Yep, I’m a 39-year-old Girl Scout. In fact, all three of the humans in our household are registered Girl Scouts—myself, Katie, and yes, even Sam. Men can be registered as adult Scouts. Katie’s troops have always asked that at least one, and preferably both (or more if there are more!) parents in a family register as adult Scouts for various reasons.
I’ve been a troop leader in Junior and multilevel (Rainbow) troops in the past. I had one year of Brownies and one as a Junior Girl Scout when I was a girl. I didn’t have great experiences, and wanted to make things better for my daughter and other girls, so I stepped up to be a leader when needed. I found that I enjoyed it every bit as much as the girls do. As just one example, I had never gone camping until Katie became a Brownie, and thought I’d hate it, but it was really fun.
There are some marvelous resources on the net for Girls and their parents and leaders. Katie is going to share her favorite links with other girls, so I’ll concentrate on the adult stuff. Since I’m relatively new, I don’t have anything like the list of links some sites have, but I wanted to share the best of what I have found.
- The National GSUSA site has far more information on it than most people ever realize. If you don’t already know what local council serves your area, you can find out here.
- We’re in the Northwest Georgia council. That site also offers a wealth of information. Pay special attention to the regularly-posted Learning Opportunities, which is the schedule of classes offered for adults and sometimes for older girls. Council events are also posted here. We would have missed out on some marvelous opportunities if we waited for someone else to tell us about them instead of checking the council’s site regularly.
- The Scouting File Cabinet is a collection of links, songs, ceremonies, activities, information for parents — you name it! It’s part of a larger site, the Leader/Guide Cyber Council, which is marvelous.
- ScoutingWeb offers an astonishing range of material.
- New Moon Magazine isn’t specifically for Scouts, but it’s a marvelous magazine for and by girls that does occasionally feature some Scouting material. They also have a great mailing list, careaboutgirls. The list is “for adults who care about girls: parents, teachers, coaches, counselors, pastors, troop leaders, relatives, researchers, etc. This is for every adult who wants to help raise healthy, confident girls and make the world better and safer for girls.”
Someone expressed surprise when learning that I’m a Girl Scout leader because she was under the impression that Girl Scouting is only for Christians. I wrote an article to clear up that misconception, “Is There a Pentagram Badge?”
I especially encourage homeschooling families to explore Girl Scouting as an opportunity for their daughters. We use the GS badge requirements along with unit studies and they’ve given us many great ideas.