Hello Girl Scout Parents!
I wanted to take a few minutes to go over some important Girl Scout FAQ
1. Meeting times/dates/frequency – This troop is piloting a new concept in girl scouts – cyber scouting. This means the meetings are posted here on this website, and we’ll get together monthly for meetings. For more detailed information, you might like to read the cyberscouting post from about a month ago. You will receive an email when new content is posted for your daughter
2. Parent involvement – This is STRONGLY encouraged. Your child, even the older girls, will need some level of assistance in completing and reporting on the meeting activities. Additionally, we’ll need parent chaperones, snacks, supplies, transportation etc at many of our outings. The online nature of this troop makes it even more crucial for you to take an active role in your daughter’s scouting experience.
3. Calendar of events – on the right side of every post is the troop calendar of upcoming events, opportunities & important dates in girl scouts (NOTE: “Service Unit meetings” are reminders for me. That’s the monthly meeting where I find out about all the cool stuff happening which I then put on the calendar). A couple to draw your attention to:
- October 28 – Cookie Kickoff – I will register the troop, but I need a count of who will be there for patches etc. This is STRONGLY recommended for Daisies and encouraged for veteran girls.
- October 29-30 – Junior Jamboree – This is going to be an awesome event, put on by a local cadette troop – girls will be camping out, cooking, crafting, ziplining, dancing and more. $5 per girl (pays for the food), and I need to know who wants to go ASAP.
- November 13 – Hidden Valley Workday – I’d like as many girls as possible at this event, and i DEFINITELY need parent help at this one. I will be flying back from a business trip that day and unable to be there. David can be there only until about 2pm due to Nutrcracker rehearsal.
- November 26 – Cookie booth in downtown Lawrence – more details to come, but if you’re in town, please plan to participate. It’s REALLY a lot of fun!
4. Uniform and books – If you received a flyer about the Great Start Kit, but could not find it on the council website, it’s because they are sold out, mostly due to the bag. For your convenience, I can order the kit (sans bag) for you from the national shop site. Identify what you want in the form below. YOU MUST LEAVE A CHECK IN SOPHIE OR DAPHNE’S MAILBOX BY THURSDAY at 3:30pm. I will be placing the order that evening. Friday morning i get on a plane at about 7 am and I won’t be back for a week. You do not HAVE to get a uniform for your daughter, but we WILL be using the books. All three levels are starting with the It’s your Planet, Love it! Journey book. Additionally, we will soon have content from the handbook as well. (It’s currently still in preorder status)
5. Paperwork – I have to be a stickler about this because the council and service unit require it. For each outing we have, I have to have a permission slip. I will post these or email them about a week before (hopefully more). You can bring the slip with your daughter to an event. PLEASE don’t arrive without it. I may or may not have remembered to bring extras to fill out onsite. Believe me, for every piece of paperwork I ask you to complete, I have to do about 3. It’s a pain, I know, but please get it done and don’t make me track you down for it. I hate to do that.
6. Parent Pledge – “I promise that I will be a good girl scout parent. This means I will help my child with her regular meeting activities, including using the computer to access the information, I will fill out and return forms paperwork and money in a timely manner, I will help out with activities to the best of my ability, I will pick up my cookies by the designated deadline, I will respond to emails in a timely manner, I will pick up my daughter from scout activities on time and I won’t hold it against Cindy that she asked me to sign this pledge”
Hi Cindy! You have put so much time and effort into this (and David as well!). I do have some questions and will fill this out tonight. Are you still having the junior campout on the 22 of October or are our girls just doing the Junior Jamboree on the 29? Am I correct in assuming that each of my girls will need their own copy of the Journey book as it is a workbook to be written in? Also, will the girls be using all 3 books during this year? So…I should really buy 6 (2 of each book)? Also, (and I hate to admit this…but, am being brutally honest!) I hope I can really get Maddy to sit and read the approx. 20 pages in the Journey book & then have her WILLLINGLY answer questions, not to mention all 4 activities. I have trouble getting her to sit down and work for 15 minutes on her homework each night. Is this really what a Junior Scout meeting looks like? How long do they typically last… Thanks for all of your hard work! I do appreciate your time & willingness to organize all of this.
EXCELLENT questions!
1. Campout on Oct 22 – no, I somehow managed to forget that I have a visiting artist from Belgium staying with me and doing a workshop at Bracker’s that weekend, so I moved it to the following weekend, then found out about Junior Jamboree, which I think sounds FANTASTIC!
2. Journey books are different for each level, and yes, there are three of them. We *should* get through all three during the course of the 2 years in the age level, so you don’t *have* to get them now, you can wait.
3. I love your brutal honesty!!! Typically by Juniors, troops would be meeting an hour to an hour and a half a week, plus some work at home. My goal on the cyber meeting is for it to take about three hours total, across the two week period. I had to kind of guess on this first one, so let me know how it goes. I’m sort of hoping that maybe a couple of girls can get together and work in pairs or trios, alternating houses. The girls are all such good friends anyway, and I *think* some of the activities would make for a fun *directed* play date. But of course they can do them alone too. I *hope* you’ll be pleasantly surprised at Maddy’s attentiveness. The book is really pretty fun and a quick read, despite the number of pages. Lots of pictures/illustrations etc. I think for the Daisies, David is trying to shoot for about 2-3 hours across the month.
Hope that helps! If not, feel free to ask followup questions!
Who do we make the checks out to?
Ah! Good question – Troop 7653. Thanks!
Hi Cindy-thank you to you & David for all the work that obviously went into this. Can you let me know what uniform the other daisys are getting? I’m guessing Rylee will want the same thing the other girls are getting. Thanks, Leslie
I am *strongly* recommending the tunic to everyone because it has that nice pocket in the front. I can’t TELL you how many times that has come in handy!!!
Cindy, I’m just now ordering the Daisy Tunic, journey books, and bag. So so I owe you $61.75? I see who to make the check out to (Troop 7653) and I leave the check in Sophie or Daphne’s mailbox; correct?
Thanks so much!
Kathleen (Claire’s mom)
Yep, that’s correct! I’ll get those for you on my next order!
Hi Cindy,
I’m looking for the permission slip to sell cookies, Where can I download it and where do I put it?
Thanks!
Kara
Kara,
Cindy sent it out as an email. I will email it directly to you as a pdf.