Starting a Troop for Girls - Request for advice, tips, pitfalls, etc...

[FireStone]

We're in the early stages (working with CO and Council) to kick off a girls troop for a small group of girls completing their Cub Scout journey in March. I'm going through the SM training and trying to start to formulate a plan to hit the ground running in March despite having a roster of 11-year-olds and no older scouts to teach skills and lead younger scouts. 

We have a CO on board already, same CO as our Pack and CO of a boys troop, and we initially have agreement with the boys troop to have a shared Committee. 

From a high-level perspective, I'm just curious if anyone who has been through this or watch new troops get started have any advice, recommendations, tips, tricks, cautionary tales, etc., that could help along the way in these early stages of creating a troop and thinking about those first few months and first meetings. 

What worked well? What would you do differently if you had to do it again? I know there is only so much I can do with limited resources to start, so what should a new SM in a new troop prioritize? Program? Recruiting? Fundraising? Events/activities/summer camp? All of the above? 

[Eagle94-A1]

13 minutes ago, FireStone said:

We're in the early stages (working with CO and Council) to kick off a girls troop for a small group of girls completing their Cub Scout journey in March. I'm going through the SM training and trying to start to formulate a plan to hit the ground running in March despite having a roster of 11-year-olds and no older scouts to teach skills and lead younger scouts. 

While I would  "Be Prepared" to create a new, all-girls troop, February will be when the announcement on coed troops comes out. If I was a betting man, I would put my money on coed troops.

 

[DuctTape]

It may be kind of dated, but the original Fieldbook (from late 1940s-50s) is basically a step-by-step manual of activities (called pow-wows) for a fledgling patrol (or troop of patrols). 

Table of Contents page 1

One could easily modify it with more modern equipment and skills. I bet a good prompt into ChatGPT while uploading a PowWow would be an easy way to do this. Then hand the newer version to the PLs.

[FireStone]

31 minutes ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

While I would  "Be Prepared" to create a new, all-girls troop, February will be when the announcement on coed troops comes out. If I was a betting man, I would put my money on coed troops.

 

We're moving ahead with girls-only for now, we have 2 boy troops in town already, and we are already moving along with the AOL boys preparing them to select one of those troops to join at crossover. I could be convinced to change that at some point, but that's not the plan for starting out next year regardless of what we find out in February. 

[FireStone]

If a troop is starting with 11 and 12 year olds, does it even make sense to have an SPL to start? 

[Eagle94-A1]

YES!

If you can find an old 3rd edition SMHB 2 volumes, there is a very good plan to starting a troop with new Scouts.

Funny thing is, the best SPL i ever worked with was 12 years old. He was voted in, and beat older Scouts.

 

[qwazse]

8 hours ago, FireStone said:

If a troop is starting with 11 and 12 year olds, does it even make sense to have an SPL to start? 

Of course you should be always flexible, but recruiting will go smoother if you have an SPL in place. That said, I hardly see the point of an SPL in a one patrol troop.

It doesn’t sound likely but ask around if another troop might want to loan an SPL. That’s how the troop of my youth got on an even footing when it started.

[Tron]

The cautionary tale is you have to have the boys troop(s) onboard with supporting the girl troop. I've witnessed girl troops fail to launch because they didn't have the support or planning in place in a timely manner and by the time resources are in place the girls have lost interest due to the interim s-show. If you do not want to be co-ed you should adopt the boys schedule of events for the 6-12 months to give the girls troop time to learn the process and get a plan. 

 

I'll echo Eagle with if I were a betting man I would bet on coed going live by February. 

I will say that my primary troop is setting up a plan for a linked troop right now for a small crop of female crossovers and our plan is if national doesn't authorized coed we're just going to have a linked troop that functions as a female patrol regardless of the situation in our first year. We're in a situation where most of the female scouts in our district are from our town but have been feeding out to towns 1, 2, or in a couple cases 3 towns over and once we get a female or coed troop up and running past our DE we know we're sucking the air out of the room because all of the parents have voiced that they are sick of driving so much.