Once you’ve decided to become a girl scout troop leader, you’ll be excited to get started on everything. While you’ll already know a few things you’ll need to get done, you mightn’t know the exact steps to starting a girl scout troop. Some of these are quite obvious, while others aren’t.
If you want to make sure you get everything done right, it’s worth knowing exactly what you need to do. Thankfully, this doesn’t need to be a difficult process to figure out. As long as you’re excited and passionate about it, it’ll be relatively easy to do. Add in six vital steps, and you won’t have a problem getting it all done.
You’ll start a girl scout troop easier than you’d think, and you shouldn’t have a problem seeing success. It’s worth diving into what these steps are.
Steps To Starting A Girl Scout Troop: 6 Top Picks
1. Attend Monthly Service Meetings
Monthly service meetings are designed to help girl scout leaders manage and lead their troops. You can get advice from other leaders, as well as people with much more experience in the field. It’s more than worth attending these monthly meetings as much as you can. They’ll be invaluable to your ability to lead.
Use these as a way to find out how you can be a great girl scout leader and the best things to do with your troop. The more you take part in these, the better you’ll end up leading your troop. There’s no reason not to take part in these whenever you can.
2. Prepare Your First Meetings
During your first meetings, you’ll be introducing yourself to your new girl scouts, as well as their parents. You’ll want to make sure these introductions go as smoothly as possible. By making sure you’re as prepared as possible, these should go swimmingly.
It’s also worth noting these meetings are the perfect time to recruit parents to help out in various ways. Know what kind of help you might need, and make sure parents are told about it during these meetings. Outside that, thoroughly plan out your meetings and related activities.
The more well-prepared you are, the better.
3. Complete Leadership Training
It takes a lot to be a girl scout leader, and not everyone is cut out for it. If you want to make sure you’re as effective at this as possible, make sure you complete your leadership training. It could be one of the first steps you need to take when starting a girl scout troop.
More than a few things will be covered in this training, including:
- Goal setting
- Budgeting
- Project management
- Group management
All of these areas can be difficult to figure out by yourself, and you mightn’t be able to do them to a high enough standard. There’s nothing wrong with that. By getting your leadership training, you make sure you can do everything the right way. They’ll let you be a great leader.
4. Get The Necessary Support In Order
If it’s your first time starting a girl scout troop, you might need a little help. You’d be surprised by how much of this is available to you. Previous girl scout leaders are the most obvious of these. Feel free to lean on these people at the start and get any advice you need. If there are any leaders you look up to, try to pick their brains.
Then there’s the likes of your friends and family, all of whom will be available for emotional support, if you need it. While you mightn’t need it too often, make sure it’s there for anytime you do need it.
It’s also worth considering any legalities in case of worst-case scenarios. A California girl scouts sexual abuse lawyer, for example, mightn’t be needed right now – if at all – but they come in handy if an unfortunate situation arises. Have these supports in order for you if you need them.
5. Go Through Your Toolkit & Resources
Speaking of support, you should have a toolkit and multiple resources at your disposal as a girl scout leader. Make sure you go through these and know what you’re doing before you start planning things out. These resources will make things much easier for you going forward.
It usually includes a step-by-step guide to planning out your meetings, as well as multiple other aspects involved in leading a girl scout troop. If you don’t already have these at your disposal, you can get them from the girl scout organization itself. You shouldn’t have a problem getting everything you need from the get-go.
6. Have Fun!
One of the main goals of a girl scouts troop is to have fun. While most of this focuses on the scouts themselves, you shouldn’t overlook having fun, too. You wouldn’t want to be bored or frustrated as a girl scout leader, as this will come across to your scouts. The more fun you have, the more fun your girl scouts should have.
Put the effort into making sure all of your girl scout meetings are as fun as possible. While you shouldn’t overlook the learning side of the scouts, it doesn’t have to negate the fun side of things. The more effort you put into making their growth and learning fun, the more enjoyable it’ll be for everyone.
Plan this out from the start, and you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.
Steps To Starting A Girl Scout Troop: Wrapping Up
There are multiple steps to starting a girl scout troop you’ll need to go through, with some being more obvious than others. While they could take a little time to get through them, it should be relatively easy. If you’re passionate about the girl scouts and excited to get going on everything, you shouldn’t have a problem with this.
Getting the necessary support in order, preparing your first meetings, completing your leadership training, and similar steps are all vital to this. Though they’ll need a little time and effort, it’ll be more than worth it. You’ll be a girl scout troop leader and enjoying it before you even know it.
