Leader Tips: April 2009 Archives

Adults must be approved in order to:

•        Transport Girl Scouts in a vehicle

•        Serve as a Chaperone

•        Attend an overnight event (this includes camping) with the girls

•        Handle troop or service area money

 To be approved, an adult must:

·         REGISTER to be a member of Girl Scouts and complete the GSUSA membership form and submits the $10 annual membership fee to the council.

(The fee goes up to $12 in 2009-2010)

AND

·         COMPLETE the Adult Volunteer Application, which includes the:

•        Authorization to Release Information Form

•        Adult Volunteer Application

•        Driving Record Request form

These forms must be returned at least four weeks prior to an event for the council to complete the approval process. The Driving Record Request form is needed only if you will be transporting girls.

Whether you need a first-aider really depends on what the girls will be doing.  Meetings and activities don't automatically require a first-aider to be present, but I do recommend that leaders and/or assistants have CPR and First Aid training because, with children, anything can happen at any time. 

The guidelines that you absolutely must follow are those printed in Safety-Wise and the Policies and Procedures manual.  Use the index to find the specific information about the safety guidelines that apply.  If you have trouble finding something, ask a Service Unit or Council resource person.  I'm always happy to help you.

Cheryl Miller

334.312.0433

Memorial Day is a U.S. holiday observed on the last Monday of May (May 25 this year).  Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in military service to their country.  Starting in the 1950s on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the 1,200 soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery.

There are three national cemeteries near our council that will have Memorial Day activities your troop can participate in.  Andersonville National Cemetery, Fort Mitchell and Mobile National Cemetery will allow troops to place flags on the graves of veterans at 9 a.m., Saturday, May 23.  If your troop is interested, you just need to call the cemetery and tell them your troop number and how many will participate.  Click on the names of the cemeteries, for contact information.  They will also have ceremonies on Sunday your troop can attend.  The Andersonville Cemetery Administrator, Gerry Allen, asks that you register before May 1.

Some other suggestions for your troop:

• Visit memorials
• Fly the U.S. Flag at half-staff until noon
• Fly the 'POW/MIA Flag'
• Participate in a "National Moment of Remembrance" at 3 p.m. to pause and think upon the true meaning of the day.
• Renew a pledge to aid the widows, widowers, and orphans of the fallen, and to aid the disabled veterans.

Since many of you will soon be registering for the 2009-10 membership year (to take advantage of all of the perks!), here's some helpful tidbits for filling out registration forms:

On each Adult and Girl Registration Form there is a little box at the bottom of the form on the right.   You do  not have to check anything for category, but please put the council code (307), the troop number (4 digits) and the service unit number (3 digits) on every form.

On the Girl form, the Emergency Contact should be someone other than the parents, who can be contacted in an emergency if the parents are not available.       

On the Adult forms, the position codes are listed in the right hand column of the form. Please put the correct code for adults:

01 for Troop Leader, 02 for Asst Leader, 03 for  Troop Committee Member, etc.  Only adults who complete the leader training courses should be listed as 01's or 02's.  Most parents are going to be listed as 14, which is Member. Some adults may have more than one position if they are a troop leader and also serve in another position.

If you have any questions about Early Registration, contact Lindsey Spear at 800-239-6636, ext: 1102. 

Girl Scouts honor their leaders on Girl Scout Leader Appreciation Day, April 22 (during National Volunteer Week). These devoted leaders unselfishly

donate their time and energy to plan and lead fun and educational troop meetings and outings for the members of their troops. Girl Scout leaders

possess caring hearts and creative minds, doing everything within their power to help expand the girls' horizons, giving them countless

opportunities they normally would not come across. These experiences can range anywhere from organizing programs for special needs

individuals to community services to learning about various cultures of the world at an international fair to grooming horses on a farm. These

seemingly tireless leaders dedicate themselves year round to helping girls develop into self-assured, resourceful young women.

For those of you who have a daughter in Girl Scouting, please take a moment to think about their leader (or leaders). Think about how at each

troop meeting the leader is prepared to have your daughter experience new challenges and gain positive skills for the future. Think about the

amount of time the leader devotes to preparing for meetings and field trips while balancing her own family, career and other time constraints.

These women make such a difference in the lives of girls. They are essential to making Girl Scouting the outstanding and successful program

it is known to be. There can never be enough of these amazing women.

We invite you to comment below and recognize your Leader and Co-Leaders, and let them know how much you appreciate all that they do.

We held a VERY successful Camping Adventures training at Chewacla on March 22 with 26 people in attendance.  We had a blast!  The moms were so thrilled that their daughters learned almost as much as they did. 

Chewacla State Park is an excellent location for this and it's a wonderful opportunity for leaders to check out a great destination where they can take their girls camping, canoeing, wading in the creek, playing under the waterfall, etc.  Some of these volunteers live in this area and they had no idea that this breathtakingly beautiful park was right under their noses.  It only costs a $1 per night for Scouts to stay there, too.

One attendee wrote, "A big thank you to you (Cheryl) and your family for a fabulous camp weekend.  You made it look so easy!  You were so knowledgeable and so well organized.  We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!" 

Cheryl Miller would be happy to schedule a Camping Adventures training course if we have a group of 10 or so.   If you're interested, you can contact Cheryl at 334.272.9164, ext: 2302.