As I’ve documented before, our national badge programming’s organizational system needs some work. I’m a mentor for new leaders in our service unit, and they usually come in very confused and often ask one simple question: “Isn’t there a badge book that I can buy somewhere?” Unfortunately, the answer is no. At one point, I put together a matrix pointing leaders as to where they could find requirements for certain badges. As much as I love spreadsheets, it’s never really a good thing when you have to create one just to help others find the building blocks of your organization.

After the Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting binders were retired, each badge has to be purchased separately either via a $2.50 PDF download from the GSUSA store or a $3 hard copy from your council store or the online GSUSA shop. As you can imagine, that gets pretty pricey, especially if you are a new leader attempting to build your own badge book. Back in 2023, I estimated that it would cost a Junior leader $176 dollars to put together a badge book with all of the booklets, the handbook, and a large enough 3 ring binder to fit. Continue reading

Badge Booklets are Now in VTK!