Reply to Scouting vs. Scouting (help me come to terms?)

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]you may find that a lot of troops are full.  you may want to volunteer to be cookie mom, for example, for someone to find space for you.[/quote]

OP here again with an honest question: what constitutes "full"?  (In our Cub Scout pack, we have no caps, so "full" is new to me.)  Is there a required ratio between girls and volunteers, for example?  In that case I can see why a girl who wanted to make a later-years entry into an established troop would essentially have to bring a volunteer with them in order to adjust the numbers.

That might explain why I can't find DD's friends' troop on the joining section of the Girl Scouts website, too.  Maybe it is full.  (I will contact them directly, of course - I was just looking around.)[/quote]

There’s a very strict required ratio of volunteer:Girl Scout. That’s because, unlike Cub Scouts that has parents in a 1:1 parent:Scout ratio at most meetings, Girl Scouts is Girl-led and a dropoff activity. The bright side of this is that girls learn to express their own opinions, make their own choices, and learn to do things on their own.

As a leader, I’ll say that my Girl Scouts are very different people at the rare event when parents are present vs. when it’s just our troop. In a good way. However, they are a lot to manage and we have trouble getting volunteers willing to do the background check and trainings and show up reliably, let alone plane meetings and facilitate badge work or outings that fit the girls’ states goals for the year. So we’re exactly at the ratio at all times and cancel meetings if a volunteer isn’t available. That’s why our troop is not publicly listed or actively recruiting new girls. The other reason is that we meet at school and the rules of our room use say that we aren’t allowed to have children or adults who aren’t affiliated with it in certain spaces after school hours. [/quote]

Troops can’t close if they have less than 12 girls but after that it’s up to the troop leader.  I would often open mine up specifically for a girl from our school because I didn’t want anyone to be left out.  If you volunteer to be camp certified they will almost certainly make an exception.  If you are from a big BSA family you might be really great for this role.  I have to admit I am a little frustrated with the number of women who just say “I don’t camp.”  That’s one difference with BSA-I think the men are too worried about looking like wimps to admit they don’t like camping!  Or more of them grew up with it so they are accustomed to it.  I’m always trying to at least get troop dads to volunteer for the camping certification — I know other troops that had great luck with this but I personally haven’t been able to convince our dads. [/quote]

The part about troops not being allowed to close until they hit their max is absolutely not true and a big hurdle for new scouts in our area. You can contact your Council and they turn off visibility for your troop and that’s it. Closed. Sometimes people close troops for nefarious reasons (leaving girls out) and sometimes benign ones (long-standing troop with thousands in Cookie earnings and a planned trip or space constraints in a church meeting room, multiple girls with disabilities and need for close supervision). [/quote]

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