Planning Your Year the Girl Scout Way

Through Girl Scouts, girls can do anything. And with so many options, planning your year can feel overwhelming. Don’t worry, if you follow these simple steps and use our resources to help you and the girls it will take some of the stress out of this process.

1. Assemble Your Team: The first step to anything in Girl Scouts is putting together a team and exploring options. So make your first troop meeting a planning meeting, bring your Program Event Guide, badge books, and the important dates from page 4 of your Program Event Guide, spread them out and start flipping through and discussing with the girls what Girl Scout Journeys and Badges they would like to earn and what events/activities/trips they want to do. Need a basic outline before your troop customizes their year? Here are some great outlines complete with activities for earning badges and Journeys awards for the Daisy, Brownie, and Junior levels. Don’t forget that troop parents have great connections and are great resources for guest speakers, badge workshop helpers and much more. Check out this post about Simple Ways to Transform Parent Engagement and start using those parental connections!

2. Prioritize: It is really important to teach the girls how to differentiate between things they “really want” to do and things that “would be fun if possible”. Make a list of all the things the girls want to do, then take a vote for the most popular, and choose the top 10 things to accomplish for the year from that list. Then tally up the next 10 most popular and those can be extra activities for the troop if one of their “really wants” doesn’t work out. Don’t forget to add trips into your badge and Journey activities. Need trip ideas? Here are some Popular Troop Trip Destinations.

3. Create a Budget: One of life’s great lessons is learning to live within a budget so after the girls make their plan have them start creating a budget to match that plan. Be sure to include proceeds from things like the Fall Sale and Cookie Program. Help the girls make the connection between their “plan” and the work that will go into obtaining the funds needed to make that plan a reality.

4.  Expect Change: Just as great novels go through many drafts before publishing, great troop plans will go through lots of edits before the year is done. Be ready, and prepare the girls too, for things to interfere or for unanticipated road blocks to occur. This is where that list of “would be fun if possible” comes in handy. If the trip to Savannah needs another year of fundraising to accomplish, maybe that shorter day trip to Cedar Point can happen this year. Having plans that span multi-years is a great way to build excitement and reinforce important life skills.

As Karen, a Girl Scout volunteer and alumna, says in this video: there are no limits when you’re a Girl Scout. What can’t you wait to do with your troop this year?

 

How to Build Leadership in Young Girls

Just a few weeks ago we discussed the importance of Growing Mentors the Girl Scout Way and how the Teen Mentoring Awards, specifically the Counselor in Training program at camp, helped a girl grow into a leadership role. And while camp and the CIT program are both awesome, not everyone can go to camp for that program and younger girls also make great mentors. So where else can we give girls opportunities to guide and teach others besides camp and Teen Mentoring Awards? And the answer is anywhere. As long as older girls are involved in the planning and the leading of the activities (from Brownies teaching daisies to make their first SWAP to ambassadors giving Cadettes tips on dutch oven cooking) and younger girls are actively participating mentoring is occurring.

Where does my troop start? Start by inviting others to mentor you! Younger girls need to see it, before they can do it. Brownies can invite a Cadette troop to help them with a Journey. The cadettes can earn their Leader In Action (LiA) award and the Brownies get a chance to learn and spend time with teenagers-a win-win for both groups.  Each of the Brownie Journeys Brownie Quest, A World of Girls, WOW Wonders of Water contains a detailed description of the steps and also activity ideas that are needed to complete the award. Check out this link for an example of the steps from Brownie Quest LiA. Then pay it forward by helping a daisy troop Bridge to Brownie and start honing those mentoring skills.

 

When the troop bridges up to Juniors, remind them how much fun they had learning from the Cadettes and helping the Brownies bridge. Ask if they’d like to take the lead again as Junior Aides and help a younger troop. Girls will be excited when they realize they’re now the experts and can share their skills with younger scouts. You can even have the girls pick their favorite activities or badges from when they were Brownies and recycle those activities to use with the younger troop. Plus what Daisy and Brownie leader wouldn’t love having another troop help them plan activities for at least three meetings?

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Help your girls take their first step toward becoming amazing mentors. Don’t forget to include guiding younger girls in your troop plans this year!

Fall program events are finally opening!

Fall is nearly here and we’re kicking off another year of adventure and we want YOU to join us! Fall program events open on Ebiz to all members registered for the 2014-2015 membership year on August 13th and early bird registrants received access to fall events on August 6th. While there are too many programs at too many council properties to mention them all, here are 10 upcoming programs we’re excited to offer this year:

1. Toledo Chef Program: Daisies through Juniors can jump into the world of healthy cooking with volunteers from Toledo GROWs at the Toledo Girl Scout Center; with Daisy Snack Attack, Know Bake Brownies, and Top Chef Junior there’s something for every level. CSA’s can be volunteers at program events and show off their skills. Check the program event guide for dates and times as there are multiple sessions for each program event.

2. Daisy Nature Day: a special day for a Daisy and her favorite adult that’s all about the outdoors! Games, hikes, crafts, songs and snack pack this day of adventure. With events planned for Woodhaven Program Center (Lima) and Camp Libbey (Defiance) this fall, then at the Dayton Girl Scout Center, and Pearson Metropark (Oregon) in spring there are plenty of chances for your daisy to explore the outdoors. Choose your favorite or register for them all!

3. aMAZE! Journey Retreat: Cadettes join us for this fun filled weekend (11/7/14-11/9/14) at Camp Butterworth (Maineville) that explores the maze of friendship and discover how to create peace together while earning your Peacemaker and Interact Journey Awards. Seniors can look forward to a Sow What? Journey Weekend at Camp Libbey in February.

4. Father/Daughter Adventure Day: an old favorite with new locations. Girls of all ages can join the fun as they explore the woods, create nature projects, hone your slingshot skills and more with your favorite male role model. We have a fall event at Camp Whip Poor Will (Morrow) in October and a spring session at Camp Libbey in April.

5. Rockets at the Museum: Brownies through Ambassadors can try their hand at building and launching their own rocket with the staff at Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta. With 2 events (11/8/14) scheduled we know your troop will have a blast.

6. Putting the “M” in STEM: Juniors join the Dayton staff as they focus on fun and exciting ways to use math to create things and solve problems. Need more STEM? Set your calendar for our November open date and sign up for Creative Contraptions, Make It Green, Math Puzzler, or Toledo’s Design It, Build It-Go STEM events.

7. View 360: CSA girls in the Finneytown area can earn their Girl Scout Community Service bar and learn about living with disabilities as they assist the Miracle Bowling League through this 6 session program series. The first training is in September and the league begins in October. If you miss out, sign up for their winter series beginning with a January training.

8. From Zen to Zumba: Seniors and Ambassadors will explore healthy living and stress release through Latin Zumba, yoga and meditation, as well as making delicious and healthy snacks and beverages at the Toledo Girl Scout Center (12/6/14). Stay tuned for more life skills events in 2015 on Woodworking and Carpentry.

9.  Robots, Robots, Robots: Juniors through Ambassadors can try their hand at building, programming and running a LEGO robot. Events are scheduled in all four regions throughout the year. If you miss one, register for the next!

10. Eco-Overnight: Juniors join us at Camp Libbey (10/18/14-10/19/14) for an amazing adventure out in the wilds of camp stalking critters, going color crazy, and creating the ultimate spider web. If you miss out on this overnight don’t despair, we have two more coming up at Woodhaven Program Center in February and at Camp Libbey again in April.

These are just a small taste of the many wonderful and sometimes wacky program events that are available this year. Further information about all of the program events we offer can be found in the Program Event Guide available at fall Kick-Off events and at fall Service Unit meetings. Start the fun, register for fall events now! Then don’t forget to mark your calendar for November 19th, 2014 when registration opens for winter and spring program events.

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Growing mentors the Girl Scout Way

Can you recall someone who made you believe in yourself? Who took the time to really get to know your skills and values and then helped you accomplish a goal? Ask most successful adults how they got where they are today and they’ll tell stories of skill and determination, but almost always there will be someone who supported them and encouraged them to reach for that goal. This is mentoring at its best and it is what you as Girl Scout volunteers do every day for girls.

Sometimes as adults we forget that girls can be mentors too and that finding them opportunities to teach and guide the younger Girl Scouts is an essential part of building great leaders. How does a girl grow into a leader? The same way she gets to Carnegie Hall: practice. Where does she get a chance to practice? Girl Scouts. The Teen Mentoring Awards found in the Cadette, Senior, and Ambassador Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting are all about practicing and honing your leadership skills in a safe and low pressure environment through teaching and guiding younger girls.

One of the great assets of the Teen Mentoring program is its insistence on meeting the girls where they are, with opportunities that interest them and take their readiness to lead into account. A great example is the Junior Counselor and CIT programs at camp. The camp staff recently revitalized and restructured the CIT program for 2014 summer camp to better coach the girls to become leaders at camp and not just attendees. One particular camper who trained to be a Junior Counselor found that she was not ready for the duties and expectations of that position. Rather than give up on the girl or send her home with a poor camp experience, the counselors met with her one on one and discussed what interested her, where her particular strengths lay, and what she was ready for as a leader. Through that process the girl concluded she was better suited for a CIT II position and with some coaching, she became a great asset, volunteering to lead songs and games and thoroughly enjoying her camp experience. By evaluating her as an individual and not just trying to fit her into the expectations of one program, the camp staff gained an invested leader for the younger campers and the girl learned that she can succeed at something and provide guidance to those younger than her. Camp prides itself on growing its campers into counselors and it is through success stories like this one that this metamorphosis happens. Girls who are mentored grow up to be great mentors and they do so by practicing those skills from a young age.

Think you have some troop members who are ready to start their mentoring journey? Watch this amazing video about the impact Girl Scouting had on some of its alumnae and then look in your 2014-2015 program event guide to find out how your troop can get started earning their Teen Mentoring Awards.