August 10 2025

Updated Badge, Journey, and Award Summaries for 2025-26

Troop Leader Resources    No Comments    , , , , , , ,

It’s that time of year again! Here are updated Badge, Journey, and Award summaries for all levels for Membership Year 2025-26.

Updates include the new badges for all levels plus the new Leadership Awards for Juniors through Ambassadors. I also updated the Animal Helper badge for Cadettes with the new design and summary. Journeys (and any related awards) were updated with a note that they will be retired in October of 2026. Note that these are just summaries of the badge requirements, not the requirements themselves. Requirements can be found in Volunteer Tool Kit, downloaded from the GSUSA store, or purchased in council stores.

Also, these badges have been retired:

  • My Best Self (Brownie)
  • Staying Fit (Junior)
  • Eating for You (Cadette)
  • Women’s Health (Senior)

The following are links to PDF files stored on Dropbox. You shouldn’t need a Dropbox account in order to download them. Just click off the box and then a Download button should appear in the top right corner.

Continue reading

August 2 2025

Challenges in Our Trailblazers Program

Experiences as a Leader    9 Comments    , , , ,

If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that since 2020, I’ve been attempting to get some sort of outdoor program for older girls up and running in my council. I haven’t provided an update since my last post about visiting the Adventurers in the Skyline council, so the following encompasses some rambling thoughts about what’s going on.

Here’s a little bit of history in case you’re just now joining us.  In the summer of 2019, GSUSA released guidelines to resurrect Trailblazer and Mariner troops targeting girls in 8th through 12th grade. My co-leader and I decided to set up a council-wide Trailblazer troop in the fall of 2019 and recruited leaders from different parts of the council. We kicked off in the fall of 2020, and our first year was a resounding success due largely in part to the fact that all other activities had been cancelled due to covid regulations. We filled up for every event and had waiting lists for most of them. The second year still went well, although we didn’t have as many girls attend our events overall. However, by the third year, the world had gone back to normal, and we were dead in the water. We cancelled all but one event due to a lack of registrants, and interest in the troop was low. During this time, two other Trailblazer troops tried to make a go of it and weren’t successful either. We didn’t want to give up on the idea though, so we tried partnering with our council and got rid of the troop model but still called ourselves Trailblazers M2M. In other words, a girl didn’t have to join a TB troop in order to participate, and our events were advertised on the council calendar and open to any girl in 8th through 12th grade. We did a little better, but some events were still cancelled due to low registration. Continue reading

June 28 2025

A Plethora of Proposals

National Governance    6 Comments    , , , , , , ,

Things have changed a little bit on the backend when it comes to the National Council Session (NCS) proposal procedure, and pretty much all of it has been out of my sight due to my not being a National Delegate and a change of inside sources. In case you’re wondering what I’m talking about, I’m referring to proposals that are submitted by councils for consideration on the NCS agenda. The way it works is that according to the GSUSA Constitution, council proposals that gain 15% (17) of endorsements from other councils automatically get placed on the agenda, unless it involves a Constitutional amendment, and if that’s the case, then the National Board makes the sole determination. You may not like that last bit, but it’s just part of the check & balance system of the Constitution. Note that a council endorsement doesn’t mean that a council necessarily is in favor of the proposal – it just means its leadership believes that the proposal should be debated at the NCS. Continue reading

May 28 2025

GSUSA Partners with Harvard on Governance

National Governance    9 Comments    , , , ,

A couple of people sent me this press release recently posted on the National Delegate website:

We are pleased to announce that the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government’s Center for Public Leadership is partnering with GSUSA to conduct an assessment of GSUSA’s governance processes. The project will be led by Marshall Ganz, the Rita E. Hauser Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Organizing, and Civil Society, who brings decades of practice in teaching, researching, and writing on leadership. The Harvard team will partner with GSUSA staff and leadership to develop criteria for assessing the strengths of our Movement governance model, identify opportunities to learn from comparable organizations, and recommend improvements to Movement governance including ways of working and overall effectiveness. This external assessment is intended to complement the ongoing Movement governance assessment launched by the National Board in September 2023 and the work of the Movement Governance Advisory Team. The Harvard research team is eager to understand the experience and perspectives of National Council delegates. You may receive an email from senior researcher Alaina Segura [e-mail removed] inviting you to participate in surveys, focus groups, or interviews. Your participation is optional. The Harvard team will also meet with members of the National Board and the Movement Governance Advisory Team (MGAT) as part of its assessment. The Harvard team will share their insights with the National Board and MGAT in late fall 2025 so that MGAT can use the findings to inform their final report on Movement governance, to be delivered no later than the 58th National Council Session in July 2026. We look forward to collaborating with our National Council delegates on this important assessment of Movement Governance. Should you have any questions, please reach out to the Office of the National Board (boardoffice@girlscouts.org).  Continue reading

May 13 2025

A Blue Book Mystery of Majority

National Governance    4 Comments    , ,

I haven’t posted much lately, but I’ve been keeping myself busy doing non-Girl Scout things. Have I mentioned that I’m studying to become a certified parliamentarian? Yes, I recently joined the National Association of Parliamentarians, and hopefully come this July, I will pass the Registered Parliamentarian exam and become an official parliamentarian. I’ve been talking about doing this for about six years now, and it’s finally time that I put my money where my mouth is and actually do this thing. Eventually, I’d like to become a Professional Registered Parliamentarian, but first things first.

I’m taking a quick break from studying to indulge my inner nerd on a topic that will probably lull most of you to sleep – our own Blue Book (BB). For some reason, I find bylaws and other governing documents fascinating to study, and our collection of governing documents called the Blue Book of Basic Documents is one of my favorites. If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know that I actually have a Blue Book collection dating all the way back to 1920! You might wonder what you can do with a Blue Book collection, but I’ve referred back to them quite a few times attempting to scratch an itch in my quirky curiosity. I don’t believe I’ve ever shared one of my research topics, but I figure it’s time to let you in on one. But in order to do that, you’ll have to stay awake long enough for a brief lesson in Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR). Continue reading

April 28 2025

Volunteer Burnout

Experiences as a Leader    3 Comments    , , ,

Credit: Getty Images/iStockphotoOne topic that I touched on a few months ago when I was experiencing self-doubt is burnout. It’s real, and at the risk of sharing too much, I’m going to discuss it and how it’s severely affecting me as a Girl Scout volunteer. I don’t think this is a recent development because I look at the signs and see that I’ve been struggling with it for at least four or five years. I just received my 15 Years of Service pin, and frankly, I don’t think I’ll make it to twenty. My youngest daughter graduates in two years, and I’m seriously wrestling with hanging it all up after she’s done.

So what are the signs of burnout? I pulled up some information online from a variety of sources. Here they are summarized (thanks to ChatGPT): Continue reading

April 5 2025

Badge Booklets are Now in VTK!

National Operations    7 Comments    , , , , ,

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

March 4 2025

Thank You!

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else Kinda Like Me    2 Comments   

Thanks to everyone for your input and comments after my post the other day. I also had people reach out to me via phone calls and texts and even had lunch with friends today which helped. I am very blessed to have such a supportive community of friends and colleagues that I can lean on when things are overwhelming. A friend pointed out that within the past year, I have lost the communities that were grounding me, so it’s no wonder I feel disconnected and disengaged. This was very obvious once she pointed it out, but when you’re mired in the muck, the mud gets in your eyes and it’s hard to see. Once I realized this, a lot of things made sense, and it helped me reorient my way of thinking. I just need to readjust some priorities and be more patient. Thanks again for your support and comments. You are all very special to me.