My Journey into Girl Scout leadership

I finished my second training class to become a girl scout leader Tuesday. At the end, we were asked to reflect on why we were becoming leaders, which for me is a semi-long story. In the beginning, my daughter wanted to be a girl scout. This was approximately 2.5 years ago. We went to GS round-up, filled out the forms, paid the dues and waited. Every couple of weeks, I'd send a note to Council asking what the status on a troop in our area was and would receive back a note saying "We have leaders taking training currently, they'll be in touch with you when they're done." Yet we never received a call back.

In the meantime, my son decided he'd like to be a Cub Scout too. So we attended round-up, filled out the forms, paid our dues and were immediately contacted with what to do. A very big change from what we were getting from Girl Scouts. As it turned out, the Pack didn't have a leader for my son's age group, so I stepped up to fill in the role. After all, the Girl Scout council hadn't told me I needed to be a leader, just that I was waiting on one to finish training. With Cub Scouts, I could start immediately as a leader and take training as I had the time. It was a relatively painless step and I had a lot of other leaders stepping in to help me out when I was lost. Now I'm one of those that's guiding our new leaders in the Pack.

My daughter, on the other hand, was relegated to being a Juliette Girl Scout (lone scout). With no troop and me not wanting her to lose complete interest, we found this to be the best option. She could sample what she SHOULD be doing, while we waited on council. Since I was now fully involved with my son in Cub Scouts, I made a promise to her that if we couldn't get her a troop, I'd become her leader when my son crossed over into Boy Scouts. By chance, my daughter was enrolled in gymnastics and met another girl who'd just joined a new troop in our area. They were accepting new girls. So, we met up with the new troop and joined (she had been a Juliette for about 8 months by now). My daughter was happy to meet other girls and work with them, but at this point she was ahead of them in some things. Her interest was still there, but not totally in what they were doing.

Technically, we're still members of that Troop of girls. Our schedule changed this year and my daughter had to make a choice. She could remain on the demo team for Choi or she could attend the Girl Scout meetings. She decided she'd rather do demo team and wait for my boy to cross-over into Boy Scouts to rejoin Girl Scouts. I can't say I overly cared for this, so I started training recently to become a Girl Scout leader. In the meantime, she's working as a Juliette again (though a member of a Troop), primarily with my son's Cub Scout den.

I now have to find a co-leader willing to step up for Girl Scouts so that I can continue the process. Unfortunately, I have no candidates in mind. I've let those at the district know, we'll see if they have ideas. I have to admit, Scouting is definitely an adventure and not just for the girls.