calling all Brownie leaders!! About This Page:

[IdahoDisneyMom]

A friend and I agreed to take over our DDs troop when it splits into 2 this fall. We went to the training yesterday, but if any of you have brilliant tricks of the trade you can share that would be great!! Thanks!!

[GATechGal]

Get parents involved early. Set up your rules and make sure that EVERYONE (girls and parents) know what's to be expected. That helps cut down on behavior problems right from the first. Plan out your schedule of "Try Its" and any other field trips as soon as possible and pass out a schedule so if a girl misses a meeting she can still make up the try it on her own.

[Teresa]

To prevent you from having to always do it: DO NOT become the cookie mom the first year, it's just too much along with the leading.

Collect one fee at the beginning of the year. doing it every week or two is too hard to keep track of.

Have the girls clean up after themselves. Period. Or, you'll still be doing it in 5 years.

One of the things I did was that when we took a field trip that took money, I sent the info in an envelope, sealed. That way, I could customize the info for each girl. I had some girls from very wealthy families, and some that a $2 fee was asking too much. The wealthy girls were charged $0.50 more and the poorer girls were charged what I felt their families could pay (this was with the approval of the wealthier parents, I didn't want the poorer parents or girls to be embarrassed and it was important that they pay some)

Make sure you understand all of the paperwork involved. One of you should be in charge of that, and the other in charge of co-ordination. Field trip forms are my pet peeve. I hate it when my kids' leaders send out a "Hey, we're going to ______. Sign here. " letter. It needs to be a form from the G.S. office so that YOU are protected if something bad happens (I've never had anything happen in 17 years of being a leader, but you never know)

DO NOT be in charge of you own daughter. The other leader and you should agree to be in charge of each other's daughters, and the girls should know this. It's too hard to be a mom and a leader. Either you'll let your daughter be such a little know it all that the other kids will resent her, or you'll expect more of her than you do of the others, and she'll resent them.

Finally - Don't let the girls pick who they work with or who they ride with, they'll form cliques even in the group. The way I did it was to color popsicle stick at the end in different colors - if there are 8 girls, use four colors. Then, they draw the popsicle sticks (without looking) and are paired up with the girl they match. No fighting.

Good luck, and good for you!!

[chezp]

I have no words of advice, but just wanted to wish you [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/luck.gif[/img] [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/fairy2.gif[/img]

[koalamom]

All of the above sound great...just remember, you are in charge. It is very easy for girls of that age to railroad a meeting. We are going to a state park soon with some of our cookie money (Juniors not Brownies, but have been there, done that) and we are having pre trip meetings for planning and to lay down the ground rules. These girls need structure. It is a lot of work, but it can be very enjoyable for all involved. I got involved initially because I wanted my older daughter (who is a 4 year Senior Scout working on her Gold Award) to be in Scouts when she was younger. No one else would step up to lead so I did. Now I just co-lead for my younger daughter's troop and am helping my older daughter along with her advisers finish up.

I am so glad you decided to do this and you will be too. Feel free to send me a PM if you like. Good Luck!

[img]/ubb/images/graemlins/fairy2.gif[/img] [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/fairy2.gif[/img] [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/fairy2.gif[/img]