Welcome back

This issue of The Golden Link should be arriving at mailboxes just before the school bells ring for the beginning of the new school year. I hope you had a great, relaxing summer with lots of time to lie around the house reading and eating bon-bons (yeah, right!). If you are like most parents, the summer is just as busy as the rest of the school year, except there is no consistent schedule. But, the change of routine for the summer is, in itself, refreshing. But, now it is time to get back into the routine of Girl Scouting and helping your girls make big plans for the year.

If your girls made the big leap of bridging from one level to another, you need to make sure you have taken the appropriate level training, so that you can offer them everything you can in the continuing adventure of Girl Scouting. To offer your girls the very best, you need to be trained, so check out The Golden Link for training information and sign up for those trainings early. Check your First Aid and CPR cards and make sure they are current, so that girls don’t miss out on a camping adventure. Urge your parents to register and take some trainings, too. A well informed parent is your best resource.

Plan a parents’ meeting soon so you can get the permission slip for regular meetings and an updated Medical Information and Publicity Release form and insurance information completed. This is a great time to line up your help for the year,

such as fall product sales manager, cookie manager, and such. It also gives the parents an opportunity to have some input into the troop planning. Once you get their ideas, you can take it back to your girls and let them incorporate these ideas into those girl planned activities. Remember, it’s the girls’ troop and they need to help make the plans.

Troop service projects

When your troop completes a really great service project, what should you do? Well, aside from the obvious recognitions, and satisfaction at a job well done, you also need to take pictures and record the moment.

How about your troop’s rededication ceremony, or that really cute picture you took of the girls at the zoo?
Once you have your pictures back, send the picture and a story of your activity to your service unit Press Corps representative so that she can submit the information to your local newspaper and to The Golden Link. Let the community know that Girl Scouting is alive and well and active in the area. So, take lots of pictures, submit them to the Press Corps and watch the papers and Golden Link for your girls to show up in print.

And once your troop has completed a service project, make sure you submit the service project information sheet to your service unit management. GSSJC likes to keep track of the hours of service and number of volunteers that work on a project. Girl Scouts is a service-oriented

organization with members who make the promise to “help people at all times,” so let’s make this a year of service in GSSJC

Teens and Girl Scouting

With the focus on STUDIO 2B for our teenage girls, GSSJC has lots to offer in the way of program activities for these girls. If your girls are entering the exciting world of being a teenager, there are trainings you, as a parent or leader, can take to help you cope with the changes that will be coming along for your girls. These trainings and workshops can help you anticipate the upcoming years.

And, for your girls, there are many, many opportunities for them to grow and experience new ideas and new challenges. Make sure you check out the award orientations, Council Puppetry Troupe, Take Note Choir, Green Starlettes, girl planning boards, and the many other opportunities for teen Girl Scouts.
Many of these groups form in the fall and do not take new members during the year, so make sure your girls don’t miss a deadline.

And, for those girls interested in travel, watch for the orientation dates for Destinations, Council-sponsored trips, and leadership institutes that come along during the year. There is so much to do, your girls cannot honestly say “I”m bored” if they just look at the possibilities out there for them.