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[quote=Anonymous]I'm a long term GS leader and Boy Scout (now Scouting America) volunteer as well.

This really depends on troops.  Sometimes leaders get burned out and need more help.  If families want the troop to survive, they may need to volunteer to help more.  Some troops have a system where they ask each parent to sign up to co-lead and help plan one meeting per year.  I used a sign-up genius when I did that and just asked each family to sign up for one meeting -- some parents were better than others at actually helping plan and implement.  I usually gave some ideas about badges the girls were interested in, but also tried to get parents to pick things that they were skilled at (like some parents might be better at helping with the hiking badge, and others might be better with the dance badge, or the physical fitness badge, or cooking or first aid...I found that if parents did something they were psyched about, that usually worked better.)

I don't know how often your troop meets.  Mine always met once per month and then usually did one other thing per month that was either a field trip related to our meeting theme, or an activity that was planned by Council or the Service Unit.  For instance, each year, we did the Service Unit encampment and the Service Unit Thinking Day -- that was two events right there.  Some years our Service Unit also did things like renting out a facility like Zavazone or the ice skating rink, so that was a third.  GS Council does stuff like GS Day at Udvar-Hazy, etc., -- that could be a fourth event.  We always had an end of year party.  So we could usually get to 9 non-meeting "events" at year pretty easily with minimal work from me.  If the troop leaders are planning weekly meetings, I can absolutely see why they would be totally burned out.

Any parent that is an MD, RN, PA, firefighter, EMT, etc. is already automatically first aid qualified and fits your need for a first aider for a field trip.  If you don't have a troop camp certified person, sometimes you can team up with an older troop (cadettes) which tend to be smaller, and then the teen girls can also maybe help you with the younger girls.  Also the Service Unit encampment doesn't require a troop certified camp person.  I always found that it was easy to get parents to volunteer to help chaperone or to bring certain things if assigned -- just harder to get people to volunteer to plan meetings.

Sometimes you can get a Cadette girl to help at your Daisy meetings in exchange for SSL hours or Silver Trefoil or even Bronze Award credit.  They can be a really helpful extra set of hands with active little ones.  If you meet at a location that is close to a middle school after school, that can really work well.  Check with your Service Unit leader that can send out a request to see if anyone is interested, or contact troop leaders at the MS directly.  [/quote]

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