(@) Anyone a Girl Scout Troop Mom?

[eclaires]

One of my friends is. I can ask her and see what she says. She has four girls and they stay pretty busy but she doesn't ever say that the GS stuff is too much as the troop mom.

[pinkdutchtulips]

I'm a troop leader (Daisy level ) ask away !

[terpsfan]

Me! We have 14 girls and 5 leaders. It works well with that ratio lol. We all split up duties evenly. LMK if you have questions! We are first year Brownies (2nd grade). We started in kindergarten.

[spindle92]

You can really make it as easy or as difficult as you want.

I am a back up leader for my BFF's daughter's troop and let me tell you - her co-leader makes it into this huge production of having weekly leader meetings (The troop only meets once a month). Ontop of weekly leader meetings, she sends no less than 10 emails out a week about petty stuff. She really is making so much more work for herself than there needs to be.

[partiallysunny]

I was a Daisy leader for four years.

It's as easy or as hard as you make it. You see the schedule and the pace and decide activities. There are lots of online resources for activities. Our counsel also had a yearly activity book for leaders that showed extra counsel activities for the girls, like zoo trips.

[partiallysunny]

Sept 9, 2015 10:16:16 GMT -5 spindle92 said:

You can really make it as easy or as difficult as you want.

I am a back up leader for my BFF's daughter's troop and let me tell you - her co-leader makes it into this huge production of having weekly leader meetings (The troop only meets once a month). Ontop of weekly leader meetings, she sends no less than 10 emails out a week about petty stuff. She really is making so much more work for herself than there needs to be.

That sounds like Hell.

[spindle92]

Sept 9, 2015 11:14:44 GMT -5 partiallysunny said:

Sept 9, 2015 10:16:16 GMT -5 spindle92 said:

You can really make it as easy or as difficult as you want.

I am a back up leader for my BFF's daughter's troop and let me tell you - her co-leader makes it into this huge production of having weekly leader meetings (The troop only meets once a month). Ontop of weekly leader meetings, she sends no less than 10 emails out a week about petty stuff. She really is making so much more work for herself than there needs to be.

That sounds like Hell.

It really is ridiculous how much of a big deal she turns girl scouts meetings into.

[Michelle]

Sept 9, 2015 9:32:16 GMT -5 @majorwife said:

i know i want to watch troop beverly hills for our intro night

This sounds good in theory until you watch it. Watch it alone first. There are some sexual innuendos and topics that you may or may not be comfortable airing to your daisies. 

My daughter and I watched it over the weekend. She is a 2nd year brownie and she saw it as a daisy. But I know some of my pearl clutching moms would have been pissed if their girls watched it. It's PG - parental guidance required! 

I'm a troop leader for a troop of 9 2nd year brownies. We are going into our 4th year and just lost our first brownie - but also her mom was co-leader and did a LOT last year while I was dealing with personal issues and I think she was tired of all the work so it comes back to me. Gah.

It doesn't have to be as overwhelming as some people make it. There is a group called Girl Scout Gab on FB that is interesting to follow - you will get lots of good answers to stuff there.

And don't be afraid to just google a badge and go off of some other leader's plan who has already done the work for you!

[terpsfan]

There is a ton of info and specific plan meetings out there on the Internet. Definitely leverage!! Our leaders and I have 2x a year planning sessions where we plan our overall direction, delegate chunks of responsibilities ( someone is in charge of registration, someone in charge of room booking, someone in charge of parent communication). We also set our meeting schedule and delegate one leader (rotating schedule) to be "in charge" of that meeting-- planning activities, getting supplies, running the show. That's worked out well because you don't feel the burden every single time. Also as the girls get older we morph into more voting so they are determining more and more what we do, and we leaders are here to guide them in that direction. Both Daisy years we really focused on completing the petals and took a lot of planning from leaders. For Brownies we are essentially letting th pick what they want (I made a poster board with some badges and they can sticker vote). Definitely don't be leader AND cookie parent. That would be way too much work

[WOT?*]

I'm a troop leader for first year Juniors (fourth grade) that started as Daisies in first grade. My older troop disbanded last week because the girls wanted to do the middle school thing, but GD1 is trying to find a new troop.

It really depends how much you want to put into it and how much parent support you get. I was a co-leader the first year, and the leader stepped down without notice, so the second year was spent floundering a bit until we got on our feet. Last year was when we really found our stride with me and a good friend as co-leaders and the girls coming into their own as leaders and planners. She moved to Vegas so I have a new co-leader again, a Navy guy this time! And we have another mom as troop treasurer and we'll have a cookie mom as well. We've had a bit of coming and going but generally stay at 10 girls in the troop. (My other troop had one girl leave during our tenure but the rest stayed from 3rd-5th grade.)

Check out the service unit for your area (google Girl Scouts and your town and you should find it. Mine is Western Washington or http://www.girlscoutsww.org) There are Facebook pages, Pinterest pages for meeting ideas, all sorts of resources at the regional office, the service unit coordinator, monthly meetings for updates if you want to put the time in to go there, etc.

I know one troop that meets once per month almost strictly as a social thing. Mine meets 2x/month for social and badge earning plus we camp and volunteer, another troop meets weekly on Sundays and is very active. It all depends on how much you and your girls want to put in. (As Daisies and a new troop, I'd say that you're probably going to start pretty slow and you'll end up progressing at the girls' pace.)

As Daisies, we pretty much met 2x/month, stayed on-site, did minimal cookie selling and worked mostly on earning our petals. As Brownies, we morphed into letting the girls pick the badges they wanted to earn and by second year each girl was planning her own badge meeting or meetings. We use surveymonkey to ask parents opinions, signupgenius to sign up for snacks and badges and have a closed Facebook page for planning and updates. It gets much easier for the adults as the kids get older.

[CallingAllAngels]

I signed up to be a co-leader for my DD's troop. She is just starting K, so it will probably be a brand new troop. I'm a little nervous as the woman who signed up to be the leader seems pretty flaky. Hopefully, my first impression is off. Anyway, I am not any help because we haven't gotten started yet, but thank you for starting this. Lots of great info!