Starting in the fall, I will be a Girl Scout Daisy Troop Leader.  We’re already registered and signed up, but the new leader training won’t occur until late August, and the “official” start of the Girl Scout 2016-2017 year isn’t until October 1, 2016.

How did I end up as a leader?

Daughter Person is entering Kindergarten in the fall (wait what?), and she’s expressed interest in being in girl scouts.  However, there was no troop or leader yet for the incoming K students in our area.  So, I found another volunteer to be a leader, and we’ve gone through our local council to start a troop.  We already have 5 adult volunteers registered (and cleared in PA) other than the leaders.  They are moms (and dads) who just wanted to help, but weren’t interested in taking on a Leader role.  There are also 5 girls that we know of registered, and once we settle on a meeting place and time, we’re opening up the registration on the Girl Scouts of America’s main web page to allow incoming girls and parents to find our troop.  The current K-level Daisy troop has 12 members, so I suspect we’ll have a similar number.  The limit is 12 girls with only two leaders – we’d have to find another volunteer to step up to be a leader to have more than 12 girls.

I did girl scouts long ago (before there were Daisies!), and my mom was a scout even longer ago, although she was a leader when I was in scouting.  We both showed Daughter Person things we did and pictures, and that’s how she got excited.  I have the cutest picture of her in her new Daisy uniform – complete with the Beanie (her choice!).

This will be a new adventure for both of us, and so far, I feel like I’ve been drinking from a firehose with information from our council about meetings, and troops, and training, and everything else involved in starting a troop.  I got a lot out of scouting when I was younger, and I hope Daughter Person does too!