Individually registered Girl Scouts

[Eman 10]

Our town does not have an active Girl Scout Troop. My daughter wants to stay in Girl Scouting so she can go to summer camp. The council said they are promoting individually registered girls. They said they have 100 already in the council and have a goal of 300. Has anybody else heard of this? It doesn't seem as though council is doing much to support or create troops.

 

[purrrke1 10]

There is a group growing in Girl Scouting it's called the "Juliettes" individually registered girls. These tend to be from troops who have lost girls due to jobs etc as they get older.

 

Sounds like the problem in your area is lack of volunteers. No new troops are created without a leader. No troop grows without recruitment by other girls , leader, council, advertising and making Scouting visable. Leaders can be recruited by the Council, but I would say most are recruited by girls begging and pleading with their parents to let them be involved in scouting.

 

I have a couple of suggestions.

 

Call your Council ask for the phone # of troop leaders in your area. (yes there is a list and someone has it) Ask the leader if you helped as a co leader if she would be wiling to take on new girls ( including your daughter) If the only troops close are for a younger troop, ask if your daughter could work on her Junior Aid or other leadership award, SHe would still be associated with a troop and would be looked up to by the other girls. A win win for the younger troop.

 

Lastly, Take the bull by the horns and jump in. Go to the Council office and sign up to be a volunteer. Send your daugther on a recruiting mission at school,or start with the list of 100 "Juliettes" and form a Troop.

 

[yarrow 10]

My two older girls were Brownies and Juniors and then quit for Cadettes and pursued other activities. Girl Scouts is extremely time consuming. Later as Seniors they rejoined as Juliettes. They did activities at the Unit level. Some at the Council level and worked with a local Brownie troop. They did LOTS of leadership and communittee service. Neither of them like doing interest patches and so they only did four each. They ended up working with other girls from other troops at the unit level doing badge workshops and helping run winter camp for Brownies and Juniors. Let's face it.........for Seniors the focus is primarily on Leadership and service anyway. This has worked well for us but typically in our area Senior troops consist of 3-4 girls anyway, so my girls ARE practically a troop. This year we formed a troop. I have the training for Seniors and they are already registered. We put up a poster and membership pad at the High School some 25 miles away (it's the only one close) and an add in the local community paper. No one has called with interest. We formed a "troop" of two at present with the blessings of the council because the nearest troop is 25 miles away and because Juliettes are very limited on fund raising. My girls have missed the high adventure activities that they would like to do and so because of funding. Being a troop allows you to do booth sales on cookies. A major money maker. This year I hope that they will get some money to do some fun activities and get some of the "outing" back in Scouting.

[AnneinMpls 10]

Just to clarify, there have always been lone Girl Scouts, by reason of no troops close by, girls living in isolated areas, etc. It's only been in the last couple years that they have had a special "Juliettes" patch to wear. But, it sure seems to me, that if your town doesn't have even *one* Girl Scout troop, you should have no trouble recruiting to fill one! Keep in mind, you are not limited to one age level either - in our Council multi--program level troops are called "group troops" - you can have any range of girls meet together from Daisies on up to Seniors - you simply need to follow the Safety-Wise guidelines according to the needs of the youngest members in your troop.

Recruiting in schools at the junior high and high school level is a tough sell...one strategy they've tried here is to post tear-off cards in the girls' restrooms at school.

If you don't have the resources to begin a troop, don't write off the opportunities available to your daughter as a Juliette - she is still eligible for all the Council events and camps for her age group, as well as the Wider Ops, national and international, when she gets to Jr High and High School.

Best wishes!

Anne in Mpls