First Meeting

Last night was our very first troop meeting. 9 girls were in attendance, which was everyone that I had spoken to and were interested in joining. Most girls had already registered, but there were 4 left that had to complete their forms and registration fee ($12). As the girls started coming in, I set them up at the big table with a maze that was included with the MagNut paperwork. The maze was a bit challenging for the 5/6 year olds, but it kept them busy working on it as everyone arrived. The first girl came about 5 minutes early and the last were about 10 minutes late. After girls were finishing with their maze I started them on their next craft. I had white paper plates and orange and black strips of construction paper. I brought a completed craft with me so they could have a model since my time for explaining it was brief. The girls were to tear pieces of the paper and use a glue stick to attach them to the paper plate and make a pumpkin. The black paper was for the eyes/nose/mouth.

While the girls were working on their craft, I was speaking to the moms both individually and as a group.The candy/nut orders were due in by end of the meeting. I had a paper I printed for everyone to take with them an itemized list of all the badges, pins, patches that they'll need to purchase for the uniform. I also had instructions on how to set up their account for online magazine orders. In addition to this, I was passing around a paper for moms to sign up for a snack rotation. And there's a council investiture ceremony next Saturday that I had a sign up form for as well. On top of that, I was asking for the yearly dues of $30/girl. There was a lot of information to process and I'm sure I missed something with someone.

The membership manager also showed up for our first meeting since my background clearance hasn't been processed yet. She spoke to the moms briefly about my need for a co-leader as well as additional volunteers. One of the mom's stepped up to be co-leader and another volunteered her mom to help out on an occasional basis. I'm really hoping come cookie time I'll be able to lean on a volunteer some more.

Once the girls were finishing up with craft, I asked for help from the girls to get snack out. I brought pumpkin cupcakes and capri sun for the girls. When they were done eating I also asked for their help collecting the trash.

One of the girls whose mom had left was starting to get a little upset. She didn't know anyone else and her mom was one of the only ones that had left. So I sat down by her and focused my attention on the troop. We went around and said our names. Then I had the girls talk to the girl they were sitting by and ask them something about themselves and tell the rest of us. This went pretty well even though there were times that the question had to be re-asked because they had forgotten by the time it was their turn to speak.

I purchased some name tag lanyards for the girls to wear as well. As they learn each of the 4 parts of the girl scout promise we'll be able to use a sticker to mark that they know it. I read the promise to them this week and a few were able to read along with me. We'll start breaking it out and working on it a section at a time going forward.

At this point there was about 10 minutes left of the meeting. I told the girls we had time to play a game and one of the girls asked if they could play Duck, Duck, Goose (which was the game I had in mind too). While they played I went around and collected the rest of the paperwork from the parents and comforted the child that was still crying because her mom left. Within an hour of the meeting ending the girl's grandmother called and said she wasn't emotionally ready to join the troop and not to process her registration. So at this point we have 8 members. Our next meeting will be in one week, but after that we'll meet on the First and Third Friday of the month.