AnneinMpls

I'll keep looking into your questions further...in the meantime you might enjoy perusing this site: http://pages.ivillage.com/ferox2/id11.html Vintage Girl Scout Uniforms Museum Insignia page

Okies....what are your thoughts on "auto-belays"?? They have 11 of em at Vertical Endeavors which is where we'll probably go (those folks just seemed a lot more professional and used to working with kids than the other places).

Found the official wording from WAGGGS: Member Organizations must also adhere to the Girl Guide/Girl Scout Methods, which are: Progressive Self Development; Learning by Doing; Teamwork through the Patrol System; Service in the Community; Outdoor Activities; Active Co-operation between Young People and Adults; and Symbolism. This came from http://www.wagggsworld.org/newsroom/documents/pdf/WOSM/Fundamental%20Principles.pdf which itself is an interesting read. More later... Anne in Mpls

LOL! Foggy, thank you - I find a lot of value in the tongue-in-cheek responses as well. These examples do point out how often the things we spend time on really don't have anything to do with the program we hope to deliver to the girls. I'm hoping that if we can define more clearly *what Girl Scouting is* (or what we hope it to be!) we can better maintain our focus. I found this at the WAGGGS website: "Our method of training is to educate from within rather than to instruct from without; to offer games and activities which, while being attractive to the girl, will seriously educa

Those 8 methods of Boy Scouting are inspiring. What are our methods? Have we ever set down and defined them? Looks like something like this is going to be discussed at our next national convention, according to a recent email I received on the GS trainers list. So... What are *our* methods? Girl Planning? Girl-Adult Partnership? Handwork? Outdoor program? Uniform?? What say you all?

Well, I looked into our council's ropes course, and their minimum age is 13 so we'll need to look elsewhere. http://www.rei.com/stores/bloomington/pinnacle.html has some info on the climbing wall at the REI store near us in Bloomington. Does $125 for a 2 hour chunk of time sound good? http://www.pjaschotterfitters.com/climbing.php3 is located out in Stillwater. They do "kids climbing parties", 6 kids, two staff belayers for $99. http://www.verticalendeavors.com/ve/scouts.htm is in St. Paul. They have a class specifically designed for GS: $30 per girl for what looks to be a 4

Anybody have experience with this? Seems to be a big hit with our girls but it's not something I've ever done before. Our council offers low ropes and high ropes courses. What does a first-timer need to know? What kind of preperation is good for the girls to have before-hand?

Co-kernals! I love it Scoutnut, you're a busy busy lady!

G'mornin folks! Hoping we've got some more of us out there - welcome to Louise! Louise, it sounds like your Brownie troop may be keeping tabs on a traveling mascot this summer? Would love to hear about other things you have going! So many troops shut down for the summer. I remember at one time some councils would only provide insurance for troops for 9 months of the year - yikes! That's all changed now... I know my daughter's Brownie troop will continue meeting through the summer - but without herself and 8 friends! They all flew up to my Junior/Cadette troop ) Both troops are hopi

Scoutmaster Ron, yes, that's the one I'm thinking of. Uncleguinea is likely correct on the timeframe too as that would have been when I saw it. I'm doing up my own version - but curious if others are using this?

I cant remember what the thing's called or I would find a copy online... It's a high adventure kind of survey used for recruiting - does this ring a bell? Do any of you use this, or have made your own that you'd be willing to share? Thanks!

I'm gonna maybe sound silly but... Where do you buy parachute cord?

Well, it's been rocky... We lost nearly *half* our troop when one family moved out of state. (They had 5 girls!) 3 of the remaining girls are related (cousins) - one of whom is "wallet girl" (stole my wallet after the first meeting of the year) and one of whom the family is refusing to pay for their cookies from the cookie sale...we are trying to tactfully work through the situation but I do think we will lose these three girls as well. We are left with two girls who are my asst. leaders' daughters, and two other wonderful girls with somewhat sporadic attendance. We also have 9 Brownie

I've been musing a bit on the words "aloft and free". It seems to me that the horizontal carrying of large flags has only become common since 911. (I may be wrong on this...maybe I'm only recently noticing?) Gazing upward at our flag is to me full of optimism and looking into our future together. 911 has on some levels left us all with a shared trauma. For me, I remember how blue the sky was that day. "Perfect flying weather" I said to myself when I first saw the images..."this could not have been an accident". Looking into the sky has changed some now. Gradually I'm returning

Awww...but just think of the alternatives... That group of AOL-patch-wearing scouts could have dropped out instead of crossing over. That "chaplain" kid? Could have fried himself dropping acid just because there is no god so why care? That scouter with several position patches? Maybe a few less boys in Scouting. (I understand the desire for proper uniforming - really I do! Breathe....breathe...keep it all in perspective!) Peace out, Anne in Mpls

Hey folks - this board's been quiet lately, so how bout a general rollcall? 1. Introduce yerself 2. Say a lil something about your involvement in Girl Scouting and any other scouting programs 3. You can include an update on your current Girl Scout program Okies, I'm Anne. I live in Minneapolis and am a pretty much lifetime Girl Scout. Have also done some time with Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting. Currently, we're preparing for our Service Unit Court of Awards - we just started up a new Junior troop this year that has been basically one challenge after another and I'm hoping we

Greetings! Two key ideas I try to use: progression - give them something to cut their teeth on - present choices that offer real differences of pros and cons so that there's something worth discussing and their decision will demonstrably affect the outcome. trust the process - acknowledge even the barest hint of a programming idea that comes straight from a kid's mouth without undue judgments as to the idea's worthiness (barring unsafe and unethical activity!), and point them in the direction of how to pull it off effectively. On the other hand, try to avoid the mistake I'm pr

I think maybe there's something else going on with this kid... leaving for part of an event because he needs a break to go play video games. Have you asked the parents about this? This is just odd. A kid who doesn't want to be at an event either doesn't come or leaves early and doesn't return. They don't say "I need a break." This sounds like a kid with asperger's syndrome or some such thing. The other piece that fits is his reluctance to be in a POR even though he's served on summer camp staff. How is he with general basic social skills? How does he do one on one? What do the other b

I picked up an old copy of Sea Exploring just because it had great program possibilities. You can do names or initials in International Flag Code, call up your local Coast Guard folk or water patrol to do boating safety - we did this at a youth fishing day, with a plastic tarp outline of a boat, and learning port, starboard, fore, aft...also everybody tried on lifejackets before getting into the "boat". There's great music for a sea-going theme, sailor's chanties, hornpipes, and think of the knotwork - Square knot work is very easy to learn - it's a basic form of macrame. Many many craf

G'morning! Here's an update on the new troop: I got leadership of the Brownies turned over to my asst. leader. Unfortunately, program there has now become mainly cut and paste crafts and they've cut frequency of meetings down to twice a month. I'm still the committee chair for that troop, so I'll need to find a way to communicate to them on building the program back up. Changes were made without my input or I would have had a lot to say! In the Junior-Cadette troop we have 8 active girls in three patrols. Patrols were closer to "patrol size" before we had 6 girls (all from the same

This post made me smile, mainly at the memory of a gentleman scouter. At a brief training session on the uniform method, this older scouter was describing the importance of wearing the uniform correctly as scouters because we serve as the role models. He himself was very sharply turned out in full uniform except for those funny beads he was wearing - I was way too green at the time to know they were legitimately part of the uniform But what stuck with me was what he ended with: What do we say to one who is wearing the uniform improperly? and he demonstrated shaking their hand respectfully

Here's what we did last month to help our girls understand the process better.. I started off by describing what they would be doing - how the patrols can give ideas to their patrol leaders and what happens when those ideas are brought to the patrol leaders meeting. I gave each of our patrol leaders a very simple patrol meeting agenda - basically take attendance and list three events happening this spring that were of interest to them. While the patrols met, I brought 4 chairs (for myself and the 3 pls) to the front of the room and arranged them in a semi-circle and then gathered everyo

As a Council Trainer, I have to confront the image problems head-on. Most new leaders come in thinking that GS is a fun afterschool activity where they'll sit and do crafts. And unless I break through that somehow at training (and if the leaders bother coming to it!!) that's exactly what their troop does. It's not the girls who object to "sweat dirt and bugs" - it's their mommies - and these are who our troop leaders are. But frankly, councils have been spending a lot of money making their camps all comfy for these leaders, and *these are still not the leaders who are bothering to take

Yha...the name Studio2B is supposedly the result of market research. They tested a bunch of names and this was the one with the most appeal... It's supposed to represent a "limitless space" and Girl Scouting's program goals are recast into the "Become Belong Believe Build" Studio2B motto. Cutting through the "geeky" perception is admittedly difficult. I don't know yet if this new name does it. The trappings of the new program - the cutesey charms and bracelets - are very much like the ones in the department stores that are selling very well ...to Brownie-age girls. Seems to me th

From my reading of this post, I think he's looking for a way of modelling what actually happens at a patrol meeting and PLC... If you've got a few boys who are of the talkative sort, you can have them up front and roleplay a discussion. Sometimes just one opening line written on an index card, and maybe a brief characterization of opinion is enough to get the ball rolling - you don't need to then script the entire thing. You can tailor this, throwing in a couple "characters" who display difficult-to-manage behaviors, such as The Complainer or Dictator, but at this stage you're bette