TiaScout

First things first: yes, CHOCOLATE is involved in several GS awards! Especially some that are outside the book. Look at VA Skyline Council's "Sweet Shoppe," for example. Mmmm. Anyway. Don't know about Frontier Girls, except what their website says. But this June, I did have two of my teen Girl Scouts, including one of my daughters, participate in a very nice summer day camp run by our local American Heritage Girls. The ladies were terrific and welcoming -- even inviting my girls to wear their own GSUSA uniforms on a field trip. IMO, they demonstrated just what they stand for. We

HobCawChaos asked "Have you asked your GS Council's field director for your area to recommend a troop?" Good advice! There are lots of GS troops who do outdoors skills, camping, high adventure and more. Your Field Director probably knows who they are, because they need to send in paperwork when they do high adventure, camping or overnights. Word gets around. You can also visit a couple of teen troops to check them out. Nothing wrong with looking for a good fit. When someone asked Juliette Gordon Low "What should the girls do?" she replied "What the girls want to do!" There mi

Thank you, everybody! The girls had the best time today! For anyone diving in archives, the advice given in this thread was very helpful (particularly the link to BSA's "Shooting Sports for Cub Scouts," kind of goggles to use, and distances for range layout). I used kidney beans, three pairs of Z87 glasses of different sizes, and had girls use a table at the shooting position. Backstop was big, grommeted tarp strung between trees and staked in ground. Targets were recycling junk (plastic Coke bottles were the best) stacked up on the orange crates I transported gear in. The wrist rock

AIFansome got it. It's part of LNT. Here's what the Program Director in GS Central Texas said: M.I.C.E. stands for Minimal Impact Camping Experience. It is what is not called Leave No Trace. MICE - Minimal Impact Camping Experience Girl Scouts of all ages should learn and practice MICE skills. Learning to live lightly on the land and leave no trace of your presence after an activity. As we look at activities we could do in the out of doors - we should always remember to practice the MICE concept. We can do this by: Planning Ahead o Check for restrictions on

GSdad, you made me giggle. "Hi, I'm Tia and my husband's a man. Any questions?" >It's not like when other leaders >volunteer there is announcement >made that they are hetrosexuals.

Sounds like you have lots of good opportunities here and you're backed up by the levels above you in terms of non-discrimination. But, just a thought, different troops legitimately have different characters and styles and cultural mixes, and sometimes it's beneficial to let prospective new members know ahead of time what makes YOURS special. If it's not their cup of tea, you've let them know instead of surprising them. I let people checking out my troops know, for example, that we have a mix of religions in our membership, even though we meet at two Christian churches, including my own.

Thanks, all! Good stuff, esp. the measurements and link from SSScout to that wonderful Cub Scout Shooting Sports Book. I'm having BSA envy again. Holy cow, the book even gives adults a script to use for BBs: Point to the muzzle and say, This is the muzzle. It is the end the BB shoots out. Page 41 starts with advice on slingshots & wrist rockets. For those who wondered, GSUSA's Safety-Wise does not prohibit slingshots; rather, shooting projectiles AT people is a no-go (e.g. no paintball); see p. 80. Following the checkpoints, I'll let parents know ahead of time and make them giggl

Thank you! I'll think "things that go DING." Tia

Perhaps late to respond to this post, but this is a big issue for us. Getting rid of unapproved food is on our "check-in" checklist at every campout. So far, I've never had to confiscate any, because we make it clear on the packing list what NOT to bring. In each GS troop I work with, we have more than one scout with severe or life-threatening food allergies -- that's Reason #1. Reason #2 is critters. Reason #3 is that Ms. Tia will NOT have squished candies and gum in her tents, or the council rentals. Tee hee. I'm now remembering a certain young man, many years ago, who woke my hus

Any suggestions for setting up a safe, fun, dog kibble shoot? A BSA friend told me about wrist rockets. I think my Girl Scout troop (a dozen girls, 12-16) would LOVE this for a scout challenge at our opening meeting next month. I've seen a couple small photos in Scouting and one You Tube video showing Cubs shooting wrist rockets with those inexpensive safety goggles on. Otherwise, I have no clue. Gotta test drive ideas before I teach girls. Thoughts? (1) Best but cheapest brand of slingshot? Amazon reviews say $5-8 models are lousy. True? (2) Better to make our own? Materials?

Anybody? I've not been able to find any explanations of the MICE acronym (mentioned in the council's own IPs for Outdoor Cooking in GS Central Texas and GS Central Maryland).

I've got one daughter in the two-troops situation now. In the past, I had heard of a couple other scouts doing it. Not knowing their reasons, it left me a bit puzzled, but hey, different strokes, you know? Then several events led us down a similar path. It's working fine this year, my younger daughter's first Junior year. One troop meets 1st and 3rd Wednesdays; the other, 2nd and 4th Wednesdays. They do different sorts of things. The troop I co-lead in a different town offers camping, officer roles, and the structure to get badgework and signs done. The second troop, nearer our home

I'm interested in hearing how other leaders work the situation where a girl belongs to two troops. I've heard of a couple situations like that -- though all but one, I think, were enrollments in a BSA Venture Crew while continuing with a GSUSA troop. Anyone? Tia in Alexandria, VA

I see your post is about boys, so I don't know if these ideas fly for BSA. Besides cookies, our older girls have done wreath sales and gift wrapping for tips at book stores this year. Can you do a badge day, where you charge a reasonable fee for younger participants to come and complete a badge not normally offered elsewhere? A great way to raise money in a service-oriented way. Advertising, packing them in, and building a good reputation with repeated events seem to be keys to success.

>In BSA, I can find a lesson plan for the whole year, if I want it. >Do the girls have something similiar? Lesson plans? Hahahahaaha! Ha. ROFL. Gasp for air. Hurk! Okay, thumping myself on the chest and regaining control. Some regional councils offer suggestions for the first four meetings. That's it, in terms of "lesson plans." Every troop is very, very different from every other one because of this. Girl Scouts can look like anything. Which can be GREAT, or terrible. GREAT if you're doing activities the girls love and learn from as they progressively take over the le