November 30 2020

A Fall Product Sales Surprise!

Reminiscing    1 Comment    , , , , ,

In case you’re unaware, Girl Scouts sell more than just cookies!  We also run a fall product sale involving nuts, candy, magazines, and whatever knick knacks are in the catalog.  Every year there’s a collectible tin filled with chocolate mints (that I must say are very good).  I’ve gotten one each year that I’ve been a leader, and I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to do with all of them.  Some I use for SWAPs and others for patches that I haven’t sewn on yet.  The rest go up in the attic for some later use (aka collect dust), much to the chagrin of my husband.  This year’s featured a Brownie uniform.

I ordered one of the tins from my daughters, and after the fall product came in, I left it in the box for a while after we delivered the other orders.  The other day I pulled it out, and when I went to take the cellophane off to eat the delicious mints, I noticed something.  The troop number of the Brownie uniform is… TROOP 20!!!!!!!!!  Continue reading

November 17 2020

Now is the Time to Take Action on Camps

Opinions    9 Comments    , , , , ,

Well, I mighta sorta lied (again) about not writing about topics on the national level.  But I felt moved after I posted something on The (UNOFFICIAL) Outdoor Journey Idea Facebook Page regarding how covid-19 has created a crisis in Girl Scouting and what this possibly means for camps.

Advantage Emblem patch

I’ll basically rehash what I said but go into a little more detail.  Covid-19 has created a catastrophic membership crisis in Girl Scouting in case you’re not aware of this fact.  Many troops are on life support due to being Zoomed out.  Some councils still do not allow in-person meetings, and after spending all day in virtual school, the last thing girls want to do is sit in front of yet another virtual meeting for another hour.  Leaders by and large do not like hosting meetings on Zoom.  Like I said in my last blog post, a few troops in my service unit folded because the leaders didn’t want to deal with the hassle on top of trying to manage the stressors of life in this day and age.  And for the troops that are allowed to meet in-person, some parents don’t feel comfortable with this arrangement, so they’ve pulled their girls.  Continue reading

November 15 2020

Before There Were Virtual Troops…

Traditional Stuff    2 Comments    ,

Since the pandemic started, many troops have met via Zoom or some other conference software.  Over the summer, I served as the admin for one of our council-wide virtual troops.  Additionally, I led a few meetings in the spring with our own troop.  With our new council-wide Trailblazer troop this year, we have one meeting via Zoom and one in-person activity a month.  I have to be honest – virtual meetings are not my favorite thing to do, and I haven’t met any leaders who really enjoy it.  In fact, we had some troops fold in our service unit because they don’t see the point in continuing if it’s going to be this difficult.  It’s a discouraging situation all around really.  We’ll muddle through it and then hopefully rebuild at some point.

But it turns out that there’s been other times in Girl Scouting’s history where girls had meetings that weren’t held in-person.  I happened across this story while researching Lone Girl Scouts thanks to the help of Ernie A. and the Girl Scout Collector’s Guide on pg. 90.  Continue reading

November 9 2020

Letting It Run Its Course

National Governance, Opinions    3 Comments    , ,

I just wanted to drop a short note to let you all know that I will be taking a sabbatical of sorts here on GSWAC (Not a Council).  I might post things from time to time, but I don’t really see me writing any sort of editorial on a national scale for a while.  There’s really nothing left for me to say as I’ve been saying it over and over for the past five years now.

A friend of mine once said that making changes at GSUSA is like turning an ocean liner.  It’s a slow process in order to get it headed in a different direction.  But recently I feel like I got pushed off the boat, sucked under, and chopped up in the propellers.  Continue reading