Leader Meeting Minutes from October 6, 2005




Troops in attendance: 222, 696, 2450, 2546, 2245, 2676, 1035

We have a new brownie leader this year. Patricia R. is taking over 696. WELCOME!

Cindy needs to have all Leaders, Co-Leaders and Assistant Leaders names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. Also, please send her the location, day and time of your meetings.

Council asked us to remind anyone who meets in their homes that a home inspection can be done at any time. Your home needs to be handicapped accessible. Remember that if an incident happens where a girl is hurt, this could fall back on your homeowners insurance.

We will be holding at "Haunted Songfest" on Saturday, October 29th at 6pm at Wason Pond. Girls can come in costume if they wish. Bring marshmallows if you want to roast. Cindy will be taking care of the fire. Please have everyone bring a piece of wood (size of your arm, elbow to wrist) to contribute to the fire.

Investiture will be held on Thursday, November 10th at 7:00. This is the night before Veteran's Day and is an early release day. Please have the girls there by 6:30 to line up. Cindy needs Leader names and Girl names for the Investiture program. Star the girls that have moved up to a new level or are new to girl scouts.

Veteran's Day parade - Parade starts at 11:00, please be there by 10:30 to line up. Brownie and Daisy families supply baked goods for the gathering after the parade. Drop them off at the Fire Station by 10:30.

We need to have a Fall Fund Raiser Manager training for the troop's managers. This is required by council. Jodie was not present at the meeting to talk about scheduling. Jodie is the manager for town but if she is unavailable to give the troop-level training, council will come and do it for us. We will also need to have one for the Cookie Managers when the time comes. We didn't do this last year but we should have. Fall training needs to be done before paperwork is due. We need to move on this ASAP.

We have decided to do a Girl Scout survey to see where we stand with the parents. Names are optional. We just want to know what we are doing right and to keep doing it, and also what we can improve on. We feel that this would be a huge benefit to all the leaders. Surveys and self-addressed stamped envelopes were handed out at the meeting. See Cindy if you don't have yours yet.

We will be holding a council event (possible date, Saturday, December 10th) for girls in 1st through 3rd grades. All girls, including non-members are welcome. This will be both a fun badge-earning day for our current members and a possible recruitment day for new girls. Council will help us set this up and will have info available for parents. Several decisions need to be made soon. Please check your email for questions from Nancy on this.

We discussed starting a financial need fund from town funds. The fund would start with $75 to be used for vest, dues, etc. Leader who has girl with financial need would have the family complete a confidential request form and bring to the next Leader Meeting. If the request is for a uniform or $10 GSUSA dues, some aid may be available from Swift Water Council. Leader should look into council aid first if available.

Cookie dough will expire on December 23rd at noon. If you have cookie dough you can't use, Holly from council suggested purchasing extra badge books/hand books for all levels to create a library (either for just your troop or for town) or you can purchase uniform pieces to be donated to girls in OUR town. Don't let your hard-earned dough go to waste!

We are putting together a baby basket for the first baby girl born on Halloween (Juliette Gordon Low's Birthday) or soon after at Parkland. Please drop off your troops contribution (any item needed for newborn baby girl) to Cindy before Oct 31.

We discussed the Camporee. Dates are- first choice, June 2-3-4, second choice, May 19-20-21, third choice June 9-10-11. We decided to add swimming as our afternoon activity and move badge work to earlier in the day. We will need to have contingency plan if weather is cold or rainy.

Please have your banking form to Nancy ASAP. This is the form that came in your envelope labeled "Group Info Packet". The form says "Troop/Group/Service Unit Bank Account Form". Please complete all information (including names of all 3 signers). If forms are not turned in soon, leaders will be getting a call from Council on this. 3rd signer MUST be SUM or Finance person. If the 3rd signer is not Cindy or Nancy, it must be changed.

Nancy P. is collecting items for the Newnan family. If you don't know them, contact Nancy for info. Many of the girls in your troop may know Jessica (5th grader) or Samantha (2nd grader) and also want to contribute. Please pass along the list if possible. Call Nancy to pick up items you've collected. This is the list of the items they need. Items must be specific ones listed. Matthew Newnan is very sensitive, has many allergies and these are the only ones he does not react to. Please help if you can.

  • Paper towels - Bounty or any brand will be fine
  • Antibacterial soap - Bath & Body Works
  • Bottled water - any kind - gallons and bottles (Matthew cannot use the well water for bathing or drinking)
  • Clorox Disinfecting wipes (or Lysol)
  • Bottles of bleach (any kind)
  • Bottles of Purrell or other waterless hand sanitizers
  • Johnson & Johnson softwash cleansing cloths (can only take sponge baths)
  • CVS brand SleepPants, size Medium
  • 3M Nexcare bandaids for his glucose testing- Active Brights or paper (Pooh and Mickey) - both LATEX FREE
  • Batteries - size D and AAA (for some of the equipment we must use for him)
  • Arm & Hammer scent and dye free laundry detergent


    Council is bringing back the "Tip Top Troop" award. (Name may change when it is released). This is a great way to know that you are following GS Program Guidelines. Even if you don't plan on doing all steps of the award, it is a good way to check yourself. It is in the process of being put together. Council will send out info as soon as it is ready.

    Time/Date for the Home Show Cookie Sale:
    March 10, 1PM to 8PM
    March 11, 10AM to 8PM
    March 12, 10AM to 4PM
    We decided we would ask Junior and Cadette troops if they could help out with the sale this year. It is difficult to have Brownies stay at the sale until 8PM. Time assignments for troops will be done at a later Leader meeting.

    We discussed our goals for the Service Unit. Some items we touched on were:

    Girl Membership Goals - We'd like to find a way to contact Home Schoolers. Does anyone have a contact in this area? How can we contact more girls other than school newsletter?

    Adult Membership Goals We'd like to expose more adults to what it is like to lead a troop. Show how much fun it can be. Also, if you know you're bridging out of your current troop, try to mentor a parent of a younger girl to take on Leader role. Have her be your helper for several months at the end of the school year so she will be familiar with how things run

    Girl Program Goals We'd like to stress the importance of Community Service to all our troops. We've seen a decline in the number of service projects being done. All troops should be doing one or more a year.

    Adult Support Goals We discussed creating a Library of books for leader use. Also, more experienced leaders could help new leaders get started.

    Maintenance/Ongoing Goals Cindy would like to see every troop have 1 trained person in Outdoor Living.





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