Well, here it is... Girl Scout season is upon is again. Holy cow, I wasn't aware that last year's "season" had ended! Alas, I keep getting these e-mails with the subject line, "Back to Troop" and "First Leaders' Meeting," so it must be true. Normally, our Girl Scout year runs from October until the beginning of May, but this time we packed so much in that we kept going right up until the start of July, so do you see what I mean?
First of all, 2012 is the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouting in America - it was in March of 1912 when Juliette Low formed the first troop and registered her first Girl Scouts, taking an idea she'd gotten from her good friend Robert Baden-Powell when she lived in England. It's been a super-huge deal, and one of the things that GS did was have a huge celebration in our nation's capital in early June called Rock the Mall. Our Service Unit took three buses filled with Girl Scouts from our area of all ages, plus leaders, and we stayed on the campus of Georgetown University for the weekend. It. Was. Awesome. Our troop took four girls and four moms & leaders, and I'll tell ya... I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. Not only did we have a chance to meet Girl Scouts from all over the country and help try for a spot in the Guiness Book of World Records, but we got to explore Washington, DC and learn so much! In fact, we're hoping to take our troop back down for a long weekend over Spring Break this year, since we didn't get to visit any of the Smithsonian museums.
Then, of course, we dared to take our troop camping on the first weekend of Summer Break. We opted for a Girl Scout Camp that is very close-by, in a-frame cabins as not to scare those girls who had never camped before. Oh Lordy, what an experience! We had one girl who cried almost the entire time (even in her sleep), a possibly rabid raccoon who forced us out of our campsite at 10:00 on the second night of camp... MAN! But all in all, it was awesome. We had our Bridging ceremony up there and it was so sweet. And we were all thrilled that we had A: cell & 3G reception in the boonies, and B: flushing toilets and hot showers. Now that's camping! (And yet we wouldn't allow the girls to bring any electronic devices... heh heh...)
Then there was the matter of our summer "homework," i.e. finishing our Journey that we left unfinished during the GS year. Oh, and helping Sassy earn extra badges throughout the summer. 'Cuz I'm an awesome mom/leader. Heck yeah!
So... Back to Troop, you say?? OK, I can do this. I co-lead my troop with two other, much more seasoned leaders, both who have been doing this for longer than I have. This is my third year is all, but they all know that I am the one who organizes things, keeps track of who's got what, who's earned which badges, who's paid dues, and after last year's financial report debacle, where each cent of our money is going! I have totes in the basement for Cookie Booths, Camping, Crafts... you name it. It's nuts! So a few weeks ago we all met to plan out our first month or so's meetings. This year we're going to have a multi-level troop for the first time ever, so it's going to be even more complicated. Brownies and Juniors. But we wanted to keep our girls together - they're such a great group of girls! We did manage to map out a lot of plans. The wine helped. But the problem was, we still had no meeting space! We have always met in our town's spiffy Community Center, but after they told us that our spot was secured, they called back to say that they had no space for us. WTH??? Being back at Square One was so frustrating for me, so I had calls into our local American Legion and two churches. By Tuesday, we had a meeting space at the local Wesleyan church. I'd also secured our local Assemblyman to come and speak at one of our meetings about government and his job. It ties in with our upcoming election and also the first badge that both levels will be earning. Yesss!
Now, on to the guts of the task...
Last night I sat down and revised our Troop Information Packet for parents - basic info that they need to know. I made sign-up sheets for the two programs that we've chosen to do outside of meetings this fall, plus printed out the Troop Activity Forms that we need to turn in to register the girls for the programs. I found a GS word search for them to do as "busy work" when they're all filtering in at the beginning of the meeting. I started writing up my lesson plan for our first meeting, but I was too pooped to go get my notes and my Leaders Book to get specific about it. I'll finish that tomorrow. Maybe tonight.
Then, oh crap! I remembered that tomorrow is Open House at our school! We have a table at Open House every year to sign new girls up!
I am known to have these ideas pop into my head last-minute, and this was one of these times. I remember sitting at our table last year and watching the Boy Scouts at their table across the cafeteria. It looked fun. They had Pinewood Derby cars and a ramp and all sorts of things over there. Heck, even I wanted to join! So I thought, why not spruce up our table this year? I was thinking of all the things we could do. We can get the super-awesome tablecloth I made for cookie booths this winter, and use some of Sassy's GS things to decorate the table - her GS dolls, stuffed animals, etc. Have our annual photo books out for people to see, show examples of what we do... it'll be awesome! So down to the basement I head. First problem: The tablecloth is missing! HUH??? I text my co-leader. "Oh, it's probably at my house. I'll look tomorrow..." The control freak I am, I want it NOW and she's not home! lol I'll get it, though.
Thursday is our first meeting. I have no clue how many of our girls are returning and how many new girls we'll have, but I'm excited and stressing out all at once. In the mean time, let's just remember the words of the Girl Scout Promise...
Oh my honor, I will try...
To serve God and my Country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law.
No comments:
Post a Comment