What I'm Learning About Being a Girl Scout Leader

This post is an answer to The Patch's call for Girl Scout and Boy Scout bloggers. It seemed to me that it was truly a call since I had been contemplating starting a blog but hadn't decided on a topic to tackle - my Girl Scout leader experiences seem as good a topic as any.  

Perhaps my experiences will inspire someone else, or provide ideas for their own Girl Scout troop.  Maybe too it will be a way to help people see the good things that North County has to offer and the promise of our children or even promote the efforts of my troop.    

I am a new Daisy scout leader for a troop of eight girls from Brown Elementary.  I still consider myself "new" despite having completed my first ten months of leadership.  I made it through my first school year!  

As with most undertakings there were things that I could have done better but my girls all seemed to enjoy the meetings and events which are the reason that I decided to take on the challenge.  

There were also things that I did well - who knew the girls would have enjoyed relay races while balancing books on their heads as much as they did!  There were things I wish I'd known.  

For instance, I wish someone would have told me that I would have to visit six banking institutions before finding the one that wouldn't charge my troop a monthly fee to have a checking account.  I would also have liked to have gone on more troop outings but the girls had fun on the outings we did make.  

In November we attended the annual District Sock Hop on 11/11/11 at Hazelwood Northwest Middle School.  Only three of my girls were able to attend.  This is an event designed for girls!  

What girl doesn't like to dance all night to Justin Beiber and Selena Gomez songs and skip about chatting with old friends and new ones?  From an adult perspective this year I will bring a lawn chair and wear a tank top.  I will also have my girls wear matching t-shirts or skirts so they are more readily visible in the crowd.  

January brought us our first cookie sales!  Yippee!  Our troop made a little over $300.00 for the year.  We planned to have a bowling and pizza party.    

In February, the girls made scarves for the kids at Marygrove Children's Center and then went for a visit to learn more about Marygrove.  

Making the scarves required enlisting the help of all of the parents and girls and it proved to be a little more challenging then expected but meltdowns were averted and sixteen scarves were delivered by four Daisy scouts on a warm winter day.  I am hoping that this alliance between my scouts and Marygrove is one that we can build on over the years.  

For April we joined with other scout troops to dye and donate 13 dozen eggs to several area charities.  The Girl Scouts in the North County region were able to dye and donate 120 dozen eggs to the USO, TEAM and Larry Rice Charities.  As our reward we had a little fun getting our hands dirty and a Fun Patch commemorating the Great 2012 Egg Dye.

May came quickly which I should have expected.  I still had so many ideas and no time to do them.  Since the end of school was shortened by a week (no snow days) I quickly planned an awards ceremony with one of my volunteer mothers.  It seemed to be a success and it gave me the opportunity thank the wonderful group of girls and parents that had helped me through the year.    

Last night I met with the parents who will help me this school year.  We worked on the calendar that will get us through the first half of the year.  This year our meetings will find us visiting a local firehouse, creating posters to recruit new girls to scouting, a month long canned food drive for TEAM, and working on budgeting and planning.  

We will take the Girl Scout Journey Between Earth and Sky which will help us examine issues of self respect and science and nature.  

I am excited about our new year of scouting.  As a group we will grow and we will learn and I am sure that at this time next year there will still be things I could have done better and there will still be things that I did great.  

I am sure that throughout this year just as I did last year I will reminisce about my own Girl Scout experience and about my leader and my Mother.  I am sure too that this time next year I will still have more ideas than I have time that's how I know I'm in this for the long haul.