Cookies! A Guide for Leaders New and Old

If you played the word association game with many people, a response to "Girl Scouts" would be "cookies".  Whatever else you might think about GSUSA, you have to admit they have done a tremendous marketing job transforming the necessary evil of fundraising into an American tradition and into business education for the girls. 

In most parts of the country "Christmas Season" is followed very quickly by "Cookie Season" and the leader facebook groups are filled with questions and complaints from leaders old and new.  As noted in my profile, I've been a Girl Scout leader for over 15 years and this post is an attempt to share the things I've learned with others.  However, the first piece of advice I have is to make friends with your Service Unit Cookie Chair.  She is the one who should know the rules in your council, and also what you can expect where you are. 

Learn Your Council's Rules

No councils, that I know of, allow girls to take the money earned by selling cookies and put it in their own pockets.  Most do not allow much if any differentiation between how the troop rewards low sellers vs high sellers at the Daisy and Brownie levels.  For older girls, council rules are all over the map as to how they allow cookie proceeds to be used and tracked on a per girl basis.  Some allow (or at least turn a blind eye toward) "girl accounts" where each girl's proceeds are tracked and allocated for her use for Girl Scout programming; others strictly enforce "troop money is for all the girls".  Knowing your council's rules on this is important when you get ready for the next step:  Talking to Parents

Honest and Fair, Board Games and Making Games

I have both Daisies and Brownies and I run one meeting for all the girls.  Generally we do Brownie Badges and I do my best to relate the topic to a Daisy Petal or Badge.  My goal for the year is to complete five petals as we did the other five last year.  One we needed this year was "Honest and Fair", which ties in nicely with Making Games.  Making Games also ties into the Daisy Board Game Badge so we've spent the last three meetings working on these badges, and we still have one more activity, which we will do at our holiday party. Many of the chosen activities were from the GGGS, VTK or River Valley's plans, which I summarized in this post.

Our first meeting was dedicated primarily to the Daisies.  I told the girls the story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" and we talked about how if we aren't honest, people won't believe us.  We talked about games we liked and why they have rules, and how it isn't fun when someone we play with cheats.

Back in My Day: Comparing Today's Badges With Those of the Past

Back in the Stone Ages when we had the blue Junior handbook we didn't have any computer-related badges.  Of course back in those days, computers took up entire rooms, cost millions of dollars and could only be operated by experts.  Today, most of us carry a more powerful (and definitely more user-friendly) computer in our pocket/purse all day every day, and it even makes phone calls. That Girl Scout badges have changed should be of no surprise to anyone, but for some, the question is whether they have changed for the better, or the worse.  Today, I'm going to look at a badges that has  stood the test of time--the  "cooking badge"  in the Junior program--because "back in the day" there were no Daisies, Brownies did not earn badges and neither did high school girls.

FYI, the headings below are links to the summarized handbooks.

Savory Snacks, Knives, and JGL

Some of you will be glad to know that we finished our Snacks badge at our most recent meeting.  As I read the instructions for the Snacks badge, girls are supposed to make four different snacks.  We had a bad storm the night of our first meeting so several girls were absent.  Because of that, we repeated the energy snack requirement. In total, we spent part of five meetings working on the Snacks badge.

This week we made Ants on a Log and Spiders. Ants on a Log is celery sliced in 2-3 inch chunks and filled with peanut butter, cream cheese or some other sticky substance.  On top of that go the "ants", raisins. Spiders are two Ritz Crackers, stuck together with peanut butter etc. with four stick pretzels broken in half stuck in as legs.  Raisin eyes can be added.

After we did the Pledge, Promise and Law I sat the girls down and talked to them about using knives and knife safety, particularly passing knives handle first and waiting for the recipient to say "thank you".  I had large kitchen knives and cutting boards for the girls to use to cut up the celery.  I gave each girl a full rib of celery to cut into three or more pieces.  Since we don't have any peanut allergies, we used peanut butter to fill the logs.  Surprisingly to me, many of the girls didn't want the raisins. 

Welcome Aboard! Advice for New Girl Scout Leaders

Are you a new Girl Scout Leader?  Are you the helium-handed one who responded when the recruiter said that they needed a leader at your daughter's school or in your community?  Did you finally figure out that there wasn't going to be a Girl Scout troop for your daughter unless you started one?  Are you someone who didn't get enough Girl Scouts as a kid, so you decided to be a leader, even though you don't have a daughter?  It doesn't matter which (if any) of these is true, welcome to the club.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I have (17 year volunteer). 

My first words of advice are "find a tribe".  A reliable co-leader you enjoy working with is worth her weight in gold.  A Cookie Mom who handles that whole project is priceless.  But don't stop there.  Make friends with other leaders in your area, whether at your school or in your Service Unit.  Do things together when you can.  Bounce ideas off each other either in person or in a closed SU facebook group.  Whatever problems you are facing, others have faced and while council trainers have to spout the party line, your fellow leaders will tell you what programming their girls have enjoyed, and what they have not. 

Planing an Event: Coding Basics

One thing many leaders on facebook groups seems to want is more programming provided by someone else.  The girls enjoy a chance to do something different, and you don't have to be the one planning it, making sure everything you need is available, and otherwise running the show.  Going to events planned by others also allows your girls to experience things you aren't comfortable leading.  However, to get events run by "others" you either have to pay a professional a lot of money for what could turn out to be a so-so program, or you need something that someone inside GS offers, basically at cost.  This post is to encourage you, the ordinary leader, to take the lead on providing an event for girls in your Service Unit, with the hope that another leader will do the same, with a different topic.  Supporting each other, we can offer our girls more programming for less money than if we depend on outside vendors or council. While the post is written leader-to-leader, the steps involved are similar to those that would be used if an older girl troop wanted to do programming for younger girls as a money-earning project.

Resources for Meeting Planning

Girl Scout leaders are always looking for help with meeting planning. This page is an attempt to create a one-stop list of handy resources, with some editorializing about the type and quality of help given.

GSUSA and Council Resources

Volunteer Toolkit (VTK)

 VTK is GSUSA's online leader's manual.  Most if not all councils give their leaders access via the "My GS" tab on the council website.  Yes, VTK can be clunky but it does seem to have improved since it was first implemented.

To use VTK you first have to create a year plan.  I recommend choosing the create your own option, and then adding the meetings for a handful of badges that interest you.  Honestly, I don't think it works well as a planner so I don't use it for that, but as a resource, I think it has some good ideas.

How Far Is Too Far: Adapting GSUSA Programming to Meet the Needs of Your Girls

I've heard it said that sometimes your greatest strength can also be your greatest weakness. I get many of my ideas for posts on this blog by reading the Facebook groups in which I promote it.  I write posts to address questions that are frequently asked, or to address thoughts that run through my mind as I read the groups.  This post addresses thoughts that run through my mind.

A great strength of the Girl Scout program is the ability of leaders to adapt it to meet the needs of your girls.  There are very few "musts" and not even a lot of "shoulds".  In the current program, badges have five requirements (except Daisies have three) and those requirements are quite vague, at least on the Brownie level.  While the badge inserts in the Girls' Guide to Girl Scouting say "Every step has three choices.  Do ONE choice to complete each step. Inspired?  Do more", which sounds to me like you are supposed to choose an activity from the badge packet, evidently people are now being told that the "requirements" are the short phrases on the front of the pack and/or on the Badge Explorer, not the listed activities.  That belief is carried through on VTK, which offers activities which are not on the inserts, and which, in fact, sometimes  has plans that don't even meet the short requirements (e.g. the First Aid badge has a requirement to talk to someone who treats injured people, and the VTK plan for the badge does not include doing so). So, what do you HAVE to do to earn a badge?

What Is the Snacks Badge About?

You all are probably tired of reading about my troop and the Snacks badge, but I find the different points of focus that are possible with the same badge to be interesting.   This is the third time I've led a troop through the Snacks badge, and like most intelligent people, I've repeated what worked and found a new option for what did not.  If you click on the Snacks label below you will bring up a list of my past posts on the Snacks badge.

According to Badge Explorer, the requirements for the Snacks badge are:Make great snacks for yourself and your friends.   

• Find out about different types of snacks (the badge insert says "Jump into the world of snacks")
• Make a savory snack 
• Try a sweet snack  
• Snack for energy 
• Slurp a snack    

When you've earned this badge, you'll know how to make yummy snacks for your family and friends.

Respect Myself and Others and Snacks

This week my Daisies got the first of the five petals they will earn this year (my routine is five petals per year)--Respect Myself and Others.  My Brownies are still working on the Snacks badge and this week we made our sweet snack--Cookies.  We also did a coloring sheet on the Food Pyramid and talked about healthy and unhealthy snacks.

As the girls came in they sat down and colored two sheets.  One was a place mat showing proper table setting; the other dealt with the food pyramid and healthy food.

Once everyone was there, we headed to the restroom to wash hands before we started.  Then, after the Pledge and Promise I talked to the girls about respect and how it meant treating people like they are important.  I tied this into our archdiocesan Safe Environment curriculum by telling the girls that if they respect themselves they tell a trusted adult if someone hurts them or tries to hurt them, and while not specifically mentioning sexual abuse I did tell them that some adults do choose to hurt kids, and will sometimes threaten to hurt them more if they tell, and that anyone an adult tries to get them to keep secrets, unless it is a fun secret like a surprise party, they need to tell someone.  If we respect others, we don't bully them and we tell adults if another child is a bully/being bullied.  I also talked about healthy food, exercise, cleanliness etc as being ways we take care of ourselves and respect ourselves.

Potter and Snacks, Part 2

I generally take more than one meeting to earn badges, and it is not uncommon for me to be in the middle of more than one at a time, depending on which badge it is.  Right now we are working on Potter and Snacks for my Brownies and will give my Daisies fun patches for pottery and cooking.

Our first two meetings were pretty much repeats since a line of bad weather kept several girls home for the first meeting, at which we made pinch pots and trail mix.  At the second meeting we used different ingredients and made more tail mix.  We made coil pots and clay animals and talked about scoring, wedging, and shaping clay and how our air dry clay was different from the bisque ware we painted over the summer.  We also talked about ways clay pottery is used in everyday life.  This was a repeat of a discussion we had at the pottery place this summer (1 girl wasn't there).

Sometimes Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

"My troop is going to ________; which Badge or Journey could we earn?"  This question, or one very similar, is one of those most frequently asked on leader Facebook pages.  If it is worth doing, surely the girls can earn something by doing it, right?

Last week my troop did something that was very worthwhile and which earned them...nothing (ok I did buy a fun patch, but no Badge or Journey requirements were ticked, as least that I know).  What did we do?  We had a pajama party.

At our first meeting I asked the girls for some ideas of things they wanted to do this year.  I have first grade Daisies and third grade Brownies, and they all attend different schools.  One of my Daisies said "a sleepover" and all the girls quickly jumped on that bandwagon.  I told them that we couldn't do that--the council won't let us have events at people's houses and the church won't let me have a sleepover on campus.  However, I told them we could do a pajama party--everything they would do at a sleepover, except they would go home to sleep.

Girl Scout Insurance and the Liability of Leaders

At some point most Girl Scout leaders are told that the $25 registration fee includes insurance.  However, I've learned over the years that many Girl Scout leaders do not understand what this insurance covers or how it works.  This post is an attempt to explain it.

For the record, I am not an attorney, nor do I give legal advice.  I'm a paralegal and gained some of this information working on a case in which my local council and a leader were sued. The example I use below is totally different from what happened in my council.  

What Happens When a Girl Scout Gets Hurt?

Luckily, most of the time, when a Girl Scout gets hurt, the troop first aider gets out a band aid or some ice, gives the girl a hug and sends her on her way.

The Problem With Parents

In both my own experience as a fifteen year Girl Scout leader and the things I read on Facebook groups for Girl Scout leaders, I've come to the conclusion that Girl Scouts can't decide what to do with parents.  While BSA insists that their youngest scouts have a parent or other adult participate with them, GSUSA discourages extra parents at meetings.  While Cub Scouts do family camping, GSUSA (or at least my council) requires any adult spending the night at a Girl Scout camp be registered and background checked, and, in general, discourages family camping except at special events.  While Daisies in my council are required to have an adult spend the night with them, once they hit Brownies, troops are encouraged to take only the required number of adults.  The trip training for leaders taking older girls on trips of three nights or more states that only the adults necessary to meet ratios attend, even if that number is two--which in my opinion is unsafe for the adults.  

On the other hand, a frequent complaint on leader Facebook groups is the lack of parental participation.  Whether they are complaining about difficulty finding co-leaders, or not having a cookie mom, or not getting things turned in on time, leaders seem to want more from parents in general.

Potter and Snacks

My troop is Daisies and Brownies and most of the Brownies have been with me for three years, the Daisies for one, though I picked up a couple of new girls this year.

Over the summer I send out a survey to the Brownies and asked them to let me know which badges or journeys interested them.  Pottery and Snacks were two that got a lot of votes.  During the summer, our cookie event was a trip to a pottery painting place and all the girls enjoyed it, so I thought it would be a good way to start the year.

Though I have Daisies and Brownies, I try to keep the whole group doing the same thing.  If you review my posts from last year, you can see how I related a lot of Brownie badges to Daisy petals.  Well, try as I might I couldn't figure out how to relate these badges to un-done petals or Daisy badges, so my Daisies will get fun patches, and my Brownies, badges.

While I was having my initial parent meeting I had play doh (from my supply stash) on the table for the girls.  I also gave them some coffee stirrers and told them to make me something.  Once I was done with the parents, I had each girl grab a ball of play doh and I showed them how to make a pinch pot.  They all tried it with the play doh.  I then collected the play doh and passed out air dry clay (bought at JoAnn's with a 50% off coupon) and the girls made pinch pots which I then put away to dry (we have a Girl Scout storage room at church).  After sending the girls to wash, and clearing the tables, it was time to work on the Snacks badge.

Daisy Digital Game Design

The Digital Game Design badge is the second in this year's set of "progressive" Coding for Good badges.  Like the Cybersecurity and Robotics series, the badge pamphlets for these badges show three badges rather than one, and, rather than giving a choice of three activities for each requirement for each badge, they simply give age-appropriate background information on the badge topic.  The VTK plans are clearly lesson plans, not just groups of activities related to a topic.  

The badges were sponsored by codeSpark Academy and while the VTK plans are "unplugged" and do not require the use of a computer, the materials provided to the leaders include a file about codeSpark Academy and which of its games related to the various badges.  

According to GSUSA's Badge Explorer, the requirements for the Daisy Digital Game Design badge are:

Explore how video games can make a difference

• Explore tools used to develop digital games
• Plan a maze game
• Build, test, and improve your maze game

When you've earned this badge, you'll know how video games are designed.

Below are the steps in the VTK plans:

Brownie Adventure Badges

This year GSUSA released two new "High Adventure" badges for Brownies.  Girls can choose either "Trail Adventure" or "Snow or Climbing Adventure".  I don't know why they chose to make two badges rather than three because the requirements for both are so similar.

While I have not seen the badge inserts for these badges, I've been told that the activities in them are the same as the activities in VTK, which makes sense.  The majority of the current badges were developed about ten years ago, before VTK, and I would hope GSUSA listened to feedback on those badges from members in developing the VTK plans, which, as I've noted in other posts, do not always follow the badge inserts.  Since these badges were developed after VTK, it makes little sense to develop one set of activities for the badge insert and yet another for VTK.

So, how do you earn these badges?  Both have the same five steps, and both offer similar choices per step.  Let's look at them:

Brownie Digital Game Design

The second badge in the Brownie Coding for Good series is Digital Game Design.  You can purchase a badge insert that covers all three badges in your council shop or you can buy a pdf download from GSUSA.  However, like the inserts for robotics and for cybersecurity, the Coding for Good insert is mainly background information as opposed to being in the three choices for each of five requirements format.  Instead, the insert refers you to VTK for the activities to earn these badges.

This article is a summary of the VTK plans for Brownie Digital Game design. The idea is to allow you to decide, without reading 30 pages of a script found in two different places, whether your troop wants to do these badges.

The activities in the VTK plans are "unplugged"; they do not require a computer or computer expertise.  However, GSUSA has partnered with Codespark Academy and if you are working on a service unit or council-level program for these badges you can get a code that allows you short term free access.

Making Games Badge: Comparing the GGGS, VTK and River Valleys Plans

Okay, I'll admit it.  I'm old school (and old). I've always seen badge requirements as, well, requirements.  When the badge insert said pick one of these three, well, I picked one.  While I might have tweaked it slightly, like playing softball instead of baseball because I had a softball, I didn't figure that tennis is a game with a ball, so playing tennis is like baseball.  When I joined some online Girl Scout groups and found that many people were "adapting" the badges much more in the manner of substituting tennis for baseball rather than substituting softball for baseball, I raised my eyebrows, but as someone else said, "there are no badge police", so I pretty much kept my mouth shut.  Still, what happens to program integrity when "everyone" is "adapting" things too much?

For the record, I think much of today's Girl Scout program is overly idealistic and aimed more at grant writers than at girls.  I've made my opinions about Journeys and TAPs well-known on this blog, so I won't mention them here, but I will say that it seems to me, based on things I've read and the badge requirements themselves, that one of the goals of the program writers was to get girls out of their meeting rooms and into the community, or, at the least, to get leaders to bring the community to the meeting.  Many of today's badges, in the badge packet requirements, ask the girls to visit someplace, or to speak with an expert on something.  

Review of the Daisy Flower Garden Journey

I can say without a doubt that the worst GSUSA programming I ever tried to do "by the book" was the Daisy Welcome to the Flower Garden Journey. While I had led my older daughter's troop through Brownies and Juniors, I had never been a Daisy leader.  While I had a lot of non-Girl Scout experience with 7-9 year olds, I had never worked with kindergartners.  When my younger daughter became a Daisy, it was the first year of the two year Daisy program and I knew I had to do more than the petals over those two years, so when the nice lady at our council shop told me to buy the new program, I took it.

I no longer have those books (good riddance) but I remember reading through them and thinking that the stories were too long, too convoluted and had too many similar characters.  I wasn't real impressed with the activities, but figured maybe that was because I wasn't used to dealing with kids who were that young.  

At each meeting, according to the plan given in the leader's manual, you would read part of this story to the girls.  You would then do some activities, none of which particularly impressed me.  Finally you would do a project, and three options were given:  raise ladybugs, raise worms or plant a garden.  The kicker was that the project was supposed to be done for someone or some organization and was supposed to be sustainable--in other words you were supposed to find someone to keep it up after you were done. 

Daisy Coding For Good: Coding Basics

This year's new badges include a series of three "Coding for Good" badges for Daisies, Brownies and Juniors.  The basic requirements are available on GSUSA's Badge Explorer and meeting plans are in Volunteer Toolkit, to which most leaders have access.  While GSUSA has published a badge pamphlet for this set, it, like the sets for Cybersecurity and Robotics, is for background information only.  It is not in the format of three requirements and three options for each requirement.

One issue people have with VTK plans is that by giving leaders a script to follow (if desired) they make the plans very wordy and hard to skim.  This post and others like it are designed to summarize the VTK plans so that leaders can get a real feel for what the badge entails, and then, if they decide to do the badge, they can more carefully review the VTK plans.  In fact, I do not recommend that you do the badge without reviewing the VTK plans because their talking points are what connect the activities to coding.

My Great Day Responsible for What I Say and Do and Using Resources Wisely

There are different ways to handle badgework with a multi-level troop.  With my Daisies and Brownies, I have pretty much focused on the Brownie Program but have related the activities to Petals where possible.  Since Daisies is a two year program, I have no problem with it taking two years to finish the petals.

At our last regular meeting we worked on two petals:  Responsible for What I Say and Do and Using Resources Wisely.  For the other petals we did this year, I picked a petal that worked with the Brownie badge; this time I picked the Brownie Badge because it worked with the Petals.

Think Like an Engineer for Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors

A couple of years ago GSUSA released a new series of Journeys for Daisies, Brownies and Juniors, and last year, released two of them for Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors.  Even though this is mostly a blog about my experiences with Daisies and Brownies, I had a request to summarize the older girls' Think Like an Engineer Journey and since I was doing it, I figured I ought to get a few cents from AdSense for doing so (and more if you click on the ads on this page). 

What Do Girl Scout Leaders Think About Journeys and Take Action Projects

Last year I wrote a post basically saying that I thought TAPs were not developmentally appropriate for Brownies and Daisies and that, from what I could see, few troops did them as GSUSA envisioned.  A few months later I put a survey up on Survey Monkey and asked leaders who were members of several Facebook groups what they thought about TAPs.  This article is a summary of those survey results.

First, my Survey Monkey account is a free account, so while I got over 100 responses, I only get to see the first 100.  I did keep an eye on the survey as results were coming in and the percentage never moved that much. Therefore, among the universe of people who chose to respond to my survey, I believe the numbers are reasonably accurate.

Brownie Coding for Good Badges: Coding Basics

GSUSA has just released this year's new badges.  For Daisies, Brownies and Juniors, these badges included a new series:  Coding for Good.  Each level gets three badges, which, like the robotics and cybersecurity badges, were designed to be done sequentially.  Also it appears that like the robotics and cybersecurity badges, if you purchase the badge brochure, instead of getting a choice of three activities per requirement, you are given background information to use with the VTK plans.  In other words, your activities choices are to use what is in VTK or to come up with your own activities.

Outdoor Art Day

In my not so humble opinion, one of the major things that separates Girl Scouts from other youth activities aimed at girls is its outdoor program.  Because of that, as a leader I try to offer outdoor-focused programming several times a year.

During this troop year we attended our Service Unit camping trip, had two daytrips to our local Girl Scout camp and we had an Outdoor Art day at a nearby state park. Our Daisies earned their Outdoor Art Maker badge and the Brownies earned. Outdoor Art Creator.

Race Cars!

This week our meeting was about race cars.  Both Daisies and Brownies have badges that relate.

A Trip to the Apple Store

You don't have to spend much time on Girl Scout leader facebook pages before you hear about the awesome free field trips to the Apple Store.  Tonight my troop visited our local Apple store to work on robotics badges.

I have both Daisies and Brownies and both groups went.  Daisies worked on How Robots Move; Brownies did Programming Robots.   

Brownie Cybersecurity Badges

GSUSA recently introduced three cybersecurity badges at each level.  While you can find the requirements on the publicly accessible Badge Explorer, the suggested activities are on Volunteer Tool Kit.  While there is a badge packet for sale that covers all three badges, it contains background information.  It does not provide the choice of three activities per requirement. It is also freely accessible compliments of Girl Scouts Farthest North.  Click here to see it.  

Volunteer Toolkit provides two complete lesson plans for each badge--in other words, if you do it their way, it will take you two meetings per badge.  The plans give you word-for-word scripts to follow as well as any handouts or coloring sheets you will need.  They are great for beginning leaders but many people find them difficult to skim through to pick out the activities so as to decide whether to use them or not.

This post is an attempt to summarize all the Brownie Cybersecurity badges in one easy to follow place.

God Is Love: A Daisy Award

The God is Love award was created by and is promulgated by the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry.  It is aimed at kindergarten and first grade students and the award pin can be worn on the front of the Daisy Uniform.

To earn the award, Daisies complete a workbook that has three chapters, and they do three activities for each chapter.  The book moves from recognizing that God loves us to realizing that we have to share that love with others.

Is Girl Scouts Expensive?

One topic often discussed on Girl Scout leader facebook pages is money and the costs associated with running a Girl Scout troop.  There are complaints about the costs forced onto troops by GSUSA or our local councils whether through mandated training classes or the cost of program materials such has handbooks or badges.  There are also complaints about how little cookie money is kept by troops. Those discussions make me wonder:  Is Girl Scouts Expensive?

Finding, Keeping and Sharing Internet Resources

Back in the Stone Ages of the early 1980's, when I was an Elementary Education major in college, one of things we had to do was assemble and maintain a "teaching file".  We began this file in our first education class our sophomore year and it was graded both then and before we began our student teaching at the end of our senior year.  We sent off for materials companies offered to teachers, we made folders for projects we did in various classes and copied or clipped articles from teaching magazines.  All of these things were kept in what I could now call a file box.

I don't know if my university still requires "teacher files" but I'll bet if they do, many of the contents today's students collect are digital, not paper.  I'll also bet that like Girl Scout leaders, teachers find many of their resources online.  This article is to give you some ideas/techniques for finding, keeping and sharing resources on the internet.

As GSUSAs resources are covered elsewhere on this blog, this article will focus on other resources.