In Search of… Badges
National Operations 5 Comments 
2024 special ncs, badges we don't need no stinkin badges, girls guides, gsusa, leader issues, national council
Recently, I checked my blog’s stats to find that for 2024, I’ve broken my previous record of yearly page views even though I published fewer posts this year comparatively. But the upward trend started before this year. I noticed in 2023 that daily page views had doubled, and after looking into it, I finally found the reason. It’s due to hits from Google searches to two specific blog posts: one being my badge and award summary from 2023 and the other of the same topic from 2024.
According to Google, here are the top 10 keyword searches for my blog in 2024:
The results for 11-20 are more of the same with a few “journey” keywords mixed in.
As you can see, folks are looking for badge requirements. Lots of them. And I really think one reason is that there’s no convenient and simple way to access them. Right now, there are a couple of different avenues. If you’re a registered volunteer with a troop, you can log into Volunteer Toolkit (VTK) and access activity plans that correlate to requirements. You could also buy a $3 to $6 eight to twenty page pamphlet of requirements individually for each badge from your local council store or from the online GSUSA store. Or you could download a PDF of the pamphlet from the GSUSA store at $2.50 a pop. But keep in mind that not all of the pamphlets contain the actual requirements (like the Robotics or Coding series). Or you could try to get your hands on a retired Girls Guide binder via Facebook selling groups or eBay. Or, you could look for requirements on Google as my search results seem to indicate. You might end up on my blog or perhaps a website that I recently came across called The Badge Archive. Someone has put a massive amount of work into it, and I give them credit for that. But I also have to say that it speaks to how unorganized our national badge programming is when it’s necessary to create a website such as this to try to make sense of it all.
And then some leaders just bypass requirements altogether for a variety of reasons. Ruth of A Girl Scout Leader’s Journal ran a survey earlier this year trying to decipher how leaders use our hodgepodge of programming materials for badge work and found that a good chunk of leaders don’t use VTK or the pamphlets at all. Instead, they use the brief summaries found on GSUSA’s Badge Explorer (or my two blog posts) and make up their own requirements. I don’t think that was the intention of the Badge Explorer at all, but it’s a consequence when leaders don’t want to be nickel and dimed for programming materials or follow wordy scripts from VTK.
When I meet with new leaders as a mentor, one of the first things they usually ask me is, “Isn’t there a badge book I can buy?” when we talk about national programming. I’ve heard some folks say that a badge book is an outdated concept in this day and age, but I hear the request from leaders over and over again, and especially moreso now that the Girls Guide notebooks have been put out to pasture. My experience with new leaders doesn’t jive with a different survey by Ruth from a few months ago where 66% responded that badge books wouldn’t sell. Only 27% reported that they would buy a badge book. So I don’t know what to think. But what I do know is when your information isn’t centrally located in one spot such as a badge book (whether hard copy or digital), the result becomes a jumbled and confusing system where everyone is making up their own rules – just like what we have now.
“New handbooks and consolidated badge books” were two of the potential carrots that GSUSA dangled to National Delegates if they voted for $85 membership dues at the Special National Council Session a few months ago. I suppose since the National Council only approved a max of $65, GSUSA will hold to that and we’re not likely to see any changes.
It’s not just the delivery system that’s disorganized. I think our national badge program is extremely weak and getting weaker as the years pass, especially if we continue to retire the most popular badges and replace them with STEM/Engineering-in-Disguise ones like the Craft & Tinker series. It’s a shame that we feel a SalesForce based IT platform commands a higher priority than a solid badge program. National programming should be at the core of what GSUSA does. But instead, we rely on corporate sponsorships and grants to fund our badge program, and it shows. As an example, the outdoor badges that were sponsored by The North Face are heavy on learning about gear. The relatively new financial literacy badges brought to you by Charles Schwab are very redundant.
When we had a major turnover in national leadership back in 2023, I had hopes that a revamp in national programming would be on the table. But when GSUSA offered it as a possibility (not a promise) in exchange for a vote for higher dues, I realized there’s no organic impetus for it and that it’s not likely to happen. So I guess we’ll continue to limp along with what we’re going with now (made possible by a grant from Fill In the Blank Corporation!).
You might have noticed that the number of posts have slowed down here on GSWAC (Not a Council) this year. I’ve pretty much come to terms with the way things are and have stopped beating my head against a wall hoping for change. I’ll still post when I feel inspired, but those times are happening less and less. Thanks for hanging in there with me.
The Organization Who Shall Not Be Named makes the basic requirements for merit badges readily available online to all and sundry. The requirements are clearly stated, with no cutesy, ink intensive graphics or preachy stories. Or wordy scripts. (Seriously, how can we say we are girl led when we provide scripts for the leaders to read?) Troops then choose to buy the merit badge books for the Eagle required badges and a few popular badges, then lend them out to members. Although the booklets are not strictly needed, especially in the modern era of Google. Just a helpful aid to earning the badge. Because badges are program, not money earners for the Organization. And the badge names are also pretty straightforward. So if there were a badge about manners, for example, it would be called Manners. Or perhaps Etiquette. Not Social Butterfly. Or a badge about cycling would be called Cycling. Not Rolling Along.
Yep. This is one of the reasons why I am no longer a troop leader!
I wish they’d come up with clear requirements for a badges (not “slurp a snack” or “experiment with the elements”). If you want the girls to learn design terms, list them, and make learning about the one of the steps of the badge, rather than giving the step s cutesie name and then either putting the terms in a script or on a page in the badge brochure. If the requirements are clear, then VTK could have a list of activities to use to teach those concepts. The scripts are awful, no one wants to read all that. There is a reason people liked the old GSRV plans. I agree with you, I don’t think GSUSAs plan was for those cute step names to be considered the requirements for the badge. If GSUSA wants people to buy badge books or other printed material, they need to make it useful, and part of that is telling leaders and setting up the materials to be used in a meeting setting. While many of us old timers have fond memories of knocking out a badge requirement or two on a Saturday afternoon when we were bored, that’s not what girls are doing now. Now, for all practical purposes, badges are meeting plans/themes. If they want each girl to buy a book, they have to figure out how to use the book at the meeting–and no, the girls don’t want to sit there and read.
I’m ok with the idea of the VTK for those who may need the scripts i. Order to be troop leader, although I am appalled by the lack of any way to use it and make a troop really girl-led vs leader-centric. But leader-centric troops have always existed. What I am NOT ok with is the lack of easy ways to get copies of complete, well written badge pamphlets or booklets for FREE for those who want to do program that is really girl-led. IMO our national program leadership just isn’t very good these days.
Agree with all said here. As a new leader, I spent months trying to wrap my head around possible badges and tracking down their requirements. VTK is confusing and, in my experience, unhelpful. I also consistently run into parents who don’t understand why there isn’t a central purchase that can be made that allows them to peruse with their Girl Scout what the ALL the badge possibilities and options are. They ask for handbooks to give them concrete footing in Girl Scout principles but are met with character stories that don’t seem to lead anywhere. They get lost in circles searching the national and council websites. (As do I!)
How are Girl Scouts supposed to be motivated to go beyond and accomplish badges on their own if they don’t know the options? Part of what made Girl Scouts exciting when I was a kid was being empowered to jump in and learn about a lot of different things through the Try-It badges. I don’t remember much about what we accomplished as a troop, but I remember loving my badge book and making my list of goals to achieve. What I see in troops around me is it’s too hard to do the legwork of badges anyways and they settle for fun patches.
I wish Girl Scouts still emphasized basic life skills along with outdoor skills and the newer areas of STEM instead of stripping the program down and taking away accessibility.