Girl Scouts Help

[Savanah'sMom]

Hello all!!! So I am starting Girl Scouts with my DD. She's going to be a Brownie and I'm going to be the troop leader I have no clue what I'm doing, please help!

If anyone is willing to give me some advice or anything, I would be forever grateful.

 

[golfgal]

My advice, don't let any of the other moms "help" you-it isn't pretty. Have a cookie mom but don't take on an assistant.

Go by the book, use the badges as guides for activities and ideas. Always have some construction paper, markers, glue sticks and scissors handy in case things don't take as long as you think.

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

My advice, don't let any of the other moms "help" you-it isn't pretty. Have a cookie mom but don't take on an assistant.

Go by the book, use the badges as guides for activities and ideas. Always have some construction paper, markers, glue sticks and scissors handy in case things don't take as long as you think.

This is spot on advice!! And unless the mothers are actually helping out at a meeting they all need to leave. Its no fun to spend a bunch of time planning out a meeting and then having a mother critique you while you're doing it.

If there is anything specific, feel free to ask away! Oh yeah, and your Service Unit should have a Brownie advisor that will be more than happy to help with different issues, concerns or problems.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Go to your council and get all the info with starting your troop. You will need to sign up for a class through council. Plus get in some other classes now, like with camping and any other things related to activities so you can be "certified" to do them.

I recommend only taking the same grade children as a newbie.

Find a place to hold your meetings. Find out your council rules on that. Decide on a dates to have your meetings.

With Brownies, we always did 1 field trip/activity a month and then met about twice a month for meetings. Some troops are ambitious and do meet weekly.

Once you have the place and dates, then you start to look at the activities that your council has going on. Plus look into parks and other places that have classes just for your age group to earn Try-Its.

Then you can come up with a list of Try-Its that you want to start off with. Since it will be fall, do things outside and then save the crafty type stuff for winter. Once your troop is going you can have the girls help with picking a Try-It to earn.

What we did was give them reasonable choices and the girls would vote.

You also need a co-leader somewhere in there. As part of taking on the troop you need to have some parents volunteer with the troop. You need a co-leader and a cookie seller.

With Brownies, it is imperative that every parent register with the troop. You will need this because generally Brownies are a larger group and you are going to need the parents to help with driving to activities AND staying at the meetings to help AND in addition you need to follow the rules of "Safety Wise" (there is a child/parent ratio you must follow). In order for them to do that they have to be registered with the Girl Scouts.

Kaper Charts are a lifesaver with the little ones. Basically everyone is assigned chores for meetings.

Then you need to plan out your beginning and ending to the meetings. Here is something that "plans out" your first 4 meetings. Great to get some ideas there. You can be simple or as formal as you want. There are flag ceremonies as well as the "Brownie Investiture Ceremony" (Which I do recommend.)
http://www.girlscoutsofpaloalto.org/files/leaders/Brownie/Brownies_1st_4_Meetings.pdf

We had a Brownie supply list that we expected the parents to purchase. Like a box of their own stuff, like scissors, crayons, etc. Back to School sales is a perfect time to ask for that.

They also need a vest and a book is nice.

You need to price out how much all of the patches and pins are plus activities to come up with a realistic amount for a start up cost per girl. Those patches are not cheap when you add it up.

Look over this for starting your troop.

http://www.scoutingweb.com/scoutingweb/Brownie.htm

Anyway there is more but hopefully this helps you out. The more you plan, the easier it is. Good Luck!

Make sure you sign up for a class. The sooner you know the "rules" the better off you will be.

 

[PatsGirl]

It's all in the prep work I was GS leader for several years and the best advice I can give is to be organized and go into meetings with a clear agenda, but be ready for that agenda to change at any minute

What worked best in my troop was a four-week calendar that included completing a badge over three weeks/meetings and the fourth week was a field trip that corresponded to that badge. I called them "segments". Each segment began with a packet for each scout that they worked on, marked off completed tasks, etc. I always included a word search and a jumble too.

The packet included release forms, dues slips, and all field trip information for the parents. Another helpful hint was that I did all my communicating with parents via email and asked for a response each time.

Two other things come to mind: we did not serve a snack, instead we kept the meetings to 90 minutes with pick-up at 5:45 in time for dinner. Of course, the girls were older than Brownies but still, a snack can consume alot of meeting time.

And...meetings started on time. At exactly 4:15 I closed the door to the room and the selected scout would start the pledge (they took turns). When someone showed up late, it decreased the ability of the parent to chat up the leaders and the meetings flowed better. They would walk in very quietly, knowing the we had already begun. I took me several months to figure this out and kids were showing up in ten minute intervals or so it seemed and sometimes we'd go 1/2 hour before really getting started. I did though always plan to stay an extra 15 minutes at the end to talk with parents but didn't open the door until we were cleaned up and ready to go.

Good luck. I put in a minimum of ten hours of planning each month on top of the meetings, cookie sales, and field trips but we had fun!

 

[Savanah'sMom]

Thanks for the great advice, I'm printing this out and making a list!!! I should be getting with my Service Unit later this week and I got in touch with my co-leader this morning. So I'm hoping to have things rolling by Monday. I did do a training on Saturday, but I really want to learn as much as possible.

Keep the great advice coming in!!!!

 

[junebugs]

There are a bunch of good ideas for meetings, crafts, activities etc. on the internet. I like scoutingweb.com, but there are lots of them!

 

[Good Ol Gal]

I've been a leader for 6 years... DD is going into 7th grade now.

I've been blessed with a GREAT co-leader and we've become the best of friends. (we were just acquaintances when we started).

Start small... don't get too caught up in getting everything done!

If a parent is not assigned to help at a meeting send them on their merry way. They can be so distracting and frankly, annoying at times. We had parents stay, with younger children, and it distracted our girls so much. You could assign a girl as the greeter at the door. They can welcome their fellow Brownies and say "Thank you for brining Suzie tonight, our meeting will end at 7pm. See you then!" Sounds stupid, but it shows the parents that they can now leave

Junior girl scouts have a Junior Aide award. They get this by helping / planning / running a younger troops meeting. 2 years ago our girls did this and ran a brownie troop's meeting for 2 months! Ask at a Service Unit meeting if there are any Junior troops looking to earn that award!

Have fun and Welcome to Girl Scouts! :

 

[amberg@eastlink.ca]

i'm a guider in canada, and have been a brownie/sparks(daisy's) leader forever. while things are run a bit different i want to say a big thank you for joining the movement. you may never hear it again! lol like the other ladies have said it's all about prep work. plan your meetings out, but leave some wiggle room, you dont want it as a drill team, girls like some freedom to play games, sing songs etc. at this age tho, it is all about the badges, they love earn ing them, getting them and the pride that comes with it for their accomplishment.

a few ideas for meetings that i've done: taken them to a local hockey game for xmas closing(loved by all! doesn't have to be an nhl team), done up packages for the troops in the fall for xmas delivery, science nite, barbie nite/bratz nite, a huge bday party for everyone, disney nite(of course!), and of course several badge nites thrown in. don't forget the outings. a huge thing the parents are big on, altho up here it's getting harder and harder to find places that are free or inexpensive.

i agree with the mom issues as mentioned above. this is where we have rules on our side up here, moms are not allowed to stay unless they are leaders. which means about 10 pieces of paperwork. it's true if they stay they will critique and then you feel like you know what for all your hard work and dedication. remember above all, you're in it for the girls, and if you make it as fun as you can, they will stay on in the movement, hopefully all the way up.

 

[mykidsand_i]

Our troop definately had to have some rules set in place BEFORE each new girl scout year, or there would have been problems.

At the beg. of the year, we always did a parent meeting. The girl scout couldn't be in a troop meeting or come with on any event until each parent had read and signed a paper we gave each of them.

General rules:
-the meetings are held for each of the girls in our troop. There will be no 'tag alongs' (which are children who aren't in the troop). Tag alongs get REALLY distracting and it's hard to focus everyone when other kids are running around and not participating in the troop activities!
There was one parent last year who kept trying to bring her little 4 year old daughter and wanted her to participate in everything she could to get 'child interaction'...the troop is FOR THE GIRLS IN GIRL SCOUTS!!!
-our troop had an 'early and late' policy. A girl cannot, ever, under any circumstances be left alone with one adult in ANY SINGLE girl scout activity. We had parents showing up when I was preping for the meeting- they'd try to drop their daughter off as early as they could (some were 20 minutes early and ready to dump their daughter off!) and so, the policy was written to state that a child can not be more than 5 minutes early AND two adults must be present in order for the child to be left.
our 'late' policy was that every parent got one time to be late with good reason. After that, after 10 minutes of being late, $5 per minute would be charged for EACH MINUTE.

You'd be shocked at how much one parent paid. We used the money towards a bowling party at the end of the school year!

It sounds kind of rough to talk about 'rules that need to be set in place for the parents' but if you don't have any, the parents will treat you like a day care provider/free child sitting and there will be some who do take advantage of you. No, it doesn't always happen- but there is almost one bad group of parents out of every troop. If the rules are for EVERYONE, it won't look like you're picking on those one set of parents more than everyone else.

Our troop is run by volunteers, which some parents don't understand. They think that the leaders need to do EVERYTHING. Also, durring our parent meeting, we hand a snack list out. Parents sign up for snack for a meeting (we only send around a few months at a time). When they sign up to snack, they are also that night's 'parent helper' meaning they help pass out items, they help with clean up, they help with snack time and things like that.

 

[tommya60]

Keep in mind the Girl Scout program is changing...you will want to learn all you can about the Brownie Journey (I'd do the Leadership one first). It's a great program. And the try it book is a wonderful resource. Follow your Council's rules and talk to people at the Service Unit meetings, most will be happy to help.

I'd second the "no extra parents" rule. It makes things a lot easier.

Make sure you have a good Cookie Mgr. Do not let the person who can never get anything turned in on time do this job, it will be a nightmere. Write out the receipts as you Council suggests. Do not take shortcuts on this, it can save your sanity. (I am Cookie Mgr for a troop of 25 high school girls--write a reciept every time.)

I've been a GS Leader for 10+ years, a Cookie Mgr, the Service Unit Cookie Mgr and volunteer on the Council Committee for Product Sales. I love Girl Scouts!
Feel free to pm me if you have any questions!

Oh--goggle Girl Scout Coloring Book. You will find pages to print out and the copy for each girl--my favorite is the parts of the Girl Scout Law. They can color one page per mieeting as an opening/waiting activity (while you wait for everyone to get to the meeting). At the end, you have a complete coloring book with the GS Law. I've done this with Brownies and Daisies. The Daisy troop was a lot of fun--22 kindergarten girls that no one wanted to lead...so I did. My 4th grade troop helped, it was great.

 

[clh2]

If I were doing my "GS Leader" days over - I would make it mandatory that each girl/family essentially plan the activities for 1 meeting. This will give you a break, and hopefully delay getting burned out. I believe at the brownie level you need a minimum of 2 adults, and at least 1 adult for every 5 brownies. So - if the troop is 20 girls, you need 4 adults. If the troop is only 5 girls - you need 2 adults.

Having a different parent (in addition to you and your co-leader) will give you coverage for 15 girls. Don't forget that every parent has hobbies, knows something from their jobs that they could share with the troop. Heck - one of my "moms" volunteered to offer up one of her friends to do a nutrional badge (mine were juniors). This was a great meeting!

I would also get your volunteer for cookie mom/dad set up. Cookie mom/dad should not be you or the co-leader. (You guys already have enough to do.) Personally - I was cookie mom when my DD was in brownies (1-3rd grades). I would rather be cookie mom than leader ANY year. I thought being a cookie mom was super easy, although a lot of work on 3-different days.

 

[Savanah'sMom]

You guys are awesome!!! Thanks for all the advice, it will be invaluable!! tommya60 I will probably PM you with a whole lot of questions.

 

[mom2kazkids]

When I was my daughter's Daisy/Brownie Leader, I used this time of year to buy crayons, markers, and glue sticks for supplies for the troop as they were so cheap.

Due to my daughter's gymnastics schedule we are no longer in scouting, but the two years that I did it we had fun.

 

[kelann7]

Hi, My daughter is starting Daisies this year - Kindergarten and I'm going to be the troop leader - no one else would step up, so I am going to be the leader - I have no idea what to do or where to start.

I go to training at the council office next Monday and hopefully they will tell me everything I need to know. I also have been doing some research on the Internet.

Like the OP, I would love to get any advice or ideas I can get.

Thanks.

Kelly