{"id":961,"date":"2014-10-09T10:14:38","date_gmt":"2014-10-09T14:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.makingfriends.com\/girl-scout-leader\/?p=961"},"modified":"2016-09-06T15:15:19","modified_gmt":"2016-09-06T19:15:19","slug":"daisy-leader-recruiting-new-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/makingfriends.com\/girl-scout-leader\/troop-management\/daisy-leader-recruiting-new-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"Daisy Leader Recruiting New Girls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recruiting Daisies for Our New Troop<\/b><\/p>\n

Guest post from Staci Jansma<\/em><\/p>\n

\"recruitingAt the beginning, the first meeting we had planned was recruitment night. We were a young, new daisy troop. So far we had my daughter as a Girl Scout member when school began just about a year ago. We utilized the Bee a Buddy patch\/pin to help introduce Girl Scouts to her friends within the school. My daughter is so bubbly that she quickly made friends and we invited everyone from her class. From there during recruitment night we also met a few more Kindergarteners that joined as Daisies too. Pictured to the right is the Bee A Buddy patch plus 2 pins (she had 3 friends join when this photo was taken).<\/i><\/p>\n

And I must say\u2026 I was more than ready to take on more girls \u2013 I was quite organized\u2026 I had the membership papers ready \u2013 just needed willing girls to join. I had a binder that I started to gather any and all details within. That binder is about 2\u201d-3\u201d and is pretty full. But it has helped a lot. I prepared a handbook that my parents could review which was very long, and advised to not print it out. I tried to make everything accessible through online to keep costs low for me, the troop and parents. Here\u2019s an overview of what I put together for my Troop Binder. Here\u2019s a quick handout I put together that you can print off and take with you to get what\u2019s needed if you don\u2019t have it already.<\/p>\n

At our recruitment night \u2013 the focus was creating a \u201cMaking New Friends\u201d swap (see the How-To below) plus name tags so I could get to know each girl better and I used the Daisy Flower Stickers template<\/a> \u2013 took it to OfficeMax and had the stickers printed and ready to go at recruitment. I picked up the foam flowers from Michaels and had my daughter pick out sparkly silver string to make them into a necklace that each girl could hold onto. I also provided each girl a few weeks later with a clear pocket that fits into The Girl\u2019s Guide binder which holds their name tag.<\/p>\n

I also created our own fan page to share about events and Girl Scout news. Creating a public place for your troop is not a bad thing, by January of 2013, I had a new family move into our school area, and the mom called me because I had my phone number listed on the fan page and her daughter is an active Girl Scout daisy now. So don\u2019t be afraid to embrace what resources are readily available to you.<\/p>\n

Asking for Help… How? Where? Who?<\/b><\/p>\n

I have been able to get help from leaders of all levels. I first was introduced to other leaders through my service unit and at the new leader training which was held about a year ago. I came well prepared though, this position of being a leader is volunteer, but I wanted to be the best leader and haven\u2019t been a part of Girl Scouts since I was a Brownie many years ago\u2026 so that\u2019s why I spent a lot of time in between summer activities to go through their 3 online courses as well as read what I could find online.<\/p>\n

Each service unit, council and troop handles everyday tasks differently \u2013 so my best advice is to find current second year daisy leaders and ask them questions of how they have done things. I had an afternoon meeting at Mickey D\u2019s with a 2nd<\/sup> year daisy leader and asked her questions and see how things were being handled so I could get a better understanding. We talked and all our kids played within the play area \u2013 it was a perfect meeting place.<\/p>\n

Recommendation for you, if you have questions and just unsure about how to run your troop, go to your service unit meetings, the council provided meetings and training sessions \u2013 you may know as much as you do \u2013 however you probably can still take away at least one thing from the training.<\/p>\n

I remember in September of 2012, I was invited to a Leadership Conference and little did I know that I would meet other leaders that are not only my mentors, colleagues but now also friends and we talk weekly on Facebook about girl scouts, our families and our lives. One leader that I met at this event is now our pen pal troop for my troop. They are now first year Brownies and we are second year Daisies \u2013 we have done a few events together this past year so the girls have a relationship with each other too including Daisy Days. We helped this troop finish their last journey so they could earn the Daisy Summit pin. What an honor for each of them and glad we could help each girl involved it was an amazing daylong event.<\/p>\n

So we put our heads together and make things happen. You can too \u2013 the opportunity is always there \u2013 you just need to move forward and make it happen. Wish you all the best as the new Girl Scout year begins\u2026 Stay tuned for more!<\/p>\n

Future posts (ones that I know I want to share with you for sure!):<\/p>\n