New to Being a Girl Scout Leader Need Help Desparately

My mom was a leader for my younger sister's troop, and I came and helped at most meetings. I don't really have any tips on the organization part, but I wanted to suggest meeting at your daughter's school, maybe in the gym/cafeteria or they may have a small meeting room for just such a purpose. That's where most of our meetings were, held right after school ended for the day, and the parents just came after to pick up their kids. Good luck and have fun!

I was overwhelmed too. You are lucky they let you do training all online. The other leader and I take turns attending meetings for adults. They give us lots of paperwork and sometimes READ to us from the paperwork.

To find a meeting place, ask your school and local churches. The day and time are up to you LEADERS. If some can't come, they need to find another troop. Do not try to accomodate everyone.

Also, any adults who stay need to be registered and have a background check. No exceptions. It is 10-12 usually and truly needy families can apply for financial aid. Personally I would NOT allow siblings and would prefer they drop off and pick up an hour and a half later. Limit your troop to 10 or 12 at the most, no matter how they beg.

Personally, we don't do any fundraisers except cookies and we use the form to take orders and get the cash ahead of time(the day the sale starts). we then deliver the cookies during week 2. We will never do the new way of selling again.

Makingfriends.com had awesome ideas about girl scouts. Your council should have a list of troops. Call other daisy or brownie leaders who can help you out.

I was a Girl Scout Leader for years and Daisy Scouts can be a very fun time for all. The leader must take more responsibility for planning and organizing the meetings, but as the girls grow and learn and grow up, they can take more of a role. Ok, finding a meeting place--check with the school-some don't allow scout troops to meet after hours. Ask at local churches to see if you can meet there. Do any of the girls live in an apartment complex or a condo with common areas? Is there a community room there that you could reserve? Are there any community centers or senior centers in your area that you could use? Do any of the parents have a safe basement or a patio that could be used for meetings?
Yes, you do need to register and have a background check done and take some classes (glad to hear they are online) You don't just want "anyone" working with a group of kids not to have a background check or training.
About fundraising--the troop will need some resources to get started. We used to ask each parent to pay the child's registration fee and make a $10 donation to the troop to get it started. We never did a fall fundraiser, but did sell cookies in the winter. Good luck!

I was a Girl Scout leader for my daughter's troop for 5 years. I also started at the Daisy level. I know it can be a bit overwhelming at first but hang in there because there will be many great times to come. At the beginning there are a couple different training classes you need to accomplish but it is great that you can do them online and they really don't require a lot of time. You will learn about the Daisy program through the training and from there you can decide what types of activities you want to do with the girls so they can earn their Daisy petals. You can search online for Daisy activity ideas if you can't think of things on your own and there will be suggested ideas in the Daisy leader manual. You are not required to do the fall fundraiser with your Troop and our troop never participated in it but we did sell the cookies every year.
Hope this helps, if you have any other specific questions let me know.
Good Luck!

I swear it gets easier. The initial orientation stuff is overwhelming. Last year we had to take all day in person classes...I would have loved to just do this online. This year you can do all the initial training online, the Leadership and age level training are on in the same this year.

I was a first time Daisy leader last year. So yes the "problem" is you are new and there is so much they have to require so that they know they have the right ppl in charge.

Meeting place - Contact the school district to see if the school(s) have any openings...contact all churches in your area ( sent a bcc email to all churches I had all 6 of the respond with "we would love to have you use our facility")...
2. Meeting time - pick the time that works best for you and your co-leader..don't worry about the moms and the drama.
3. Buy an expanda folder, a storage tub w/ lid.
4. Deep breath.
5. Contact the parents as if anyone has any "extra supplies".
6. Breath again
7. Go to GOOGLE and search Daisy Girl Scouts activities
8. First meeting- it is ALL ABOUT THE GIRLS at this age.

I am more than willing to mentor you through this if you need help just PM me.

Our first meeting we made our promise signs, we talked rules for the troop, they came up with thier own rules (i.e. Never hurt your friends feelings, don't interupt someone when they are talking) They did this on their own. We took a posterboard put the rules on there and the rules came to every meeting. We also use another poster board and had the girls tell us what types of activities they wanted to do...bowling, skating. etc.

For our meetings we choose a petal color and talk about it's meaning and then our meeting activities assoicates the petal colors. We once played musical chairs and the girls were resposible for themselves and this showed honesty and fairness. (Light blue petal)....

Again PM me anytime you feel overwhelmed by this time next year you will LOVE IT! I never thought I would and I love seeing their faces light up when then are trying something new or working on helping new girls learn. We had seven girls last year...this year our troop has 17! Everyone wanted to be in our troop. We are active...I go by what the girls say they want to do...it is after all their troop.

Added: Money Earning (fundraising) this year will in my opinion be easier for you due to cookies sales are direct order now...you will be able to have cookies on hand when they are sold and you can collect money right then. This will build your bank account. Also I do have each girl pay dues in the beginning of the year. last year it was $30 for the year this paid for their petals, insignia...I had parents purchase the vest or tunic...

If your SU has a meeting once I month I highly reccommend you go or the co-leader there is so much information within these meetings.

I actually have two because I am no on the SU Leadership Team...again I never thought I would have so much fun in GS...didn't do it as a little girl, and when my daughter said "Sure my mom will be a leader", I wanted to scream HELL NO! But those big brown eyes looked up...and now I wouldn't change it for the world.