Any Girl Scout Leaders here?

[Melann]

I was thinking about volunteering with the Girl Scouts in my area as a troop leader, and was just wondering if anyone here was a leader or is one now. Care to share any thoughts about your experiences?

 

[HollyJoy]

Not a leader, but one of my best friends is my oldest DD's Brownie leader. It's a busy, busy job! She has had a lot of fun doing it, but it involves A LOT! Now, our area coordinator is trying to get me to be the leader for my youngest daughter's Daisy Troop. I just REALLY don't want to do it! LOL I have a lot of respect for those who give their time. They deal with a lot. .. meetings, A TON of paperwork!

 

[MOMTOMOOTOO]

I am. I started last year as a Daisy Leader and this year we all moved up to brownies. We have the same 10 girls and I really enjoy it. I can see how as the years go by it will become more challenging. My brownies are still young, so on days we are not working towards a try it, they are very easily entertained. I can't imagine that being the case at say 11 or 12 years old. As a leader there are some nice perks too, I got to take the girls to an indoor pool party sleepover in the winter which was tons of fun. And we are signed up for The Lion King on Broadway for October. The only thing I did not like doing was the cookie sale, it was alot of work. But with all the sales, we are able to do alot next year. ANd I just got a phone call to be a Daisy Leader for my younger daughter. That's something I will really have to think about. Don't want to take on too much.

If you have any specific questions, please ask.


Laura

 

[clh2]

There are several Girl Scout Leaders out here on the DIS. It seems like we have different levels of involvement, different sets of frustrations etc.

My situation is:

I have a DD in 4th grade. Her Brownie Leader decided to hang up her hat last year, due to some political stuff going on. My daughter loves i.e. LOVES some of the things that Girl Scouts offers. No one was willing to take the program over. I stepped up to the plate, not because I wanted to, but because no one else would.

The last year has been very busy at work (full time and then some) which I knew was going to be the case due to several large projects going on at work. I can't leave work early to have meetings after school. Over 1/2 of the brownie troop dropped out at the end of last year, because too many of them had things going on during the weekends. This is the only time I will meet, since I will not do a meeitng on a school night (heh - I am just too tired, plus there is a homework factor.) Our troop dropped down to 6 girls.

My biggest fear taking this on was my daughter. She has always been of the assumption that if I am in charge - she is in charge too. This situation turned ugly a few times, but we got through it.

Other times, things have gone beautifully. Today, our girls had a water safety seminar at a local hotel (waterpark!) and a lifeguard did the talking. And the waterpark did this for FREE! Our troop doesn't have large sums of money to work with, and the precedent was set in Brownies, that cookie money covers everything.

My daughter realized this weekend that she is pretty lucky, since our meetings are set up so she is able to attend. The weekend thing gets pretty tricky!

Some people volunteer because they want to help, others are like me - feeling obligated. How old is your daughter?

If I was able to do this my way, someone else would be the leader, and I would be co-leader. The paperwork is boring, (and since we don't have a regular meeting spot/time, everything we do needs permission slips.)

I wish more parents would step forward with helpful ideas. I had one parent ealier in the year, who knows a nutritionist. This person came in and did a whole badge with our girls. Plus, the employer of this person had a very cool camp lodge (read executive retreat) that we were able to use. We did this very early in the year - I NEVER TURN DOWN THIS TYPE OF HELP!

There are some very good websites with helpful information. You may want to try to doing a Google search on relavant topics i.e. girl scouts try it help; girl scouts badge ideas.

There are some good sites out that will help you not to reinvent the wheel. Try to use those, or else the "burn out" factor will set in.

Also, look on other council websites, other than your own. You will most likely come up with good ideas from them. One of the coolest badges that we did, Local Lore, was from a neighboring council's website. There is a local (i.e. about 20 miles away) mansion, the PAbst Mansion, that does a great program for different levels of scouting. I still don't know if the girls had more fun or the mom's did.

Good luck on your decision...Everyone who responds will have a different reason to consider doing it or not. If you want a list of some of the different web sites I have come across, just PM me.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Many years now. What age group are you thinking about?

 

[gottaluvPluto]

I am a leader for my DD's brownie troop and it is a lot of work. I have parents who are late picking up their child and I'm not talking about a few minutes. I had several moms/dads come pick up their child 30 min to an hour late. I am getting another parent to help next year and we are thinking of a pollicy to have parents pay the troop money if they are late. I don't know if we can do that, but we are going to look into it.

It is fun sometimes and sometimes it is just a lot of work with no fun.

 

[m&m's mom]

I am a Brownie Leader of 1st graders.
I was in GS from 1st grade through High School. It was such a great experience growing up that I could not wait to become a leader myself. I was asked recently when I wanted to become a leader and I told them it was May 16th, 1996. That was the day my sonogram showed I was having a girl
Now given that background, I am also not near as good a leader as I would like to be. I also work full time about an hour away and I would rather be doing a lot of other things some Monday nights than having meeting, but we do anyway.
I am lucky enough to have a great DH and he helps a lot! On Monday's he picks up our DD's from my Mom's- who has homework already completed- and fixes dinner and gets house clean. All I have to do is eat and have the meeting. Not too bad.
I also found another trick that works real well. I have each parent pick a Try-It that they want to take on. They get to pick, do entire meeting including snack and they have that meeting at their house. The other girls love showing their Mom off and it gives me some off-time.
I plan on being much more organized next year and be a better leader!

 

[cabmom]

Not a Brownie leader, but a Beaver leader. This is my second year doing it. It's a lot of work especially if you don't have the help of the other leaders. Beavers are 5, 6 and 7 yr olds. Working full time and trying to organize and plan the Beaver program is difficult some weeks. I have had 2 of my 3 boys in my group now and I find they don't listen as well when we are in a big group. I enjoy it some nights, but other times I feel like a babysitter for 1 hr every week!
I do it to give back to my community and to my kids. It can be very rewarding!
Good luck with your decision!
Marilynn

 

[Kallison]

Too much paperwork and too many meetings. We are the black sheep of our Unit -- we blow off the meetings and fudge our end of year reports. We have 16 girls together since 1st grade - now 4th. The same 4 or 5 Moms do everything. I just ran a meeting last week and one Mom was 15 min. late picking up. After 30 min. I called the Mom of the last girl and she said -- oh sorry I lost track of time, why don't you bring her home. This was on my DH's birthday and we had dinner ressies! I said NO why don't you come pick her up. Stuff like that annoys me. I'm ready to hang up the towel. Our co-leader is done after this year and our leader is pretty tired of it as well.

 

[shatzjsl]

I have a troop of 4th graders that I started as a Brownie troop when they were in 2nd grade. We are Juniors now and just ending our year. Sadly, I won't continue as a leader next year because my daughter has other interests. I loved being a leader and loved my girls dearly. Fortunately they all play basketball and softball together so I'll still get to see them.

If you have the time and enjoy kids it is a lot of fun and you get to learn what the girls that are your daughters age are thinking about the pressures they may be facing in school and life.

 

[Microcell]

My Daisies just became Brownies so I have to say the Daisy year is soo easy, no cookie or magazine sales- they are not allowed for insurance reasons, but I have heard that Brownies is more work. I loved the girls, but there is a mom who has a tendancy to try to micromanage everything, and she is my neighbor so I want very much to keep up good relations, so I am conflicted about doing it again because I may tell her off if she tells me one more time how she wants to change around every single plan I make. The time to meet is not even acceptable to her! I like to allow time in case people are not as punctional as she and I are but she does not get it! UGH! So if you want to do it the girls are really great, but the politics may drive you bonkers!

 

[angel's momma]

I was a Daisy Leader this year, and was asked to lead Brownies next year, but declined. Working with our girls was great. Our Service Unit has a lot of problems however. The Service Unit Director quit without notice in Sept., and her replacement just quit 2 weeks ago. Our Bridging ceremony is Wed. and I have yet to receive our recognition awards that the Service Unit Director picked up for us at the council store back in March. We paid about $50 for these items, and I've called the Council and they are "looking into it".
I loved Scouting as a girl, but the problems I had this year (there were many more, not just the awards), and the reports I've had from Brownie Parents about how disorganized the troop is and that the troop met every week but only earned one Try-it, has made me decide to not have DD participate in Scouting, as long as we live in this area. I know that other areas have wonderful Scouting programs.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

I am a co-leader for 5th grade Juniors. Our troop has been together for several years and consists of 10 girls. The other co-leader is a good friend of mine. We get along great as neither of us feels the need to "take-over" everything. We meet for an hour and a half, every other week at the school our girls attend. Luckily they are a wonderful group of young ladies that all get along very well. We basically fly by the seat of our pants and usually don't have the meetings planned until a day or two before. This typically involves a trip to the local craft store to get some project ideas.

We try to alternate and do a craft one meeting and then work on a badge the next. We also take advantage of any council activities in which the girls can attend and earn a badge.

All in all, it has been a very enjoyable experience. But I know we are lucky as we have a great council and the parents of our girls really appreciate our efforts and therefore don't take advantage by showing up late or unprepared.

Give it a try ... you might just love it!!!

 

[Kteacher]

I am a co-leader with another woman of a troop of 6th grade juniors. we are thinking of doing Studio 2B next year. We have very informal meetings, other than when we are volunteereing at the local nursing home (the girls earned their bronze award this year ) We're going to Hershey Park the weekend of June 4th for a GS Camporee. So far it's been a great experience. I've only had one mother who told me not to ask her to help out with anything because she wouldn't , but otherwise the kids and parents have been great

 

[Regina]

I was a leader for 10 years for my two DD's. I was also a Service Unit Manager and became a trainer.

It's a big commitment. There's a lot of help available, but you need to be willing to put time into it.

Planning is vital. I had an arsenal of games and fun things ready if they days activity went faster than planned, or if it was a dud and the girls needed something else to do.

Be careful with parents, especially when it comes to "would you mind giving Sally a ride home?" That kind of thing can become a real problem if you don't nip it in the bud.

Overall, I enjoyed it. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have gotten so heavily involved. The girls are a lot of fun, and if you plan right, they do enjoy the program.

 

[Cruise04]

I have been in all aspects of Girl Scouting - girl, adult, trainer, and more. It IS a lot of work but remember who you are doing it for and why. If you can't find a reason, than it's not what you should be doing. You seriously need to think about this with your heart - if you don't think you will have time to attend other meetings to get information for your girls or pick up information from the person who gets it out, then don't be a leader because that information helps to keep them involved. If you don't think you can attend trainings when needed, don't do it because that just hurts the girls in the long run.