Picking a Topic
How Much Time?
If you as a volunteer are going to run a program, consider first how much time and effort you are willing to put into it. There is no shame in saying "this much, no more". While "everyone" would love it if you could put on a day-long program for girls from Daisies through Ambassadors who would all finish a Journey, complete with a Take Action Project, the reality is most of us don't have the time to develop such a program. Think about your talents, your resources, and how much time you are willing to give to this project, and keep that time limit in mind as you pick a topic (and yes, I know, you'll probably exceed it but it never hurts to start with one)
Hard to Do at a Meeting
When I was reviewing the Coding Basics badge for an earlier post, my impression was that it seemed silly to do a computer-focused badge without a computer. However, like most leaders, I do not have a large number of computers at my disposal for my meetings--but someplace that does have a large number of computers is our public library.
Are there badges at your level that are easy to do in the right place, but hard in the average classroom or church hall where many troops meet? Do you have access to "the right place"? One of my girls' favorite activities last year was when we went to a park about twenty minutes from home to earn the Outdoor Art badges. Doing that program for several troops at a time would not be hard.
There is a cooking badge at each level, Brownies through Ambassadors, but most require a kitchen, or at least some type of cooking appliance; can you get use of your church's kitchen for an event?
Are You an Expert, or Do You Know One?
Particularly for older girls, most badges encourage or even require you to consult with an expert on the topic. If you are arranging to have an expert at your meeting or to bring your girls to meet with an expert, how about opening it up to other girls at your level?
Pick a Location
This may be as easy as calling the church office and reserving the gym or as complicated as getting transferred all around and leaving multiple voice mails and finding that no one wants to tell you "no" but no one thinks they have the authority to tell you "yes". Be nice, be persistent and be flexible.
Our Event
Planning
I wanted to offer the Basic Coding badge to my girls, but it seemed silly to me to do a computer badge without ever touching a computer. I read through the VTK plans when writing my posts on the Basic Coding badges linked below, so I knew they were developed by Codespark Academy and coordinated with their online platform. I also knew that Codespark Academy had an arrangement with GSUSA such that leaders could get codes allowing access to the platform for Service Unit events. Now, all I needed was computers..
I knew that our public library has a room full of computers. I had used it for my troop many years ago and at that time I was told that no one else had ever asked to do that but that they were thrilled to have me. So, I gave them a call, and not surprisingly, got transferred around and left messages for several people. I guess it has been fifteen years since a Girl Scout leader asked to use that room, because no one seemed to know whether they could tell me "yes" or not. Finally I found the right people and obtained permission, but I was asked to come in and meet with the library's IT director.
When we met, the IT director said that they liked partnering with community organizations and that they would like to publicize the event. They also told me that the event had to be free and open to the public, but that if all the seats were taken, they were taken. They suggested that I have materials available to recruit for the Girl Scouts. I explained that we would be posting pictures of the event on the council facebook page and would publicly thank the library for hosting us.
Publicity
Another problem made its yearly appearance--our Service Unit's Annual Giving goal. I decided to promote this event as an Annual Giving event, and charge a $10 per girl fee which would be a donation to Annual Giving. I publicized the program to our Service Unit, and, when seat were left, I asked the STEM person at our council to spread the word to other service units.
I did a Google Form for registration and said that once I was sure of numbers, I'd email payment instructions to participants, and that I wanted to paid ahead of time, via Paypal.
The library also publicized the event and told me that I had to allow anyone who wanted to participate to do so, unless we were full. I had one boy at the workshop; everyone else was a Girl Scout.
Preparation
To prepare for the event, I read through the VTK plans for both Daisies and Brownies. I knew I couldn't do the Daisy S'more activity in the library, but everything else was doable. I combined the two plans into one plan, made the copies and I needed and gathered the supplies from our parish Girl Scout supply room.
Program
Here is what we did. The program was from 12-3:
12-12:20: Play on Codespark
12:20-12:30: GS Promise, discussion of "for good". Discuss algorithms --directions that are followed in a certain order. Discuss that computers do what you tell them to do, whether that's what you want them to do or not. I told one girl to walk toward a wall, when she stopped I told her to keep walking. I asked her why she stopped and she pointed to the wall. I pointed out that she was different from a computer--she could think. We then discussed the algorithm for getting dressed in the morning and had to re-arrange it a couple of times when we remembered what we forgot.
12:30-12:45: Quilt algorithm activity from Brownie plan.
12:45-1:00: Algorithm pictures from Daisy plan
1:00-1:05: Bathroom/water break
1:05-1:15: Read story about Ada Lovelace
1:15-1:30: Talk about sorting algorithms; have girls sort themselves by age, height
1:30-1:45: Codespark
1:45-2:00: Looping Via Dance: I put the VTK supplied diagram on the display screen and we went over what it meant. I had made copies of it with the words blacked out and asked the girls to use it to write their dance routines. Then each group of two wrote their routines and then performed them
2:00-2:05: Water and Bathroom break
2:05-2:15: Read story about Grace Hopper
2:15-2:40: Event Game, Events by Remote control--I had the remote picture from VTK on the screen
2:40-3:00: Complete GSUSA survey, Codespark
I found good short picture books on Hopper and Lovelace so I read them rather than using the VTK material.
The girls seemed to enjoy the program and the moms/leaders who stayed were pleased.
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