I'm a troop leader with next to no help from parents. In the Daisy and Brownie years, I had a co-leader and things were not so bad. Although I still had the problem of getting girls to actually show up for things that were planned. And then I only had 2 girls planning to continue into Juniors, so I attempted to merge with another troop...but due to a series of strange events, I wound up with a troop again and am basically running it myself.

I do try to make it fun for the girls, most of whom are brand new - since I only get them for a chunk of time every couple weeks (darn overscheduled children), I cannot deviate from that. We have done badges at nearby Fairfax County Facilities (pay someone else to lead it!) and have a field trip to the Fire House at the end of the school year.

I think it is a good activity and depending on the troop leader and families involved, it can be a blast. I have fond memories of my days as a scout. I want my daughter to stay involved because I love the service projects they do as they age and the fact that you can get scholarship money if you stay with scouting through hs. Just find out what kind of commitment there were be in the troop your daughter might join - an hour or two every couple weeks isn't a lot. But please, don't leave the leader to do everything. I have been everything this year and it is frustrating.

Troops can really vary, depending on the girls and the leadership. My childhood troop was awesome -- we met once a week for two hours during the school year, and we occasionally did crafts but we worked a lot on different badges (I'll never forget learning to cha-cha to EW&F's "September" for my dance badge, and I still remember the rhyme they taught me for tying square knots.). We also had weekend camping trips twice a year -- the senior scouts also did primitive camping -- and occasional day hikes. Cookie sales was a really small part of what we did.

My DD's troop is organized through her school, and it's pretty awful - nothing but cut/glue/color construction paper projects.

Nothing - they're little tools used to sell overpriced cookies.

I am a troop leader for a troop that meets once per month. Our families are all overcommitted, and while we could accomplish more Girl Scout stuff if we met more often, everyone is overloaded so we try to hit the GS highlights, and have fun doing it.

I'm a troop leader. We expect each family (usually the mom, it seems) to lead one meeting or outing. I coordinate all the meetings, lead some, and most of the outings.

If you treated this as just a drop-off, you wouldn't be in this troop.

Girl Scouts has been OK for us. One troop my DD was in was more active with a lot of activities, engagements (too much?). The other was completely opposite. The girls met once a month. The activities seemed a little boring. Field trips were interesting but infrequent. Most kids were dropped off. Selling cookies is the big highlight.

OP: I completely respect the fact that your family is into sports and your kids are probably doing other things like music etc. You have clearly made a choice. However, let me share a few further thoughts.

The time commitment also depends on the troop. Some GS troops only meet every other week. I know some troops in which parents take two meetings for that month and other parents take another month. You should find out about the troop you are interested in joining. I think in general, that Girl Scouts is less time intensive than Boy Scouts. But all leaders appreciate support of various kinds from parents.

I believe all parents should think about how their kids are spending their time and if the kid is 3rd grade or older, I believe they need to participate in choosing their activities. I think there comes a point when we have to ask our kids to choose how they really want to spend their time because you can't choose everything.

What does your kid like to do? You get a lot of important values, friendships and fun from sports. But if a scout troop is well-run, then your child is going to learn about outdoors, working together, making decisions, and explore a wide variety of interests while developing their own leadership skills and helping others through community service. My son has played soccer for 10 years and is now 16. He's good and he loves it. But the variety of activities that he has done in scouting has really made a mark on him in terms of understanding himself and others because he has been put into so many different situations and had to problem solve and make decisions and actually learned lifeskills. It is just a broader range of experiences than sports.

Anonymous wrote:Thank you. I asked about parent participation because we both WOTH and both kids are already involved in other activities. Neither of us have time to devote to this and I didn't want to sign up if it was like Boy Scouts, which is why I never did for my son. I think we will pass. We are already involved with sports and are realistic about over extending our family commitments.

Not like Boy Scouts! We did both in our house. It is possible for mom and kid to get really involved. But unless you are a troop leader, you are not looking at the same level of involvement.

NP here, and 12 year old DD will start her 8th year in September. I love it as an activity, and think it is especially great at transition times (starting ES, MS, HS, or changing schools). IME, it is always a nice group of girls.

In terms of time commitment, you usually decide how much time you put into it. At a minimum, dropoff and pickup from meetings 1-2 a month, and dropoff/ pickup from leaders houses or activity venues for outings. When DD was younger (through 2nd grade), every parent volunteered for one monthly meeting a year to provide an extra set of hands. You also oversee your daughter selling cookies. But, if you want to get more involved, there are always extra ways to do so-- serving as leader or cookie mom (both big commitments), chaperoning small activities (outing to the air and space museum) or big ones (overnight camping), helping to man cookie booths or chaperone Thinking Day. I'm also a WOHM, and usually try to volunteer to help out a couple times a year. But, generally, I think the time commitment (and $$ commitment) both for girl and parent (Dad can help too!) is low, when compared to other kids activities in the DMV area.

Thank you. I asked about parent participation because we both WOTH and both kids are already involved in other activities. Neither of us have time to devote to this and I didn't want to sign up if it was like Boy Scouts, which is why I never did for my son. I think we will pass. We are already involved with sports and are realistic about over extending our family commitments.

I'm a troop leader and help place girls in troops at my school.

You should know that troops are run by parent volunteers. It really isn't as simple as "signing up". If you don't have at least 2 (unrelated) parents out of 12 girls who are willing to be leaders, there is no troop to sign up for. Additional parents should help out with being the troop money manager (run the bank account/serve as treasurer) and serve as cookie mom/dad. There are additional ways to volunteer that can strengthen the troop.

Once a troop is formed, it depends on
1. Did the troop leaders get trained like they were required to? Some don't.
2. Do they offer the variety Girl Scouts has to offer? Or are they only comfortable with crafts?
3. Do they listen to the interests of the girls? They are supposed to more and more as the girls get older, but some leaders don't.

Here is what Girl Scouts can do, depending on the age:
1. Learn new skills and earn related badges on many different topics.
2. Learn good values/character development
3. Service projects for both people in the community and the environment.
4. Learn business and financial skills
5. Learn outdoor/survival skills and learn to appreciate nature by being in it
6. Take field trips that expand their understanding of how the world works
7. Take trips (older girls) such as museum overnights, camping at Wildwood beach, going to NYC to see a Broadway show, go to Costa Rica to help an endangered species, etc, etc.
8. Earn highest Girl Scout awards (Gold) - easiest explanation is to compare it to the Eagle Award, though the requirements are different.

Fun, friendship, leadership, confidence, service - that is what the ideal troop "does". As noted by previous posters, it all depends on the quality/time commitment of the parent volunteers.

It is really variable between troops. We've been in one that met almost weekly. The other troop we joined hardly did anything.

Anonymous wrote:NP thinking of the same. What level of parent involvement and participation is required?

Parent participation is not required. However a troop is only as successful as its volunteers.

NP thinking of the same. What level of parent involvement and participation is required?

Thinking of signing my daughter up next year. Anyone one involved?