I'm kind of sad to read all the negativity about GS
My DD is a Daisy this year and she's really enjoyed the experience so far. We signed up to sell 100 boxes of cookies and I'm confident that we'll meet that goal.
DD has made some great new friends and is always asking me when her next meeting is.
I'm glad your daughter is loving it--try not to be too worried about the comments. DD18 is graduating this year and has been a scout for 13 years (right through the program change). She's been in 4 councils, including getting scout back up and running as an overseas committee reporting to New York once the military left the Heidelberg area. She's been to convention twice (was a delegate this past fall) and on destinations and to camps and loves scouts through and through (and plans to do keep working with girls while in college,etc).
There is a LOT more good than bad, especially if you have leaders willing to put in teh effort to make the programming interesting and relevant and not as much like school as it is (sadly) written. This gets really hard in the older troops where the new badges are largely "research and report on" this that or the other. Sigh.
But, the longer you are involved in the organization, the more grips you will also have. One example is that DD chose not to go for getting a Gold Award--there was so much paperwork and bureaucracy and spin involved and so little true helping that she felt she would be wasting so much time that could go to actually helping somewhere her help was truly needed (in her case, in keeping a camp for girls with disabilities running). She decided to actually jump in and help full on and not get an award but also not spend lots of timing "playing the game"
and the paperwork is massive. We literally need more paperwork to take girls on a walk to a nearby park than I sign to send my son on a class trip to Rome for 10 days. It's crazy. I know they have to cover themselves, but it is getting out of hand.
And for what it is worth, DD is off to college in the fall and I will still be heading up the scouts locally and leading two troops. It is work and it is a headache and there are those parents who complain or take advantage and there are a lot of rules, and somehow I always end up spending lots of money out of pocket on supplies or more badges than we expected to need, but it is also fun and there are also parents who move mountains to get their kids places and are so thankful and there are girls who love meetings and smile and just blossom in a scout year, and those things far outweigh the negative for me.
