October 18 2015

White Paper Hub Bub

National Governance, National Operations, Opinions    19 Comments    , , , , , , , ,

traditional pinRecently, a white paper written by the CEO of the Farthest North GS Council has been making the rounds on Facebook and volunteer discussion groups and is causing quite a stir among volunteers and apparently GSUSA alike.  One particular FB group called “GSUSA, Are You Listening?” was apparently asked indirectly by GSUSA to remove the link to the white paper and has refused to do so.

I’ve also uploaded it:  Reversing the Membership Decline in Girl Scouting While Regaining the Trust of the Membership and Movement (geez, that’s a long title)

This blog post will highlight some parts of the white paper along with my comments.  If you haven’t read the white paper, then I highly suggest you do so at the very least, even if all four of five of you who read this blog aren’t interested in my ramblings.  😉 Continue reading

October 13 2015

Big Boy Mountain in the Fall

Hikes & Outdoors    3 Comments    , , , , ,

Sigh.
Sigh.

I first attended Mountain Magic, our council’s leader weekend, back in October of 2011.  Since then, there’s only been one other Mountain Magic.  It’s either been skipped or canceled or flooded out.  Contrary to my cynical guess, MM 2015 has been rescheduled in the spring.  And wouldn’t you know it – I already have a previous commitment.  But I digress into a very sore topic for me.  Let me start over.

I first attended Mountain Magic, our council’s leader weekend, back in October of 2011. I had heard a lot about the Big Boy hike and how difficult it was.  Well, I don’t back down from a challenge, so of course I signed up for the hike.  At the time, I thought that was my first visit to Camp WaBak, but it turns out that was not the case.  I don’t remember hiking up Big Boy, and I’m thinking that I probably would have remembered it if I had.  Continue reading

October 7 2015

Printout Pet Peeve

Experiences as a Leader, National Operations    2 Comments    , , ,

Here’s a pet peeve of mine (I got a million of ’em!) that’s kind of bothered me for a while. I didn’t really think of it as an issue for anyone other than me until a leader friend of mine said the same thing the other day.

GSUSA’s handouts and PDF downloads look great and are very attention-grabbing – for example, the new outdoor badges and requirements:

Junior Horseback Riding

Continue reading

October 2 2015

I Found the Trip Out West Diary!

Reminiscing    No Comments    , , , , , ,

Dear Diary ComicBy a stroke of serendipity, I found my Trip Out West™ diary while looking for something else.  In fact, I found a bunch of my GS stuff while looking for something else.  Funny how that works out.

Instead of unpacking from the canceled leader weekend, I typed this up to take my mind off my disappointment.  So I present to you the diary of Amy Moore from 1987.  Keep it mind it was written by a 13 (almost 14) year old at the time.  It’s amazing the things I found interesting enough to comment about and the things I didn’t.  ::shakes head::  My 42 year old comments are in [italic brackets].  Continue reading

October 2 2015

Llama Trek 2015!

Experiences as a Leader    2 Comments    , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Llama Face
Llama face, you’ve got the cutest little llama face….

This past weekend our GS troop visited Cosby, TN and the llamas (and one alpaca!) of Smoky Mountain Llama Trek.  We had a great time.  The gloomy clouds and drizzle broke apart once we got past Asheville, NC, and we had a great day.

So what is a llama trek,  you ask?  Well, basically you go hiking with a llama.  You don’t ride them – they carry your stuff.  We only went on a two mile hike, so there was nothing for them to carry.  But each girl had her own llama (and our smallest Brownie her own alpaca), and we didn’t hear one “I’m tired” or “my feet hurt” complaint!  So parents, if you don’t ever want to hear your child complain about walking, just get him or her a llama to divert her attention.  Continue reading

September 25 2015

Eeyores, Scrapbooks, and What Nots

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

eeyore-1Eeyores:  This is another pity party post.  Every once in a while I have to get these out of my system.

As I whined in another post, this has been a hard year Girl Scouts-wise for me.  I won’t go into the details since this is a public blog, but there have been some things that really start to wear on you if you’re as enthusiastic and hung-go as I think I am.  Actually now that I think about it, there have been some constants that have been chipping away little by little in my past five years as a troop leader.  Don’t worry – I’m not quitting GS by any means, but I think as with anything that you care deeply about, the things that wouldn’t necessarily bother you in one context do in another.  Continue reading

September 22 2015

The Scorpion Patrol at Our Cabaña

Reminiscing    No Comments    , , , , ,

Our Cabaña has a new mascot, and they are asking you to name it!  They’ve already named it Iggy!

iggy

Personally I would have given it a scorpion for a mascot, but obviously that wouldn’t go over so well in the cute and cuddly department.  No, I wouldn’t have actually suggested a scorpion.  Maybe a cute scorpion.  Just kidding (not really).

Well, WHY should it be a scorpion you ask?  Or even if you don’t ask, I’m going to tell you anyway.  Continue reading

September 14 2015

Barbie is Back! (and you’re gonna be in trouble)

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

gsbarbieHey now, hey now, Barbie’s back!  So the other day, I get an email from the GSUSA Shop with the title, “Barbie is Back!”  In case you aren’t aware, GSUSA has some kind of partnership with Barbie to promote Girl Scouts or something… blah blah blah. I would link to the Barbie campaign, but GSUSA recently revamped their website, and I have no idea where anything is anymore, and I’m too lazy at this point to try to find it. No, I’m never too lazy to attempt to find something on a website.  Here it is.

The whole partnership doesn’t really bother me as much as it does Samona (just ask her), but I do kind of shrug my shoulders about it.  I’d be interested to see what kind of membership response they get from the Barbie campaign.  Does it really work?  Does it actually draw girls in?  The cynical side of me says that it’s just another marketing campaign for both Mattel and GSUSA.  Continue reading

September 10 2015

R.I.P. Big Boy

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else Kinda Like Me    1 Comment    ,

OrionA little while back I mentioned that we had a cat nicknamed Big Boy.  Unfortunately, Orion passed away yesterday.  He was 15.  My husband and I got him from the Greenville Humane Society right after we got married.  We had already gotten a stray kitten named Athena, and we wanted to have two kittens at the same time.  So the two of us drove up to the Humane Society and picked him out.  He was in a cage all by himself, and unlike the extremely loud kitten in the cage next to him, he sat there very quietly.  He reminded me of my cat growing up because he was all white with a black tail.  My cat Garfield was the same, except he had three black spots on his head and three on his side along with the black tail.  People always commented about how his tail didn’t match the rest of his body, and this was just one part of his charm.  I would say it was as if God went to a Pull a Part auto shop when He made him. Continue reading