This is the third in a series of posts drawn from responses to a survey I ran about GSUSA programming. If you want to know what type of people responded to the survey, read this linked post.
Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Survey Results: Take Action Projects
This is the third in a series of posts drawn from responses to a survey I ran about GSUSA programming. If you want to know what type of people responded to the survey, read this linked post.
Saturday, December 16, 2023
Survey Results: What I Ordered and What I Got
This post is to report the results of a survey I did of members of Facebook Girl Scout Leader groups. My questions were designed to elicit opinions about the Girl Scout program as GSUSA has designed it and promulgates it at this time.
Who Responded
Thursday, December 14, 2023
Girl Scout Leaders: Your Turn to Talk about Badges
I recently asked a bunch of members of Facebook groups for Girl Scout leaders to respond to a lengthy survey on Girl Scout Programming. The final question was a free space for them to say whatever they wanted to say. Since these folks were nice enough to participate, I think giving their comments space on my blog is important. The comments I am putting on this post all deal with badges. I have edited them for clarity, punctuation, and to make the post more readable, but the thoughts belong to those who responded to the survey, not to me. Feel free to add your comment in the comments section below.
Sunday, December 10, 2023
Girl Scout Leaders: Your Turn to Talk about Take Action Projects
Tuesday, November 28, 2023
My Christmas Survey: A Closer Look
I'm old as dirt and my upbringing reflects that. Though I attended public schools after the Supreme Court ruled against school prayer, the unspoken rule was to see what you could get away with. My elementary school had a Nativity pageant with traditional Christmas carols. One teacher asked if we had been to church or Sunday School for Easter. A daily devotional was blasted over the intercom when I was in junior high. There was clearly an expectation that "everyone" was Christian, or at least should be. Of course, even in those days, not everyone was.
Thursday, November 23, 2023
Christmas: An Outsider's View
One question I asked was "For those who are non-Christian or who do not celebrate Christmas is there anything you wish you could tell the rest of us about the holiday season and your children?" This post is a compilation of the responses to that question. I know it is long but I really thought the best way to share these people's thoughts was to show them in a fashion only edited for clarity, spelling etc., so grab your favorite drink, put up your feet and scroll away. Each paragraph below is the response of a different person.
Sunday, November 19, 2023
Holiday Celebrations with Diverse Troops
I will do my best to be...considerate and caring...to respect myself and others...and be a sister to every Girl Scout. We begin all our Girl Scout meetings with these words, but do we live up to them?
Sunday, October 29, 2023
Brownie Create and Innovate
This year GSUSA came out with three new "maker" badges for Daisies, Brownies and Juniors. This post takes a look at the VTK plans for the Brownie version of Create and Innovate to give you an idea of where this badge is going without having to dig through the whole VTK plan. As with the other badges in this series, the talking points are as important as the craft.
Thursday, October 19, 2023
Junior Math In Nature Survey Results
This is the last in a series of posts looking at the Math in Nature badges as well as what people believe is necessary to earn them. I surveyed members of some Facebook groups for Girl Scout leaders to acquire the data presented and I make no representations about the data other than stating how I got it. I have three other posts in this series:
Junior Shapes in Nature
Saturday, October 7, 2023
Brownie Math In Nature: Survey Results
Tuesday, October 3, 2023
Survey Results: Daisy Math in Nature Badges
This post is the result of a survey I did of members of a bunch of Girl Scout leader Facebook groups. I wanted to look at two things:
- The Math in Nature badges--did people like them, and how did they do them
- Related to that, what did people think was required to earn them.
Saturday, September 30, 2023
Math In Nature Survey Results
I'd like to thank everyone who responded to my lengthy survey on the Math In Nature badges. I wrote about these badges when they first came out and my troop did the Shapes In Nature badges for Brownies and Junior. My posts will give you a good idea of what I think about the GSUSA plans.
Sunday, September 24, 2023
Daisy Create and Innovate
If you look at the previous posts on this blog, you will see that this year GSUSA introduced three "Maker" badges for Daisies, Brownies and Juniors. All these badges focus on planning and conceptual concepts, not on the skills to do particular crafts. The third badge in this set is Create and Innovate and this post will look at the Daisy version of the badge.
Saturday, September 16, 2023
Junior Craft and Tinker
This is the third in a series of posts on the Craft and Tinker Badges. I previously wrote about the Daisy and Brownie plans. I did this review by reading the VTK plans. I do not have the badge brochure, and as I do not have Juniors, have no intention of buying it. If you have it, I'd love it if you'd leave a comment about how it is different from VTK.
Badge Steps
Learn how to make something with care, skill, and imagination and then improve it.- Explore crafting and tinkering
- Tinker with a craft
- Learn about users
- Craft for form, fit, and function
- Tinker with your project
When you've earned this badge, you'll know how to craft and tinker to solve problems.
Thursday, September 14, 2023
Review of New Badge: Brownie Craft and Tinker
In the fall of 2023, GSUSA came out with three new badges for Daises, Brownies and Juniors, all of which involved "making". Craft and Tinker is one of those badges.
Requirements
Discover how to be a problem solver by making or crafting solutions. Explore making
- Learn the basics
- Figure out the function
- Discover form and fit
- Tinker with your craft
Opening Activity No. 1
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Daisy Craft and Tinker: My Review
During the fall of 2023, GSUSA released three new "maker" badges for Daisies, Brownies and Juniors. This post will take a look at the Daisy Craft and Tinker Badge.
Requirements:
- Learn the basics
- Craft with purpose and
- Tinker with your craft
Opening Activity
Sunday, September 3, 2023
Art and Design Badges: My Reflections
Saturday, September 2, 2023
Art and Design Junior Badge: My Review
This year's new badges include a series of Art and Design badges at the Daisy, Brownie and Junior levels. I have reviewed the Daisy badge and the Brownie badge already. This post will look at the Junior badge.
Requirements
According to Badge Explorer, the requirements for the Junior badge are:
- Discover art and design around you
- Make art about a subject
- Experiment with the elements
- Explore composition
- Design an art display
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
New Badge Review: Art and Design for Brownies
One topic making the rounds on Girl Scout leader Facebook groups is that the Brownie Painting Badge and the Junior Jeweler badges are being retired. Since these badges are generally popular with the girls, people are looking for them and not generally please to hear this. On the other hand, the badges are being replaced with a new series of Art and Design badges available on the Daisy, Brownie and Junior levels. This post will look at the Brownie badge. You can read about the Daisy badge here.
Review: Art and Design for Daisies
GSUSA released new "Art and Design" badges for Daisies, Brownies and Juniors as part of the new program material for the 2023-2024 year. This is the first in a series of posts looing at the badge for each level, using the VTK plans as my source. I have not seen the new badge inserts published by GSUSA and have no intention of buying them. If you have them, I'd love to hear your comments.
Saturday, June 17, 2023
Cadette Woodworker
Well, this past year I moved from leading little girls to leading big ones. It has been different. One badge we enjoyed was Woodworker badge. We ended up doing it over three different meetings.
Requirements:
Find out how to use wood to make stylish, useful things for yourself and others.
- Swing a hammer
- Keep it level
- Use a screwdriver
- Saw some wood
- Build something yourself
When you've earned this badge, you'll know how to use some basic tools to make simple woodworking projects.
Swing a Hammer
Keep it Level
Use A Screwdriver and Saw Some Wood
Build Something Yourself
Tuesday, May 23, 2023
How Much Did Covid Hurt?
My Council
I got my 20 year pin this year and I've seen the numbers in my area decrease substantially over that time. Part of it is demographics. Most Girl Scouts are between 5 and 9 years old. In 2019, there were 9.87 million girls that age in the US. Five years earlier, there were 10.18 million and five years before that, 10.31. The cohort before that had 11.5 million girls. In short, in fifteen years, the number of eligible girls in the target age group has dropped about 14%.
The oldest numbers I could find for my council were from 2009, using the Wayback Machine to look at the council's website. At that time they claimed to serve over 16,000 girls and 5500 adults. In 2014 our annual report said that we had 14,100 girls and 5800 adults. In 2019, we had 10,281 girls and 3425 adults. Our council Annual Report for 2022 says we served 5,300 girl members plus 563 were served in the outreach program. This past year we had 1/3 the girls we had thirteen years ago when my college-aged daughter started in the program.
According to the IRS, in 2014 my council had revenue of $3,777,635 and expenses of $3,729,300. That means we collected about $267.91 per girl and spent about $264.48 per girl. In 2019 we had revenue of $3,699,939 and expenses of $3,704,124. On a per girl basis we were earning $359.88 per girl and spending $360.28 per girl. Our revenue in 2021 was $3,546,139 and our expenses were 2,397,113, We were in the black but we spent $408.85 per girl. 74.2% of our revenue was product sales. We serve 57% of the girls we did in 2019. In between those years, my council sold the offices of its two legacy councils as well as one of the camps. We are in the process of building a new Experience Center/headquarters which is a prototype being pushed by GSUSA (and which I was told was about half paid for by a grant).
Other Councils
I took a look at a few other councils. I looked for geographic diversity and an easily accessible annual report with membership numbers. Here is what I found:
- Girl Scouts of Citrus: New-style website. No annual reports shown on search
- Girls Scouts Eastern Missouri: New-style website. No annual reports shown on search
- Girl Scouts River Valleys: Old-style website. 2020 Annual Report says 17,050 girls sold cookies in 2020 before the sale was suspended. In 2022, 11,450 girls sold cookies. 2020 is the earliest report easily accessible.
- Girl Scouts Greater Mississippi: Old-style website. Easily found old annual reports but nothing between 2020 and present.
- Girl Scouts of Northern California: New-style website. Its called an Impact Report rather than an Annual Report. In 2019 there were 38,699 members. In 2022 15,000 girls sold cookies.
- Girl Scouts Heart of Central California: New-style website. Only 2019 Annual Report shown.
- Girl Scouts Historic Georgia: New-style website. 2019-2020 showed 11,368 girls. 2021-2021 listed 6,989 girls. Oldest Annual Report I could easily find was 2014-2015. It showed 12,616 girls.
- Girl Scouts Western Oklahoma: Old-style website. No search box. No Annual Report on menus.
- Girl Scouts Eastern Oklahoma: Old-style website. In 2015, 3872 girls sold cookies. The 2022 Annual report showed 4183 girl members.
- Girl Scouts Greater New York. New-style website. 2020 Annual Report shows 38,000+ girls served. 2022 Annual Report says 25,000+. The oldest report I found was 2015 and it showed 29,242 girls.
- Girl Scouts of Wyoming and Montana. New-style website. No recent Annual Reports.
- Girl Scouts Central Indiana. New-style website. No Annual Reports.
- Girl Scouts Middle Tennessee. Old-style website with no new graphics/fonts etc. 2021 report is the only one I could find.
- Girl Scouts Farthest North: Their own style website. Only Annual Report I found was from 2016.
My Comments
Monday, May 22, 2023
Camping Survey Results, Part 3: Resident Camp
Almost two years ago, I surveyed members of some Girl Scout Facebook groups about Girl Scout Camps. I got kind of burned out on blogging and for whatever reason, never published this final installment on the survey results. So, I'm publishing it now.
For those who did not see the other posts the first time around, or who want to read them again, they are Part 1 and Part 2.
Many Girl Scout die-hards have fond memories of resident camp, whether they were there as girls or as staff. I know two weeks I spent at Camp Ita Kana were a highlight of my childhood. Still, as anyone my age who is still around Girl Scouts knows, today's resident camp isn't the camp I attended. Sessions are shorter, staff is older (many of our counselors were high school seniors, not yet 18), and themes are popular--so even though you are at camp the same time someone else is, you may be doing very different things. In the hotter parts of the country, some camps even offer air conditioned accommodations.
I recently ran a survey of Girl Scout leaders on a number of Facebook groups about camps and camping and in this post I am going to focus on their responses to questions about resident camp. I am not a professional survey developer and this is by no means a random sampling of Girl Scout leaders. I make no representations that this survey is anything other than an off-the-cuff survey of somewhat self-selected people. Make of it what you will.
Who Responded?
What About Resident Camp?
My Comments
Your Comments
Friday, May 19, 2023
Badges: Why I Use the Slow Approach
I have been a Girl Scout leader for twenty years. I was a Girl Scout for three years of Juniors as a child. Clearly I am either insane or have a long-term commitment to the organization (or both). One thing I can almost guarantee is that my girls have fewer badges/journeys than many troops with similar meeting schedules. Why don't we have more badges?