldn't fit in running one for her younger but she really wanted her to have the chance to be in a troop. I am stretching pretty thin doing all these things and the parents always talk about how their girls love the brownie troop I run. So it doesn't quite follow that I would have "no business running a troop" because I might not reply immediately to an email from someone I don't know (that might have gone to my spam folder).

I feel you on the busy parent part. But I blame the structure of Girl Scouts for literally keeping people away when they'd like to join. A kid doesn't want just any troop within a 30-minute drive; she wants the troop where her friends are. And the organizational situation actually can prevent her signing up for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[quote=named.

ous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My girls are in Cub Scouts/Scouts because we couldn’t get a call back from Girl Scouts, despite multiple calls and emails to several different branches. One branch did call us, but it was well after we had already signed up for Cub Scouts. I chalk that more up to busy/high demand, maybe I wasn’t calling at the right time of year.

That said, thinking about the little girls I know how are in Girl Scouts—or ANY elementary kid—I would never in a million years label any child as a “Mean Girl.” If you want to have a go at the parents, have a go at the parents. But take a look at your thread title. My goodness.

I am a Girl Scout leader and on my local Service Unit team (the collection of troops in the area) and I genuinely have no idea how Scouts BSA does it! They seem to have an endless supply of spots for new kids, meanwhile we ***always*** have more girls that want to join than available troops and struggle so much getting new leaders to volunteer. Does Scouts BSA just not have the same adult/child ratio requirements? Are parents more willing to volunteer for their sons than their daughters? Do paid staff step up and run troops if they don't have volunteers? I would love to know how they do it.

I don’t know, but here’s what I know: even if you don’t have a spot, you do have a duty to promptly call back the inquiring parent and tell them you don’t have a spot. Or at the very least have some automated email or text script you can send. Not replying is unacceptable. If you can’t promptly respond to inquiries, you have no business being a troop leader.

Look, I am a troop leader and although I agree that you should get a call back or told by someone that the troop is full, I think it is a stretch to say that the not doing so immediately means that someone has no business being a troop leader. First of all, like another poster said, I have no idea how I would be contacted if there was an inquiry for my troop- I get an automated message when someone new signs up for my troop but I have no idea how an inquiry would get to me- perhaps the inquiry is actually going to the council and not the troop leader?

Second, if a troop is full then the leader's main focus is on the troop, not responding to emails. I have a full time job and plan meetings at night after the kids go to bed. I will go to the Girl Scout store to pickup badges on days that I am running other errands. I am a room mom for my other kid's class be cause nobody else signed up for it. I signed up to lead the troop because another parent begged me to do it- she leads a troop for her older daughter and couldn't fit in running one for her younger but she really wanted her to have the chance to be in a troop. I am stretching pretty thin doing all these things and the parents always talk about how their girls love the brownie troop I run. So it doesn't quite follow that I would have "no business running a troop" because I might not reply immediately to an email from someone I don't know (that might have gone to my spam folder).

I feel you on the busy parent part. But I blame the structure of Girl Scouts for literally keeping people away when they'd like to join. A kid doesn't want just any troop within a 30-minute drive; she wants the troop where her friends are. And the organizational situation actually can prevent her signing up for it.

If the troop is full then there is an entire troop full of girls who were able to join. I run a Daisy troop and cannot have more than 12 girls unless another co-leader steps up. You want to step up and co-lead, be my guest. My kid is in the troop; if you don't want to help out then maybe look in the mirror and realize you are the one keeping your daughter away, not some random troop leader you don't know.

[Anonymous]

That group sounds very unappealing.

[Anonymous]

I have never liked a parent-led group. They are intense, cliquey, and I don't like that scene at all. I much prefer my kids doing school activities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who the trooper leader is makes such a difference. Ours is done through our school and the main troop leader is a super type A, tiger mom. DD did one year and I volunteered and while the girls and the other parents were great, this woman's vibe was exhausting and she was extremely competitive and this made her kids very competitive too. It could have been low key but she made sure it wasn't.

This year we kind of arranged it so DD's ballet class conflict with GS. DD wasn't that into it anyway and wanted to try gymnastics anyway so it's fine.

I did GS in school and the girls were all very sporty and outdoorsy. I was bookish and not outdoorsy and didn't always fit in, but it was still a good experience.

I would not think a tiger mom type would be troop leader—that is a strange role for such a person. I had a run-in with one who seemed to interpret our chat as a competition, and she kept trying to one up my DC until she couldn’t (my DC is in a sought-after program hers is not) and she gave up and left.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[quote=named.

ous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My girls are in Cub Scouts/Scouts because we couldn’t get a call back from Girl Scouts, despite multiple calls and emails to several different branches. One branch did call us, but it was well after we had already signed up for Cub Scouts. I chalk that more up to busy/high demand, maybe I wasn’t calling at the right time of year.

That said, thinking about the little girls I know how are in Girl Scouts—or ANY elementary kid—I would never in a million years label any child as a “Mean Girl.” If you want to have a go at the parents, have a go at the parents. But take a look at your thread title. My goodness.

I am a Girl Scout leader and on my local Service Unit team (the collection of troops in the area) and I genuinely have no idea how Scouts BSA does it! They seem to have an endless supply of spots for new kids, meanwhile we ***always*** have more girls that want to join than available troops and struggle so much getting new leaders to volunteer. Does Scouts BSA just not have the same adult/child ratio requirements? Are parents more willing to volunteer for their sons than their daughters? Do paid staff step up and run troops if they don't have volunteers? I would love to know how they do it.

I don’t know, but here’s what I know: even if you don’t have a spot, you do have a duty to promptly call back the inquiring parent and tell them you don’t have a spot. Or at the very least have some automated email or text script you can send. Not replying is unacceptable. If you can’t promptly respond to inquiries, you have no business being a troop leader.

Look, I am a troop leader and although I agree that you should get a call back or told by someone that the troop is full, I think it is a stretch to say that the not doing so immediately means that someone has no business being a troop leader. First of all, like another poster said, I have no idea how I would be contacted if there was an inquiry for my troop- I get an automated message when someone new signs up for my troop but I have no idea how an inquiry would get to me- perhaps the inquiry is actually going to the council and not the troop leader?

Second, if a troop is full then the leader's main focus is on the troop, not responding to emails. I have a full time job and plan meetings at night after the kids go to bed. I will go to the Girl Scout store to pickup badges on days that I am running other errands. I am a room mom for my other kid's class be cause nobody else signed up for it. I signed up to lead the troop because another parent begged me to do it- she leads a troop for her older daughter and couldn't fit in running one for her younger but she really wanted her to have the chance to be in a troop. I am stretching pretty thin doing all these things and the parents always talk about how their girls love the brownie troop I run. So it doesn't quite follow that I would have "no business running a troop" because I might not reply immediately to an email from someone I don't know (that might have gone to my spam folder).

If the troop is full then there is an entire troop full of girls who were able to join. I run a Daisy troop and cannot have more than 12 girls unless another co-leader steps up. You want to step up and co-lead, be my guest. My kid is in the troop; if you don't want to help out then maybe look in the mirror and realize you are the one keeping your daughter away, not some random troop leader you don't know.

Wow, OK...which explains why DD is a Cub Scout. Where I have held multiple leadership roles for years. And also where there's no clubby quota control.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[quote=named.

ous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My girls are in Cub Scouts/Scouts because we couldn’t get a call back from Girl Scouts, despite multiple calls and emails to several different branches. One branch did call us, but it was well after we had already signed up for Cub Scouts. I chalk that more up to busy/high demand, maybe I wasn’t calling at the right time of year.

That said, thinking about the little girls I know how are in Girl Scouts—or ANY elementary kid—I would never in a million years label any child as a “Mean Girl.” If you want to have a go at the parents, have a go at the parents. But take a look at your thread title. My goodness.

I am a Girl Scout leader and on my local Service Unit team (the collection of troops in the area) and I genuinely have no idea how Scouts BSA does it! They seem to have an endless supply of spots for new kids, meanwhile we ***always*** have more girls that want to join than available troops and struggle so much getting new leaders to volunteer. Does Scouts BSA just not have the same adult/child ratio requirements? Are parents more willing to volunteer for their sons than their daughters? Do paid staff step up and run troops if they don't have volunteers? I would love to know how they do it.

I don’t know, but here’s what I know: even if you don’t have a spot, you do have a duty to promptly call back the inquiring parent and tell them you don’t have a spot. Or at the very least have some automated email or text script you can send. Not replying is unacceptable. If you can’t promptly respond to inquiries, you have no business being a troop leader.

Look, I am a troop leader and although I agree that you should get a call back or told by someone that the troop is full, I think it is a stretch to say that the not doing so immediately means that someone has no business being a troop leader. First of all, like another poster said, I have no idea how I would be contacted if there was an inquiry for my troop- I get an automated message when someone new signs up for my troop but I have no idea how an inquiry would get to me- perhaps the inquiry is actually going to the council and not the troop leader?

Second, if a troop is full then the leader's main focus is on the troop, not responding to emails. I have a full time job and plan meetings at night after the kids go to bed. I will go to the Girl Scout store to pickup badges on days that I am running other errands. I am a room mom for my other kid's class be cause nobody else signed up for it. I signed up to lead the troop because another parent begged me to do it- she leads a troop for her older daughter and couldn't fit in running one for her younger but she really wanted her to have the chance to be in a troop. I am stretching pretty thin doing all these things and the parents always talk about how their girls love the brownie troop I run. So it doesn't quite follow that I would have "no business running a troop" because I might not reply immediately to an email from someone I don't know (that might have gone to my spam folder).

If the troop is full then there is an entire troop full of girls who were able to join. I run a Daisy troop and cannot have more than 12 girls unless another co-leader steps up. You want to step up and co-lead, be my guest. My kid is in the troop; if you don't want to help out then maybe look in the mirror and realize you are the one keeping your daughter away, not some random troop leader you don't know.

Wow, OK...which explains why DD is a Cub Scout. Where I have held multiple leadership roles for years. And also where there's no clubby quota control.

Cub scouts don’t have mandatory adult to child ratios? I guess that explains some part of the scouts bsa past…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah growing up it was a dorky thing to do. I quit in like 4th grade. Grew up in Fairfax. Maybe it’s different now.

This. I asked my 8 yo if she wanted to do GS and she said no way and named a few weird kids at her school who were in GS. We joined 4H club as she is an equestrian and softball player.

[Anonymous]

No - they are the Mommy's girls - nerds

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[quote=named.

ous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My girls are in Cub Scouts/Scouts because we couldn’t get a call back from Girl Scouts, despite multiple calls and emails to several different branches. One branch did call us, but it was well after we had already signed up for Cub Scouts. I chalk that more up to busy/high demand, maybe I wasn’t calling at the right time of year.

That said, thinking about the little girls I know how are in Girl Scouts—or ANY elementary kid—I would never in a million years label any child as a “Mean Girl.” If you want to have a go at the parents, have a go at the parents. But take a look at your thread title. My goodness.

I am a Girl Scout leader and on my local Service Unit team (the collection of troops in the area) and I genuinely have no idea how Scouts BSA does it! They seem to have an endless supply of spots for new kids, meanwhile we ***always*** have more girls that want to join than available troops and struggle so much getting new leaders to volunteer. Does Scouts BSA just not have the same adult/child ratio requirements? Are parents more willing to volunteer for their sons than their daughters? Do paid staff step up and run troops if they don't have volunteers? I would love to know how they do it.

I don’t know, but here’s what I know: even if you don’t have a spot, you do have a duty to promptly call back the inquiring parent and tell them you don’t have a spot. Or at the very least have some automated email or text script you can send. Not replying is unacceptable. If you can’t promptly respond to inquiries, you have no business being a troop leader.

Look, I am a troop leader and although I agree that you should get a call back or told by someone that the troop is full, I think it is a stretch to say that the not doing so immediately means that someone has no business being a troop leader. First of all, like another poster said, I have no idea how I would be contacted if there was an inquiry for my troop- I get an automated message when someone new signs up for my troop but I have no idea how an inquiry would get to me- perhaps the inquiry is actually going to the council and not the troop leader?

Second, if a troop is full then the leader's main focus is on the troop, not responding to emails. I have a full time job and plan meetings at night after the kids go to bed. I will go to the Girl Scout store to pickup badges on days that I am running other errands. I am a room mom for my other kid's class be cause nobody else signed up for it. I signed up to lead the troop because another parent begged me to do it- she leads a troop for her older daughter and couldn't fit in running one for her younger but she really wanted her to have the chance to be in a troop. I am stretching pretty thin doing all these things and the parents always talk about how their girls love the brownie troop I run. So it doesn't quite follow that I would have "no business running a troop" because I might not reply immediately to an email from someone I don't know (that might have gone to my spam folder).

If the troop is full then there is an entire troop full of girls who were able to join. I run a Daisy troop and cannot have more than 12 girls unless another co-leader steps up. You want to step up and co-lead, be my guest. My kid is in the troop; if you don't want to help out then maybe look in the mirror and realize you are the one keeping your daughter away, not some random troop leader you don't know.

Wow, OK...which explains why DD is a Cub Scout. Where I have held multiple leadership roles for years. And also where there's no clubby quota control.

Cub scouts don’t have mandatory adult to child ratios? I guess that explains some part of the scouts bsa past…

What is the ratio?

We have a big troop - 15 girls with 2 leaders. We also have a lot of other volunteers like money manager, cookie manager and driver.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[quote=named.

ous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My girls are in Cub Scouts/Scouts because we couldn’t get a call back from Girl Scouts, despite multiple calls and emails to several different branches. One branch did call us, but it was well after we had already signed up for Cub Scouts. I chalk that more up to busy/high demand, maybe I wasn’t calling at the right time of year.

That said, thinking about the little girls I know how are in Girl Scouts—or ANY elementary kid—I would never in a million years label any child as a “Mean Girl.” If you want to have a go at the parents, have a go at the parents. But take a look at your thread title. My goodness.

I am a Girl Scout leader and on my local Service Unit team (the collection of troops in the area) and I genuinely have no idea how Scouts BSA does it! They seem to have an endless supply of spots for new kids, meanwhile we ***always*** have more girls that want to join than available troops and struggle so much getting new leaders to volunteer. Does Scouts BSA just not have the same adult/child ratio requirements? Are parents more willing to volunteer for their sons than their daughters? Do paid staff step up and run troops if they don't have volunteers? I would love to know how they do it.

I don’t know, but here’s what I know: even if you don’t have a spot, you do have a duty to promptly call back the inquiring parent and tell them you don’t have a spot. Or at the very least have some automated email or text script you can send. Not replying is unacceptable. If you can’t promptly respond to inquiries, you have no business being a troop leader.

Look, I am a troop leader and although I agree that you should get a call back or told by someone that the troop is full, I think it is a stretch to say that the not doing so immediately means that someone has no business being a troop leader. First of all, like another poster said, I have no idea how I would be contacted if there was an inquiry for my troop- I get an automated message when someone new signs up for my troop but I have no idea how an inquiry would get to me- perhaps the inquiry is actually going to the council and not the troop leader?

Second, if a troop is full then the leader's main focus is on the troop, not responding to emails. I have a full time job and plan meetings at night after the kids go to bed. I will go to the Girl Scout store to pickup badges on days that I am running other errands. I am a room mom for my other kid's class be cause nobody else signed up for it. I signed up to lead the troop because another parent begged me to do it- she leads a troop for her older daughter and couldn't fit in running one for her younger but she really wanted her to have the chance to be in a troop. I am stretching pretty thin doing all these things and the parents always talk about how their girls love the brownie troop I run. So it doesn't quite follow that I would have "no business running a troop" because I might not reply immediately to an email from someone I don't know (that might have gone to my spam folder).

If the troop is full then there is an entire troop full of girls who were able to join. I run a Daisy troop and cannot have more than 12 girls unless another co-leader steps up. You want to step up and co-lead, be my guest. My kid is in the troop; if you don't want to help out then maybe look in the mirror and realize you are the one keeping your daughter away, not some random troop leader you don't know.

Wow, OK...which explains why DD is a Cub Scout. Where I have held multiple leadership roles for years. And also where there's no clubby quota control.

Cub scouts don’t have mandatory adult to child ratios? I guess that explains some part of the scouts bsa past…

Cub Scouts requires parent or guardian partnership at meetings and activities in K and 1st grade, and our pack continues that all the way through 5th grade, so we don't drop off. The youth protection rules also state that no adult may be alone with a child or children that are not their own, even if their own child is also present. A leader by themselves, for example, can't run a group meeting in a public place. There have to be at least two leaders at all times, no matter how few Scouts there are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[quote=named.

ous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My girls are in Cub Scouts/Scouts because we couldn’t get a call back from Girl Scouts, despite multiple calls and emails to several different branches. One branch did call us, but it was well after we had already signed up for Cub Scouts. I chalk that more up to busy/high demand, maybe I wasn’t calling at the right time of year.

That said, thinking about the little girls I know how are in Girl Scouts—or ANY elementary kid—I would never in a million years label any child as a “Mean Girl.” If you want to have a go at the parents, have a go at the parents. But take a look at your thread title. My goodness.

I am a Girl Scout leader and on my local Service Unit team (the collection of troops in the area) and I genuinely have no idea how Scouts BSA does it! They seem to have an endless supply of spots for new kids, meanwhile we ***always*** have more girls that want to join than available troops and struggle so much getting new leaders to volunteer. Does Scouts BSA just not have the same adult/child ratio requirements? Are parents more willing to volunteer for their sons than their daughters? Do paid staff step up and run troops if they don't have volunteers? I would love to know how they do it.

I don’t know, but here’s what I know: even if you don’t have a spot, you do have a duty to promptly call back the inquiring parent and tell them you don’t have a spot. Or at the very least have some automated email or text script you can send. Not replying is unacceptable. If you can’t promptly respond to inquiries, you have no business being a troop leader.

Look, I am a troop leader and although I agree that you should get a call back or told by someone that the troop is full, I think it is a stretch to say that the not doing so immediately means that someone has no business being a troop leader. First of all, like another poster said, I have no idea how I would be contacted if there was an inquiry for my troop- I get an automated message when someone new signs up for my troop but I have no idea how an inquiry would get to me- perhaps the inquiry is actually going to the council and not the troop leader?

Second, if a troop is full then the leader's main focus is on the troop, not responding to emails. I have a full time job and plan meetings at night after the kids go to bed. I will go to the Girl Scout store to pickup badges on days that I am running other errands. I am a room mom for my other kid's class be cause nobody else signed up for it. I signed up to lead the troop because another parent begged me to do it- she leads a troop for her older daughter and couldn't fit in running one for her younger but she really wanted her to have the chance to be in a troop. I am stretching pretty thin doing all these things and the parents always talk about how their girls love the brownie troop I run. So it doesn't quite follow that I would have "no business running a troop" because I might not reply immediately to an email from someone I don't know (that might have gone to my spam folder).

If the troop is full then there is an entire troop full of girls who were able to join. I run a Daisy troop and cannot have more than 12 girls unless another co-leader steps up. You want to step up and co-lead, be my guest. My kid is in the troop; if you don't want to help out then maybe look in the mirror and realize you are the one keeping your daughter away, not some random troop leader you don't know.

Wow, OK...which explains why DD is a Cub Scout. Where I have held multiple leadership roles for years. And also where there's no clubby quota control.

Lol at calling safe child-parent ratios "clubby quota control." Again, the GS organization will not let Daisy troops have more than six girls per background checked leader. Feel free to volunteer with a troop as a co-leader to help the troop increase ratios!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[quote=named.

ous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My girls are in Cub Scouts/Scouts because we couldn’t get a call back from Girl Scouts, despite multiple calls and emails to several different branches. One branch did call us, but it was well after we had already signed up for Cub Scouts. I chalk that more up to busy/high demand, maybe I wasn’t calling at the right time of year.

That said, thinking about the little girls I know how are in Girl Scouts—or ANY elementary kid—I would never in a million years label any child as a “Mean Girl.” If you want to have a go at the parents, have a go at the parents. But take a look at your thread title. My goodness.

I am a Girl Scout leader and on my local Service Unit team (the collection of troops in the area) and I genuinely have no idea how Scouts BSA does it! They seem to have an endless supply of spots for new kids, meanwhile we ***always*** have more girls that want to join than available troops and struggle so much getting new leaders to volunteer. Does Scouts BSA just not have the same adult/child ratio requirements? Are parents more willing to volunteer for their sons than their daughters? Do paid staff step up and run troops if they don't have volunteers? I would love to know how they do it.

I don’t know, but here’s what I know: even if you don’t have a spot, you do have a duty to promptly call back the inquiring parent and tell them you don’t have a spot. Or at the very least have some automated email or text script you can send. Not replying is unacceptable. If you can’t promptly respond to inquiries, you have no business being a troop leader.

Look, I am a troop leader and although I agree that you should get a call back or told by someone that the troop is full, I think it is a stretch to say that the not doing so immediately means that someone has no business being a troop leader. First of all, like another poster said, I have no idea how I would be contacted if there was an inquiry for my troop- I get an automated message when someone new signs up for my troop but I have no idea how an inquiry would get to me- perhaps the inquiry is actually going to the council and not the troop leader?

Second, if a troop is full then the leader's main focus is on the troop, not responding to emails. I have a full time job and plan meetings at night after the kids go to bed. I will go to the Girl Scout store to pickup badges on days that I am running other errands. I am a room mom for my other kid's class be cause nobody else signed up for it. I signed up to lead the troop because another parent begged me to do it- she leads a troop for her older daughter and couldn't fit in running one for her younger but she really wanted her to have the chance to be in a troop. I am stretching pretty thin doing all these things and the parents always talk about how their girls love the brownie troop I run. So it doesn't quite follow that I would have "no business running a troop" because I might not reply immediately to an email from someone I don't know (that might have gone to my spam folder).

If the troop is full then there is an entire troop full of girls who were able to join. I run a Daisy troop and cannot have more than 12 girls unless another co-leader steps up. You want to step up and co-lead, be my guest. My kid is in the troop; if you don't want to help out then maybe look in the mirror and realize you are the one keeping your daughter away, not some random troop leader you don't know.

Wow, OK...which explains why DD is a Cub Scout. Where I have held multiple leadership roles for years. And also where there's no clubby quota control.

Cub scouts don’t have mandatory adult to child ratios? I guess that explains some part of the scouts bsa past…

Cub Scouts requires parent or guardian partnership at meetings and activities in K and 1st grade, and our pack continues that all the way through 5th grade, so we don't drop off. The youth protection rules also state that no adult may be alone with a child or children that are not their own, even if their own child is also present. A leader by themselves, for example, can't run a group meeting in a public place. There have to be at least two leaders at all times, no matter how few Scouts there are.

The bolded is the reason for the difference in how Girl Scouts treats full troops. Our GS troop doesn't have open spots, because we do drop offs so we can't have too many kids and maintain our ratios, especially for travel. For anything other than a troop meeting, it's 2 leaders for the first 12 scouts then 1 adult for every 1-6 scouts after that (for Brownies). Getting extra parents to attend other than the leaders is a challenge, because it is structured as a drop off program from the beginning.

(I think there's pluses and minus to that structure, and both the GS approach and the Cub Scout approach have things to recommend them)