How many Girl Scouts out there?

[Maple]

I was reading the forum for Eagle Scouts and know there are a lot of women on this site so began to wonder how much scouting has influenced each of you.

I only began scouting with my children but was a leader for my daughters troop for 12 years as she went from Daisies to her Gold Award in Senior Scouting. We did a lot of camping and learned many skills although seemed to fall just short of the backpacking idea.

I am sure these experiences have influenced my daughter over the years and I can now saw proudly that she is a member of the US Armed Forces. She still loves camping and has been a Girl Scout Camp Counsellor every summer for quite a few years now.

[Marta]

Girl Scouting was very disappointing to me when I was a kid. Lots of crafts; very little camping; no backpacking.

[tazie]

I'm with Marta, as a Girl Scout in the 70's it was a bit disappointing. I earned the sewing, cooking and first aid badges; but wanted to be outside, doing the fun stuff. I had a crappy Junior troop leader, and after she pulled out the Ouji board at a troop meeting for a fun activity, I left and never looked back. I still have my original Junior scout handbook and recently shared it with my girls for a laugh. My oldest daughter was in the Scouts for a short time, but her interest is athletics. Still, I think with the right leadership the Scouts is an excellent endeavour, for boys and girls.

[Cuffs]

Same boat as Marta and Tazie... not enough outdoorsy stuff for me. ( but I still love and consume my share of cookies!) Thats why I joined the boy scouts...

[tazie]

Same boat as Marta and Tazie... not enough outdoorsy stuff for me. ( but I still love and consume my share of cookies!) Thats why I joined the boy scouts...

Cuffs, thanks for reminding me-- the best part about Girl Scouts- the cookies! (laughing) I was my daughter's cookie "mom" for her troop for many years...was nice having a garage full of cookies at our disposal...only part that hurt was writing that check $ out at the end...ouch...

[Blissful]

We did a lot of merit badge work. And sold cookies and candles. One day hike that I remember as a Brownie. But we did do car camping and jamboree type events. Back then it was fine with me. In the late 70's it wasn't the big thing to be doing that I remember. Though my brother's troop went backpacking everywhere. Maybe they thought girls were more vulnerable or something back then. But none of the leaders knew how to do it anyway. At least I'm glad we can take the teen girls in our church on hikes, even if it is only backpacking to a cabin (which is a major achievement with some of them!)

[gsingjane]

Well guys I think you can tell how I got my name!!

I have been an adult volunteer for seven years... for six of those years I have had two troops (a now-Junior troop of 24 girls and a now-Cadette troop of 10 girls). I have worked at day camp, teaching wall climbing, am currently a Service Unit Manager (town manager for over 400 girls), have run 5 camporees and have held practically every other volunteer GS position you can imagine. Yup, I'm a green neck, too, Maple!

I was a Girl Scout in the '60's and '70's and although we didn't go backpacking per se, we did go on extended canoe trips and did lots of car camping. I also went to summer camp for two weeks each year which was the absolute high point of my entire year. I am a Camp Alice Chester and Camp Northern Hills alum if anyone else attended around that time!

I truly believe in this program, otherwise I would not devote a significant portion of my waking hours to it! Yes, there are ways it could be improved, just as any other organization. I do wish there were more emphasis on the outdoors-y stuff... I consider myself an evangelist for the outdoor experience, but you can only do so much. As a "leader of leaders," I can tell you that if we push the leaders too far outside their comfort zone, then we get no leaders and no troops. So every year it is a balance. My older daughter is now to the age where she is leading girls on dayhikes herself, so it is a family effort to get the girls out there.

For those whose experience was 20-30 years ago and not satisfying, I am sorry. Girl Scouting - more than Boy Scouting, IMO - is so dependent on the strengths and skills of the individual leaders, and if you didn't luck out, that was too bad. (This is the reason I, too, didn't stay past the 7th grade, and a huge reason why I became a leader myself, to insure quality experiences for my own daughters.) My goal, though, is to share as much of my enthusiasm and love for the outdoors with my girls as I can. So, so many of these girls are just never getting out there, and even a day hike or a car camping trip can plant the seed for a lifelong love, something that can be built upon in later years.

Remember, too, that Girl Scouting, unlike BSA, has never been exclusively focussed on the outdoors/camping. (Not that BSA is, either, but it is definitely more of an emphasis.) One thing I like about Girl Scouting is that they do try to do more life preparation stuff and also to broaden the program to make it more widely appealing. Just in the past year, my older girls have gone on a science/technology weekend at Sikorsky Aircraft, learned podcasting, are learning how to use a field camera and editing equipment to make a PSA, earned a fashion badge where we designed our own dresses and learned about the fashion industry first-hand, and earned a paleontology badge that included trips to the field and dinosaur museums and interviewing a woman paleontologist. We also went to New York City where THEY figured out how to get around all day and planned the entire itinerary, and they basically ran a huge chunk of our last camporee for our younger girls. And of course there was the service stuff like the soup kitchen, food drive and all that... plus fun weekends at Y camp... so it's really just limited by the girls' own imaginations, and their available free time.

I would very much welcome any inquiries from anyone interested in getting involved with Girl Scouting. Situations vary from state to state, but I could probably give you enough advice to get you started, if you did want to step up to help in this great movement.

Thanks for starting this thread!

Jane in CT

[Marta]

Indeed a lot of it comes down to leadership. Most of it, in fact. When my daughter was 7ish, I became a Brownie leader so she'd had a troop to join. (The other troop was full.) I went through the local council's outdoor training, which consisted of staying overnight in a canvas tent with a wooden floor and one person (me) starting a campfire once. What stunned me was that none of the other women--none--had ever done any backpacking or even car camping ever. They were not qualified to lead a group of girls on even the simplest overnight trip. Nor were they likely to become knowledgeable enough to do so. They weren't interested. I have heard of an occasional troop that does outdoor activities, but I don't think it's normal. Girl Scouting is not about that. I don't know what it is about, but it's not about camping.

[Marta]

While I was composing the above, Jane was answering some of my questions. I do occasionally think I should get involved in Girl Scouting in order to provide some female outdoor leadership, but I haven't gotten around to it. My own daughter is an adult now, and after her one year in Brownies, she was old enough for 4-H and Pony Club (she was horse mad), so we went that direction.

[V8]

Gee, I guess we lucked out. We had very good leaders in both Brownies and Girl Scouts - our friends' mothers - who were interested in lots of things. We did some hikes, although that was not the dominant influence on my hiking future. (There weren't Daisy or Cadette as such, then - although I think there were Senior scouts. No senior troop as I recall, so we stopped in Junior High at some point.)

We were encouraged and helped to do a lot of badges, and to achieve First Class. It was a really good influence on a lot of us kids to be competent people in the world.

[Hammock Hanger]

I left in Cadettes, it wasn't cool!! As an adult with 3 daughters I was very involved with scouting. I was a leader to 2 troops, neighborhood chairperson and Out-of-Doors Specialists for the council.

I had one daughter who got her Gold Award and 2 that quit as Cadettes (cuz it wasn't cool!!)

I was much more active in scouting as an adult.

[Lellers]

I had the same experience back in the 60s and 70s. Not enough outdoor stuff for me. I think it's interesting that I still hear this comment from girls today, and I wonder why there isn't more of an emphasis on outdoor activities for girls in GSUSA. The BSA has noticed that GSUSA has a large drop-out around age 14 or so, and hence, BSA now offers the co-ed Venture program for ages 14-21. The venture program can be focused on outdoor experiences, but I've also seen Venture crews focused on things like theater, law enforcement, and the like. I'm not involved in Venturing, so I don't know how successful it is.

I have sons but no daughters. I'm not sure how I would feel about a co-ed program for them. I'm an assistant scoutmaster with a boy scout troop, and the boys turn into complete idiots when girls are nearby. I wonder if we could keep them focused. But, in most countries around the world, including England where the scouting movement started, co-ed is the way it's done. I've met Canadian scouts, girls and boys, and their co-ed program seems to work well.

Generally speaking, I think that when young people learn to take care of themselves and others in the outdoors, they become more capable human beings. And only good comes from raising capable people.

[Hammock Hanger]

My troops were very very out-door oriented. I had to turn girls away, as I could only handle so many, that wanted to be in my troops.

We camped a lot!

I even worked at the GS Camp in the summer(I ran the infirmary). My son who was literally born into GS use to run all over the camp in the summer when he was 4-5 y/o. I eventually put him into a BS Troop. All they did was color and build model cars. He asked if he could go back to being a GIRL SCOUT!!

The problem is that most of the women who are leaders are uncomfortable with the out-of-doors and they bring that baggage into their troops. I use to Train the leaders how to take the girls camping and most thought that the Days Inn was roughing it.

[Maple]

Both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts get invited to a jamboree every year on the Wildwood Beach (Atlantic Ocean) in NJ. Our troop went a few times...you pitch your tents right on the beach, lots of fun. And we had one local trip that went religiously every year and "camped" in a motel.

[Maple]

Our troop started as first year brownies, learning to roll sleeping bags, dress for the weather, etc. Then we took them on their first campout in one of the leader's back yard. By the time they were Juniors they all had their own tents and knew how to pitch them. They were shown how to make different types of stoves, ovens, etc. Other activities we did included White water rafting (with the boy scouts too), lots of skiing trips, rock climbing, horse back riding and numerous other activities. They also learned the rudiments of sign language. Only as seniors do I remember them doing any sewing when the four that were left each made a pair of PJ bottoms for themselves. I know my daughter still has and wears hers from time to time. We did try to do crafts with them also, as each girl has different interests. We still had eight girls when we started into Seniors and ended up with four who received their Gold Award. I think if we had not lost our first leader to cancer, our group would have been very strong all the way through.

[gsingjane]

I think that for every girl who wishes we'd do more outdoors stuff, you have at least one other who, as has been noted, thinks a motel is roughing it. This can be the result of what they've heard from parents, it might be the result of a disastrous early experience, it might just be their interest or lack thereof. For sure we know that not every adult is interested in hiking or backpacking, either... maybe that's a good thing for the sake of the trail!

Believe it or not, I have had girls quit because we did "too much" outdoors stuff. Now maybe these were girls that had issues anyhow, but I definitely got that blowback in the 6th grade. Girls who were just extremely unhappy out there on the trail or at the campsite and wouldn't have fun no matter what you tried.

Motivating adult women to go camping, when they have no outdoor experience, is hard. I would welcome any comments or suggestions from other women as to what might motivate them to do it. As camporee director, every year I find myself in the position of having to wheedle and whine to get people out there, even making it as comfortable and user-friendly as I can.

I also have more comments to add, but I'm off for Last Christmas Shopping Version 5.0...

Jane

[Lellers]

Motivating adult women to go camping, when they have no outdoor experience, is hard.

And therein lies the problem. There are lots of women who love being out in the wilderness, but most of my wilderness sisters had early experience in the outdoors, usually as little girls. It's very, very difficult to get an adult woman with no experience to get past the thought of peeing in the woods. I can't even count how many times I got the "eewwwww" look from fellow women when I mention that I like hiking, camping, backpacking, etc.

So a girl needs to have positive experiences in the outdoors, but how to do that without enough women to guide them? It's a Catch-22, and it makes me think that perhaps I should volunteer with girls, too.

[teachergal]

I was very active in Girl Scouting from Brownie up to my Silver Award. When we lived in NY I had AWESOME troop leaders and we did all kinds of stuff. We went camping - mostly at Girl Scout camps with the platform tents and cots and "nice" stuff. Every Spring we would do a jamboree style camp-out with all the troops in the area. We even went winter camping in a cabin most winters and would go sledding and stuff...it was so much fun! We also did our share of crafts, cooking and service projects. Girl Scouts was such an important part of my elem school/early middle school years.

Then we moved to OH. The troop sucked. It wasn't as dynamic - most of the other girls were not too keen on me, a newcomer joining them. We camped at a local boy scout camp and it seemed like it rained every time we'd bail out in the middle of the night b/c the tents were flooding. We did take 2 trips - one to Washington DC and one to the Smokies and that was cool. When it came time to earn our silver awards the leaders decided on our service project - we crocheted lap rugs for a nursing home. That made me mad - I didn't like that I couldn't pick what I did. I had no problem with crocheting, I just wanted to pick something.

[Roots]

I loved girl scouts! But why couldn't we do the backpacking and outdoor adventures the Boy Scouts do...

[River Runner]

I was a Brownie & Junior Girl Scout, and then our leader quit.

My best memories from my Girl Scout troop were outdoors - we did day camp (with an overnight in a tent the last night), some hiking, and some outdoor cooking. I have to admit I rather enjoyed the sewing badges we did too.

When my youngest daughter was in kindergarten, I helped with her Daisy troop, and then ended up as co-leader in her second year of Brownies. She stayed with it through her Senior year, earning her Silver Award as a Cadette, and had all the prep work done for her Gold Award, but did not get motivated enough to do the final project to finish it. Oh well, it's the process, not the award, and I think Girl Scouting really helped make her a better citizen with good leadership qualities and a sincere desire to help others.

I still volunteer on a council level, mainly in outdoor activities - canoeing, camping, backpacking, hiking, and archery, both in program for the girls and as a trainer for leaders or those seeking specialist status. I also became a certified lifeguard when my daughter's troop were Juniors, and have kept it up since. It's so difficult to find a lifeguard to come to camp that the girls would not have often had the opportunity to swim otherwise.

Now that was an interesting experience - taking my first lifeguarding course at the age of 40 with all those 16-18 year olds.