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ous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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. [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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. [/quote]

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).  [/quote]

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.[/quote]

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