Multi-Level Troop Stress

We interrupt this cookie season and meme craziness for a serious post.

One topic that I never see covered in any leader training is how to run a multi-level troop.  There could be some councils out there that specifically offer this as a training or a downloadable resource, but I’ve never run across it.  If your council DOES have something like this, PLEASE send it my way via email – amy at dawgtoons.com – or in the comment section below!  [Addendum 1/6/2016:  Da-nice has this almost eerie talent for finding volunteer resources. She found these three handouts from the Carolinas Peaks to Piedmont council: 

• Multi-Level Tip Sheet
• Multi-Level Troop Model
• Multi-Level Packet
• Addendum 5/23/17:  Blog post from the NorCal council –  How I Learned to Lead a Multi-Level Troop
• Addendum 5/24/17:  There’s also a Facebook group for multi-level troops.
• Addendum 11/17/17:  The relatively new podcast Silver & Gold featured an episode about multi-level troop planning and includes a few resources as well.
• Addendum 9/14/18:  Here’s a Short & Snappy from GS of Northern Indiana Michiana
• Addendum 12/11/19:  NorCal blog post – How Our Multi-Level Girl Scout Troop Supported Diverse Interests

In case you don’t know what I’m referring to when I say multi-level troop, I mean one in which multiple levels of girls are under one troop umbrella.  For example, my troop has Juniors, Brownies, and Daisies in it.  We meet separately and have a leader per level, but I’m considered the primary leader and do all the fun stuff like paperwork and finances and what nots.  Wheee!  I’m also the Junior leader and assist with the Daisy meetings if you were wondering.  A leader friend of mine has a multi-level troop and hers all meet at the same time.  I have no idea how she does it, but it works for her!

When I was a Girl Scout growing up, my troop (Troop 20 w00t!) only had one level in it.  We were all in the same grade.  When I started as a leader, multi-level troops were completely foreign to me, and I had no intention of having one.  However, due to circumstances, I ended up being a Daisy leader in a troop that was already established and eventually became the primary leader.  If I had to do it all over again, I would do things VERY differently, but that’s water under the bridge.

I don’t know about your area, but almost every troop in my service unit is a multi-level troop.  I would be curious to know what percentage of troops in the United States are multi-level vs. traditional single level troops.  I was surprised to find that another friend’s service unit that’s not too far from ours has almost all single level troops in it.

We don’t have enough volunteers in our area (does anybody?), so we end up with these monster-size troops that are multi-level.  Sometimes they form because volunteers are hesitant about being the primary leader, so they’ll join up with one that’s already established.  Or, a new troop will form, and because there’s such a large waiting list, the poor new leader will take everybody and her sister thinking that’s just what you’re supposed to do.  But even if you start with only Daisies, when the 1st graders bridge up to Brownies and you’ve still got kindergartners – surprise!  You’ve got a multi-level troop the next year.  And that’s when the headaches start for a lot of leaders.  [Note – I’m not saying it’s like this for everybody.  Some leaders thrive under multi-level troops and more power to them.  I’m just sharing my personal experience and what I see from other leaders in my SU].

Being a leader is stressful.  Being a multi-level troop leader is even more stressful.  At least it is for me.  Not only do I have to worry about the girls, but I’ve also got to coordinate multiple leaders too.  Trying to get us all together for a leader meeting is pretty much impossible due to everybody’s schedule, and it’s just one more meeting for me to go to in addition to the troop meeting, the SU Team meeting, and the SU Leader meeting.  I’ve finally just accepted that each level is pretty much its own entity that just happens to be tied under the same troop number.  There are also some details that I don’t want to share publicly that add to the frustration level.  But I’m thankful that I get along with the other two leaders in my troop – so it could be worse like it was in the past.

Now that I’m the primary leader, I eventually was able to work it so that we’ve got the same grade in each level.  As in our Juniors are all in the 5th grade, the Brownies are all 3rd graders, and the Daisies are all 1st graders.  But many new leaders learn the hard way when the majority of their troop bridges up and you’ve got two or three girls left behind in the previous level.  Nobody tells you these things when you’re forming a troop (at least it’s nowhere that I can find in any of our training).

Some of this may be just a control thing and an anxiety hangup for me personally, but I worry about stuff like:  Has the other leader gotten all of the paperwork from the girls?  If we plan a troop trip, is it going to be age appropriate for the younger girls?  Do I need to remind that other leader that Daisy Brown’s parent hasn’t paid her dues yet and we can’t buy badges for her until she does so?  Has that other leader gotten all of her training yet in case I can’t be in attendance?  If we have a troop event and one of the leaders can’t attend and no parents will fill in, does that mean just that level can’t do it? Did that other leader have her parents sign permission slips for that field trip they just went on?  If not and something happens, am I partly responsible because I’m the primary leader?  Do the other leaders have copies of their girls’ health histories?  Are they even going to be a leader next year and if not, what the heck am I going to do with those girls if no one steps up????  OMG, SERENITY NOW!!!

This is on top of all of the typical planning that you do for the girls.  So as you can imagine, this can lead to some major leader burnout.  If a study was done, would GSUSA and councils find that there is a correlation between multi-level troops and lower volunteer retention rates?  My guess is yes.  Regardless if there is or isn’t, I would highly suggest that councils offer resources and/or training specifically about how to handle the challenges of multi-level troops. Or at the very least, cover it in orientation.

Now back to your regularly scheduled cookie season.

Addendum 1/5/2016:  I took an informal poll on the GS Gab Facebook group to see how many leaders have single vs. multi-level troops, and multi-level outnumbered single 136 to 109.  Obviously this is not a scientific poll, but it at least gives us some kind of clue about how prevalent multi-level troops are.  Based on the comments, only one council (unnamed) has training specifically for these types of troops.  A handful of council discourage or don’t allow multi-level troops.  Considering that GSUSA’s Customer Engagement Initiative supposedly puts more emphasis on volunteer support, they may want to consider this topic as one that should be acknowledged in training and resources.

Addendum 5/23/17:  Other than cookie memes, this particular post has the most hits that come from web searches.  It’s very obvious how much of a need there is for training or resources for multi-level troops.  The Northern California council recently published this blog post by a leader who runs a multi-level troop:  How I Learned to Lead a Multi-Level Troop