Reply to Reversing the Membership Decline in Girl Scouts

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Wow, this thread is making me sad.  I have very found memories of scouting, even into high school.  My family didn't do a lot of outdoorsy things, and GS was the only opportunity I had to go camping, hiking, etc.  I agree that it was awesome to have the focus on life skills (automotive, carpentry) that I just didn't have the opportunity to learn elsewhere.  I have two daughters, and have been looking forward to getting them involved with GS too (the oldest is four).  Sad to know that it has changed so much.

Do leaders have the freedom to make it more "outdoorsy"?  I don't know a whole lot about how much control leaders have with the individual troop activities.  I had mentally planned to get involved and maybe actually be a troop leader when my youngest is old enough to join.[/quote]

Our troop pretty much abandoned the journeys as the girls got older.  The leader tells us fall sales and individual cookie sales are optional, although we do staff a cookie booth and the girls are expected to participate (which they enjoy).  I think it was in 3rd or 4th grade that the troop started to organize its year by having the girls vote on what badges they wanted to work on, they were divided into 3-girl teams to learn the requirements and then lead the troop to complete them.  Some of the things they voted on were outdoorsy, like hiking and outdoor skills.  Often part of the being the leader team was finding a "guest speaker" adult to come talk about the topic (w/ parent help, of course).  I don't know any of the details behind the scenes but our leaders have been great about adapting the program to make it fun for the girls and help them learn new things and step up to be leaders.  DD is in 5th grade and still enjoys GS.  When she was in Daisies-Brownies, she wasn't thrilled with the meetings  but wanted to continue simply for the 1-2 camping trips they do each year.  I'm not sure at this point if she'll continue into middle school.  Our middle school has a hiking club that would give her the outdoors experiences she gets from GS but more frequently.  [/quote]

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