The life of a Girl Scout Leader

Starting a new troop: "Girl Scout rules state that in order to do any kind of fundraisers for your troop you must participate in the Girl Scout Cookie Sales the previous year" No fundraisers until after you participate in the Cookie Sales in January/February You can have supplies donated to the troop. Our returning girls had not done their bridging ceremony or received the patches and membership stars for the previous year.  I had my normal summer garage sale and decided to use the money I made to buy supplies and donate it to the troop! Items donated to the troop from June to October 2015:  3 pencil containers for markers, crayons, and colored pencils 2 package of each: markers, colored pencils, and crayons. 2 pairs of scissors 1 pencil sharpener 6 binders (Daisy year 1 & 2, Brownies, Juniors, Troop, Cookies) 5 pencil pouches for binders 3 (3) subject spirals for each level 1 Plastic Box to use as mailbox 1 box of green file folders to use in m...

We have made it to the end of our first year with this new troop number, our first year using the church as our scout home, our first year with me as the leader, out first year doing awards ceremonies, our first year having lots of parents involved, our first year making a couple thousand dollar cookie profit, our first extremely active year. This makes me tear up just typing it. So much has changed in a year....... I was in a troop with a main leader and I was one of 3 assistant leaders 2 of the other assistant leaders decided they didnt want to lead anymore The main leader decided to leave scouts all together Me and one of the other assistant leaders, who was going to quit leading, decided to co-lead the troop The other assistant leader decided to come back to help out The last assistant leader decided she wasnt going to help out again Then the other co-leader decided she wasnt going to lead again Then the assistant leader decided to come back and help out for sure this n...

Girl Scouts involves so much planning, paperwork, and their are so many different areas to deal with. So I knew that if I did not get things organized that I could quickly get overwhelmed. I split everything up into separate binders so that I could quickly find things I needed to! TROOP BINDER (multi-colored) Roster- Lists the girls, their level, parents name, phone number, email address, ways parents are able to help, a place to check off once the girl was registered, and once there was an adult registered. Snack sign up sheet- Each girl signs up to bring snacks and drinks to one meeting throughout the year.  Click here for my snack sign up form Alphabetical dividers-I have a section for each girl. This includes her girl release permit, ways parents can help form, girl health form, adult health form, shot records, girl registration form, and adult registration form. FINANCIAL BINDER (red) Zipper pouch-this is where I can keep all the receipts for the troop....

Let me introduce myself, I'm a Girl Scout leader in Texas to a troop of 14 girls ranging from Daisies to Juniors. This has been my second year in Girl Scouts, but my first year as the Leader of the troop! I also serve as the Troop Cookie manager, Troop First Aider, Troop Camp Certified Adult, & Service Unit Public Relations Specialist.  I spent all of last summer trying to plan as much as possible for the '15-'16 Girl Scout year as I could. Once the whole year was planned out all I had to do from week to week was lesson plans, getting awards ready, and collecting money and forms for events! MEETINGS Thankfully I do have two leaders that help me out with the other levels. So going into last year we knew we would have 1st year Daisies, 2nd year Daisies, 1st year Brownies, and 1 year Juniors. Since we only had 3 leaders and 4 groups we decided to do a split time meeting. Here is how we decided to structure it: We meet on 1st, 3rd, and 5th Sundays from September to M...