New Girl Scout Leader Resources

It can be overwhelming to be handed a roster of a dozen little girls, told to call the parents, find a location to meet, plan the days and times of your meetings, have your required training by a certain date and try to retain the 100 years worth of information! But do not let these small steps scare you from the one of the most rewarding opportunities of your life! I am going to help you through this!

• First of all, one of the greatest perks of being the Girl Scout leader is that you choose the day, time and location of you meetings! So, though this may sound scary at first, this is a gift to you! What day and time are best for you? Where would be a convenient location for you?
• Girl Scouts meet on all different schedules, you can choose any day of the week, any time, weekly, bi-monthly, monthly... weekly is the most traditional meeting pattern, but this is ultimately up to you! If you have some flexibility, let the parents of the girls in your troop give their input to a convient day or time.
• Many fret over where they are going to meet, but this is nothing to worry about and just a matter of a few phone calls. Girl Scouts have been a well respected organization for 100 years now, so there are many places that are honored to have a group of Girl Scouts on their property. Schools, Churches, Leader's Homes and Libraries are among the most common meeting places here in Texas, but I know troops who meet in the meeting room of a restaurant, and when I was a Girl Scout our meetings were at the local Fire Station... Just decide where you would like to meet and ASK!
• The required training is very important and you must have it done before your first meeting, but do worry about retaining all the information in day or two! You will learn day to day! The most important thing is to be safe and have fun! Get a mentor! Find another Girl Scout leader that you find easy to talk to or someone from your Service Unit Team and use their experience and knowledge to help you! There are also great resource available online when planning meetings, some of these links are listed at the bottom of the page.
• I remember the feeling of meeting all the parents and girls for the first time, they were all asking questions and I did not know the answers... but someone else did! I took one of our Service Unit Team members with me to my first meeting and she did a question and answer time with me and the other parents, while my new Co-leader taught the girls the Girl Scout Promise, said the Pledge of Allegiance and played some games. If another leader or team member is not available to attend your first meeting, do not worry, you are a new Girl Scout parent just like everyone else there! Just write down their questions and let them know that you will find the answer!
• As for the girls... they are going to love you and appreciate you more than you can imagine!

This was just a quick view of your first few weeks as a new Girl Scout Leader... now let's look into the future, planning meetings, field trips and money-earning activities!

• A planning a calendar will help you and your parents! You can delegate help needed well in advance and parents can plan around the troop activities with advanced notice. Plan your meetings and your activities!
• Meet with your co-leader and plan a calendar for the year! Some questions you may want to address are... When are your meeting? Will you skip any meeting due to holidays? What will you do at your meetings? You do not have to plan every detail, but tentatively plan which badge or project that you would like to be working on... this helps both leaders know what to be looking at week to week. What field trips do you want to take and when? What does your Service Unit have planned and will your troop participate? Do you want to do a community service project? When do COOKIES go on sale? Do you want to plan a Girl Scout Birthday Party? (Girl Scouts 100th Anniversary is on March 12, 2012) What date or dates will you have your end of the year party or trip?
• Planning Girl Scout meetings sounds like a lot of work, but with all the resources available to youthis part of being a leader is "a piece of cake", and I am proud to announce that Girl Scout just launched a new curriculum that is very user friendly! You can add a local field trip during meeting times every once in a while too! A trip to the library, fire station, police station, animal shelter, or tour of Wal-Mart are all free field trips that the girls will love! So, if you know you will be having a busy week and do not have time to work on your meeting, plan a field trip! The girls can even get a fun patch to put on the back of their uniform! These are available through Girl Scouts or for a more inexpensive option, visit www.snappylogos.com.
• Money-earning activities are important to Girl Scout troops to help off-set the cost of all the AWESOME opportunities you will have and crafts you will do! Most troops require the girls to bring dues of a set amount to each meeting... though these dues should cover the cost of the meeting supplies and badge that the girl will earn, there is rarely enough left over to build a bank account! Thus, the need to earn more money!
• The most famous Girl Scout activity is the sale of Girl Scout Cookies! This is great way to earn money for your troop! What does your troop want to do? How much will it cost? Set your cookie sales goals based on this amount.
• If you want to do a money-earning activity before cookie sales, a garage sale, car wash, or bake sale are usually successful, the girls would also have fun doing a bike-a-thon or walk-a-thon, having their friends and family sponsor them based on the number of laps they can walk or ride (not to exceed a specified dollar amount). There are tons of ideas available on the web! It is important that you follow Girl Scout rules when planning a money-earning activity, the most important rules are that you cannot do a fundraiser that benefits another company (example: cannot sale candy and send money back to the candy company), you must fill out an Activity Approval Form (this is a very simple one page form, that you get approved by your Service Unit), and that you get permission forms for the girls to participate!
• Activity Approval Forms and Permission Forms can both be found on the Girl Scout website under forms and should become very familiar. Both of these forms are required when you are doing an activity outside of your normal meeting place.

I will be answering questions and accepting comments below, please see my other pages for more in depth information on Girl Scouting programs!