September 14 2019

The New YouTube SU 639 UNOFFICIAL Enrichment Channel

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else Kinda Like Me    No Comments    , , , , , ,

We briefly interrupt this non-membership dues related post to announce that the Alaskan Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Farthest North Council over GSUSA.  Overwhelmingly.   The case will sent back down to the lower court with a ruling on the GSUSA Constitution, and all that’s left is for the lower court to determine the financial relief.  I had been working on this blog post when the court ruling popped up suddenly.  I wanted to acknowledge it but know that I will be following up with a blog post solely about the ruling and my take on it.   It might be a couple of days because there’s a lot to cover.  And real life gets in the way as always!

This will be a quick hitter, but I just wanted to share that I’m creating a YouTube series.  I try to present some sort of enrichment after each of our service unit leader meetings, but not everybody can make them.  Last year, I sent out a survey to our service unit asking how they wanted to receive UNOFFICIAL trainings, and I was surprised at the number who wanted a webinar format.  Well, webinars are hard to schedule, so instead I thought I’d record my presentations instead.  I figured recording them live at the meetings wouldn’t be very effective, so maybe I’d try out recording the presentation directly from my laptop the same way I recorded the goofy VTK & You! videos and see how it went.  See, those VTK videos weren’t all for naught!  That’s what I’m telling myself at least. Continue reading

August 19 2019

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Ideas    2 Comments    , ,

I would like to share something our service unit is using for our recruitment efforts this year.  Our catchphrase is “We Got It Goin’ On!” and we hit the ground running when it came to our Back to School booths.  A few months ago, I spoke with our SU’s Recruiting Coordinator about a few thoughts I had on the subject.

Later on, I rolled some ideas over in my head.  Our numbers were actually UP this past year – 14%, in fact!  This was after a steady decline since the merger, so we were very excited.  We live in an area that’s growing pretty quickly, so there’s no reason why our numbers shouldn’t grow too.  But even with the growth, we still didn’t create many new troops, and we feel that’s the lifeblood for continuing our increase.  Right now many of our troops are full, and we need to spread the wealth.  So this year, we wanted to put an emphasis on getting new leaders.

But how do we do this?  That was the $64,000 question.  Everybody these days is struggling to get volunteers.   Many parents want to find troops, but there aren’t very many that want to step up and take the reigns to start a brand new one.  I realized that we needed to take a new approach.  In the past, it seems like our organization just relied on recruiting girls but crossing our fingers that the leaders and new troops would follow.   We needed to be more aggressive.   We go all out to show that Girl Scouts gives girls opportunities and an experience that they wouldn’t necessarily have elsewhere.  Well, what if we showed women that they’ll also get that in return if they become a leader?  Side note:  I realize men can be leaders too.  In fact, we have a male leader in our service unit!  But for this, we specifically targeted women.
 Continue reading

August 13 2019

Cybersecurity & CEI

National Operations, Opinions    6 Comments    , , , , , , , ,

The Cybersecurity Basics badge for Seniors

Note:  The following is a very nerdy post about computers!

So unless you’ve been under a rock for the past month or so, GSUSA recently released 42 new badges, including cybersecurity ones for Cadettes, Seniors, and Ambassadors!  In a previous life, I used to be in the IT field, so I was very interested to see how these badges were presented to older girls.  So I logged into the infamous VTK to check out the Senior Cybersecurity Basics activity plan.

One of the first activities is to learn about the ten principles of cybersecurity according to the GenCyber program.  I won’t go through all of them at this point, but you can take a look at the cards with the principles and terms spelled out.   I’m going to refer back to some of them later on. Continue reading

July 18 2019

One Crazy Summer

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else Kinda Like Me    3 Comments    , , , , , , , , ,

You may have noticed I’ve been AWOL lately.  It’s been one crazy summer, but not like the John Cusack movie.  June started off kinda slow, but then July has gone into overdrive.  Here’s what I’m in the middle of right now, and I’ll keep it somewhat short because I’m going in a thousand directions all at once.  But I wanted to briefly check in so that you all didn’t think the Girl Scout mafia finally caught up to me.

Last week my youngest daughter and I had the opportunity to go to summer camp for a week at WaBak.  It was two childhood dreams all wrapped into one – I got to go to summer camp AND be a counselor.  It was about thirty-five years after the fact, but that’s okay!  Growing up, I vicariously lived through summer camp movies from the 80s since my family couldn’t afford it, and I never sold enough cookies to get a free week of camp.  I was so jealous of Caroline and Jenny who did!  And those carefree counselors looked so cool!  I wanted to be a cool counselor too!  Well I got my chance!   Here are some takeaways from last week:  Continue reading

June 9 2019

Built-in Civics Education

National Governance, Opinions    2 Comments    , , , , , , , , , ,

GSUSA has recently put a focus on bringing civics education to the forefront.  On June 3rd, they hosted a webcast that was livestreamed entitled Civics Education: Preparing the Next Generation of Informed and Engaged Citizens.  It’s described on GSUSA’s website as such: “This nonpartisan event is an opportunity for community leaders, public officials, and education experts to consider how out-of-school civics programs can prepare the next generation to be involved citizens with a deeper understanding of their government —both now and for the rest of their lives.”  It’s archived on their website and can be found here:  https://www.girlscouts.org/en/about-girl-scouts/advocacy/event-civics-education.html Continue reading

June 8 2019

Blue Ghosts and Christmas Lights

Experiences as a Leader, Hikes & Outdoors    1 Comment    , , , , , , , , ,

During the last weekend in April, our service unit held our annual encampment at Camp WaBak.  In case you’re not familiar with our troop, we’ve got two levels – Cadettes and Juniors.  Just the Juniors went for Encampment this year since the Cadettes were going backpacking a few weeks later.  We had beautiful spring weather for Encampment.  The Juniors’ behavior, not so beautiful.  We won’t discuss it.  Anyway, that Saturday night, I was in charge of the campfire program for the SU.  Afterward, our Junior co-leader took the girls back to the cabin to get ready for bed while I put the fire out, and then I’d head back on my own.

It was about 9:30pm, and I took the (established) shortcut through the woods to get to the cabin.  Right at the edge of the woods, a strange bug hovering in front of my eyes made me stop.  It sort of looked like a lightning bug.  Something told me to turn off my headlamp.  I couldn’t see the bug anymore, but as my eyes got accustomed to the dark, I turned and looked into the woods. Continue reading

May 30 2019

Backpacking Here and Now

Experiences as a Leader, Hikes & Outdoors    3 Comments    , , , , , ,

Back during my Troop 20 days, I was lucky enough to visit National Center West as part of a three week cross country trip that my troop took in 1987.  Because of that experience, one of my goals as a leader was to take my troop backpacking at some point.  I worked toward that goal and was lucky enough to join forces with a co-leader who was also willing and able.  At times she claims she’s not able because she’s over 50, but I just wave my hand and say, “Nonsense!  We can do this!  You’re only as old as you feel!”  The next day after some draining activity, I’m lying in bed feeling pretty old.  Don’t tell her this.  Anyway, here’s the write-up about last year’s first backpacking trip that I kept promising was coming “soon.”

When our girls moved up to Cadettes, Cheryl and I both vowed to take them backpacking by their second year, and so we started prepping early on for it.  We spoke with a friend of mine named Cathy, a former backpacking trainer for our council, and asked what she suggested for a first time backpacking trip.  She told us about a trail in the beautiful Mountain Bridge Wilderness which happens to be one of my favorite places to hike.   It’s located about an hour from us in the Upstate of South Carolina, and it’s home to two state parks – Caesar’s Head and Jones Gap.  The trail we’d be hiking is called the Jones Gap Trail which is a one-way hike between 276 and Jones Gap State Park:

Jones Gap Trail Continue reading

May 21 2019

A Look Into the Craziness

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else Kinda Like Me    3 Comments   

I’m recovering from four weekends in a row of activities.  First, there was a Junior encampment.  Next, a Junior camping trip.  Then a middle school band trip to Dollywood, and last, a backpacking weekend with the Cadettes to Congaree National Park.  Plus throw in some meetings here and there.  Needless to say, I was in survival mode for a month.  I really wasn’t sure if I was going to make it after riding the wooden roller coaster at Dollywood.  It felt like someone shoved me into a blender and poured me out after the ride was over.  Every fiber of my being cried out in pain, “MY GOD, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE??”

Anyway, a few months ago, I created a Facebook account specifically for my Girl Scout random comments and experiences, because while I do share a lot of GS related photos and updates on my personal account, this one can be best described as a look into my Girl Scout stream of consciousness.  I’ve probably now scared some of you off.  I originally created it as a joke but it’s kind of taken on a life of its own.  Right now, everything is set as Friend Only due to my not wanting pictures open to just anyone, but I’ll probably eventually go back and change some of the updates to Public if you don’t want to extend a friend request.  (Edit:  I’ve gone on and done that).  But if you want to check it out, feel free to friend me. If you dare!  Note:  Apparently if you’re not already logged into Facebook, you’ll get a Page Not Found message.

April 21 2019

Cadette Think Like an Engineer Journey Reformat

Experiences as a Leader, Troop Leader Resources    No Comments    , , , , ,

I won’t bore you with a lengthy exposition BEFORE I provide a link to the download of the Cadette Think Like an Engineer reformat, but keep scrolling below the links if you WANT the lengthy exposition!  You’ll have to read this disclaimer first though:

This is a reformat of the Cadette Think Like an Engineer Journey that’s found in the Volunteer Toolkit.  Compared to the six PDFs from VTK totaling 135 pages, the reformat is 56 pages.  So it’s still lengthy, but at least this will save you some paper.  Nothing has been modified, except that the word “SAY” has been replaced with “Suggested conversation,” and I took out some extra spacing that I didn’t think was necessary.  This reformat includes all of the handouts with the exception of the Cadette Take Action PDF, which I’ve also linked directly from the GSUSA website.  Please note that I do not claim this as my own invention.  Basically all I did was reformat this Journey to make it easier to read and also to keep your printer from melting down if you need to print it out (like I do).  Continue reading

April 18 2019

Farthest North vs. GSUSA: The Sequel

National Governance    No Comments    , , , , , ,

They say that usually sequels aren’t as good as the original, but I guess it depends on which side of the membership dues issue you fall and what the ruling is for Part II of the Farthest North vs. GSUSA lawsuit that will determine your opinion!

In case you’re not up to speed and have no idea what I’m talking about, about two years ago, the Farthest North council out of Fairbanks, Alaska, sued GSUSA due to its decision to raise membership dues from $15 to $25 for the 2017-2018 membership year.  I was confused at the time because I had always heard that the National Council had voted to give the National Board that authority.  My curiosity got the best of me, and plus, I needed a good excuse to not clean the house.  So over the next couple of months, I delved into this issue and found that the National Council had NEVER given this authority over to the National Board.  Additionally,  I read through the Blue Book of Basic Documents to see if I personally thought the National Board had authority in the first place as they claimed.  This was a long drawn out saga that’s still going on today with my recent post about a Membership Dues proposal that’s out there for the taking for the 2020 National Council Session.  Recently, the Chicago council released a proposal that’s sort of a compromise where the National Board can raise dues, but no more than 15% over the triennium without approval from the National Council.  Continue reading