New Troops: Start Here
SGS Volunteer Roundtable - 2nd Tuesday of every month @ 7:30pm
Open to all adults in SGS - make sure your troop is represented!
Email sudburygs@gmail.com with your troop number to get the meeting info
Questions? Click here to drop them on the agenda for the next meeting to be sure we can cover them
Girl Scouting is designed to help girls develop confidence, courage and character, while making the world a better place. As often as possible, we try to give the girls the chance to make plans, discover their passions, strengths, and weaknesses, and experience the role of leadership. Of course, younger girls will need more guidance at first. But just like we do as parents, troop leaders look for any opportunity to give the girls choices that affect their experience. Your support team includes other parents and experienced leaders, the town service unit leaders, and GSEMA's regional volunteer support specialist, as well as the GSEMA council and the national Girl Scout organization. Let's get started!
New to Girl Scouts? Download these helpful guides!
Troop Startup Checklist |
All About Sudbury Girl Scouts: A Comprehensive Guide |
how_to_get_parents_more_involved_in_girl_scouts.pdf |
- Register:
- All families should register their daughters online at http://www.gsema.org/
- Encourage one parent per child to register, too, so everyone can volunteer to help with troop activities. They will need to be CORI'd - print a form here, then email [email protected] to arrange for one of us to sign your CORI form, which you will then mail to GSEMA for processing.
- The Online account you create when you register will allow you to sign up girls individually or as a troop for GSEM activities.
- Choose troop leaders/get trained:
- Go to https://www.gsema.org/en/for-volunteers/VolunteerEssentials.html for lots of resources, training, guides, videos etc for leaders.
- Buy the Book – The Daisy Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting – online or at the Waltham Store at Camp Cedar Hill (265 Beaver St, Waltham, MA 866-268-8653)
- First Aid – at least one leader should get the required First Aid/CPR training as soon as you can, so that you're ready when you want to take filled trips or go camping.
- Monthly Meetings – once a month the Sudbury leaders (or any adult registered in your troop) gather to share ideas, highlight up-coming, town-wide Girl Scout events, answer questions, and generally stay in touch.
- Other Parent volunteer opps: Treasurer, Fall Sales, Cookie Sales, Camping (Special training sessions are required for Fall Sales, Cookie Sales, and Camping)
- Meet with Parents (this is best done in person)
- Time/location – figure out the best time and location for troop meetings
- Schedule – Discuss with parents an overview of the year – what do you hope to achieve? What would they like to have happen in the troop?
- Forms – Annual Girl Permission Form (at GSEMa.org)
- optional: otc drug permission, activity girl permission form
- Dues – begin with $25/child with the understanding that you may need to pay more later in the year. Dues are for craft materials, snacks, rental – if you use a place that charges for meetings, and trips (or pay as you go for these).
UNIFORMS: Here are the uniform choices for Daisies. Most troops only buy the tunic or the vest and not the skirt/shirt. White shirts and either dark or khaki pants/shorts are usually worn at formal events like ceremonies and parades. All insignia are sold separately. At a minimum we would recommend:
1. Insignia tab and Girl Scout Daisy membership pin
2. Troop numbers
3. Petal patches set
4. (opt) the World Trefoil Pin is a nice addition b/c it reminds us that we are a global organization, and it moves from uniform to uniform throughout a girls' time in Girl Scouts.
Membership stars are awarded at the end of the year to commemorate the year the in scouting. Uniforms change every two years for the first 6 years of scouting, but the World Trefoil Pin and the Membership Stars move from uniform to uniform.
Troop Meetings:
Ceremonies and repetition make Girl Scouting both special and comforting. Girl Scouts recognize life events (beginning Girl Scouts, birthdays, special days in Girl Scout calendar) with ceremonies that mark the importance of the event, and also begin and end each meeting with more informal ceremonies to help define the parameters of the meeting. At your first meeting, encourage the girls to share their hopes for Girl Scouts and solicit some ideas for meetings and/or activities for the year. Keep checking in during the year for new ideas from the girls!
Consult your Volunteer Essentials Handbook (http://www.girlscoutseasternmass.org/forms/Volunteer-Essentials-GSEM.pdf chapter 4: Safety) when planning trips or activities that may require additional training or adult supervision.
Investiture Ceremony
- Performed when a girl joins Girl Scouts for the first time
- Families and other caregivers can be invited to this event.
- Present uniforms and pins; Recite Girl Scout promise and law;Learn Girl scout sign and handshake
New in 2016: The Volunteer Toolkit at GSEMa.org under MyGS (once you register) has sample meetings and sample yearly plans all laid out for you! You can use these or adapt them to your liking.
Regular Troop Meetings – a sample
1. Pre-meeting activity – craft, game, kaper (chore), snack/lunch – these are useful if: you are waiting for everyone to arrive, need to burn off energy before starting the meeting, want to emphasize a theme you're going to cover during the meeting. These should be things that can be done without you to free you up for getting ready for the meeting or greeting parents, etc.
2. Opening Ceremony – recite the Promise and Law. You could also include a flag ceremony, song or other formal entry into the meeting. Let the girls take turns coming up with ideas!
3. Daisy Girl Scout Circle – Use this time to outline the plan for the meeting so girls know what to expect. If you are working on a Petal, read the story or discuss the words in the Law that apply to the day's activities.
4. Program Activity – Engaging activity that relates to the petal you are earning, or to one of the other Girl Scout objectives – realizing self potential, relating to others with respect, making good decisions, learning to lead, and working cooperatively in groups.
5. Clean up – girls should develop a list of jobs (kapers, in GS parlance) that need to be done at each meeting to be sure to leave a place better than they found it! These can be done in teams or alone, and should be rotated each week. Create a Kaper Chart so the girls can see their jobs. One job can be rotating the names and “leading” the troop in Clean up by reading off the kaper for each girl.
6. Sharing Circle – give girls a chance to debrief the activities and themes of the day. Go around the circle so each girl gets a chance to contribute her thoughts. We have used a “talking stick” (or other physical object) to make clear who is talking. It can be passed around the circle as girls take turns sharing their response to the day. Limit the chatterboxes, encourage the very shy to even just say “I liked activity (or part) the best.”
7. Closing Ceremony – Find some action that formally ends the meeting and releases the girls to the play yard or their parents! The Friendship Circle and Squeeze is popular and gives the girls a chance to be literally connected.
Other Options:
Camping – town-wide Encampment in May or June
Sales – Fall Sales (nuts, magazines, etc) and Cookies (Nov-Mar)
OTHER RESOURCES:
- Town-wide Activities – usually at least once a month Sudbury Service Unit offers a town-wide activity to which Girl Scouts in Sudbury of all ages are invited. (Some are age specific, but from all schools)
- Fun Patches – a patch for every activity you can dream up; patches are affixed to the back of the uniform.
- The Ultimate Guide – a wide range of activities offered by GSEM throughout the year and the region. Check it out online at GSEMa.org
- Email us at [email protected]