Communicating With Your Troop/Parents: Some Options

Once upon a time, Girl Scouts was every Tuesday after school in the art room, or every Wednesday at 4:30 at the Girl Scout Hut or something similar.  Once upon a time leaders at those meetings handed out permission slips for special events, which girls gave to their parents, and if they did not, the girls missed out  Once upon a time leaders were not expected to remind everyone of everything.  Today is not "once upon a time".

Today troops rarely meet every week.  Even for troops that do, things happen like school holidays or leader vacations or whatever, and people expect notification beyond telling a girl "No Girl Scouts next week".  Maintaining some type of regular communication with parents has become a regular job of the troop leader or her designee.  The question is "What is the best way to stay in contact with your families?" Let's take a look at some options.

VTK

Did you know that you can use VTK to email your families?  I did a survey regarding VTK and of 591 people who responded, 95.4% never used it to communicate with parents.  

There are three ways to use the communication feature of VTK, that I have seen.

The first is to go to the "My Troop" tab on VTK.  Under that is a link for Troop Info, which if opened, gives you a list of your members and email addresses.  You can click on the address and if you have an installed email program like Outlook, it will open up a blank email addressed to that person.  However, if you use a web-based email like Gmail, this feature doesn't work--though you can copy and paste the address into an email. 

The second option is the click the "email # contacts" which pulls up an email from GSUSA's system, which it says is addressed to all members.  While you can add additional emails, this view does not allow you to see the people to whom the email is addressed, so, for example, you could not remove Susie's mom's email since she has said Susie will not be returning.  This email form allows you to add messages and attachments.  I don't know if it stores sent mails anywhere or not, but if it does, the location is not readily apparent to someone who has never used it. 

The third option is from the VTK meeting plan.  If you click the link there to do a meeting reminder, it creates an email for you to send.  Of course you can edit it.  This feature only works if you assign dates to your meetings, which as others have noted in my survey, causes problems of its own.  However, here is the message generated for Meeting 1 of the Junior Animal Habitats badge:

Hello Girl Scout Families,

Here are the details of our next meeting:

Date:	Mon Apr 05, 2021 04:00 PM - 05:35 PM
Location:	oldp 123 starer
Topic:	Animal Habitats 1

Note to Volunteers: 

The excitement of running troop meetings for the first time can sometimes be overwhelming. For that reason, scripting is included to help. These "lines" are under the heading "SAY;" however, you're the expert. If you feel you don't need the script, do what makes sense for you and your girls. 

 Your girls may ask you things that you don't know-that's ok! Brainstorm ways you can work together to find the answers. 

Five Steps/Three Choices per Step:

Each Junior must complete five steps in order to earn her Animal Habitats badge. Each step has three activity choices. We suggest that you choose the first activity and ask your girls to help decide the rest.  

Prepare Ahead

• General: 
  • Talk to anyone helping with this meeting and explain how they can assist in making the meeting a success.
  • Be sure that girls have signed the Internet Safety Pledge before any activities requiring using the internet. Have a copy on hand in case anyone needs to sign it before beginning. 
• Opening Ceremony: If your girls need it, print out copies of the Girl Scout Promise and Law.  
• Observe a Pet or Tame Animal (Life a Farm Animal) for at Least 15 Minutes: 
  • Bring a pet (i.e. cat, dog, bird, fish, etc.) to the meeting for the girls to observe.
  • Select a show for girls to watch about an animal related to the pet they observe. 
  • Provide a screening device (i.e. TV, computer, tablet) for the girls to screen the selected show.
• List Wild Animals Near Your Home, Meeting Place, or School: 
  • Coordinate a location for girls to survey animals in your area. 
  • Provide a computer/tablet with internet connection for girls to conduct group research.
  • If possible, encourage girls to bring their personal electronic devices to conduct research, if resources are limited. 
  • Visit a zoo or animal sanctuary: Coordinate a field trip to the zoo for the girls to study an animal habitat. 
  • Arrange for a zoo staff member to answer questions for the girls. 
  • Provide a notebook and pen/pencil for each girl to take notes as needed. 
• Explore an Animal Habitat Near Where You Live: 
  • Coordinate a field trip to a nearby park, forest, beach, or desert for girls to observe animals.
  • Provide pen/pencil and paper/notebook for each girl. 
  • Make a Habitat Collage: Provide several old magazines for the girls to find pictures of wild animals.
  • Provide scissors, glue, and poster boards for the girls to create collages. 
• Check Out Baby-Animal Habitats: 
  • Provide a computer/tablet with internet connection for girls to conduct group research.
  • If possible, encourage girls to bring their personal electronic devices to conduct research, if resources are limited. 
  • Make Your Own Animal House: Provide art supplies including paper, color pencils, markers and/or crayons for girls to sketch animal homes. 
  • Insulate Your Own "Nest": Print out copies of Make a Jell-O Nest, enough for each girl.
  • Provide all necessary supplies to conduct the Make a Jell-O Nest experiment including Jell-O, mixing bowl, leaves/sticks, etc.

• Choose Your Activities: Review the Activity Choice Descriptions ahead of time. Prepare any materials you need to help the activities come to life for your girls.  

 Get Help from Your Friends and Family Network

• See if anyone is able to lead or support an activity or meeting.

Award Connection

Imagine meeting a monkey or kicking up dust with a kangaroo. These animals live in the wild, so you don't get to spend time with them in their natural homes-their habitats. But that doesn't mean you can't find out more about where they live, how they play, and how you can help them! 

Steps

1. Find out about wild animals
2. Investigate an animal habitat
3. Create an animal house
4. Explore endangered habitats
5. Help protect animal habitats

In this session, girls begin activities toward earning their Animal Habitats badge. They will earn their badge after completing activities at the end of the second Animal Habitats meeting. 

Meeting Length

90 minutes

The times given for each activity will vary, depending on how many girls are in your troop.

If girls really enjoy a particular activity and want to continue past the suggested time, as much as possible, let them! That's part of keeping Girl Scouting girl-led!

If you have any questions, or want to participate in this meeting, please contact me at (my phone no)

Thank you for supporting your 7-Multi-level,

Ruth 

Troop 40016

Ummm.  no, just no. 

Email

There is nothing wrong with a good old-fashioned email group.  You can either use a personal email account or an account you set up for the troop.  Member contact emails go in the address book and can be sorted into subgroups if desired, so that you can email just the Brownie parents or everyone.  Of course copies of  sent mail are kept so you have a record and can go back and re-send things.  You can also make template messages or schedule emails ahead of time.  

While most of the free web-based email accounts allow large emails such as photos to be sent, this is not the most convenient way to share files, though with an associated Dropbox or Google Files account, you can make it work pretty easily. 

65.7% of the people who responded to my survey listed email as a communication method they used. 

Facebook

If your parents are on Facebook, or are willing to create an account for GS use, then Facebook is a good option.  You can create a private group accessible only to members.  This is the method I use.  I like it because most of my parents use it regularly and so see my messages quickly--face it, it doesn't matter how terrific your system is, if no one checks it, it is useless. 

I like the fact that when I post a message, I can see who has seen it.  I have a grandmother who isn't the best with technology and who does not otherwise use facebook, and if I see that she has not seen a message, I try to send her an email.  I can attach files to posts.  I can do quick polls, or ask for responses to questions--such as RSVPs for meetings or events and they are all on that page rather than lost in my email.  I can set automatic meeting reminders, put things on a calendar, and post pictures for anyone to see.  Our Facebook page is a good record of what we have done as a troop.  

Perhaps because my survey was published on Facebook, I found that 54.4% of respondents used Facebook for their troop.

Text Messages

Text messages are quick and easy and, among some groups, get more attention than other forms of communication. Files can be attached and you have a record of what was sent.  55.3% of those who responded said they use their phone's texting function.  10.1% use a texting app--several people mentioned What's App as their texting app.  Besides allowing for a group chat, it allows uploading of files.  

Band

Band is a communications app designed for groups.  While most of its features are similar to that of Facebook groups, it has the advantage and disadvantage of being a separate app. 

One advantage of Band is that people do not have create a Facebook account or share one they have with your group.  They join Band only to participate in groups.  

Another advantage is that by not being part of Facebook, your posts are not as likely to get lost in the clutter of people's personal feed.

On the other hand, lots of people check Facebook regularly and would prefer to have your stuff come through it, rather than having to check yet another app.  

14.2% of those who responded to my survey use Band.

Band has created this chart comparing Band and other communications methods.  Of course, Band "wins". 

If I was starting a troop today, I'd probably use Band because it has a few more features.  However, as my group has an established Facebook group, I'm not going to change. 

Shutterfly

While Shutterfly is primarily a photo sharing site, it also has features similar to Facebook and Band for groups.  Like Band the main disadvantage is that it is not part of people's regular routine.  

Rallyhood

Rallyhood is a similar app.  The main difference I see is that Rallyhood has a feature for accepting payments, which is something I would love if I was still in the business of charging girls for things frequently.  Luckily we are able to pay for most things with cookie money so that feature is not real important to me, but back in the day....

Conclusion

So, which is the best?  As noted earlier, the one that people will use.  One piece of advice I'd give to a new leader is to consider the options and pick one that works for her--and make it clear to parents how to use it and that you will use it, and then, as a general rule, don't make exceptions for people.  Help them set it up if necessary, help set notifications to go to email or texts, but make it clear that you aren't going to use a dozen different communication methods with a dozen different families.