6 October 2008
GSUSA: Weekly Troop Meeting
Posted by admin under: Uncategorized .
How do the girls handle their weekly duties? Do they care? The only real way to know is by seeing what they do. This week they tried to work on an Interest Project (merit badge for the Cadette level of Girl Scouts). Something to do with singing. I don’t know. I was updating my computer at the time.
Then they were working on an upcoming event: Drive-in night. I thought this event was going to be finding and attending one of the vanishing drive-ins that exist in the southern California region, but it has somehow morphed or was always intended to be the girls making previews for pretend movies that they envision followed by us watching a movie projected somewhere (on the side of a house? On the wall in a house?).
Anyway, the girls were working on that. My daughter and her team were trying to create a claymation preview. My Tiger son still considers himself a junior member of the Girl Scout troop and wants to make a Vegie Tales movie, probably because we had a cucumber and tomatoes left over from his Cub Scout event yesterday.
Some of the girls who aren’t working on the movies are actually working on their Silver Award. Here’s a place for me to vent.
There are many troops who work on the Bronze and Silver Awards as troop projects. I don’t understand that concept because we all know that an Eagle rank is an individual thing, but not many people really understand that the Gold Award is also an individual thing. So, I assumed that Bronze and Silver Awards were minor version of the Gold Award and that they were still individual efforts. Somehow, however, there is this acceptance and willingness to accept group projects with those awards so many troops of Girl Scouts will do them together. We tend to discourage that kind of thinking in my troop (although truthfully they are working on interrelated projects so I guess I’m not that hard nosed about it).
So, some of the girls who weren’t involved with the movie preview making were in the living room reading one of the two Studio 2B booklets that allow them to earn the charm that is now a requirement for earning the Bronze and Silver awards (this didn’t use to be the case and is the source of my mistrust with national. They try to introduce topics with a “it’s not required, try it out” approach and then the next thing you know it is a required aspect of earning something you really want). So, some of the girls were working on their Silver requirements at the same time.
This is how our meetings work. The President of the troop is trying to maintain order with her Vice-President to kick a little butt, and then they work on whatever the topic is that week (previously discussed with the troop leader [Mrs. Admin] so that they can accomplish something). My daughter is one of those types who simultaneously wants to earn awards and sit around with her friends not working on anything. So, sometimes we have to gently remind her that she is the currently serving President of the troop and that comes with certain responsibilities. She’s been doing a great job with that and sticking with the game plan she and my wife worked out last month.
It was a good meeting and the semi-required snack was delicious. Now we just need to make sure each girl is taking care of her duties. Until next week…
- 3 Bronze, 3 Silver, 3 Gold
- Girl Scouts and Venture Crews
- GSUSA: Time in a Bottle
- GSUSA: Drive-In Drama
- GSUSA: Watch Your Space
