A Girl Scout Leader's Musings . . . .

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Friday, October 26, 2012

WOW

I have forgotten about my blogs. I used to go to sleep thinking about what I am going to write next. And then my friends sucked me into Facebook and my blogs have gone to wayside. Blogger has changed so much I don't even know where to go to edit me template!

I did notice that they now have several stats pages for your blog. And the thing that fascinates me the most is that after 5 years my number one blog post is about Kaper Charts. What is it about them that has use so perplexed? A few weeks ago our oldest daughter got married. I told her she needs to make a list of everything that needs to be done the day before the wedding and to assign those tasks to each person. That way people wont be asking her a bunch of questions. I then told her "you know make a kaper chart." And she totally understood what I was getting at.

I guess it all comes down to this. Figure out what is consistent about each troop meeting and write that down. Then figure out it you want patrols or individuals to complete those tasks. Jot them down on a poster board Us that simple board to start with. Once you figure out what does and does not work for you then you can make something more permanent. And cute

And don't forget to get the girls input. Because as we know Girl Scouts is all about being "Girl Led.'

Until next time.

Your in Girl Scouts

posted at 10:05 AM
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Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Golden Gate Bridging 2009

Have you ever been to the Golden Gate Bridge? If so have you every walked across it?

Last year two troops from our area Bridged from Juniors to Cadettes. And my troop (already Cadettes) worked security.

Here are some pics of the event. Click HERE for link

posted at 6:50 PM
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Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Cookie Sales & rounding UP!

For several years now I have rounded up my daughters pre-order. The 1st year I did it I felt like I was going to throw up. It scared me to death. I was responsible for all these cookie. Geez, what the heck am I thinking! She sold those on the 1st night passing out her cookies and we had the get 6 more cases from the cupboard within 3 days.

So the next year I rounded up and added 8 cases. That was a little more of a struggle to get rid of. Last year we rounded up and added 6 cases. That seems to be the perfect amount. She could have sold more but didn't want to put the effort into it. He final total was 566 boxes. Down by almost 300 the year before, but she still made the 550 club.

This post is not to brag about my daughter (although she rocks) this is to tell you what I have asked of my troop this year.

I requested that all the girl round up their initial order. Their eyes got huge. What, what do you mean?? I know that is what they were thinking. I am trying to get them to sell more cookies then just their pre-order and booth sale orders. I asked them to bring extra cookies with them when they make their deliveries. I also told them to team up and go door to door (you know in the old days when I was a kid).

I did give them an OUT. I told them whatever they had left when we did our 1st booth sale they could return to the troop.

I will let you know how this works out.

next time: how I have taught them to present the cookie flavors.

posted at 3:28 PM
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Sorry for the mess

sorry my blog is such a mess. Photobucket dumped my graphics. so now I have to start again.

posted at 11:18 AM
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Friday, January 8, 2010

Made by Veterans – Served by Girl Scouts

Several local troops have been lending a hand at the VFW Post 1900 monthly pancake breakfast. Local Veterans of Foreign Wars prepare pancakes, eggs, biscuits & gravy, sausage and bacon – and the girls deliver the made to order breakfast to your table.

The girls have been instrumental in helping the veterans serve over 100 meals each month.

Join the veterans and Girl Scout troop 10417 Saturday January 9^th, from 8-11AM at the Veteran’s Hall in Ukiah, on Seminary Drive.

For just $5 for adults, and $2.50 for kids, you won’t find a better or more affordable breakfast in town!!

posted at 2:30 PM
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Monday, December 7, 2009

Ornament Exchange

For the past three years my troop has been doing an ornament exchange. We have been doing it "pirate", or "steal" style. This year we decided to invite all the other "older girl" troops in the area to celebrate with us. So instead of our traditional manner of exchange we are going to do a right/left story. This is the one I chose.

The Right Family #4

Christmas was almost here and Mother Right was finishing the Christmas baking. Father Right, Sue Right, and Billy Right returned from their last-minute Christmas errands. "There's not much left to be done," said Father Right as he came into the kitchen.

"Did you leave the basket of food at the church?" asked Mother Right. "I left it right where you told me to," said Father Right. "I'm glad my shopping is done," said Billy right. "I don't have any money left."

The hall telephone rang, and Susan Right left to answer it. She rushed right back and told the family, "Aunt Tillie Right left a package for us right on Grandma Right's front porch. I'll go over there right now and get it," she said as she left in a rush. Father Right left the kitchen and brought in the Christmas tree.

By the time Susan Right returned, Mother Right, Father Right, and Billy Right had begun trimming the tree. The entire Right family sang carols as they finished decorating. Then they left all the presents arranged under the tree and went to bed, hoping they had selected the right gifts for their family.

Now I hope you have the right present for yourself, because that's all that's left of our story...except to wish you a merry Christmas... Isn't that right??

Click here for more choices.

Merry Christmas

posted at 3:33 PM
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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Journeys?

**beware - before reading know I am not happy. So please don't read this one if you are not interested in my complaint.

So these Journey's come out. All that we are told is that they are "wonderful". That's it! Well what the heck are they? Why is there no training for them? They offer training for everything else.

Last Saturday at bunch of us took Teen Adviser Training. I figured it was the new Studio2B training so I went ahead and took it again. I figured it would talk about the Journeys. WELL IT DIDN'T. It was the New Leadership Experience. They trained us how to talk to teenagers. Hello, we are troop leaders and live with teenagers I think we know how to talk to them. Geez.

Anyhow, there were five of us at this meeting and everyone of us wanted to know about the Journeys so our training is coming back up here to talk to use about it. I guess I am not so dumb after all. Because none of us really knew how they worked. Except that they are WONDERFUL!

posted at 10:29 AM
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Friday, October 16, 2009

Community Service

Wow it has been over half a year I feel so bad. I rarely get comments so I forget about this blog.

So my Cadette/Sr/Am troop started something new last May. The church I attend has 5 planter boxes in the court yard. One is maintained by a nice old lady from church. I asked the girls if they would like to maintain two of the boxes. They thought it would be a great idea.

So for the 1st time I asked them to divide themselves into partols (there are only 6 of them). They did that easily enough.

Then I asked the big question. How will this get paid for? I guess I should have talked about how we handle our money earlier. But that is an entire post unto itself. Anyhow, they voted to pay for it our of their own pockets. OK that works out nicely.

So our last meeting of the year we spent two hours cleaning out the boxes. We brought tools, water and bags. The troop provided the manure. Man was it stinky. So now the boxes are clean. Now what. Well I explained to the girls that it was up to each patrol to get together at a store to make their purchases and then plant. On top of that I explained that the plants will require a lot of watering at 1st so they had to take turns hand watering their beds several times a week.

The sister troop that we meet with also did a planter box. There was a method to our madness. We needed to find a new meeting location. So what better way to sway the Church Board then through beautifying their court yard. It worked :)

posted at 8:20 AM
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Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Random Thoughts and Comments

I have been slacking in my writing to this blog. I am very sorry. I know I don't have a lot of readers out there but for the few I do have I should really be posting here more regularly. There will be no rhyme or reason to this post so please bare with me.

We did our toiletry drive at the end of November. I got a ton of stuff. I need to remember to bring it to our meeting tomorrow night and take pictures. The girls still need to decide who to donate it to. We have enough that maybe they should choose several locations.

My co-events chair and I have decided that the girls are not ready to plan a huge event like the camporee. I told my daughter that yesterday and she agrees. She said that we should start with something smaller.

I stepped outside my comfort zone on Monday. One of the people in charge of the cookie rally said that they would be purchasing pizza from Round Table. What! Are you crazy! That is way too much money. And frankly the girls done care if the pizza is from Round Table or Little Caesar's. So I jumped on the phone and made a call. "Hi I am Sandi from Girl Scouts and we need to feed 60 hungry girls this Friday night at our cookie rally. Yes, it's cookie time again. So how many pizzas would I need and what can we do about the price." It is really difficult for me to ask for a discount. I don't know why it is just is. But I did it. Yeah for me!

We are finishing up two IPAs this month! From Fitness to Fashion, and Disability Awareness. I am just loving this year. Each girl chose a IPA and they are in charge of deciding what and when to do. I just sit back and watch, LOL. I reserve about 15 minutes at each meeting for business. Up coming events, voting on things, etc. But that's about it.

Tomorrow the girls are going to register for Program Aide Training (an on going thing), and also register for PA for Spring Encampment. *sigh* this means attending additional planning meetings. I have also volunteered to be THE Cook for Spring Encampment. I will probably end up being the cook for PA Training.

On the 16^th of this month we will be attending a Murder Mystery Dinner. It sounds like a lot of fun. I have never attended one so it should be interesting.

I have more but I will share it later in the week. I think I have droned on long enough for now.

posted at 8:15 AM
3 comments

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Stacey expressed...: Hey Lady
yup I still check this one and see if anything is new in Girl Scout world.!!
Thanks for the update sounds lke you are having fun!!
See you on the 16th (we will be there too!!); January 8, 2009 at 2:39 PM
Anonymous expressed...: Sandi,
I've stumbled on your blog and hope you write more soon!

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Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Leaders Meeting

I am trying to figure out a way to spice up our Leaders Meeting (Service Unit Meetings). Just like all areas (as far as I have heard) attendance in the monthly meetings is low. I want to boost it up. What is the point of going to the meeting if all we hear is “Here are the flyers we get from the council office at the SUD meeting.” Gee, thanks, I think I can read those on my own (if I am even interested, which usually I am not). That’s all I have to say about that.

Here is my big plan. I want to teach something each month. This way the leaders come and learn something new. A song, a ceremony, or a craft. Anything to make it interesting and worth their time to attend. I tried this last year with the intention of having our SUD ask different leaders each month to provide something. Well that didn’t happen. So once again I am a one man band. I shared something last month but can’t remember what. Hmmm, I must be losing my mind.

Tonight I am going to have everyone make bags of Magic Reindeer Dust. I was able to find all the supplies in my home so this project is free. I will have each leader make their own. I have everything pre-cut. They just need to put it together. I will let them know there are variations of this project. It can be as fancy or as simple as they like. They can just take this simple project and gear it to the age of their troop.

Magic Reindeer Food Links
Magic Reindeer Dust Links

posted at 9:47 AM
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Monday, December 1, 2008

Leadership Hours

Tomorrow night my daughter and her friend are going to earn some Leadership hours tomorrow night. They will be doing the Caring and Sharing Try-it with a brand new brownie troop. This will take place during their 1st meeting while the Leaders and Parents have their meeting.

They put together this booklet for each of the brownies to complete. They are thinking about starting the meeting with the mingle, mingle, mingle game. This is always good ice-breaker. It gives the girls a chance to get to know eachother. It also shows them that they all have something in common without them event knowing it. Sneeky.

Anyhow, I have attached a copy of the booklet here for you to see and maybe share with other Brownie Leaders. Caring & Sharing Wookbook

posted at 8:12 PM
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Toiletry Drive

My Cadette troop is working on the From Fitness to Fashion IPA. On of the requirements is the have a Toiletry Drive. So we meet today in an area of our town the is rich with Doctor and Dentist offices. I have the girls go in the dentist offices in groups of 2 and 3 (don’t need to overwhelm anyone working there). Here is what they said.

Hi we are from troop 10417 and we are collecting Toiletries for those in need. Do you have any toothbrushes, floss or toothpaste that you would be able to donate?

I first office look at them like they were crazy and said they would need to check and asked for a contact phone number. They looked very disappointed when they walked out. I was starting to think that maybe this wasn’t going to work. Then we hit the next office and the girls came out with a box of toothpaste. Now the excitement was building. Each time they returned with items the girls would gather around and check out what they received. It was just like when you go Trick-or-Treating and you walk away from a house and check out the candy you received.

After about 1 ½ hours walking that street we jumped in the cars and headed over to a street that had three hotels in a row. We hit pay dirt there also. We collect shampoo, lotion, and mouthwash.

All in all it was a very successful day!

posted at 12:34 PM
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Anonymous expressed...: That is really a good idea.; November 27, 2008 at 3:43 PM

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

GS Jacket for Sale, WHAT!

Last night I was killing time and was looking around on eBay. For the heck of it I typed in “GS Patches.” The screen pops up and at the very top is a patch jacket. click --> Hmmm, interesting who would sell that. (don't know how long this link will work) I clicked.

At the top of the screen shows a tiny picture of this item. Even that small my eyes zero in on several patches. OMG, I have a ton of patches this person has. And the ones that caught my eye we from Two Sentinels. I yelled to Heather “come here and check this out.” Then I scrolled to the additional pictures below and saw even more. There is a patch on the front with the name Heather. Hmmm, who could this be? I sent the link to my mom. She looked at all the pictures and gave it some thought came up with an answer. This person was in my Senior Troop.

Can you believe that! She identified someone through a GS Jacket!

posted at 10:12 AM
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Cari expressed...: What's sad is that it was up for sale on Ebay!!! :(

Those jackets are priceless IMHO.

Please write more. I love your blog!; October 16, 2009 at 7:53 AM

Friday, October 31, 2008

New Leader Workshop

Last night I hosted my 1st ever mentor meeting. Originally I was going to try and meet with the new leaders on a one on one basis. But then I decided to just host a “meet & greet.” It was informal and something I have never done before.

Please note I am not a trainer (no have a desire to be one) but I do have 32 years experience. I was a Girl Scout from Brownies all they through 12th grade. I was a co-leader for my sister’s troop when I was in high school. I was a Daisy, Brownie, Junior and now Cadette Leader. I was day camp director (at a week long day camp) for 6 years. I also have completed just about every training available to leaders. So I felt that I had something to share.

Training that the council offers is great. But to me it is more nuts and bolts. Paperwork, procedure. It must be done and is well worth the learning experience. But, I don’t think that it truly teaches you what you need to do to get a troop up and running.

Last night we started out with a craft. http://kidscrafts.suite101.com/article.cfm/kids_craft_marbled_paper

G-scoutmate - http://www.kscgroup.com/products/gscoutmate.html

Newsgroups (Yahoo) – GreenBloodNews, GreenBloodGab. GreenBloodTraditions, and many more.

Financial Aide – what it is and how to apply

Journys – what it is and how it works

Badges, Petals, Tri-its – I explained they would learn more about this in their level training. I suggested that they complete GS in the USA, and the GS Way 1st. That way they could learn about Girl Scouts together.

Help from other troops – I told them that there are Junior troops in the area that would like to help them during meetings. I also explained there were Cadette troops that would be there for them.

Choices – This is what our council (maybe all do) their activity guide. I told them to take a look at it and see what is offered.

Health History/Annual Permission Slips – I explained that I photo copy these double sided on cardstock. I also explained that during their Parent Meeting that this would be a good time for these to be completed. I also told them that I have created a Parent Handbook. I emailed them a copy and told them to use it as a base and tweak it anyway they see fit.

There was more but you get the idea. I was sent home with homework. Furnishing them with a list of items/supplies they will need to get their troop up and running. Good question and I am all over it today!

posted at 8:24 AM
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Unknown expressed...: I wish someone had helped me! I am a first-year leader for Juniors. I assisted with Brownies but the leader did all the planning work and paperwork.; November 19, 2008 at 9:59 AM
Cari expressed...: Thank you for posting what you covered in your mentor workshop.

I am going to incorporate your ideas into my mentoring as well ... we are in a severely under served area and most of our leaders have ZERO experience in GS (not even as a girl), so this sort of practical info is critical for them!

Thanks again!; October 16, 2009 at 7:56 AM

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Were you a Girl Scout?

I was! Or AM!

This is me flying up in 1973 1973

Here I am in 1975. I was in a group called Ambassidors.
We were a color guard group. 1975

Here is the group at the dedication of a new park group

posted at 9:12 AM
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