27 June 2008
Girl Scouts – Shrinking or Growing?
Posted by admin under: Girl Scout Reorganization .
The Girl Scouts of America is combining its councils. Does that mean it is shrinking in size and needs to combine? Or does it mean that they want to grow the size of their councils? Well, probably the former, but if you want to read about it from the perspective of the Los Angeles area councils that are combining you can go to their web site: http://www.girlscoutsla.org/.
These changes are part of a re-organization the national leadership bills as changing for the 21st century. I’m still ambivalent about the change since I like the traditional program and what it represents: traditional values of outdoor appreciation and development of each girl to be her best. That includes, for me: camping, singing, mentoring younger girls, and learning new skills through the badge program.
I’ll be bringing you more of my opinion on the re-organization as I come to it and the individual aspects. I’ve got a post brewing about the changes to the Silver Award program, but I’m still getting up to speed on the traditional form and new changes. So, that’s for the future.
- Any Questions, Girls?
- Lead Like a Deer
- Changing Scouts Necessary?
- Different Take on Journeys Transformation
- The Reality of Scouting
One Comment so far...
karen Says:
9 April 2010 at 11:39 am.
I sat in a meeting about the new journeys requirements for the silver.
We were actually given an example of a project where girls, 11 & 12 years old, could identify a high crime neighborhood and develop a program to reduce crime there.
Say what?! (Guess we can throw the Girl Scout Safety Wise Manual away)
The Silver & Gold Awards now have to be “sustainable”. In Sept. of ‘09, sustainable meant just that, sustainable. Which meant no more one shot projects; we’d all be out building picnic tables like the boy scouts.
By Jan. of 2010, the definition of sustainable had changed to “potential to be sustainable”.
Meaning, that if the girls wanted to lead a fun day for the silver award, they could meet the definition by leaving behind a written plan for what they did so that someone in the future could repeat it. Of course, it won’t be girl scouts repeating it, because they would have to create their own program!
And to stress the troop leaders further, the silver award can no longer be done together by the whole troop. No more than 4 girls can work on a silver project. So if you have large troop, guess what!
Is this what you have been told in your area?
