Personal Updates

Hello readers. I am still in the midst of a pretty bad case of writer’s block, so bear with me if things sound stilted and awkward and updates are few and far between. I have an idea of what’s causing it, but time will tell if or when I will ever snap out of it. It was a miracle that I was actually able to scratch out this post.

Anyway, I just wanted to share what’s going on with me locally now that the year is over. Unfortunately, due to extremely low participation and interest this past year, we are folding our Trailblazer troop. When I asked parents why girls weren’t signing up, they said they didn’t want to drive to events more than an hour away or that they already had commitments on our dates. For what it’s worth, we didn’t have this problem when covid policies had canceled school and other activities back in 2020 and we were the only ones doing anything. I think it’s more that older girls are extremely busy and Girl Scouts is low man on the totem pole compared to other commitments such as sports and band. As a band mom, I completely get it. But we aren’t giving up. Instead, we are moving to a new model that we hope will be more successful, and it involves a partnership with our local council. We are still going to offer the same activities and events, but they will be advertised as council events that will be volunteer-led and run. We believe this approach will reach more girls and be a win-win for everybody involved. Fingers crossed that it actually works and we get good participation. I still believe at this point that there is a niche for this sort of programming in our council. But if this falls on its face too, then I don’t want to hear any complaining from leaders or older girls about not getting outdoor opportunities. Interestingly enough, all three Trailblazer troops that started in our council over the past three years have folded due to lack of interest and participation. Go figure.

I just finished my thirteenth year as a leader for Troop 2562. Four of our girls graduated from high school this year including my oldest daughter. We were not very active the past few years for a variety of reasons, so I have a very mixed range of emotions about all of it. Two of our girls earned Gold, and I am very proud of them for sticking with it. We are left with three Seniors (two rising 9th graders and one rising 10th grader) with one being my youngest daughter. This past year, we weren’t as active with them as I would have liked due to marching band, marching band, marching band, and more marching band. And while I rarely get sick, this year I came down with some random ailment every month between August and December including the flu, covid, and even pink eye (in both eyes). My youngest is continuing in marching band though, so it’s still going to eat up a ton of time, but maybe I won’t feel so burned out since I just rolled off as VP of the band boosters and won’t have that on my plate.

I’m not going to lie. I felt that when it came to Girl Scouts, even though there were some bright spots, overall it was a disappointing year. I hope things turn around soon. Or maybe I should accept things for what they are and readjust my expectations. I will be a facilitator starting this fall, so I’m looking forward to that.

Right now I am prepping SWAPs for the convention in July. If you run into me and let me know that you read my blog, then I’ll give you one of my famous OFFICIAL scarf SWAPs, a GSG SWAP, and a 2023 Blue Book SWAP.

I have some thoughts about the upcoming NCS, but I’ll share them closer to the date.