AnneinMpls

Now now... we're all Scouts here. The only proper peanut butter to eat is that which we've grown and smashed ourselves using rocks and leaves,or using hand-whittled equipment. Ed's allowed his chilled variety as long as he lashes the evaporating cooler himself. (And JIF is spelled with one f, not two Peace out, Anne in Mpls

Nah...it was very brief. Uncomfortably obvious what was actually being said. Why do people do things their conscience is so obviously objecting to? Could hear it in her voice. Sigh.

Anybody here play MUME (multiuser middle earth)? I'm wondering if I ought to invest in zMUD. I'm drowning my sorrows in bannocks and fresh butchered crabs in the Grey Havens

You do know how to make a girl blush Seriously, thank you for the compliments - it does help, and I really don't wish them ill. I just tend to think this is a symptom of the problems I've seen with GS and our council in particular. And thanks for patiently waiting for me to get that off my chest. I appreciate this group of people here tremendously Peace, Anne

I've been turned down for an internship because I "have too much experience with the organization". Never mind that the position was to get the long-standing volunteers on board with a new approach. Never mind that the project they wanted done is one I've been wanting to see happen for years. Never mind I have the skill set and experience and training that exactly matches what they need to get the job done. I'm so mad I could spit. I probably should't post this but.....arrrrrrrgh. Not really in the mood for keeping it in. Ticked off. Really really ticked off.

Got another idea for you... What patrol are you in? Get your patrol to challenge another patrol (the other patrol?) to a particular event...write it down, tie it up, etc. messenger it over to someone in the other patrol. Maybe make a day-long hike or cookout. Or make it a really brief competition scheduled 5 minutes before the regular meeting. Don't worry that you're no longer the one up front - use your current position to its furthest possibilities I think we sometimes forget that this scouting stuff is supposed to be fun. If there's a problem, there's a fun solution to be foun

Hi Kenk, I've appreciated your posts greatly! It's a great help to know we are ot alone: my kiddo has Aspergers. About 50% of the time she appears like a slightly hyper totally outgoing superfriendly kid, about 40% of the time an absent-minded professor, and 10% of the time either extremely bossy or incredibly touchy and prone to screaming meltdowns. Girl Scouting has been her most normalizing environment: she's developed close friendships within which she can begin to figure out the difference between kids being mean and "just teasing", learned to handle differing styles of adult leaders

The reason flags other than the US flag would be lowered to halfstaff too would be to prevent those flags from flying higher than the US flag. I verified this this week out at Fort Snelling National Cemetery (doing genealogy). In one area, there is a very tall flagpole flying the US flag at halfmast, and it is surrounded by perhaps a dozen other flags on shorter flagpoles. These other flags were all flown at the tops of their poles, and were still positioned lower than the US flag at halfmast. Peace, Anne in Mpls

Well, in the latest "talking points" being distributed by National, it appears they are no longer being vocal about the push for young volunteers - 18-29 - this age grouping is not even mentioned. What do you suppose that means?

SIGH. These leaders are the ones that really drive me nuts. First off, there is nothing in GSUSA policy prohibiting Brownies from tent camping. (I shouldn't have to say it, but there are a lot of folks who believe this. A *long* time ago - I researched where this myth came from - a Brownie GS guide to the outdoors stated that "Brownies do not go troop camping" - but in that era, "troop camping" meant camping by patrols for more than 3 weeks at a time! Well, that went out of style, but what people remember is the *one* brief admonition, *in a long chapter on Camping with Brownies!* that

Hi folks, When a person is approached to serve as a MB Counselor, what are they told to expect? How busy - how many phone calls, etc. What options are they given regarding how they are to be contacted? How does the idea of all requests for a Counselor going through one district level person grab you? This would presumably be to protect the Counselor from being swamped with requests. (Should I tell you now what I think of this idea?)

Scoutnut, glad I'm not the only one interpeeting ational as being at least somewhat responsive to the feedback they've been receiving! I *think* I may have heard something different from you regarding the IPP book - as far as I know (which aint much and could change at any moment!) they are only changing the cover and title to reflect the "Girl Scouts, 11-17" new program age level designation. IPPs will continue to have specific requirements - I don't believe the "style" of the how IPPs are earned is going to be changing. Campfire Fairy! How wonderful to have you come on board as a leade

Congratulations, Jamie I remember you telling about your project last year. Do you have any plans to post it online? Stay in touch - tell us about your GS adventures this year!

Hey FuzzyBear! (Why do I keep wanting to call you Fozzy??) Your idea of bringing in and properly incorporating about 3 people a year is exactly what I needed to hear. I wish we could just wave a wand and bring in 10 or 15 but obviously that's not how it's going to happen! What you propose sounds doable and realistic. Now...how do you figure out where your priorities lie? For instance, the unit has no committee (very very common in GS, I'm sure it happens sometimes in BSA units). When I think about "Who could I recruit?" I think of the parents of scouts in the unit. Do I prioritize the

Okies, I havn't seen it yet but it's been recommended by many. How would you use A League of Their Own to teach leadership? Thanks!

First I'll explain jumping the shark for those unfamiliar.. Big popular TV series, Happy Days, is now seen to have declared its ending when they wrote an episode in which The Fonz jumped over a shark while waterskiing. There's a whole website devoted to this. Now, it's my hope that S2B is *not* our Jumping the Shark episode in Girl Scouting. Then again... Ok, now to something real.. It *is* official - National got such a huge outpouring of negative response specifically regarding their making the focus book charks and IPPs equivalent, that they have indeed done an about-face

Wow...I've always envied the BSA ways of dividing the work. In GS, everything in the Service Unit (similar to district - little smaller geographically)is done by leaders. Half done. They are spread way too thin, and very prone to the idea that only they can do it. It is a hard slog to get them to incorporate other volunteers into the structure. And we just don't have the clear structure of responsibilities that make it apparent where these other non-leader volunteers can fit in. So we don't have a clear mandate for recruiting other volunteers, and the leaders don't trust non-leaders to b

FINALLY! A dissertation worth reading Ok, I'm headed to the net to find out about this Margaret Murie chica... Anne

"The Wizard of Oz - Dorothy shows leadership as she takes a guy with no brains, one with no heart and one with no courage and melds them into an effective team that successfully accomplishes its mission. The team succeeds only after they stop blaming others for their problems, and start taking responsibility for their own destinies." From a website...whaddya think? Anne in Mpls

The Wizard of Oz - Dorothy shows leadership as she takes a guy with no brains, one with no heart and one with no courage and melds them into an effective team that successfully accomplishes its mission. The team succeeds only after they stop blaming others for their problems, and start taking responsibility for their own destinies. Quoted from a website...whaddya think? Anne in Mpls

Hey, thanks for seconding the recommendation! Somehow this film just slipped right by me when it came out. Any ideas on films portraying a "patrol size" grouping of girls or women accomplishing a goal together?

Hi folks! Hey, this is a really useful topic! I think not enough leaders (BSA *&* GS) teach the safe use of tools. I remember the first time I taught jackknife safety to our Webelos scouts. After demonstrating good knife-handling practices - safety circle, opening, closing, passing, storage, etc. we began the recommended carving of bars of soap... Now, always before with my GS's, our first knifework had been sharpening twigs for stick cooking. I was...dismayed (sigh) at how the knife blade, lubricated by the soap, loved loved to lodhge itself deeply into human flesh. *Butterkn

This film was rec. to me on the GS trainers list as a good one for showing a female lead in a leadership position. Have you seen it? Are there other films you'd recommend? Anne

Hi folks - I've been rewatching this movie this week. I think it's got real potential for showing how a small group accomplishes its goals and copes with challenges. So I wondered if anybody had done this before... and apparently - Trailpounder has! Can you tell me more about how you structured this? I was thinking about discussion questions after a viewing of the entire film, but maybe specific scenes would be better? There are also some scenes that are problematic - the crew replacement in the hotel room with gf, lots of bad language (though milder than what's heard on evening telev

Welcome- it's your first time posting here. I hope you'll give us the opportunity to get to know you better and under happier circumstances. My first reaction is not a positive one - I'll get it out of my system right off so hopefully then I can go on to saying something helpful... "Punishment" is not one of the 8 methods of Scouting. There...got that off my chest... As ASPL, you've got enough on your plate. This is an area best left to the adults to handle. Probably they need to have a scoutmaster's conference, likely also a sit-down with his folks. Now, from your en