So your daughter is interested in Girl Scouts but you have no idea where to start. The first thing to do is contact your local council to see if there are any troops in your area. You can find your local council at www.girlscouts.org. They will be able to assist you in finding an troop. But there is always the chance that there isn’t one that fits your needs. Things like meeting dates, locations or times are a big factor. There are also levels of involvement – some troops do a lot more badge work while others spend more time working in their communities. And there are even possibilities of personality differences. Every troop is different depending on the leader. If you can’t find the troop that you want to join with the right meetings and level of involvement, you can start your own troop.
The first step in starting your own troop is to contact your local council and speak with a Membership Specialist. They will be able to walk you through step by step with regulations, trainings and basic requirements. Generally you have to sign up yourself plus one other adult, sign up at least three girls and complete the training to get started. It can be overwhelming at first, but know that it does get much easier with time.
Where do you find girls to join your troop? That is easy! Who are your daughters best friends at school and around the neighborhood that are the same age? Contact their mothers to see if they would be interested in signing up their daughters, or even themselves to be a co-leader. I’ve discovered that most parents are willing to help, but don’t want the responsibility of being a leader. This will give you a good small group of girls who get along well.
Determining what level of scouts you will be leading is broken down by school grade now instead of ages. This makes it a bit more uniform when recruiting girls into your troop.
Daisy – Kindergarten and 1st grade
Brownie – 2nd and 3rd grade
Junior – 4th and 5th grade
Cadette – 6th, 7th and 8th grade
Senior – 9th and 10th grade
Ambassador – 11th and 12th grade
Girls can start at any level and can sign up any time during the year. The Girl Scout year runs from October 1 until September 31st. I personally register girls all year long as they see what fun their friends are having in scouts. I run my meetings from the first week in September until the second week in May. Some troops run all year long. That is something that depends on the leader, their level of commitment and how much time they want to devote to scouts.
The next step is to plan your meetings. Where and when are two big factors. With a smaller group of girls you can talk with the parents and see what days work best between the schedules. Will you hold meetings every week, every other week or even once a month? There are seven days in the week, which one works best for you? You are the leader so the meetings really need to fit neatly in your schedule! Times – do you prefer after school, early evenings or Saturday mornings?
The length of the meeting is completely up to you also. For younger girls, Daisy and Brownies, I keep my meetings to 1 hour long. The Juniors and Cadettes I have 1 ½ to 2 hour long meetings.
Location is the next big question. Girl Scout meetings are held in all sorts of locations. Some people do them at the school, in church basements, the leaders home, a meeting room in a library or anywhere else they can gather their girls together. This will all depend on the amount of girls you have and what kind of places are in your area. Generally, most people are willing to let you use their facility or meeting area for Girl Scout meetings. You just have to find out who is in charge of scheduling and get permission to use the facility. One good rule to keep in mind when you use a facility is Girl Scouts always leave any place they have used in better condition than when they came in. Make sure you clean up after yourselves, take out trash, sweep or mop if needed and leave the place neat and tidy. When getting permission to use a facility I always ask them what to do with the trash, where are trash bags and cleaning supplies located so we can clean up after ourselves. This will show a sense of responsibility and people are more at ease letting you use their facility. I also keep in touch with the person in charge and let them know of upcoming meetings, possible cancellations and any issues we may have had. Build a good rapport with these people and they will be good to you.
OK, you have your co-leader, your girls registered, your meeting dates, times and locations – What’s next?? Your head is filled with songs, crafts, laughter, sashes full of badges, field trips and oh the possibilities are endless!
