Reply to Scoutmaster of Scouts BSA Troop 248 for Girls Answers your Questions

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[quote=cburkhardt]Great questions.

The Troop acquired all tents, stoves and other non-personal equipment over the last three years from dues money, contributions from our church and other sources.  All girls have to bring is their personal sleeping bag, ground pad and clothing.  The bags and pads are inexpensive and of reasonable quality at Wal Mart.  Under-resourced families can get free equipment through a local group of BSA volunteers who maintain a warehouse of donated used equipment.

We are a “stand alone” girl Troop, meaning we are at a church where there is no boy Troop.  We did this on purpose to assure the focus would be on having a successful all-girl operation.  We recruit the girls during open houses and find only about 20% have a brother in an all-boy Troop.  Some of our girls are also in Girl Scouts.

We have no problem recruiting adult volunteers, including many with outdoor experience.  I believe this is because we are large-scale.  Just think of it – we have over 100 parents, so a good number are going to have whatever talent or capability the girls might need.  Small Troops with 10 members and a few adults are vulnerable organizations that lack the depth.  We also do not over-use our volunteers.  People are asked to do only one thing.  We never “double-up” assignments with our people.  We also start our monthly adult Zoom call precisely on time, so we never, ever waste anyone’s time.

We have no problem recruiting girls at age 10 – 12, which is our ideal “joining age”.  I think this is because our families tell us that 10-Noon on Saturdays is open time for these girls.

We started our Troop by conducting 4 focus groups in the District of adults we thought had children who should be interested in joining.  We recruited 12 adults from those gatherings and have maintained a reasonable growth since then.  It was driven by a few individuals, but soon became a multi-family effort.  Today we have over 30 of our families contributing to the operations in some meaningful way beyond our minimal requirements (see below).  A few are deeply involved, but the rest just do their part a couple of times a year.  Girl Troops that are affiliated with Boy Troops need to operate as separately as possible, including different campouts and events.  Otherwise the adult committee gets combined into a big blob that sometimes favors the interests of the boys.  The committee can be shared, but the programs are supposed to be operated separately.

Our typical weekend campout usually has about one adult for every 5 youth.  In Scouts BSA, there is no particular ratio required, but there must be female leaders.  We are a majority female group of volunteers, so this is not a problem.

Our typical 2-hour meeting is structured so that our youth “Senior Patrol Leader” leads it all with her eight appointed assistants.  This includes program skill instruction, meetings of the sub-group “patrols” to plan how each sub-group will cook on the next campout, games, presentations by visitors, and planning time to determine upcoming events.  We also present awards for Scouts who have advanced ranks or earned merit badges.  Girl Troops have the capacity to meet for longer time periods and should.  That is why we meet twice each month for a longer time.  Our elected youth leaders show up to our meetings at 9 AM once a month to have their leadership and planning meeting.

53 girls is not a lot.  This is because we break them into four sub-groups called “patrols”.  Each patrol has adult advisors and does some things independently of the other patrols.  We often have competitions between them.  The patrols are scrambled in every way.  We mix ages and schools so everyone learns to get along with others.  The older girls become role models.

Most girls attend about 2/3 of our camping events.  When you are putting on an event every month (except December and August), you get on a roll and it becomes a system.  Again, this is something that larger groups can pull off more easily than 10 youth and a few adults.  It would just not work without wearing out the involved people.

Parents are required to help run two events per year (meeting, campout or service project).  They are required to car pool.  They are required to pay dues and event fees.  They are required to make some contribution (the amount I up to them) to help pay for our under-resourced girl participants.  
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