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 May:
2:30-3:15pm 1st year Daisies and 1st year Juniors
3:15-3:45pm The whole troop
3:45-4:30pm 2nd year Daisies and 1st year Brownies
During the individual levels meetings the girls either work on a Journey or a Badge.
When we came together at 3:15pm, that is when we used our Kaper Chart so all the girls had responsibilities to do!
Kapers were:
-Attendance takers: took attendance of all the girls present
-Promise & Law Leaders: Stood at the front of the room and lead the Promise & Law
-Snack Pass out: Pass out the snacks and drinks for all the girls
-Clean up: Make sure all the trash made it to the trash cans
-Sweepers: Make sure the floors get swept at the end of the meeting
After the girls get snacks and we say the Promise, Law, and Pledge we usually have a group activity, lesson, or craft that takes 15-20 minutes to do!
EVENTS
Once I attended our Council Kickoff Event in August, I was able to plan almost every event for each month. If you haven't attended a Kickoff event, they basically have short little "classes" you can choose from to attend that are about different Girl Scout tools or service unit positions, or about being certain types of leaders. But they also have a ton of vendors for places that offer Girl Scout Days, Badge programs, Journey programs, or Girl Scout discounts! So I brought home a back pack full of brochures of all kinds of places and I sat down and started planning. Now with this being my second year going at it, I will be making some options for the girls to be able to pick some of their own events they want to do.
Here is a short rundown of the events we have done since October and plan to do through September of this year!
Fun Events:
After I had the year all planned out and in my calendar, I talked to my service unit manager and council about having recruitment in my town. We only had 6 girls in the troop and the levels were not very equal at all, with some levels only having 1-2 girls in them. So we were able to set up a recruitment for mid-September! I got the location set up and council provided me with signs, and flyers that I could distribute at each school in town, I was able to do that the week before the recruitment meeting.
Since I had not seen the returning moms since the end of the previous year, I set up a returning mom meeting 45 minutes before the recruitment started. This was a good way for me to go over things for the next year since I was new to being in charge and some of my "rules" and what not was different than the previous leader. I was also about to get them to do health forms, registration forms, pay membership fee, and Mobile Girl Scout shop was there for anyone who needed to buy new uniforms.
While I was meeting with moms, I had an Owl about me activity for all the girls to do. This activity was during the mom meeting and for the new girls during the recruitment meeting!
NEW YEAR BEGINS
After we were finished with recruitment, we were all ready for the new year to begin!
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 May:
2:30-3:15pm 1st year Daisies and 1st year Juniors
3:15-3:45pm The whole troop
3:45-4:30pm 2nd year Daisies and 1st year Brownies
During the individual levels meetings the girls either work on a Journey or a Badge.
When we came together at 3:15pm, that is when we used our Kaper Chart so all the girls had responsibilities to do!
Kapers were:
-Attendance takers: took attendance of all the girls present
-Promise & Law Leaders: Stood at the front of the room and lead the Promise & Law
-Snack Pass out: Pass out the snacks and drinks for all the girls
-Clean up: Make sure all the trash made it to the trash cans
-Sweepers: Make sure the floors get swept at the end of the meeting
After the girls get snacks and we say the Promise, Law, and Pledge we usually have a group activity, lesson, or craft that takes 15-20 minutes to do!
EVENTS
Once I attended our Council Kickoff Event in August, I was able to plan almost every event for each month. If you haven't attended a Kickoff event, they basically have short little "classes" you can choose from to attend that are about different Girl Scout tools or service unit positions, or about being certain types of leaders. But they also have a ton of vendors for places that offer Girl Scout Days, Badge programs, Journey programs, or Girl Scout discounts! So I brought home a back pack full of brochures of all kinds of places and I sat down and started planning. Now with this being my second year going at it, I will be making some options for the girls to be able to pick some of their own events they want to do.
Here is a short rundown of the events we have done since October and plan to do through September of this year!
Fun Events:
- October- Medical Center of Plano Hospital Tour
- November- Outdoor Movie at a Girl Scout's House
- November- Cookie meeting for moms & Cookie Pin activity for the girls
- December- Reunion Tower Tour
- January- Council Cookie Raley & Cookie Booths
- February- Service Unit World Thinking Day & Dallas Mavericks Basketball Game
- March- Texas Discovery Gardens
- April- CSI Day at 6th Floor Museum & Dallas Heritage Village
- May- Councils Sassy Day Camp & Troop Tea Party
- June- Dallas Symphony Orchestra & Councils Mall Madness
- July- Troop Campout Weekend
- August- Ringling Brothers Circus
- September- Medieval Times
Service Events:
- September- Service Unit Canned Food Drive
- October- Clothing Drive for Goodwill and for a local outreach
- November- Blanket Drive for Sleep Experts
- December- Service Unit Canned Food Drive & Parade and Free Craft table for kids at Our city Christmas Event
- January & February- All about cookies and Troop to Troop Cookies
- April-City Earth Day event, recycled toilet paper rolls and used them as planters for the kids that came to our booth!
- May- Service Unit Canned Food Drive
Awards Ceremonies:
- October- Bridging, Re-dedication, Investiture Ceremony
- December- Awards Ceremony (Badges, Journeys, and Events)
- March- Awards Ceremony (Badges, Journeys, and Events)
- May- Bridging & Awards Ceremony (Badges, Journeys, and Events)
- October- Re-dedication and Investiture Ceremony
(Since I took over the troop in October and the previous leader had not bridged the girls yet, we did bridging in October. We are starting the Bridging in May now at the end of our year!)
RECRUITMENT
After I had the year all planned out and in my calendar, I talked to my service unit manager and council about having recruitment in my town. We only had 6 girls in the troop and the levels were not very equal at all, with some levels only having 1-2 girls in them. So we were able to set up a recruitment for mid-September! I got the location set up and council provided me with signs, and flyers that I could distribute at each school in town, I was able to do that the week before the recruitment meeting.
Since I had not seen the returning moms since the end of the previous year, I set up a returning mom meeting 45 minutes before the recruitment started. This was a good way for me to go over things for the next year since I was new to being in charge and some of my "rules" and what not was different than the previous leader. I was also about to get them to do health forms, registration forms, pay membership fee, and Mobile Girl Scout shop was there for anyone who needed to buy new uniforms.
While I was meeting with moms, I had an Owl about me activity for all the girls to do. This activity was during the mom meeting and for the new girls during the recruitment meeting!
NEW YEAR BEGINS
After we were finished with recruitment, we were all ready for the new year to begin!
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