Re: cookie sales, we have no set expectations for sales (anyone can choose not to participate at all) but as a troop we do one booth and I feel the booth is actually easier than individual sales. You stand with your kid outside a grocery store or big box store (that the GS leader ship sets up - all you have to do is sign up and show up with cookies). That way they get the experience of sales without having to go door to door, pressure your co-workers, etc. We have made a pretty good sum both of the last two years we did that. You will want to designate someone to be the cookie mom and handle the cookie ordering and all the individual sales (which gets laborious).

Not a leader, but a parent. At our school in APS, the organizational meeting to identify families who might be interested was in September. Once two parents agreed to be co-troop leaders, it opened for registration, and the troop was formed by late October. The first official meeting was in November.

Definitely leverage other parents! Our troop leaders are amazing, but each family signs up to volunteer at one of the meetings during the course of the year to help lead an activity or help corral the girls since 15 6yr olds can be a lot to handle! We didn't do cookies our first year. The second year the goal for each girl was one case, which is 12 boxes. That's the bare minimum you need to sell to earn your GS cookie patch. We did decide to do one 2 or 3hr booth, and the girls loved it as one more chance to hang out together on the weekend. Again, families signed up for a 1hr shift at the booth but many hung out for most of the time.

It really is what you and the parents make of it. What are your interests, and what do you want out of it for your own daughter?

Anonymous wrote:It seems like around here Daisies doesn't start until January for the kindergartners. Is that an official thing, that it can't start earlier? A way of skipping cookie sales the first year?

No, Daisies can, even should, start in the fall. Maybe leaders just weren't able to organize until school started? And you do not have to do cookies, esp. your first year!

^^ Leader here, wanted to add, the troop is what you make it. You can adhere to the book, or you can really focus on things that interest you. I think it works best when the leader has a passion s/he can share with the girls, b/c the book/ curriculum is pretty insipid, I m sorry to say.

Our troop is heavy on hiking and outdoors stuff with a healthy dose of community work. I find cool patches that can apply to what we do, but I don't sweat following the curriculum.

Also, def. do encampment. It is really great to meet all the other GS in the area, and our is super well-organized and filled with fun traditions, songs etc.

Anonymous wrote:OP, how miserable are the cookie sales? That is what's giving me the greatest hesitation right now.

I am a GS leader (was a Brownie leader) and our troop does booth sales only (no door-to-door) so it's pretty easy, and low-key. You don't have to sell cookies at all, or you can order enough for a one-day-booth sale and make that you monthly meeting.

Adding to my above post, we did not do cookies the first year.

Anonymous wrote:It seems like around here Daisies doesn't start until January for the kindergartners. Is that an official thing, that it can't start earlier? A way of skipping cookie sales the first year?

Ours started in September. Maybe that particular troop just formed later.

It seems like around here Daisies doesn't start until January for the kindergartners. Is that an official thing, that it can't start earlier? A way of skipping cookie sales the first year?

For cookie sales as Daises start out with the policy that you are not doing a booth sale. The girls can sell to family and friends and orders are due by xx date. This will keep things much easier. Also, the leader should NOT be in charge of cookie sales. Stand firm on that. If the troop is going to sell cookies than another parent needs to step up, get registered and go through the training. BEFORE you sell cookies the troop needs to figure out what they will do with the profit. Something fun for the girls? help someone else? either is fine and you won't have a ton of $$ the first year but the girls should be part of the decision.

Every parent must sign up to help at a meeting and bring the snack.

Find the leaders of the older troops at you school (grades 5-8). Ask the leaders about having 3 helpers at every meeting. The older girls need the leadership hours and the little girls love the older girls. These older girls can:
run the opening flag ceremony (do this at every meeting)
sing songs with the girls
help with crafts and games
take girls to the bathroom

Look up how to do a KAPER CHART. This is basically a job list. Daisy girls want to all have a job at the meeting. There are tons of ways to rotate the jobs so everyone gets a turn.

Anonymous wrote:OP, how miserable are the cookie sales? That is what's giving me the greatest hesitation right now.

NP. Also curious. Considering putting my daughter in Daisies, but really have no interest selling cookies.

Anonymous wrote:OP, how miserable are the cookie sales? That is what's giving me the greatest hesitation right now.

That was meant to say, "OP here."

OP, how miserable are the cookie sales? That is what's giving me the greatest hesitation right now.

Not sure what PP means by "small," but in my experience 15 or so kids is a good number as there are a lot more games and activities you can do with a larger group, larger pool of parents to help, and not everyone will come to every meeting plus you may have some drop outs. I have never said no to "just one more" but would do so if it got close to 20 girls.

I was a Daisy leader for two years and am now getting to my second year of being a Brownie leader. The opinion of myself and other leaders that I know is that the new GS curriculum is really quite boring. Another leader I work with says it was "designed for millennials." This is especially true for the Daisies who have only the Petals and few/no skills patches they can earn. My suggestion is to find out what is interesting to the girls in your group and decide to award the petals or badges as you see fit. For example, the "brave and strong" petal could be for any new outdoor activity you try, the "respect authority" petal could be for any activity you want to do that involves following instruction or directions to some degree. I personally feel it is unfortunate that the new curriculum lends itself so much to "crafty" and sharing-about-feelings versus outdoor activities and trying new things, but really try to do what you think will be fun for your group and things that are relatively easy for you to plan based on your skills/contacts/resources/time. Know that there are a ton of ideas for each and every badge online, when I have been busy I am able to look up ideas the night before and have a good meeting planned for the next day. If you get frustrated by the Daisy "curriculum" hang in there as it starts to get better by Brownies.

I have also found that GS ceremonies, including learning the older GS songs and traditions, are worth the time to as they are very meaningful for both the girls and the families. The girls in my troop have also loved learning new games and that is easy to do (look up online, explain and supervise).

Also, in my experience only a few parents (if any) will offer real help, so plan accordingly. Sign up people for commitments early in the school year, and attach dates to them, while everyone is still feeling fresh and optimistic. I found that I could do most meetings on my own but to have other parents committed to plan a few special activities (eg pottery session, yoga session, computer session) was really a big help later in the year. And anything like camping really requires extra help, though for Daisies it is usually backyard or indoor "camping," if that and you just need one other family to host it.

I realize this may sound a bit negative but I am just giving you a heads up based on my experience. I have LOVED being a GS leader because it has contributed to the bond with my daughter as she gets older and as I stick with it I have really enjoyed seeing the other girls in the troop grow and see ways that GS has contributed positively to that growth. As a working mom, it is great because it is a volunteer opportunity I can do for my daughter which I can plan around my schedule to a much larger extent than I can plan for school-based volunteer activities. I could keep going but this post is already rather long. Happy to answer any other questions you may have. I encourage you to do it, both for your daughter and because GS is a great organization which needs support.

Keep the troop small. Daisy year is really easy with the lessons. Know that you will get roped into being a leader not just for Daisy year, but for Brownies and Juniors and so on.

Being a scout leader is great and also a lot of thankless work. But, if you keep the troop small (there will likely be pressure to keep taking "just one more...") that will help a lot. It will also help if you harness the other parents' gratitude at the beginning of the year by making sure they all sign up to help in some way. People are the most grateful for the leader at the beginning when they are thinking "... I'm so glad _____ wants to be the leader so my kid can be a scout."

Use that to your advantage!!! I'm not kidding. This is the time to use their enthusiasm to help the troop get off to a good start. Sure, they are just Daisies and you can keep it simple. But, if you think the parents and girls are looking to be more active as a troop, get parents to get trained as first aiders, co-leaders (you will need at least one other adult), camp certified person (it's actually pretty fun), drivers, community service planner, cookie manager, etc., etc.

If you don't ask, you for sure will not get any help other than people who are willing to pour juice and bring in snacks. So ask!

My daughter really wants me to volunteer for this when she joins this year. I did a few years of scouting as a kid, but that's it. What do I need to know?