Before There Were Virtual Troops…
Traditional Stuff 2 Comments 
ann robertson, history
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.
Starting in 1919, Girl Scouts allowed girls who lived in isolated areas with no troops in the area to join as Lone Scouts. After receiving some press in a periodical for rural area residents in 1926, so many applications for Lone Scouts came in to the National Headquarters that an OFFICIAL Lone Scout department was created. In additional to receiving applications from girls in every state, National also received some from Poland, Japan, and Canada!
But before the article in 1926 was published, Lone Scouts could become part of a troop in an innovative way – the radio! Starting in 1923, Pittsburgh radio station KDKA broadcast troop meetings on Mondays at 7pm. Five hundred girls “from Maine to California and from Minnesota to Florida, including hundreds of cities, towns, and outlying areas where Girl Scouting had never been reached before” tuned in. An in-depth article about this program ran in the January 1925 edition of Wireless Age – The Radio Magazine. You can click on each picture to read each page.
Later in 1955, the Girl Scouts of Jefferson County ran a short TV series featuring programming. You can read more about it here on Ann Robertson’s GS History blog.
So as you can see, Girl Scouts throughout its history has done its best to keep the Movement going in various ways using whatever cutting edge technology was available at the time – radio, television, and now virtual. What will be the next type? Three-dimensional broadcasts?
Wonderful to read! So, the “new” isn’t really “new”!! We’ve been doing it all along!
Jamboree-on-the-Air (JOTA) is held the third weekend in October. JOTA is an annual event in which Boy and Girl Scouts and Guides from all over the world speak to each other by means of Amateur (ham) Radio. Scouting experiences are exchanged and ideas are shared via radio waves. Since 1958 when the first Jamboree-on-the-Air was held, millions of Scouts have met each other through this event. Many contacts made during JOTA have resulted in pen pals and links between Scout troops that have lasted many years. With no restrictions on age or on the number of participants, and at little or no expense, JOTA allows Scouts to contact each other by ham radio. The radio stations are operated by licensed amateur radio operators. Many Scouts and leaders hold licenses and have their own stations, but the majority participate in JOTA through stations operated by local radio clubs and individual radio amateurs. Some operators use television or computer-linked communications.
While it’s the people in the perceived enemy camp hosting it, GIRL Scouts have participated for years.