Annual Meeting - Discussion Notes

1. Leadership Development:    
   
   Ways to involve parental support and guidance in Scouting - Involvement!    
   So often the parents make activities (including Girl Scouts) a drop-off service    
   Create an active stated role - a defined role for every parent!    
   More parent involvement would retain girl members        
   Also need more non-parent volunteers        
   Focused volunteers - short term        
   College student involvement or volunteers    
   Girls need opportunities to learn leadership skills from Daisies on    
   Train adults to let girls go - let girls lead    
   Don't gear all the publicity to younger girls - show older girls doing things    
   If you want a uniform make it affordable, recognizable, versatile
   Change the concept that the leader is the glue to the group to the girls are the glue, and need the program to hold the girls together
   Train adults - put emphasis back on training
   Girls learn by experiencing.
   
   
2. Meet needs in ways that are fun and appealing:  
   
   Keep activities and programs accessible through locations and price range - camp, father/daughter bowling, Skate land   
   Example:  Mall of America $40.00,
   Dolphins Dark to Dawn $40.00,
   Science Museum...    
   Exciting, different - like Timberwolves Games    
   A leadership workshop for older teens    
   Girl input at the council level    
   2 service units want to be paired with Rochester and Twin Cities    
   Girl needs must be met!    
   We need staff and volunteers who understand their living  environments    
   Rural needs to stay with rural - urban with urban!    
   Older girls need own program and own experiences    
   Special programs don't make for girl retention Need to tie program to promise and law
   
   
3. What do the girls currently enrolled want?    
   
   Meet girls who share the same interests
   Have fun    
   Investigate diverse opportunities    
   Community service is rewarding    
   Get leader initiated and developed with young age groups    
   Bond of troop friendship    
   Bridge schools - Transition the middle school, also meet new friends with other troops
   
   
4. Volunteers suggest how to strengthen the model?    
   
   Lead by example    
   Community service is a lifetime role    
   There needs to be an active mentoring program   
   Volunteers step forward and it is overwhelming - so things get done in different ways.      Each volunteer should be assigned a mentor    
   A mentor program would help utilize existing resources    
   Local staff at age-appropriate levels    
   Local summits - Various topics - put Service Unit managers together -    
   Role by role training    
   Quarterly magazine for girls ages 11-17    
   Change upper age level to reflect 18-year old Seniors
   
   
5. Books, Awards, other elements    
   
   Instill little warm fuzzy feeling for community service rather than award or badge
   Bronze Award, etc.- Good!  reinforces the time and commitment to complete multi-level project
   Bring it home/Stakeholder
   Focus Books - Duplicates school content    
   Need more council-sponsored Studio 2B activities    
   Badges - like the service projects (look outside of self)    
   Loosing girls to 4H (coed), school activities    
   Rural areas/small towns find it difficult to complete badge work    
   More direction - instruction for gold/silver awards    
   Older Girl badges not well geared to Senior level        
   Conflict with need to do well in school - eg college bound        
   Goal setting/more career oriented        
   Like high adventure / physical badges / activities        
   Like experiences different from school        
   Like service projects that require effort/challenge        
   Need more ideas for service projects    
   Need flexibility in older girl programs    
   Keep older girls involved and younger girls will stay        
   More working with younger girls but not as a babysitter - want to be involved in the activity
   7th graders love the charms
   11-17 too big a range for same program
   Don't like "expectation" for being helpers for service unit
   More outdoor activities - practical
   More community involvement
   Affordable program to families

Girl Scout Council of Cannon Valley
1025 Highway 3 North
Northfield, MN 55057
(507) 645-6603 or (800) 344-4757
secretary@gsccv.org