13 Girl Scouts + 3 Take Action Projects = Exhausted Adults!

Last night was week 5 of Join the Journey. The focus was on actually doing the Take Action Project. I was told by my Junior that I could come to their project but all I was allowed to do was take pictures. We all started out together, but then split up; therefore, I can only report what was reported to me from the Daisy and Brownie groups.

My primary thought from this week... besides exhaustion... is about the Cadette Leadership in Action award. I think in theory it's a good thing. However, I'm finding that unless the cooperating leader truly understands how to teach another person how to lead or mentor them, the real meaning of the experience is lost on the girl. This is supposed to be a girl-led set of activities, including the planning of the activity.,. there is supposed to be consulting with the Brownie group leader, but it isn't necessarily supposed to be a case of the Brownie group leader dictating to the Cadette exactly how she is to fulfill a requirement. For example, if the LIA requirement is to lead the girls in an activity that is not one of the activities in the Journey book, the Cadette should have the freedom to choose what type of activity she is comfortable leading and exactly what song, game, craft, etc., she teaches... it defeats the authenticity of the experience when the Brownie group leader dictates to the Cadette what song, game, craft, etc., she wants the Cadette to teach. I am not saying this is what has happened in our case, but I have witnessed this set up multiple times over the past three years as I've watched girls earning their Junior Aide and other leadership awards. Maybe this is an enrichment training that all leaders need: How to Mentor Girls in Leadership Skills. It seems that through this whole Journey experience, getting the adults to understand and remember to let the GIRLS take the lead has been the hardest part.

1. Gathering and Welcome.
It figures that after I celebrate the punctuality of the entire group, most people would be late this week. The three of us that were there early and on-time were beginning to get worried that no one was coming. However, most of the girls arrived by 7:10 p.m. In the meantime, the Cadette had mentioned that she was disappointed she had not gotten to teach the game she had prepared for last week (apparently, at last week's session, she was asked to teach a different song). This issue was easily solved: she taught it to the girls who had gathered.

Our opening was very much the same as in the past:

• The girls chose the order of what we did.

• We said the GS Promise. This week, however, we all said it together rather than in an echoing style. I am proud to say that even our two new girls said the entire Promise without stumbling.

• We sang a "get moving" song: "Alive, Awake, Alert, Enthusiastic." After teaching the movements and the words separately, I led the group in singing the song; we sang it three times, getting faster every time. Ironically, the girls kept up pretty well (some focused only on doing the actions at the right times)... it was the adults who had issues matching actions and words and keeping the words in the right order. BUT we all ended in laughter, so it was good.

• I previewed what each group was doing tonight, explained why we wouldn't have a formal closing ceremony (we'd all be ending at different times and places), and the girls went to their group leaders.
  

2. Daisy Flower Garden.
Last week, the girls had decided to help Clover and the rest of the grass by cleaning up the trash that surely was hurting them. They were supposed to try to get family members to join them. Unfortunately, one Daisy didn't come, and no family members came for the other two girls outside of their mothers (who are group leaders). The Junior group leader and I decided that she'd stay with her Daisy daughter and not be allowed to feel guilty for not going with the Juniors (we already had 4 adults going with them).

• The girls did an activity where they reached into an opaque bag and tried to determine what natural objects were in there solely by their shapes and textures. Apparently they really had fun with this activity even though by the third object, they were pros and there was very little challenge left to it.

• Then they started their project. Each girl received gloves and a bag. They then started picking up trash. According to the group leader, they picked up trash... they picked up trash... they picked up trash... and then they picked up more trash (about 45 minutes' worth). And they had a blast the entire time! The two girls were able to amuse themselves and make it fun. They didn't want to stop, and they wanted to pick up garbage outside the fence surrounding the park. For safety's sake, they were restricted to the parts of the park INSIDE the fence.

• They filled their bags with room to spare, but it was agreed that they had made a noticeable difference. The number of plastic straw wrappers and other small lunch wrappings that were littered around was astounding, and cleaning them up made the clover and grass colors more... clean (for lack of a better word).

A side note from last week's learning: the Daisy group leader found out that there are special composting worms. There is a farm in the next town over that does a great deal of composting, and she's going to see if the Daisy troop can take a trip over there this coming year. She also spoke with the school principal about the possibility of a GS-led composting project at the elementary school. Ironically, within the first month of school, the first grades learn about worms and have meal worm guests in their classrooms. I volunteered to help the Daisy girls figure out how to propose the project to their teachers (and the principal and school board if necessary).

3. Brownie Quest.
This report is from my Brownie daughter.

• The Brownie group leader explained to the girls that the librarian has asked the Brownies to help her with a book table that she has at the village's farmer's market every other Sunday (instead of shelving the books as the girls thought they might be able to do).

• The girls are now going to go to the farmer's market on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and staff the book table. They're going to encourage customers at the market to find a book that looks interesting and take it home to read and keep (or pass on). They are going to be in official Girl Scout uniform, so this should make for some good photo opportunities.

• The girls split into teams of 2 and made posters advertising the table (the group leader and Cadette teamed up on a poster, too). The posters included words, pictures, and stickers that illustrated book themes/topics and why reading is fun.

• Then the girls made a healthy snack from the Brownie Quest book. As the girls finished their posters, they each added an ingredient to the vegetable dip. There was cream cheese, yogurt ("non-fat, though"), non-fat ranch dressing, something that "started with a 'b' and ended with 'wheat' and it was in a cup and sort of grainy" (not having the book with me, I don't know if it was buckwheat or bulgarwheat or what), and a spice. It was all mixed together and then the girls dipped vegetables in it. There was broccoli, cucumbers, carrots, cauliflower, and celery. According to my dear Brownie, "It did not smell good. It did not look good. But it tasted goooood."
  

• The Brownies shared their healthy treat with the Daisy girls, then they all went to play for a little bit.

• The girls all helped clean up the supplies that I bring each week for all the groups to use and made sure they got into my mother's car (since she was my transportation for the night).

3. Junior Agent of Change.
This was an extremely busy group of young ladies! What was supposed to be 1.5 hours of work turned into 3.5 hours by the end (with all of the parents' agreement and participation). When we arrived at the town's Girl Scout room, there were 5 Junior Girl Scouts, 3 Moms (who are also Service Unit Team members), 1 Dad (who was made an honorary GS for the night... the girls said he'd have to wear a skirt if he registered), and 2 young male guests who had to tag along at the last minute. We had a computer and printer, colored paper galore, about 6 colors of tempera and acrylic paint (and 1 color of wall paint), a drill and screws, and a roll of cork board that was found in the closet.

• We started by voting on a few issues. They decided to make the frames around the boxes for each troop's display space out of handprints... shortly later, the decision was made to have the horizontal lines made of multi-colored handprints and the vertical lines made of multi-colored footprints. They also voted to give the adults a section of wall where we can put a multiple-dimension version of Dez I. Ner Spider (complete with real shoes and hiking boot and real gloves and real beret), the Brownie Elf & girls, and Amazing Daisy and her friends. They also voted to use two framed posters donated from my mother's GS memorabilia.

• I got everybody's attention and clarified for all of us that the girls were in charge and needed to use the adults for help. That meant that if a decision needed to be made, it was up to the girls (for the most part). I also stated that the adults wouldn't be making any decisions or movements without the girls' permission.

• The girls attempted to get to work... they all tried to work on everything at the same time. Of course, chaos ensued.

• I suggested to the girls that they each take charge of one of the tasks and accompanying adult(s). They needed to place complete trust in each other and the decisions made about the various tasks. They all agreed, and they all decided who would take each section.

• Two girls took charge of two of the moms and the task of dividing the wall into sections for each troop's display space. They found yarn and masking tape, and the moms taught the girls how to make straight guide lines without drawing on the wall. The girls used their math skills to figure out how big each section would end up being. We ended up with 18 sections, each about 1.5 feet by 1.5 feet (I think). The frames start at the baseboard heaters and go up three rows on the wall, leaving a large section at the top for a room-wide border.

• My Junior daughter took charge of the Dad and finding a space that could be dedicated to Leader Development. They thought they had the perfect wall space to put up the corkboard. They centered it, and the Dad was going to start the screws and let my daughter finish them. However, we found out that the wall was pure concrete; therefore, plans had to change (had he - or any of us - known that before, he could have brought the proper drill & bits to be able to do it... oh, well, now we all know). They decided to use the inside of the storage closet door. That way, during Service Unit meetings and trainings, I can have the door open during my Leader Development times, and it can be closed and out of sight when troops are using the room (thereby not taking up girl space on the walls). They worked together to screw the corkboard into the wood, and my daughter is going to work on a label for the area.

• A third Junior was in charge of posting the GS Promise and the GS Law on the two boards that had been moved to the focal point of the room. She had printed the GS Promise out and mounted each word on a frame of construction paper. Then she worked on putting the Promise up on the smaller of the two boards. As girls finished their tasks, they went to help her - talk about teamwork! The GS Law had been printed in the colors of the Daisy Petals, and a different font was used for each line (with a central font used for the clauses that aren't values in the Law, e.g., "and to").

• The last Junior was put in charge of me and deciding what important GS words were going to be posted around the room and how we would do it. She decided that printing the words in color and fun fonts on the computer would be more efficient than stenciling with paint. She also decided to have "Courage," "Confidence," and "Character" printed out multiple times each and used as a continuous border around the room (I'm not sure we'll get back to making a full border - but we have one set centered and posted on the wall above the troop display area). She also chose the Juliette Low quote, "What do the GIRLS want to do?" to be posted above the archway that is partway through the room... in a place that is very visible to the leaders when we're having our meetings. Finally, she chose to put "[Service Unit's Name] Girl Scouts" over the chalkboard that is flanked with the GS Promise and GS Law boards.

• Once each group was well underway, and the adults had our marching orders, the girls joined the wall team for a while. By 8:30 p.m., they had the three lines handprints up on the wall. They even recruited the two boys to add their little handprints where small spaces needed to be filled in. Right about this time, a Daisy and 2 Brownies showed up (siblings of some of the Juniors and daughters to the other 2 group leaders who were checking in with me and letting me know how their sessions went).

• The girls recruited the two adults who had just arrived to help cut out words for the GS Law and the words that the Junior had chosen and designed for posting around the room. They also recruited the younger girls to put their footprints on the wall for the vertical lines. We had little people in chairs with rainbow feet being pushed around by adults so that the lines were multicolored. Then, for the upper two rows, we used the featherweight girls, and their moms held them while another adult stamped their feet onto the wall. Everyone was in giggle fits by the time it was done.

• One of the Juniors took charge of washing off the feet of the foot-stampers and making sure that just about every bit of paint was removed from their feet.

• Another couple of Juniors and one of the Brownies took charge of cleaning up the room. A large amount of garbage was removed from the room and from the storage areas.
  

• Our GS Promise and Law girl got help as people finished, and both pieces were completely posted by the end of the night.

• The girls allowed the tallest adult and me to post the words, quote, and Service Unit name in their designated places.

• The three remaining Juniors at the end of the night (2 left before the others, but well after getting most of the work done) found two places for the framed posters and made sure that the wife of the Dad knew where they were to go so she could tell him (he had left earlier) and they could return with the proper drill, bits, and screws.

• We moved the primary tables around to refocus the room and make the GS Promise and Law fully visible when any group is meeting. We swept the floor until it was spotless, and the tops of the file cabinets were cleaned off. We're going to get the Juniors together over the next two weeks so that we can get pictures of the pristine room and them (the cameras that were brought last night died before many pictures could be taken).

Once I have the pictures of the girls' work, I'll post them for all to see.

We have next Wednesday off, and the week after that is the celebration week. I'm going to send each girl a paper for her to evaluate her project on so that they can reflect with a little bit of distance before we totally celebrate. We're still hoping to get some town officials to attend, and we're going to invite the librarian. I'm pretty sure we've now outgrown our originally planned celebration space, so I'm on the hunt for a new place that can accomodate us and our timing. I'd say that's a good problem to have!

Third Session - Project Planning

Tonight's session was busy for all of the groups! As the program co-coordinator, I learned tonight that we should have given the group leaders posterboards with project planning on them. I have a knack for project planning and seeing it in my head - I have to remember that not everybody can do that, and not everybody understands that when learning or teaching project planning to girls, things have to be spelled out. For example, I think it would have been beneficial for each group to have a simple chart with the Project Goal at the top, and a chart below with Task, What Is Needed, and Who Is Doing It as column labels. With that blatant set up, I think some of the planning might have been easier for the girls to understand. Without that physical structure, I found that groups were planning one step and trying to act on it right away instead of looking at the big picture first (an example of this is in the GS Junior description below).

Here is how tonight went. I wasn't in every group, but the descriptions are from what I saw and heard and what my GS Brownie and GS Junior reported to me.

1. Welcome and Gathering.

• The families are getting really good at arriving shortly before 6:30 or right at 6:30. Our last girl arrived just as we were forming our Opening Circle. We had every girl in attendance tonight: 3 GS Daisies, 6 GS Brownies, 5 GS Juniors, and 1 GS Cadette.

• The GS Cadette made me smile and laugh in a good way tonight. She was so excited when she arrived that she was dancing and jumping around. She wanted to show me her GS Journey backpack with her GS books and her Journey notebook in it. She had written down the song/game she was going to play with/teach to the girls tonight along with some service project ideas to help them get started in their brainstorming. She was just as excited when the Brownie group leader arrived and was ready to talk with her. The notebook is an important piece for this Cadette. She needs the organization of having a written reminder. It is serving as a communication tool between her and the Brownie group leader - the group leader wrote in the notebook tonight what she would like the Cadette to lead next week. This way the Cadette can work on what she needs to do and how she needs to present it during this week.

• Our Opening Circle was a practice in using the Quiet Sign and reminding the girls that it's an open hand, not the GS sign that is used. After that, the Cadette led the group in the GS Promise. Then we sang "The Button Factory" about Joe who has to press buttons with all parts of their bodies - the favorite song of a few girls in my own troop, and what the girls decided was a good song to sing. This got the girls moving and active, but also got a lot of their wiggles out.

• We have established that an opening ceremony is important, but we don't plan a full ceremony as leaders or organizers - this might sound strange, but it has a purpose. The girls learn best by experiencing (Leadership Essentials: Learn By Doing)... rather than telling them what we're doing at each opening ceremony, we let them decide step by step. It's already been decided that next week, the opening ceremony song is going to be "Alive, Awake, Alert, Enthusiastic."

• After that I revved up the program by telling the Daisies that I heard they have new friends to meet tonight, the Brownies were going to have an awesome time because that's what Brownies do, and the Juniors have some challenges tonight. Everybody was cheering, and when I told them to go to their group leaders, they practically ran to them.

2. GS Daisy Flower Garden.

• Well, the bad news was that the real estate agent for a building in town that has flower boxes that could use some gardening said we can't help him. Apparently the building is a foreclosure and they don't want people working on the property for liability reasons. That's too bad, but the group leader noticed a nearby dentist office that might allow the girls to at least plant flower boxes in front of part of the office building.

• On the good side, the group leader brought worms tonight. She had a tub with dirt in it, and the girls got to put the worms in along with some newspaper they'd ripped up and some tomato skins. They are hoping the worms work on composting the pile.

• I had the chance to talk with the girls about their project. They really hadn't come up with something solid for next week. I said to them that the grass and clover in the park looked like it was hurting in places. Could they figure out why? One of the girls said it was because of the trash. So next week they're going to organize a group to clean up that park (it had been used for the town's summer recreation program). I tried to get them to draw a shopping list for me. They listed garbage bags, gloves, something to clean hands with, and sticks with a "sharp pointy thing" on the end to grab the garbage. One unfortunate step here was that the group leader wrote down the list instead of letting the girls draw/write it themselves. I asked the girls what they thought about getting adults or other people to help them clean up - what it would be like if the three of them were in charge and telling the adults what needed to be done. There was a maniacal laugh from the cutest, quietest 5-/6-year old, followed by "Yessss." They each started making a list of who they could ask to help them... sounding out the words as they went.

• Next week they'll be Taking Action in our community by organizing their group of helpers to clean up the park. They believe that Clover (we actually have some blooming) is hurting, and they need to help the Earth.

• I mentioned to them that maybe if they do the Journey as a troop during the school year, it could be fun to talk to the cafeteria director and the elementary school principal about putting a composting pail in the rear of the school. The girls could take care of it weekly and make sure the worms were okay... including figuring out how to insulate the container during the winter months. The leader looked at me like I had three heads, but I really think that if the girls worked at finding out what it takes, they could really do it. They could suggest to the two adults that it would decrease some of the food waste going to landfills and provide compost for the bushes and flowers on the school grounds. Well... at least I can see it happening, even if it doesn't.

3. GS Brownie Quest.

• The Brownies started off by identifying community helpers like veteranarians, doctors, ambulance workers, police, teachers, and phone line workers (we have an eccentric Brownie!). The girls each made a paper bag puppet of a community helper and then talked with/about their puppets. In the discussion, or just after it, the group leader showed them the concentric circles with themselves in the middle and community helpers eminating out from them - the helpers they are directly connected to, I believe.

• They looked at the pages in the Brownie Quest book where things need to be fixed in the community. Since they had been sitting for awhile, this activity was discussed quickly - each girl announced one thing they saw in the picture that needed fixing.

• The girls then moved over to another area where they could sit on the ground and played "La Quaka Dilly Oh Ma" which the GS Cadette taught to them. They sang other songs or played other games as well I think.

• When they came back to their work area, they brainstormed Take Action Project ideas. My Brownie reported that every girl stated one idea. They then voted on the projects. Apparently the winning project is collecting book donations to give to the local library and shelving kids books at the library for one night. Our librarian has a system where once a book in the kids section is taken off the shelf, the kid puts it into a white basket to be reshelved by the librarian or her assistant. This makes for a lot of books to be reshelved.

• Each Brownie is supposed to come up with some books to be donated. I think these are going into the library's book give-away program. One girl is going to speak with the librarian tomorrow to get permission for this project. I'm not sure what we'll do if the librarian declines the help. We'll probably have to schedule an "emergency" meeting for the Brownies so they can come up with another project.

4. GS Junior Agent of Change.
Well, we have 5 Agents of Change for sure... the challenge for them is that they are 5 strong leaders and 5 weak followers. This made tonight's planning very difficult for them. They ended up needing lots of direction and structure as girls were breaking down in frustration and zoning out because they didn't know their particular role in the conversation.

• They have decided to decorate the Girl Scout room that our village has given us. A few years ago, one troop's Silver Award project was painting, fixing up, and putting curtains and bulletin boards up in the room. It's a beautiful job, but we've had leaders mention that it would be nice to have some variation on the wall, like GS quotes or the key words like "Courage, Confidence, and Character."

• Without looking at the room, going on their knowledge of it (some of the girls have had meetings in it), they decided that they needed paint, stencils, and paintbrushes. They spoke with the SU Manager and the SU Outdoor Program Consultant to find out what they as adults would like to see in the room. The Outdoor Program Consultant mentioned that a craft store nearby had a number of the things they had mentioned on clearance. We talked about a budget... and if they would need money. It was decided that they needed to write a letter to ask the SU for a small donation for the project (it was hinted to me by the SU Manager to do it).

• This was a breakdown point because two girls ran with the write-a-letter task and left the others doing nothing. I suggested that maybe one of the three girls might want to ask one of the adults if they would take them to the GS room so they could look at it and really get an idea of what they could do.

• They came back with a list of tasks and tools - and very excited. Apparently they are going to take down some of the bulletin boards and put them up in more visible areas. One will have the GS Promise on it while the other will have the GS Law. I thought it might be neat for them to consider putting the GS Law in the colors of the Daisy Petals or in the shape of a daisy... but it will be up to them. They want to put up words using decorative border or decorative letters that already have the adhesive on the back. They also want to designate an area of wall space for each of our troops. This way each troop can hang up pictures or things they've made for everyone to look at when we have SU meetings or when other troops meet. My own Junior wants to get painter's tape and use that to mark out the lines for the troops boxes so that she can paint straight lines... she's been watching those Extreme Makeover and Hometime shows lately.

• I saw the letter they wrote to the SU team. It's very polite and explains why they would like to do this project, what they would like to do, and what they would like from the SU. They asked for paint rather than money. However, a few of us spoke to three of them after, and they decided that it was best to add in a line requesting $50 - that way they had a little wiggle room if things weren't on clearance, they could give back what they don't use, and if the SU says that $50 is too much and gives a lesser amount it's still reasonable. The funny part of this was that rather than mailing the letter, one of the girls rationalized that the SU team is online a lot, so she is typing the letter tomorrow and e-mailing it with her mother's supervision and help. She was warned that some of us might ask her questions about the project just for clarification, and she seemed ready to explain anything.

• Two of the girls are going to figure out how many of each letter and number they'll need for the project. Right now they say they need cut-out letters for the GS Promise, the GS Law, and "Troop #####" for 13-15 troops. They envisioned having a Crickut or Sizzix machine there for their use, but no body could think of someone who might have one to help them. My mother scrapbooks, so I suggested to my Junior that when she's with her grandmother this week, she ask if she would have any resources and be willing to help them next week.

• I'm excited to see what the girls create. I believe they're recruiting parents to help them physically next week.

• After they had utilized their individual strengths ("Powers") to work as a team, they had the opportunity to find their Power of One badge. I had taken 5 of their Val U. Spiders off the web and hidden them on the playground set; each spider was guarding a Power of One badge. They were to find the spiders and badges... and when they found one for themselves, they had to help the others since they were all a team.

• The Power of Team badge was a little more challenging to finally earn. I used yarn to build a spider web at the backstop at the park; it was similar to the Spider Web on a ropes course. We hung the 5 Power of Team badges in 5 different sections of the web. The girls had to work as a team to get through the web - each space could only be used once. Once on the far side of the web, they had to figure out how to get their badges off the web... and help each other if needed. To get back, they had to cross through the web again - this time they couldn't use any of the lower level spaces. They were supposed to go one by one, but with 5 leaders and no followers, that didn't really happen. They did help each other as feet, flip-flops, and sandals got caught in the web.

• After they all made it, we had a short discussion about having 5 strong leaders in their group and that in their own troops and patrols, they have the potential to be awesome leaders. However, the challenge for next week will be for them to figure out how to work together to get the project done - how to trust each other to take care of their parts.

5. Dismissal.

• It was made clear last week that an official closing was important to the girls. Therefore, I put the girl who spoke up about it in charge of tonight's closing. She decided we were going to "spell out" of the circle again. Since this week's theme was working as a team, the Junior decided the word was "teamwork." Just as in the first session, the Junior started spelling the word, and whoever ended up with "k" said, "Good night, Girl Scouts" and left the circle. By the time everyone had spelled out, the area was cleaned up. Most of the girls were gone before the official ending time, and even those of us who stayed to talk left within 15 minutes of the official end time.

Next week will be interesting. We'll have three projects occurring at three locations. I hope to be able to see part of each one, but I might be recruited to help on a project. The girls all seem excited to work on their projects.

It's Your World - Change It! in a small-town Service Unit

Setting the physical stage:
In the world of Girl Scouting, the national organization (GSUSA) is broken up into councils... my state has five or six of them after the Great Realignment. My Council covers 9 counties, including 3 major cities, 2 minor cities, and an abundance of towns and villages (one county has more dairy cattle than people - in an almost 3-to-1 ratio). The counties are then broken up into smaller Service Units - mine is one of 4 (I think) in my county. Service Units are broken into troops... my Service Unit covers two villages and the towns immediately surrounding them - it's easier to say that the Service Unit covers the school district. This past year we had 1 GS Daisy troop, 4 GS Brownie troops, 4 GS Junior troops, 2 GS Cadette/Senior troops and 1 GS Ambassador troop. We live in a pretty rural community near a relatively large city.

Got all that?

Setting the Program stage:
In my Service Unit, I have voluntarily taken on co-leading a GS Brownie/Junior troop, Adult Recognition Chair, Facilitator, and Leader Development Coordinator (sounds much nicer than "Training and Records Nazi," right?). I also organize a number of events for all of the girls in the Service Unit, including our annual World Thinking Day event, our SU Kick-off event, J-Low Birthday Party With A Twist (co-organizer), Brownie Weekend (co-organizer), and Junior Jamboree (co-organizer)... yes, in my perfect GS world, I would give up leading a troop and become SU Event Wrangler, but that's not happening anytime soon as far as I can tell.

Over the past couple of years, GSUSA has developed a new core program for Girl Scouts called "Journeys." As far as my council has said, and I pointedly asked the Director of Training, these Journeys are meant to be the core of the program, and Daisy Petals, Brownie Try-Its, Junior Badges, and Older Girl Interest Projects are the side courses on the Program buffet. The first Journey that was released is called It's Your World - Change It! The second Journey that is now being released is It's Your Planet - Love It!

Action:
SO, one of my co-leaders signed on to help oversee a program offering for the Service Unit where we focus on the first Journey for a number of weeks over the summer. It's win-win: she is in charge of an event but not on her own, and I'm able to teach someone else event planning and then hope to hand it off in the future. We got together a couple of weeks ago and looked over the adult and girl books for the GS Daisy, Brownie, and Junior levels. We figured out that within a session or two, they all paralleled each other - enough to make our idea feasible.

We have opted for the following set-up
1. A 5-week program meeting on the same night each week - excepting the first day of school - for an hour and a half in the local park.
2. A "Parent Zone" where parents can hang out and socialize without being "helicopter parents."
3. We'll open and do a small activity together, and then break into the three GS-level groups to complete Journey-specific activities.
4. Ideally, a GS Parent will lead each of the three groups with a current GS Leader as direct support - creating the potential for a small-theatre success for parents who are on the fence about becoming a GS Leader.
5. We're going to strongly encourage the girls to think of outdoor projects for their Take Action Projects.
6. The girls can participate regardless of their leader's level of participation or the rest of their troop's level of participation. The "Teams" as the Journeys call for will be created with the other girls in their GS level at the program.

Step one, planning... done!
Step two, recruiting...

I called a number of parents and leaders, and when all was said and done, we had a GS Daisy Parent, a GS Daisy Leader, and a GS Brownie Leader... I'm not giving up hope, but that is at least adequate for now. Within the last 12 hours... all heck has broken loose, it seems language became too muddled, and the short end of it is that we have a GS Daisy Parent-looking-to-lead-next-year and a GS Brownie Leader. Still, we're okay.

Step two, recruiting... done... well, maybe or maybe not.
Step three, advertising to girls and parents...

When we had at least a minimal number of adults to lead the program, I put together a flyer and sent it out through e-mail as a PDF file to all of the leaders, specifically asking them to forward the information to the girls in their troops and clearly stating that the girls were welcome to attend even if the leader did not want to attend. Within the last 24 hours, I found out the leaders of two troops haven't even told their girls about this offering. cue vocalized growling

Step three, advertising... done... at least as well as I can personally manage.

The first night of the program is on August 12th, so the next update will probably be posted near then.