Cleaning Up: Bronze for a Troop

I posted on several Facebook groups for Girl Scout leaders asking for people to contact me if they or their daughters had an extraordinarily good or bad experience with the higher awards.  I've read different times over the years about girls who felt run ragged by council or who felt that much of their project was put in place to please a committee, not to really serve any useful purpose.  No one like that responded to me, but I've had two people reach out about the great time they had with the Bronze Award.  

Survey Results: Brownie Journeys and TAPs

 This is one in a series of posts about a survey I did of members of a number of Facebook groups for Girl Scout leaders.  The other posts published to date are:

• Survey Results: Badges
• Comments re GSUSA Programming
• Daisy Journeys and TAPs
• Survey Results:  Journeys and TAPs
• Survey Results:  What I Ordered, What I Got
• Your Turn to Talk About Badges
• Your Turn to Talk About Take Action Projects

While I have other posts summarizing the data as a whole, this post is looking at what they said about Brownie Journeys and TAPs--Take Action Projects.  

I Love Girl Scout Journeys --Part 3

This is the third of three posts covering an interview I did with Nicole and Emily about the Journey program.  Here are links to the other two posts:  Part One.  Part Two. 

Ruth: So, which Journeys have you personally led, and in what kind of formats?

I Love Journeys: Part 2 of an Interview With a Journey Lover

 This post is the second part of an interview with Nicole, who is on staff for Girl Scouts of Colorado, and who responded to my request to interview someone who was very pro-Journey.  You can read about Nicole and read the first part of our conversation here.  Part 3 is here. 

Ruth:  To pick up where we left off, and to go back to the question I asked earlier:  I can see that the goals of the Journey program are good, but even you admit that the published programming isn't the best.  How do I as a leader make Journeys what they should be, rather than a chore or a hoop we have to jump through?

I Love Journeys: Interview With a Journey Lover: Part One

I recently published a bunch of comments about Journeys that were written by people who responded to a survey I did on GSUSA programming.  Most of those comments were pretty anti-Journey, anti-TAP.  That blog post garnered a couple of comments that were extremely supportive of Journeys and so I went back to the Facebook groups where I had posted links and posted that I really wanted to talk to those pro-Journey people.  Nicole came forward and offered to talk to me.  

Survey Results: Badges

Thanks to everyone who responded to my survey.  This post will cover questions about the badge program.  A previous posts listed people's comments about badges. 

What Awards Did Troops Earn?

GSUSA divides today's program into four "pillars"--STEM, Outdoors, Life Skills and Business/Entrepreneurship.  Life Skills is a catch-all for anything that does not fit the other categories.  I asked what troops at various levels earned last year.  

Your Turn to Talk: Comments from Survey on GSUSA Programming

 At the end of my survey on GSUSA programming, I had a "say whatever you want" item.  I complied posts with the comments about Journeys/TAPs and Badges.  This post covers the other comments--both those that didn't fit into the earlier posts and those which had not been posted when I wrote the previous posts.  Grab a snack or a drink and scroll away.  See something that rankles you or that you think is profound?  Discuss here in the comments or on the Facebook group where you found this link.  

Daisy Journeys and TAPs

I recently polled the members of a bunch of Girl Scout leader Facebook groups about Girl Scout programming.  While I have other posts summarizing the data as a whole, this post is looking at what they said about Daisy Journeys and TAPs--Take Action Projects.