Girl Scouts - Boston,MA

I agree with Veronica P. I do not like the way the new girl scout curriculum is set up. It's like it was restructured to maximize GSUSAs profit. You have to buy the new handbook/badge books (which are not cheap, like $20-25), but wait... not all the badge earning instructions are in it. Those are sold separately. And there are way fewer skill badges than before, and they are tied in to the Journeys, which require the purchase of additional books. And the badges that do come with the combo handbook/badge book are mostly focused on earning money via the cookie sale. I'm so glad that I am no longer a troop leader. They claim it's girl centered, but it's morphed into being profit centered. No thank you.

There have definately been some questionable actions by the mothership lately!

However, since I've been leader for the last 4 years, this year is the first time they have something that is making sense to me. The journey's are terrible. Did one with Daisy and one with Brownie age level. The kids hated it (and so did we leaders).

Now, they have the hard cover book/binder that is the Girls Guide to Girl Scouting (and it's by age level). I like this a lot better. It is expensive at $25, but when it first came out, it was only $17. Inside of it are a lot of resources. We are going to earn the badges that came inside of it. Then we will buy more packets of badges. All the girls have the book - I'll buy one pack of addional material to earn and any girls that want can buy them or not.

I believe the legacy badges are the "old" ones - and that doesn't mean there is anything at all wrong with it.

The skill building badges are the "new" ones.

I don't know what it was like for my leaders when I was a girl, but I can't imagine that anyone would keep doing it if it seemed as hard as it is to be a leader now. :-(

I am really glad my daughter is in a troop, I wish I wasn't the leader and will be glad when she's done.

I don't know the answer to your question but I did find this link...
http://girlscoutsnebraska.org/sitepdfs/resources/NewBadge...

I hope it helps.

They revamped their badge system last year, so the legacy badges are just the popular traditional ones they've held over. I'm not sure what you're calling the "skill building" badges -- everything is on a "journey" now -- really irritating books that you have to purchase and that take forever to get through. I miss the old badge system; hate the new one.

--Okay, looked at the link Lynn posted below -- the "skill building" badges are additional badges you can earn that are linked to the journeys. I don't know that you HAVE to do the journey to do the skill badges, but that's how it's structured.

Leaders: If you don't like the Journeys, do let your Council and GSUSA know that! If your girls didn't like them, be specific about the reasons why, and why the Journeys weren't a good fit, or were too long, or too much like school workbooks, or whatever, and -- tell Councils and GSUSA! They need feedback on the Journeys and new badge structure. I don't expect any big changes any time soon, but unless the national organization and the councils get (constructive, polite!) feedback from the leaders and girls, they won't know whether the Journeys and new badges are working. The wheels will move slowly, but they can't fix what they don't know isn't working. I am a leader, and not thrilled at all with the changes to the badge structure, though you can work within it to do a lot of good badges among the ones that are dubious (like the ones with the over-emphasis on cookie sales). We also are about to embark on our first Journey (a Cadette one, since we avoided them when our girls were Juniors) so we'll see how that goes. We sure as heck do plan to do the Journey the way that works for us and our girls and won't stick like glue to the book -- GS has always welcomed a lot of leeway and we intend to use it.

But do give some feedback to the organization if your girls are bored with Journeys or miss certain badges. I see a lot of complaints about Journeys and the new badges here and on other forums, and I agree with a lot of it, but I also wonder if leaders are letting the larger GS organization KNOW what's not working?....

My girls are now ambassadors. HATE HATE HATE this new jouney garbage. So do the girls. It's just way to complicated and BORING. In theory it does make some sense, but they can't expect girls to change mid-stream.

The information you've received below is great and more than I was going to provide.

Good luck trying to figure it all out.

ok I get the legacy are the traditional badges that can be earned independanty.

I just asked last week and unless it was a case of hearing what iwanted to hear, I do believe a council rep told me that you can earn the SKILL BADGES separate from the Journey awards.

Although the skill badges are supposed to coordinate wtih the journies, I really don't see that they do. So for the water journey for brownies you can do that journey and earn the 4 awards/badegs that go with them ANd since people used clay jars to carry water you can do a Pottery activity to earn the Skill badge of Pottery.

Now my question is WHAT DO you have to ACTUALLY DO to earn the 4 badges that go with the WOW water journey????? just so each tiny little random activity in the journey???????

a pottery journey i get you make some pottery, the journey badges i'm not understanding.