r/girlscouts

My daughter is a 1st year brownie in a large multi level troop.

There's been a big push for "independence" from troop leadership. I'm not exactly where this is coming from and if this is a common thing in girl scouts and wanted to check with this group.

They've asking for volunteers to help make ratios, which makes sense. But they are asking volunteers to be matched with groups that do not include their daughter. The idea behind it is to increase girl independence.

Myself and some other families aren't sure about this solution. If we are volunteering we want to be matched with our daughter. We also don't know the girls and families outside our level that well. Curious if this is coming from our troop leadership or if it's a girl scout thing. How does it work in your troops?

1. 7 of the 9 that came had an ABSOLUTE blast! We made the rule that this was a sisterhood bonding trip so they needed to find their own fun until it was time for the badge activities, and oh girl did they deliver.

They found tiny trails by our door to explore, they made up games, collected sticks, and watched the stars.

We went hiking, made artwork with fallen leaves, learned a lot about outdoor safety, cleaned up activities, washed dishes, and 4 of them successfully, without waking up, spent the night, and slept through it!

2. I STARTED TWO FIRES USING FLINT!!!!!!

I have never felt for capable or amazing! Wahoo!!!!!

My troop has a problem- cookie season ended, and we are stuck with ~100 boxes of cookies. I'm not interested in playing the blame game, just know that the Cookie Manager will not be in this role next year, and I will be on top of whoever is.

My attitude? I didn't cause this problem, but if I'm not a part of the solution, I'm part of the problem. I'm thinking 5 families *should* be able to sell an average of 20 boxes of cookies each. Especially when other troops are done for the season. I can't make anyone help, but if I approach everyone with some options and a "let's all help clear these cookies outta my co-leader's house," I think they might be willing to pitch in and help. I also want to make sure they know that this is a one-time "emergency," and we will never have to do this again.

My question: have any of you been in this situation? What worked? I'm thinking we can knock on some doors, make some door or mailbox hangers "last call" or what have you. Maybe girls will make some posters for parents' work. Thank you in advance for your advice.

I need some advice/reassurance about a camping situation I have in two weeks. My multilevel troop (9 girls; 2nd grade brownies through 5th grade juniors) is going "family camping" a few hours away....turns out every girl is attending and bringing at least one parent, so we have 30 people coming! For additional context, I was basically a solo troop leader on our last camping trip in the fall, but I have a great co-leader now that I trust. I think I'm a little traumatized from our last trip where it all fell on my shoulders.

1. How do I engage the parents to help with tasks without taking away from the girls' leadership opportunities? (see related #2, below)

2. I want to put the parents in charge of supervising the girls during kaper tasks like cooking, camp clean up, campfire, etc, because otherwise I'm run ragged, but at the same time I'm the one who knows what gear we have, which box it's stored in, GS rules, etc. What can I do ahead of time to make sure parents are equipped to lead these activities?

3. How do you make coffee for 21 adults?! We have a 1.5L tea kettle and an 8 cup percolater, but I'm thinking about telling parents they need to BYO/DIY their morning brew. We can boil water, but they have to have their own french press, aeropress, pour over, instant, whatever.

4. Any other suggestions for how to make this easier on my coleader and I? I think this is going to be our last family camp, I can't keep doing this ::cry-laugh emoji::

I planned and reserved a large (expensive) cabin for my brownie troop to do their first overnight camping trip. I gave families the dates and information back in December when I made the reservation.

I have been so busy with work and life, I hadn't checked my RSVP page for our camping trip. It turns out *most* girls do NOT want to stay overnight and most parents do not want to stay over... Out of 10 girls, so far I have 3 confirmed (including my daughter) to do the overnight. Most families want to come for the day and go home.

I am... frustrated. And surprised. I took my older daughter's brownie troop camping years ago and *everyone* stayed overnight and all but one parent dropped off with no issues.

So, my question is.. what do I do now? Cancel the overnight and just do a day camp? Keep the expensive, large cabin just for 3 or 4 girls? I have already paid a 50% deposit. I am not sure if I could even cancel now.. It feels like a lot of time and work for just a few girls to do the overnight now.

I also feel like I could have done better by *asking* who was up for staying overnight. I guess I just assumed everyone would be and I also offered any parent could stay who wanted to..I truly did not realize they wouldn't want to! What do you all think?

So I know that the policy for our council is no smoking/vaping on the property. How would you handle this situation?

High school age girl weekend event at camp. Council-sponsored, volunteer-run. No council staff on-site.

A group of 6 girls was seen trying to sneak into the archery range area after dark, before lights out. When asked where they were going, they stated their cabin (which is in the other direction). They were told they were going the wrong way, so they started back toward their cabin. An adult later noticed the smell in the area where the girls had been walking.

I'm not sure if they were smoking or not, as I was told about this the next day.

So my questions are: What is your council policy if a girl is "caught" smoking? If it's a volunteer who suspects a girl(s) is smoking at a council event, should they contact the council person (on-site if possible or via phone) or speak with the girl(s) about it?

In the 4 years my kiddo has been in Girl Scouts we have never received detailed reports on where our fundraising goes. After year 3, having not done any big activities or having things cancelled and never rescheduled, I asked the council for a report. I've only been told the Troop is "current" with submitting reports. When I ask for details I'm challenged by Troop Leaders. Local council has ignored two of my emails. Is this normal?

Trying to put together a uniform for my little American Girl doll and want to know some things about y'all's uniforms.. for Cadettes and Seniors what are the most appropriate shoes to wear when doing activities such as cookie selling or what shoes do you prefer to wear if there's not a requirement when selling? Is the white shirt a requirement still? In places that are really cold and require a jacket or sweater, what kind of jackets or sweaters are allowed to be worn over your vests/sashes or any you prefer to wear when selling? Are the khaki pants/skirt a requirement or are you allowed to wear whatever is appropriate like jeans now? Are there any jewelry or hair/head pieces that your allowed to wear that you like wearing? Anything else I should know? I'm trying to create a mini Cadette for my American Girl collection and i want to be exactly precise.. i wanted to create her with a khaki sash but hearing most girls now prefer a vest I've decided to switch her to wearing a vest instead.. any input would be appreciated

Hi, just looking for advice. I'm currently a first-year Daisy troop leader. It's been a very steep learning curve, but after lots of shenanigans, I feel like it'll be easier next year at least from a learning curve perspective.

Problem:

• My assistant leader is leaving (her job is ramping + her daughter is bridging to Brownies and they don't meet on the same day).
• None of the other parents/adults are very active/helpful. We didn't even have a cookie manager this year and I did most of the work.
• I work full time in a demanding job. Truthfully, I am doing this for my daughter and the other girls. We wouldn't have had a troop otherwise this year, and they love it.

Troop setup:

• We have a multi-level troop of Brownies and Daisies but we basically operate separately.
  • In hindsight, it would've been easier to start our own troop last year to keep the money and complications separate. Cookie season was hell for me because of the accounting.
• We currently have 20 Daisies — 10 kindergarteners and 10 1st graders. So half will bridge to Brownies at the end of the year.

I would love some advice from more experienced leaders.

Note that none of the parents/adults have responded to requests for an assistant leader.

>For ease of continuing our troop in future years, should the Daisies:

1. Branch off into our own troop number? It's not too late, imo. Just a small pain for the 10 kindergarteners who are currently in my troop.
2. Not accept any new Daisies? Or maybe we only accept new 1st graders next year, so that the whole troop can continue to move up and bridge together, without anyone getting left behind and needing to find new leaders in the future
3. Some combo of the above? Something else?

>Separately, if I really don't get an assistant leader, should I:

1. Require 2 adults to sign up/meeting to help to shore up the gap? This year, 8 parents were willing to sign up to commit to helping with 1 meeting.
2. Not do cookies this upcoming year and just increase dues? Open to suggestions on extremely low-key ways to do cookies that would require less involvement as a leader, if I really don't have any help

Any other suggestions or thoughts welcome

Hello! I’m definitely new here. My daughter (starting kindergarten in the fall) showed some interest in joining Girl Scouts, so I went online and filled out the form for more info. Well, I just got the call and was informed that there are no troops in my local area, and they asked if I would be interested if forming one. I’ve never been a Girl Scout, so I don’t even know where to begin on deciding if this would be a good idea for me or not. I’m just looking for some input from others who may have been in a similar position and started their own troop! How did it go? Did you get many members? What was the time commitment? Really any and all advice is welcome!

Bit of a weird situation.

Stepmom posting on behalf of Dad. He has a girl in Girl Scouts (Brownie). It is a high conflict coparenting situation and Mom refuses to tell Dad any info, not even the troop number or any leaders name. Both parents have joint custody and legal access for information pertaining to the child. We have the child every weekend and figure she must be missing out on weekend scout events as not once in four years has Mom ever asked for time to accommodate events.

Dad has attempted to reach out to the council (San Diego) to get information directly, but because Mom did not list him as a parent, they won't give him information and won't even look at the court custody order, so that has been a dead end.

There is an event coming up we actually got information to for once (Mom shared it wanting to take the girl; due to other obligations that day we couldn't accommodate Mom's full request but offered to take the girl ourselves; Mom then insisted we forget about the whole thing if she couldn't be the one to personally take her). Looks like a small event in someone's backyard, not a large council event. It requests an RSVP but has no information on who to RSVP to (presumably the troop leader we have no info on), but the time and location are there. The scout wants to go. Would it be acceptable for Dad to take her without an RSVP, possibly with snacks as a peace offering, so she can attend and he can meet the leadership and actually make contact with them? Or would that be frowned upon?

Follow up question: I am reading a lot of posts about parents needing to register as volunteers and getting BG checked; is that something Dad should do or even can do without knowing the troop number?

TIA; any other advice is appreciated as well.

I lead a troop of second year Daisies. We ended up with about 20 unsold boxes of cookies from our booth sales. I proposed to the girls that we donate them to a food bank or other organization for folks with food insecurity. The girls suggested instead that we eat them or "give them to our friends." I'm not sure how to proceed. I want the troop's actions to be as girl-led as they can be for this age group, but I also think it's inappropriate for troop funds to be used to buy cookies for the girls' families. Thoughts?

My daughter has been a GS since 3rd grade. She finishing up her 6th grade year and her current troop is disbanding because most of the other girls are no longer interested. Her current troop leader reached out to other troops because my daughter is still interested in being a GS. She has found a troop but we don’t know if we can get in because this particular troop has the girls vote on whether or not a new girl should join. Is this normal? It seems icky to me. I’m a teacher and have taught junior high and know how petty that age can be. Is there anything I can do about this situation? We haven’t heard back if they “accepted” her or not.

Help talk me off the ledge 🫠

We just finished year two of cookies for our troop, our season is Feb-March. The girls worked so hard and did amazing. I have one parent, new this year, who has not paid her $440 balance.

I have tons of documentation about my attempts to reach out, her signatures on forms, texts back and forth. March- early April she was responsive but would not show to bring by her cash when she said she would. She also is from a city over, so we don’t run into her at the school which makes it harder.

I’m feeling very frustrated that as a parent volunteer I put in HOURS (as you all know) to maximize what our troop earns from cookies, and this parent comes in and essentially steals from children. Council has all the details and said the will work on it, but has just said they ‘haven’t heard from her.’ What else can I do? Do I need to push council more? I feel sick that they might not hold her to getting this paid back.

We’re about to finish our first year with kindergarten Daisies. I feel like we had a pretty fun, successful year and most of the parents have indicated they plan to renew and stick with us. What’s next for us as first graders? I thought we would do journeys but after some investigating I don’t think my particular girls would be into it, and the badges and materials are a little pricey even before being retired. We‘re going to vote on our badges and activities in the fall, but what else can I put on their radar? Do daisies camp? None of the parents leave their kids alone at meetings or council activities so that feels a long way off.

I’m looking into Girl Scouts for my 5 year old. I was a Brownie when I was a kid and remember it being a really fun experience.

We recently went to what was basically a recruitment event where the girls did a craft while the parents got information. The issue is that in my area there currently aren’t any Daisy troops, so if my daughter joins, it sounds like we’d essentially have to start a troop ourselves.

I started reading more about it last night and honestly got overwhelmed. Starting with no funds, organizing everything yourself, handling meetings, badges, communication, cookie sales, etc. feels like a LOT. Maybe I’m misunderstanding the structure, but it also feels like there’s very little built-in support.

My brothers were in Boy Scouts in the 90s, and from what I remember there was more of a larger organization structure. There were packs sponsored by community groups like Kiwanis or Elks Lodges, multiple leaders involved, and smaller dens within the pack. It seemed like responsibilities and resources were shared more instead of falling almost entirely on a couple parents.

Reading posts here about burnout and lack of parent participation honestly made me even more nervous. It kind of feels like so much of the responsibility ends up falling on one or two moms. I know people say “Girl Scouts is what you make it,” but it also seems like the lack of overall structure can make it hard for leaders to succeed, and even hard for girls to join in the first place when families are expected to create a troop entirely from scratch.

Am I misunderstanding how Girl Scouts actually works? Is starting a Daisy troop really as overwhelming as it seems at first?

I’m putting together an order for bridging, and I’m a bit lost about what size vest to buy my daughter. She’s in a Medium (10-12) now as a Junior, and it’s a bit snug over a coat but otherwise fine. She wants the traditional-style vest for Cadettes, and we’re planning to get a new one for Seniors, so it only needs to last 3 years. But I know these are supposed to be growth-spurt years, and I don’t understand “Teen” sizing. I can’t just do the “estimate based on your own size” trick, because she’s built way different than I am — she’s thin and trim, and I very much am not. What size should I buy?