Girl Scout Leader Meeting – Minutes from November 2, 2006

 

Troops in attendance, Daisy 2956, Brownie 222, 696, 2450, 2805, Junior 2245, 2552, 2597, 2676, Cadette 779

 

Council Delegate Election

We held our delegate elections.  Sandy and Nancy are our council delegates for the Annual Meeting on March 31st.  We didn’t have anyone volunteer to be our alternate.  Thank you to Holly for attending our meeting and running our elections!

 

Changes to Girl Scouts

Starting in the Fall of 2008, we will have new age levels in girl scouting.  Please see the flyer from council with more information.  The new levels will be as follows:

Grades K-1 = Girl Scout Daisy
Grades 2-3 = Girl Scout Brownie
Grades 4-5 = Girl Scout Junior
Grades 6-8 = Girl Scout Cadette
Grades 9-10 = Girl Scout Senior
Grades 11-12 = Girl Scout Ambassador

 

Some of the main points are:  They will be creating a brand new 2 yr. Daisy program and will now include them in the product sales.  Cadettes will be a middle school program with additional resources for this transitional phase in their life.  The Bronze, Silver and Gold awards will still exist and will be updated for use with the new programs.  Studio 2B is being integrated into the regular programs for continuity.  We will still have vests/tunics/sashes for badges, but the official uniform will now consist of a white shirt and kaki pants/shorts/skirt with vest/sash.

 

By knowing about this now, it allows us to plan ahead.  For example, if your 4th graders want to earn their Bronze award, plan on doing it next year because in 2008 6th graders will be Cadettes.  They will be flexible about age levels as things are phased in so girls who are working on awards won’t lose out.  If you have 5th graders this year who already have their Bronze award, you may want to bridge them into Cadettes for 07-08 if you will be doing the Bronze award next year.  Girls in 9th and 10th grade will all be Seniors in 2008, so if 2079 wants to stay together, they could all bridge to Seniors together at the end of this year… plan ahead for what will work best for your troop.

 

Fall Fund Raiser

The sale was a success.  Everyone was very pleased with the new online system.

-Delivery on 11/11

-Pick-up orders at Jane’s house by 11/14 – she will have your deposit slips when you get your items.

-Money and Final paperwork due by December 1st.  You must give copies of your deposit slips to Jane.

 

Investiture

There is a slight change to the program.  I will be recognizing the Service Team this year.  Otherwise the program is the same one we’ve used the last 4 years.  Daisies will do a petal ceremony, Brownies will do the “Twist me, Turn me” and Juniors and Cadettes will do the flower ceremony.  I need a list of your troop for the program.  * names of new girls.  Please email it ASAP so I can get the programs printed.  I need to know how many new girls will be attending from each of the Junior and Cadette troops so I know how many flowers we will need for the flower ceremony.   SEE COPY OF INVESTITURE SCHEDULE

 

Do we want to do any kind of service at this event?  In past years we have collected canned goods for the food pantry.  Other ideas?

 

Veterans Day Parade

Please remind Daisy and Brownie families about refreshments needed at fire station after parade.  Meet at Town Office Complex at 10:30 AM for parade.  There is a second open house at Stevens Hall.  Cub Scouts are supplying these refreshments.  If your girl’s families have both a cub scout and a girl scout, please have them bring the baked good to Stevens.  Items for both locations can be dropped off before the parade.  Stevens will open at 10am.

 

Cookies (from last month)

Lemon Coolers will not be returning this year.  We will have a new cookie – The Sugar Free Little Brownie.  Also, all cookies now will have no Trans Fat.

Sale begins January 5, 2007

All orders will be entered online this year.  I’d like to have training for troop cookie managers at Jodie’s convenience so everyone will know what they’re doing with the new system.  We need to schedule this with Jodie.

 

Cookie Delivery is scheduled for March 2nd or 3rd

Troop Cookie managers MUST be registered and have the background check. 

No update on the Home Show yet.  I have sent them a letter asking them to reconsider their decision. 

 

Jodie is at cookie training tonight and will have more info to share with us next month on the sale.

 

Our Financial Situation

We currently have a balance of $75.92 in our town account after paying our deposit on Camporee. 

 

We need approx $700 by the end of this year to pay for the balance of camporee, supplies for camporee activities and badges, financial aid, prizes for the midway and other misc. costs like photocopying, etc.  We need the balance of Camporee by May 1st.

 

Some ideas we discussed:
Superbowl meals to be delivered on Superbowl Sunday

Selling hotdogs/hamburgers at town Basketball Tournament.  Debbie will get more info on this.  (Jane can get large grill)

Selling cotton candy

Selling pizza

Spaghetti supper

 

Financial Aid

Guidelines for Financial Aid from our town funds:

  • Financial Aid for dues is not paid in advance. This is to help troops with dues that are delinquent.
  • Requests for financial aid to be submitted only in February and June.
  • If possible, try to find another way for this family to contribute to your troop.  Make sure they participate heavily in your Fall and Cookie sales.  Ask them to supply the weekly snacks or donate some supplies (maybe something recycled) instead of paying dues.  Only come to the town as a last resort.
  • Leader requesting financial aid needs to provide us with the amount of time the girl has not paid dues.  We will not pay more than the maximum allowed by Girl Scouts, which is $2 per week.

 

We must first earn money for our town funds before we can give any FA.

 

Fire/Police Appreciation Dinner

No one troop is interested in holding this event this year.  We discussed doing this as a large community service project where all troops participate.  Each troop would bring some kind of dish (we would make a list and be sure we have enough of main dishes and desserts).  It was suggested that Juniors/Cadettes do main dishes and Brownies do desserts.  We would need some kind of entertainment.  Each troop could do a short skit/dance or other.  We want to be sure it is actually entertaining for the guests.

 

Camporee

We received our Camporee confirmation.  Our dates are June 8, 9, 10 at Camp Farnsworth.  We reserved all cabin/adirondack sites.  We will do a similar system of choosing sites this year.  Troops will choose their top 3 choices and Sandy and I will place troops based on number of girls and age-level in one of your top 3 choices.

 

Brownie leaders, please be sure you do not earn Ready, Set, Go Camping, GirlSports, Earth and Sky, and Outdoor Adventurer.  This year we will do GirlSports.


The schedule for future years will be:
2007 – GirlSports - 2008 - Ready, Set, Go Camping - 2009 - Outdoor Adventurer - 2010 - Earth & Sky (repeat)

By following this rotating schedule, girls who attend as Daisies and Brownies can come all 4 years and never earn the same Try-It.  We may need to make some adjustment in 2008 when the new Daisy program is rolled out and Daisies go to 2 years.  We will have to wait and see what the new Daisy program consists of.

 

Junior Leaders:  4th and 5th graders will lead this badge.  If a 5th grader will be bridging to Cadettes next year, then have them work with the Cadette troop instead.

 

Cadettes will lead the Juniors who are bridging to Cadettes in a Cadette Interest Project Badge.

 

Town-Wide Events – Gym-Ken & Ice Skating  

We decided to push Gym-Ken back to March or April to avoid the possibility of bad weather cancellations. (what about Mar. 24th or Apr 7th?).   Amber ran Gym-Ken for two years, we will check to see if she is interested in doing it again.  Someone suggested looking into a different Gym.  Brentwood Commons was suggested. 

 

Jodie is willing to run Ice Skating again.  We will decide on a date for Ice Skating at Dec. leader meeting when she is here.  Check your calendars and have some dates for next month. (was March 1 last year, during school vacation).

 

 

Dates to Remember

November 9th – Investiture, MPR 7:00 (girls arrive by 6:30)

November 11th –Fall Fund Raiser delivery and Veteran’s Day - Daisy & Brownie families supply refreshments

December 7th – Leader Meeting 7:00

December 10th – Chester Tree lighting & Christmas Caroling – Jr & Cadette families supply refreshments