5 min

Welcome
  Fill in white cards
  Intro of Trainers
  Housekeeping
  Ground Rules

Lecturette

White cards

10 min

Icebreaker

Sharing Name
Girl Scout experience if any
What is your favorite Crayola crayon color?

5 min

What do you think of when you hear the words Girl Scouts?

Top 3 answers from the general public: Cookies, Camping and Crafts.  We in Girl Scouting have 3 C’s too.

Mission:  Girl Scouting builds girls of Courage, Confidence, and Character who make the world a better place. 
We are an informal education program for girls.  Of course, only we know that.  The girls join up to have Fun!

Brainstorm

Mission Statement in packet/poster

15 min

View Commit to a Girl II video

Process the video
Why would GSUSA create this video? 
  To describe the world as girls see it
  To promote membership

The statistics for Girl Scout members are much lower.  Why?
  Self esteem
  Confidence
How do we instill self esteem?
  Giving girls responsibility, we empower the girls to do what they want to do.
  Awards/recognition of tasks well done.

Directed discussion

10 min

Promise & Law
  Before signing a contract or making a promise you should know what you are getting into.  Please read over the Promise & Law in your packet.

Discussion:  Those of you who were once GS – is there anything different? New?

1. thrifty – Use resources wisely
2. clean in thought, word and deed – Responsible for what I say and do.
3. Be a sister to every GS?  What does this mean?  Do we all get along all the time?

No, but there is a special bond between GS.  We can come to consensus, agree to disagree.  Are we all about majority rules?  Not if girls suggestions are being excluded.  We can channel the girls to do things that they have never done before.
If there are no objections please rise.  Investiture/Rededication – when a GS says the Promise in public.  Recite the Promise and Law & welcome the participants to Girl Scouting.

Directed discussion/Investiture

Newsprint of the Promise & Law

20 min

Structure of GS
Start with who is in a troop – 2 registered, trained leaders, 12 girls minimum
support for troop:
  The troop needs support who can help? 
Families: Your job as a Leader is to provide program (do activities) with the girls.  Everything else can be delegated to others.  So, make a list of all the things that you don’t want to do, a wish list.  Then hold a family meeting and tell the families about your vision of the troop.  Then pass around a sign up sheet.  Everyone can do something to support the troop.

More support comes from: volunteers/local shops
     Community leaders
 
Service Team – leader meetings, events
      LDS – liaison between SU and council staff
      Council – structure reflects the SU Team,          Troop Committee. 

Scenario – dispute between adults – who do you go to for help?  Co-leader first, service team, LDM

Adult Development reports on who attended Orientation to the SUMs and LDSs.  They will be in touch with you to let you know about Leader meetings, etc.

Where do national dues go?  How does the council support itself?
       GSUSA – what does it do?
        WAGGGS – 4 World Centers – an excellent long term goal for the girls

Lecturette

www.gscsnj.org

www.girlscouts.org
www.waggsworld.org

Target sheet in packet
Family Meeting packets

15 min

Safety Wise
  Clarify the answers as needed.

Safety Wise Quiz

packet

10 min

Planning & Progression
Girl/Adult Partnership

How do we help the girls go from 5 year olds who can barely tie her shoes to an Ambassador who advocates for change in her community?  By stepping back.  Leaders need to let the girls plan and implement their goals.  Let them make mistakes as long as they are safe while making them. 
The program is keyed to the cognitive, emotional, and physical development of the girls.

It’s not hard…

packet

2 min

Delegating Responsibility
Standing patrols and special patrols for trips, etc.

Kaper Charts

5 min

Resources

Copies of Safety Wise 1 per troop, online Blue Book, NES catalogs

10 min

Troop Finances
Every troop must have a bank account.  Find a bank that is GS friendly i.e. they don’t charge troops for their accounts.  Your SU Team will have more specific advice for you about which banks. 

End of Year Reports
Keep an accounting of the income and expenses for the year.  Turn it in to the SU Treasurer in June.

ST5 form
Sales tax exemption for non-profits.  Always have a copy in your wallet/purse.  The stores do need to keep the copy you bring.

30 min

LDE
Why is Girl Scouts going through a Transformation?  About 9 years ago GSUSA did a projection of membership numbers.  What they found was troubling.  The numbers of adults coming in to the program was flattening out.  The Older Girl Numbers were dropping and Brownie numbers were flattening out.  Something needed to be done to improve the situation.

So, we thought about what we do well and what we do not.  What we do well is develop Leaders!  So we shifted our focus to what we do well.

Show The Engine – on the right hand side is our mission.

Our Mission is: Girl Scouting builds girls fo courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place.  This is our goal. 

How do we get there?  How do we know we are on the right track

Show the square in the middle.

We have short term and intermediate outcomes that we can measure.  What is an outcome?  Why do we need them?  Funders want to see measurable results. 

How do we get to our goal?  Our ultimate outcomes?  By using Girl Scout Processes:

Show bottom bubble on left

Girl Led, learning by Doing and Cooperative Learning – Cooperative Learning is the learning that goes on during small group activities and during breaks when veteran Leaders share their experience with new Leaders. 
Show upper bubble on the left

The girls go on jouneys  - the Leadership Development Experience - and on the journey they find the 3 keys of Girl Scouting:

Discover: discovering her self, what her strengths are and what she can improve on

Connect: Connecting with her community.  For a Daisy that community is small but an Ambassador’s community is the world!

Three GS Keys
Discover – self discovery
Connect – learning about your community.  A Daisy’s community is very small, an Ambassador’s community is the world.
Take Action – while the girls are learning about their community they will see things that need improvement – at this stage they will Take Action to make the world a better place.

Take Action: Taking what she has learned about her community a girl will “take action” to make her community a better place.

Show the brochure:

This year GSUSA is rolling out one journey,  Next year there will be another.

This year’s theme is It’s Your World Change It.  Take a look at the Junior journey.

Show the awards and how they interconnect

The Journey books will be available to you at the end of this month.  Each girl should have her own Journey book because she will be doing journaling and reflecting.  The Facilitator’s Guide will be packaged with the Journey book.  You will refer to both while planning meetings. 

You may use the Journey for as little as 6 weeks or you can expand it to a whole year.  All current materials will continue as they are until 2010. 

The Engine, FAQ’s, information packet about LDE

5 min

Closing
In the daily stresses of life sometimes we forget to say thank you to the people who make Girl Scouts happen.  I am here today to say thank you to you for stepping up to the task of delivering great program to our girls.  Thank you!

Because You Said Yes

5 min

Evaluations, card signing

Evaluations, green cards, pens