I'm excited to find this thread! I realized at the parent interest meeting this fall that the only way my daughter was going to get into a Daisy troop was by volunteering as a leader.
I was VERY lucky to get into an existing troop. Two moms took over the troop, so all three of us are new leaders. We have 15 girls, all first graders, 10 are second year, DD and 4 others are new.
The previous leaders apparently were not very efficient, they were college students and had too many obligations. The girls only earned two petals the first year, so it was easy for the new girls to catch up.
So far the new girls have earned the two petals from last year, and all the girls have earned three more. We're doing the 6th petal on tuesday and plan to have all of them in the next couple of months.
In this area they don't mix ages, they try to keep all the girls together so they move up through the program together.
One of the leaders is a teacher and we are able to use her classroom. I'm not sure yet if this is a great fit of us or going to end up being a big problem. DD is the only homeschooled girl in the troop. All 14 other girls attend the school and come from their classroom to the meeting.
So far the only issue DD has had is that she didn't have a backpack and all the other girls do. That was easy to take care of, she has a brand new Daisy blue backpack to bring to the next meeting. She's outgoing and self assured enough that she shouldn't have a problem fitting in. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that she doesn't want to go to school. (We don't live in that school district.)
This girl scout community has about 7-8 events per year, and the council has many more. our troop meets every other week from October until May. The school doesn't allow groups to use the school the first and last month of school. So far outside of our meetings we've attended a Halloween party, and gone caroling at a senior home with our community. (about 100 girls) They also marched in a Holiday parade but we opted not to attend. (cold and at night and very crowded)
Now we're gearing up for Thinking Day and Cookie sales. We have avoided the Journeys since we have heard nothing good about them. We also didn't buy books. They were not pushed at training.
To camp here you need two training sessions and they aren't offered locally. I'm not sure when we'll be able to get someone trained.
I look forward to following along with everyone!
Karen
I was VERY lucky to get into an existing troop. Two moms took over the troop, so all three of us are new leaders. We have 15 girls, all first graders, 10 are second year, DD and 4 others are new.
The previous leaders apparently were not very efficient, they were college students and had too many obligations. The girls only earned two petals the first year, so it was easy for the new girls to catch up.
So far the new girls have earned the two petals from last year, and all the girls have earned three more. We're doing the 6th petal on tuesday and plan to have all of them in the next couple of months.
In this area they don't mix ages, they try to keep all the girls together so they move up through the program together.
One of the leaders is a teacher and we are able to use her classroom. I'm not sure yet if this is a great fit of us or going to end up being a big problem. DD is the only homeschooled girl in the troop. All 14 other girls attend the school and come from their classroom to the meeting.
So far the only issue DD has had is that she didn't have a backpack and all the other girls do. That was easy to take care of, she has a brand new Daisy blue backpack to bring to the next meeting. She's outgoing and self assured enough that she shouldn't have a problem fitting in. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that she doesn't want to go to school. (We don't live in that school district.)
This girl scout community has about 7-8 events per year, and the council has many more. our troop meets every other week from October until May. The school doesn't allow groups to use the school the first and last month of school. So far outside of our meetings we've attended a Halloween party, and gone caroling at a senior home with our community. (about 100 girls) They also marched in a Holiday parade but we opted not to attend. (cold and at night and very crowded)
Now we're gearing up for Thinking Day and Cookie sales. We have avoided the Journeys since we have heard nothing good about them. We also didn't buy books. They were not pushed at training.
To camp here you need two training sessions and they aren't offered locally. I'm not sure when we'll be able to get someone trained.
I look forward to following along with everyone!
Karen
We are excited and are going to sign up for booth sales. They told us it is first come first serve and it starts at 6am. All I could think is what am I booking a cookie booth or CRT? 
I have to get up on my date to make sure I get the best "reservation" lol. We are looking for inside ones, since it is so cold here. Yes, the stores make you stand outside in the cold. We only have 6 kinds of cookies this year and they are $3.50. How many do you guys have? DD ONLY needs 135 boxes for the elephant.
When do your cookie sales start? If they have not started yet contact your cookie manager to see if you can get in on the sales. That is what I did for nuts and just made our goal really low since we started selling after the rest of the troops.
