Although the Junior half of my troop ran fairly smoothly this year, I felt like the Cadette half did not succeed. I started the year with the idea that the Cadette events would be girl planned and led. Like so many of older girl leaders, I discovered handing over control to the girls simply means that nothing happens. They had great ideas and those ideas, although assigned to specific individuals, went no where.
Luckily for my self-esteem (because I felt like I did the right things, but the troop was nonetheless failing), all of the older group leaders in my neighborhood decided to sit down and have a "what's working/what's not" meeting. What we discovered is that girl led wasn't working for any of us. Right at a moment in time when the "model" tells us to hand over the troop, the girls become too busy to really do it. School pressures and sports are competing for their time and honestly, both will always win over Girl Scouts.
The leaders met over appetizers and wine and we came to several conclusions. First, turning over the troop and insisting on girl led was the first step to killing a thriving troop. Clearly we need to abandon that idea or lose our girls. More on our solution to that in a moment.
The second thing we noticed was that each of us arrived at the meeting without a co-leader. I looked around the table at a group of strong alpha females, all of whom I admire and realized the Girl Scout leader/co-leader model wasn't strong in any of our troops. Each one of us is essentially the leader (or advisor to use GSUSA's preferred terminology) working mostly alone. I have a lot of thoughts about the dynamics of women in leadership roles as to why this would be, but I'll spare you.
What is clear from this observation is that the collaborative leadership model is essential for the long-term survival of troops. Troops who have only an 01 and and 02 often find themselves without enough leaders should they lose one of those key individuals. Troops who set up all of their parents as participants in the early years, on the other hand, are well-positioned for troop survival because all of the adults can share responsibility. In my troop, for example, I generally go to any troop event but the parents trade in and out of service as the 02 of the day or the event. Occasionally, two of 02s will chaperon or lead when I am not available. A small survey around our table of older leaders revealed that most of them were likewise relying on a group of co-leaders rather than on one or two.
To return to the problem of "girl led" leading to troop closures, we decided as a group to pitch that right out the window. The girls aren't being cheated; they are getting plenty of leadership opportunities through community service, leadership awards, and their Silver and Gold Awards. Insisting that they also take responsibility for the troop is superfluous to that end goal and was costing us girl membership.
Instead, what we decided to do was collaborate as older girl leaders with each of us taking a single month and planning a large-group activity intended to bring interested older girls together to have a good time. The Super Troop was born. We met a second time and set a calendar for the year, and I volunteered for the first activity of the year, ice skating. I have been organizing a back-to-school ice skating activity for my troop every year anyway and inviting all of the older girls actually doesn't take any extra work.
The really cool thing about working with a group of older leaders is that they are all experienced. Each one can plan a group activity without breaking a sweat and they have really cool ideas as well. The original idea was to do simple things like flag football, bowling, and games night, but within ten minutes, the calendar was filled with SCUBA, camping, and gun safety. Trapeze lessons were also proposed.
I announced the plan to my girls alongside the activities for next year to much cheering, but it remains to be seen how it all works out and if it will serve to retain older girls as members. Stay tuned.
Luckily for my self-esteem (because I felt like I did the right things, but the troop was nonetheless failing), all of the older group leaders in my neighborhood decided to sit down and have a "what's working/what's not" meeting. What we discovered is that girl led wasn't working for any of us. Right at a moment in time when the "model" tells us to hand over the troop, the girls become too busy to really do it. School pressures and sports are competing for their time and honestly, both will always win over Girl Scouts.
The leaders met over appetizers and wine and we came to several conclusions. First, turning over the troop and insisting on girl led was the first step to killing a thriving troop. Clearly we need to abandon that idea or lose our girls. More on our solution to that in a moment.
The second thing we noticed was that each of us arrived at the meeting without a co-leader. I looked around the table at a group of strong alpha females, all of whom I admire and realized the Girl Scout leader/co-leader model wasn't strong in any of our troops. Each one of us is essentially the leader (or advisor to use GSUSA's preferred terminology) working mostly alone. I have a lot of thoughts about the dynamics of women in leadership roles as to why this would be, but I'll spare you.
What is clear from this observation is that the collaborative leadership model is essential for the long-term survival of troops. Troops who have only an 01 and and 02 often find themselves without enough leaders should they lose one of those key individuals. Troops who set up all of their parents as participants in the early years, on the other hand, are well-positioned for troop survival because all of the adults can share responsibility. In my troop, for example, I generally go to any troop event but the parents trade in and out of service as the 02 of the day or the event. Occasionally, two of 02s will chaperon or lead when I am not available. A small survey around our table of older leaders revealed that most of them were likewise relying on a group of co-leaders rather than on one or two.
To return to the problem of "girl led" leading to troop closures, we decided as a group to pitch that right out the window. The girls aren't being cheated; they are getting plenty of leadership opportunities through community service, leadership awards, and their Silver and Gold Awards. Insisting that they also take responsibility for the troop is superfluous to that end goal and was costing us girl membership.
Instead, what we decided to do was collaborate as older girl leaders with each of us taking a single month and planning a large-group activity intended to bring interested older girls together to have a good time. The Super Troop was born. We met a second time and set a calendar for the year, and I volunteered for the first activity of the year, ice skating. I have been organizing a back-to-school ice skating activity for my troop every year anyway and inviting all of the older girls actually doesn't take any extra work.
The really cool thing about working with a group of older leaders is that they are all experienced. Each one can plan a group activity without breaking a sweat and they have really cool ideas as well. The original idea was to do simple things like flag football, bowling, and games night, but within ten minutes, the calendar was filled with SCUBA, camping, and gun safety. Trapeze lessons were also proposed.
I announced the plan to my girls alongside the activities for next year to much cheering, but it remains to be seen how it all works out and if it will serve to retain older girls as members. Stay tuned.
