r/girlscouts

Good morning, I'll try to keep short and include all relevant details. My junior Girl Scouts voted to go to an amusement park with their cookie money. We can get discount tickets until May 28th. The girls would only have to pay for their own food which could be expensive, but it's a cashless amusement park. I prefer this to be a troop activity. I don't mind Tagalongs if they pay their own way.

I don't want to order tickets pay for them and then have the kids not use them/not show up. Do you think I should charge everyone a nominal fee towards food so that I don't basically buy tickets that go to waste? If tickets are $40, what do you think is reasonable charge? The Park is an hour and a half two hour drive from our location.

There are 12 kids in our troop and I'm asking for two other chaperones plus myself, which works for our Council. So my questions are:

1. How much do you think I should charge?

2. Should I return the money slash deposit when they show up and keep it in the case of no shows?

3. Do I reimburse chaperones for gas money?( I wasn't going to do that, but was going to pay for parking).

Anything else I didn't think of?

Edited to add: planning on an all-day trip from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. the park doesn't allow you to bring a full-on picnic. They also only allow one closed bottle of water or one empty reusable water bottle.

This is just a psa for newer leaders. After doing a new leader training tonight, I got on another social media site and immediately pops up a group discussion about following VTK plans for badges. Then I get on here and see a post complaining about the petals and it taking 10 meetings to do them. So, fellow leaders, you can stack lower level badges. You can do the same activities that cover badges at two different levels. You can make your own plans. Or there are a ton of plans online. You do not have to follow the plans on VTK or anything else provided by GS. Those things are there if you want to use them, but you don't have to. Do what works best for your troop!

Hi all- I’m hoping to get some recommendations for earning daisy petals at home with my Girl Scout this summer before she bridges to Brownies.

We joined the troop this spring (right as cookie season was starting), and she’s earned several other badges with them but because it’s a multi-level troop (mostly brownies & juniors) we didn’t get a chance to earn any petals besides the center.

The troop leader did give us the a set of petals for her vest, so I’m hoping to help her earn them all this summer but looking for ideas to help me decide what to do for each petal.

If it helps, she’s a good reader and I’m open to simple outings and activities for some of the petals as necessary. I think the petals program seems like a good chance to talk about different aspects of being a good person and set her up with a good foundation for scouting, I just need a little help with ideas of how to do it.

Looking for some creative ways to accomplish the trailblazing badge. Having difficulty finding a place that the girls could actually hike and spend a night at. Unfortunately we don’t have any national parks locally and most of our state parks only have actual campsites. Reading the badge it basically sounds like backpacking but not 100% sure. Most people seem to focus on the spirit of the badge that I’ve spoken to so I’m struggling with ideas and how to approach it.

The girls have gotten the outdoor journey every level so far and wanted to continue that accomplishment. So I’m trying but coming up empty so far. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Hey all.

Ive got the best brownie troop in the whole world. Sweetest kids ever. We have a few in the troop who have a very strong need to move their bodies and I want to honor that.

We've already done the outdoor explorer badge and dancing badge.

Does anyone have any suggestions for badges that let the girls do some heavy work? I want these girls to feel like they got ALL their wiggles out by the end of the meeting.

My 9yo daughter who is about to complete 4th grade is kind, sensitive, passionate about books and characters she reads about, loves being silly, and is a serious empath. She picks up on everything! I think her empath skills will serve her as an adult once she learns to navigate people's feelings and moods and can separate herself from every shift in mood or slights against her. But as of now, she is very aware of when she's "in" with the group or "out".

She has been in 3 troops first was about 9 girls. All of them older, including 4 who were 2 years older than her. The younger girls were siblings to the older and had been in the same troop since Daisies. The second group was also mixed. Mostly younger girls and 2 older (her age) who were besties. This year a mom at my daughter's school started a grade level school troop, and asked if she wanted to join. Sounded great, but I didn't realize it would be a small 6 person group where 4 of the girls are besties and go on vacations and have slumber parties etc together.

Anyway, trying out 3 troops and still feeling like an outsider feels like that's an us-problem, not them. Last night my daughter told me she doesn't like her troop because the leader and the leader's daughter are mean to her and don't like her. Both have very sharp personalities. When they zero in on you being the problem, it is pretty harsh.

At a campout the leader's daughter told all the girls to line their sleeping bags up, and then told my daughter to sleep at their feet. They chatted past bedtime but when my daughter spoke, she told her to stop bc they were supposed to go to sleep. Then continued conversations with the other girls. They'll play and have fun and then suddenly she'll tell my daughter to stop. Nothing changed, she just decides it was fun, but now just my daughter needs to stop.

I started going to all the events and some of the meetings bc my daughter was having meltdowns.. I'm witnessing a lot of this behavior as well as seeing the way the leader speaks to her. It's just a lot harsher than the other parents or I speak to the girls in the troop.

Sorry so long. I have more examples, but I'll stop. I just need to know, is it better to gently encourage my daughter to continue so she can learn the skills to work with all different personality types? Or should I switch her to the Juliette program and just let her focus on her own journey with scouting?

If anyone has been through something similar I'd be interested in hearing your decision and how your daughter hopefully blossomed by staying in the group or going to Juliette. Thank you.

I am thinking of starting a summer book club for my girl scout troop. I don't usually meet or hold events for my troop, but I thought why not get the girls reading more! What other fun things do you do with your troops over the summer!?

My daughter is in a Girl Scout Brownie troop (with girls age 7-8 years old), and there are unfortunately a lot of communication issues with the Girl Scout leader.

A ton of the parents have been frustrated by the lack of communication that the leader gives. The first year, she gate kept a lot of information and kept parents in the dark about what was happening as far as planning events, our budget, camping trips and scheduling. Some suspicions of the parents were that the leader did not want to give up control, and wanted to do it all herself. We would show up to meetings, and not know what was going on, or how to support her bc she kept us in the dark.

She does, and currently does a great job working with the girls. She communicates wonderfully with them and really takes the girl led philosophy of Scouting to heart. Which is great, she leads with integrity and leads the scouts in an engaging way and supports the values and mission statement of the Girl Scouts.

However, she needs a lot of help with communicating with the adults. Some parents have brought it up to her, and have tried to help, encouraging Parent Only Meetings (where we can discuss the budget, annual events, the cookie season, the calendar, what badges the girls could possibly work on). She seemingly begrudgingly attends those events. We just asked to hold 2-3 meetings a year. But she doesn't really take to heart any of the feedback the parents give. She thinks the parent meetings are pointless and don't need to happen. She doesnt want to plan any future meetings even though we have asked for at least 3 meetings (beginning of year, beginning of cookie season, and end of year).

Also, at the beginning of our scouting experience we all agreed the regular Girl Scout meetings should be max twice a month, and no more than 2 hours. She agreed. Yet she just put out a calendar for the whole year where we meet up every single weekend. Not every other weekend like we agreed. She says going to meetings is optional, and no one should feel like they have to go to all of them. But then of course our girls feel bad when they dont have one of the badges, the leaders daughter has.

In addition, a bunch of the girls have showed a lot of interest in doing water related events (pool party, going to a water park, kayaking). When some parents have tried to organize it, she just shuts it down, and says the girls need to decide it. The girls have been asking for it for 2-3 years and she keeps putting it off. If this is Girl Led, why isnt she okay with parents organizing it, so it actually happens. All she wants to do is badge work, and the events she plans (and then pushes those events on the girls) She isn't actually listening to what literally all of them have been asking for.

And finances, for some reason she likes keeping everyone in the dark. Our girls have sold a lot of cookies, but she doesn't like to inform anyone how much we have in the bank, or how much we spend on badges, or what the fiscal plan is. When parents ask about it, she says she will talk to the scouts at a meeting, but she doesn't. The treasurer just does what she says.

Help? What do we do to make this work? About half of the troop are thinking of leaving because they think this is pointless. We already lost 2 families in the last few years. The leader wont change even when we have talked to her.

My daughter loves girl scouts so I hate to pull her out, but this is driving some of the families mad.

I’m very curious about this, honestly.
I’m still a Girl Scout myself, but from what I’ve noticed, not many girls would want to join Girl Scouts. Likely because of school schedules and such, the usual for a high-schooler, but I’ve always wondered if they were rare in other service units (like mine, my Service Unit is about to have only 6 Seniors and a few Cadettes due to graduation and schooling differences).
Does anybody else have this phenomenon in their Service Units? I really want to know! ^^

Why are we asking kindergartners to differentiate between "friendly and helpful" and "considerate and caring"? What is fun about a meeting theme of "responsible for what I say and do"? Why are we expected to devote TEN meetings to the general concept of "be a nice person" when most troops only meet twice a month? And why are the petals designed so that if you don't get to all of them, the vest prominently displays an awkward-looking, half-finished flower?

Don't get me wrong, my troop did the petals, and we found ways to make them fun. But I really wish we'd skipped them and made time for more of the (much more interesting) Daisy badges instead.

I’m on a quest for an old style leader vest or a decent enough knock off in a 2xl or 3xl. I don’t want a ponte knit style, even if it is stretchier and more comfortable. I would overheat and I would be angry all the time. The store online only has medium and small. I’m going to call my local shop tomorrow but I don’t have high hopes.

Does anyone know where on the internet this could be acquired? Or if your local shop still has the older style in larger sizes, could you tell me where it is and I can contact them? Thank you very much.

I’m feeling a bit stuck and would really appreciate some advice.

My current co-leader would like to serve as our Fall Product/Cookie Chair this year. She’s done an amazing job the past two years, and I completely support her taking on that role.

At the same time, I really need additional co-leaders. We’re a multi-level troop (daisies and brownies, with half our brownies moving up to juniors soon) with 17 girls, and ideally I’d love to have one co-leader for each level. The role would mainly involve helping plan the year alongside me and the other co-leaders, and assisting with guiding their level during meetings. Managing a multi-level troop without enough support has been very challenging.

I recently sent a message to parents explaining this kindly and honestly, including that I may not be able to continue leading the troop without additional help. A couple of parents have reached out to say they can’t commit to a co-leader role, but would try to help when they’re able, which I do appreciate. However, what I really need is consistent support in order to sustainably manage the troop. I’m worried that if I ultimately have to step back, the troop could end up falling apart, and I truly don’t want that for the girls.

I’m not sure how to move forward from here. Has anyone been in a similar situation, or does anyone have suggestions for encouraging parent involvement or restructuring things in a manageable way? I’m also considering reaching out to our service unit for guidance, but wanted to seek advice here first. Thank you so much.

Hi all!

I will be co-leading a brand-new Daisy troop with a group of 1st graders!

The girls attend Kindergarten together and my co-leader and I are working on doing everything we are required to do in order to get the troop up and running soon. Given that it's almost the end of the school year and summer plans are always tricky, we're thinking about maybe having some optional meet-ups over the summer but then starting in earnest when school starts.

We are thinking of doing 60-90 minute meetings every other week and focusing on just the petals. Does this sound reasonable? We would let the girls choose the next petal to focus on and maybe even have a daisy-parent duo take the lead on coming up with part of the activities for that petal.

I am BRAND NEW to the world of girl scouts, so please feel free to (gently, please) put me in my place if this doesn't sound realistic/etc.

Also, I would LOVE any tips/suggestions/etc for someone who was never a GS herself but is sooo excited for her daughter to have a fun, engaging way to learn, play, and connect with her peers!

I am an older (ish) parent of a Brownie. My service unit does not have any troops younger than mine.. no Daisies at all! A lot of the parents my daughters age or younger, are a good 5-10 years younger than me. I bring up age because I feel like if I weren't leading my daughter's troop, no one would be. Younger parents of younger elementary students don't seem to want to take on volunteering roles. It's also hard to find volunteer soccer coaches, my daughter's coaches are also older parents (with middle/high school age siblings) like me. I recently had a parent try to demand her daughter, who is a year younger than my troop, join my troop. I asked, "Why don't you start your own troop for your grade!?" I'd love for there to be more troops.. but the younger parents don't seem willing to do it.. do you all notice this too?

im desperate and absolutely will not use AI. I really want a Girl Scout tattoo that would look good 5-7 inches. everything on Pinterest is a little boring, any ideas?

This was our troop's first cookie season, and the scouts are receiving several fun patches to commemorate (like, up to 5 including recognition bars).

Many are running out of real estate on the back of their uniforms already and I've heard of other Scouts having a separate designated apron or something like that for all cookie patches, which they then wear during cookie season.

I want to provide this as an option to our troop parents. Could you please send me the alternatives you have done or seen? Photos or links to products are especially appreciated. Thank you!

Edit: if for some reason this is not a good idea, would love to hear experiences with this as well!

Ok, so overall we really like GS but it’s the camps I’m having a hard time with and I’m wondering if we’re an unusual exception.

This is what happened, sent the kid to her first GS overnight camp in spring 2025 (brownie). She and multiple other girls had had potty accidents because the toilets were terrible and they were scared to use them at night. Second time was a different location and I went with her, she caught a chest cold then came down with pneumonia. This most recent time we just did the day camp and she caught lice there I’m pretty sure. I’m about to write off camp. But it’s so fun for her, she loves it. I’m conflicted, because maybe I could have done some things different too. But rn we’re 3/3.

Opinions? Horror stories to commiserate?

For ten years I've been defending my council & advising other leaders to focus on girls & troop experiences. But, now I'm upset & I just need to vent.

Like, I've had some prior disappointments...

When my kids were still pretty little they were suddenly waitlisted for resident camp with no notice. Customer Care tried saying girls had been on wait list since sign up... but I had receipts/evidence proving otherwise. There were several weeks with openings so we just transferred them to different date. It made me feel very awkward that they flat out they lied, but they apologized & it all worked out in the end...

Later I earned council recognition in a specific area of scouting & was to be formally recognized at our annual event. Bought a new outfit and maybe even bragged a little to some family. Months go by & event is getting closer, then I get an email saying that they had to make some changes & my recognition would be handed out at a service unit meeting that fall. I felt like I shouldn't be upset because I don't do any of this for awards or applause, but couldn't help but feeling a little upset, then I felt guilty about that. The annual event was located almost three hours from me and I decided to not make the drive. BUT guess what? They DID recognize me at the event!!!! I started getting texts with pics of my freaking name on a giant screen & people asking where I was & why didn't I come. Someone in my SU later even told me it was disrespectful of ME not to even bother showing up.

There's more, but on to the present day-

Was driving & recieved a voicemail that I won a volunteer appreciation raffle & to call them back for more info. It's some pretty nice swag, stuff I would never buy myself in shop... so I'm excited!

I called back immediately, employee in charge of raffle is in a meeting so I leave message. Several days go by & I haven't heard back, so I call the office & the employee is in meeting again. Give my info & was told employee would call me back. Repeat that again x3. Last week I told them they could just email me if that was easier.

Crickets.

It has been weeks now, and I'm starting to feel like a pest? Apparently no one else has any info on the prize other then I need to speak to the specific unreachable employee. Council is over an hour away & open weird hours. I reallllly don't want to take time off only to drive there & find out they just shipped it to me. Sent an email early this morning & included some other employees I know... maybe I will hear back tomorrow? If not I guess it was free stuff, so I can't really be that upset about it.

...but THEN-

This afternoon I received an email that they canceled my youngest daughter's camp session. "Low attendance and new restructuring of summer programming"... but the session was full when I looked at openings for a troop member a month ago? Email said they are excited to register her for a new session. But that was only week specific session/theme was offered & she has no interest in others. No info whether session is being rescheduled to another week or what exactly the "restructuring" is... and no mention on refunds for total cost or price difference. Im sure they will refund us, but I would like to have seen that mentioned in the email. Supplies have been bought, schedule has been cleared, physical has been done, conflicting invites have been declined, sister & friends are still going to their sessions, and my daughter is MAD! This would be her fifth consecutive year at this camp. She's a teenager & it's hard to keep her excited about scouting, but she considers resident camp to be a tradition & was genuinely looking forward to it.

Whatever. We can't always get what we want, & I guess this is a teachable moment in how to handle disappointment?

Still... I can't help feeling really disrespected. I know there are probably things going on that are out of their control, but it just always feels like disorganization & a lot of covering their own butts. I give them grace time & time again, but am starting to feel like a doormat. I put a lot of time into this organization, then have to give up even more for their "volunteer appreciation" prize? My daughter works hard to sell cookies with a specific goal in mind, then that is canceled just weeks before?

Okay, it's off my chest. Maybe I will feel better about the whole thing in a few days? I do love Girl Scouts, just wish I could get back some of the same effort & energy from council that I put into my troop.

(I tried to tweak it a little for annomity, but I may have been a little too specific, so if you're reading this & think you may know who I am... shhh! no you do not! lol)

*edited for spelling & errors, then I gave up.