To all the explorers, changemakers, and stargazers who volunteer with us: welcome and thank you!
Getting started 
Troop safety
Your new leader training is an essential component of troop safety. Before you meet with your troop, you must complete "Troop Volunteers, part 1" in gsLearn. After meeting with your troop 2 to 3 times, you'll need to complete "Troop Volunteers, part 2" before participating in any excursions outside of regular troop meetings.
You will complete Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention training in gsLearn as part of the required courses. Here are the GSME Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Guidelines for your reference.
Forms
First aid
Meeting safety
Make sure your meeting location follows the safety guidelines discussed in the Volunteer Handbook, and that you can hold safe in-person meetings there. Be sure to follow the ratio chart from the Volunteer Handbook (and shown below) to make sure you have enough volunteers at each meeting.
For example, if you have a troop of 12 Daisies you will need:
- Two approved (background checked), registered, trained, unrelated adult volunteers (at least one of whom is female) at each troop meeting
Please note that anyone who is planning to volunteer with the troop 3 or more times must be registered and background checked.
Troop trips & travel
Getting organized
Troop leaders track a variety of troop-related information. Work as a team to develop an organizational method that works for your troop. You will be tracking receipts, bank statements, Annual Permission Forms, Health Records, Parent Permission Forms, program materials, meeting plans, and other important documents. Be sure to keep all personal and confidential information secure.
Are you a “paper person”?
Are you a “digital person”?
Volunteer Toolkit
Whether you prefer to organize your records on paper or digitally, each troop should create a year plan in the Volunteer Toolkit. You can create your own year plan by adding badges and/or journeys individually, or choose from one of the pre-selected tracks curated for you by GSUSA.
Troop drop box
Growing your troop
Program basics
Two of your must-have tools, gsLearn and the Volunteer Toolkit, are accessible when you log in to MyGS.
Here are a few more helpful links:
- Award and Badge Explorer (can filter by grade level and topic)
- GSME Shop (Uniform Placement sheet, how to access the shop, etc.)
- Program Pillar Chart (list of badges, journeys & patches, by level and pillar)
There really is no limit to what Girl Scouts can accomplish! Here are some of the main ways that girls build their Girl Scout experience:
Badges
Journeys
Fun Patches
Highest Awards
Events
Camp
Communication
Who to contact
Co-leader teamwork
Working with parents/caregivers
Parent meeting: Schedule a parent meeting before you
start your regular troop meetings with the girls. See the “Meeting
with your troop” section below for more details.
Family Star Patch Program: The Family
Shining Star Patch Program is a great way to get troop parents
involved and help fill in any gaps on the troop leadership team.
Communication: Plan how you will stay in touch
with troop parents/caregivers. Decide as a leadership team the method
and schedule that works best for you. You will want to establish a
regular means of communication, which keeps everyone up to date on the
latest and greatest from the troop including: stories from the girls,
troop financial status, wish list, news & upcoming events, etc.
Some examples:
- Private Facebook or Instagram group,
with at least one troop leader who takes the lead on regularly
posting and monitoring content.
- Email newsletter (bi-weekly or monthly, etc.). The whole leadership team can help collect relevant news and information, and one leader can compile it into a newsletter customized to the needs of the troop. You can find parent/caregiver email addresses in your troop roster in the Volunteer Toolkit.
Meeting with your troop
Most troops meet once a week or twice a month, while some troops meet monthly. Daisy troops tend to have shorter meetings, generally 45 minutes to an hour, while troops of older girls often meet for longer. The important thing is not how often or how long the troop meets, but how well the meetings work for the troop.
Parent/caregiver meeting
Meeting tools
Girl Scouts is girl-led, which means girls of every age take an active and age-appropriate role in figuring out the what, where, when, why, and how of all the exciting troop activities they’ll do. Girl-led happens over time, starting with small steps that build upon each other in progression.
Remember that projects don’t have to come out “perfectly” (whatever that means!) and girls don’t have to fill their vests and sashes with badges. What matters most is the fun and learning that happens as girls make experiences their own. Lay the foundation together, and then step back and let your girls take the lead.
Here are some simple tools that will help you in supporting your girls to take the lead:
Six parts of a meeting
Kaper chart
Create a troop kaper chart. Kaper charts are a great way to get all of the girls involved in running the troop (it is their troop, after all!). Girls can learn new skills and even get to know each other better. Try pairing up girls who may not already spend much time together. Rotate the girls and assignments frequently to keep the pairs and kapers fresh.
Troop agreements
Bull’s Eye Planning
The Bull’s Eye Planning chart is a useful tool for finding out what the girls want to do and involving them in planning troop activities. You can have girls put their ideas on sticky notes or you can record their ideas on a large sheet of paper.
Plus/Delta
Plus/Delta is a simple evaluation tool you can use with kids or grown-ups. Connect with your girls (or troop adults!) after completing an activity to find out what is going well and what can be improved.
Plus focuses on the things that went well.
- What has been good so far?
- What do we want to keep?
Delta is the mathematical symbol for change.
- What specifically can we do next time to improve our experience?
You can write out this chart on dry erase board or a large piece of paper and take notes during a troop discussion.
At the end of a meeting or activity, ask the group “What went well?” Enter responses under the Plus sign.
Then ask, “What could we do differently to make it better?” Enter responses under the Delta sign.
For a quick version, you can ask girls to give a simple thumbs up/thumbs down. You can also come up with another method that works for your troop.
Troop finances & money-earning
Troop bank account
Record keeping
Money earning
Working with your service unit
The Girl Scouts of Maine council serves all of Maine. The council is divided into 37 service units, each of which is managed by a service team.
What is a service unit?
What is a service team?
Leader meetings
Service unit Facebook groups
Service unit events
Working with your service team
Ceremonies & traditions
Plan your year
