New Daisy scout leader needs your help: I am taking over our Daisy troop next year. Our current leader didn’t have the time so we didn’t do much plus we didn’t sell cookies so there is no money. I will be taking training but not til September and I would like to start planning now. Any advise would be appreciated.
Our scout leaders in our Facebook group are here to help!
Nancy shares her experience: I started my daisy troop last year when the girls were all in 1st grade. We had one year to get a lot done! So I understand where you are coming from. I charged dues of $20 per girl and asked for moms to bring craft items and snacks as needed. There was never a no, and the moms were so helpful when they knew it was just me. We met every 2 weeks for 2 hours and we did all the petals from the Girls Guide to scouting and over this summer are completing our Animal Journey. Definitely start with Petals, AND I highly recommend you ask Moms which petal they would like to to help with. Don’t ask them to volunteer, ask them which one. Then you can work with someone for each petal and divide your work in half and the mom is participating as well. From here you can see which moms really enjoy it and which ones might be open to co-leading for the Brownie year, when there are many more opportunities for adventures and experiences, but also a bit more work. Keep your meetings structured to control energy filled girls, I found the routine of opening ceremony, GS promise, GS Law, review the quiet sign, GS sign, Story Reading, Physical activity aka Game and then craft, snack time and closing ceremony worked really well for my girls.
Lisa’s advice: Get a good co-leader (or 2) and have her do trainings also.
Ashley wrote in: If you would like to try out a journey, I would suggest doing the Daisy garden journey because that journey can go along nicely with the petals. You can do them both! There are a lot of great free printables online for the petals as well as the journey to keep your cost down.
Rebecca’s help: Start with a party and ask for gifts of supplies for the troop, crayons, scissors, paper, glue. These are in my opinion the biggest cost for newer daisy troops. Then I always default to the Petals, they are much easier to plan, Search for Games, crafts, and activities. If you’re planning early you can set aside a meeting for the fire or police department for respect authority.
Michelle writes: As a Daisy troop leader myself, just finished two years —Keep the parents in the loop as much as u can —I found most of my parents had no clue and getting their buy in of program was huge, Ask for help and delegate to parents, remind yourself constantly to keep it ‘girl led’ have a daisy circle at first few meetings and keep going around circle until they run out of ideas and vote on items —ask what they want to do —first year girls were more into petals 2nd yr we did a lot of journey work–we took a lot of field trips with some girl input. —keep it fun ! I like yearly dues and yearly snack fees.
Brenda’s guideline for being a GS Leader:
- A. Parent meeting in Aug/Sept.
- B. Get each girl/mom to do a petal (pass around a clipboard with the troop meeting dates & petal).
- C. Get a nut mom
- D. Get a cookie mom
- E. Get a treasurer
- F. Ask each girl/mom for start up $ (we did $25 in Aug & $25 in Jan).
- G. You are a troop LEADER – not doer. You coordinate all the volunteers (moms), attend leader meetings at SU, arrange special events & fill in if someone gets sick.
This works GREAT for me – lots of parent participation & close friendships. My girls are in 10th grade & we still have a troop, because everyone helps.
Take a look at the Daisy Scout page at MakingFriends®.com for ideas for your Daisy troop including ideas for earning petals and badges, completing journeys, fun craft and SWAP ideas, community service activities and so much more.
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