Organizing a Girl Scout Troop

Chances are you have seen the Girl Scouts before, usually standing near a store front selling some of their famous cookies. There is more to this great organization though than simply selling cookies. The Girl Scout organization is a great way to help instill confidence in girls and young women while preparing them for their adult lives. Only one problem, there never seems to be enough troops for all of those who are interested. Organizing a Girl Scout troop yourself is one way that you can go about solving this problem, and is remarkably easy to do. Follow these basic instructions, and you will know how.

1. Learn the requirements. To be able to begin organizing a Girl Scout troop the right way, you will need to first learn what the specific requirements are. There are different requirements for the different levels (national, state, and local) of participation, and you should be familiar with them. The simplest way to find out these requirements is to contact your local council, which can be found either by doing a quick browser search on the internet, or by looking in your local phone book.
2. See if there is an interest. Start asking around to see if there is any interest beyond your own in starting a full sized Girl Scout troop. You can put notices up at your local schools, community bulletin boards, as well as churches. The optimal size for a troop is going to be between four and 10 girls, but can go up to 15 girls without the need of creating a new troop. If you are the only one that is interested though, don't worry. There is still options that you can follow for a lone Girl Scout.
3. Create a partnership. Finding a partner, or creating a partnership, with a local school or church can help by providing a lot of support for your fledgling organization. These community resources can provide facilities, resources, and even (in some cases) funding which can help make everything run smoother. Contact the principals, pastors, or other leaders to see if you can create a partnership with their organization.
4. Start a leadership committee. Every Girl Scout troop will require a structured leadership committee to run properly. There should a single coordinator who is in overall charge of the troop for up to a year at a time. This position should be elected on each year, and then there should also be a troop leader, as well as some additional adults that can serve in a "counseling" position to help sign off on activities.
5. Begin recruiting. Start recruiting the girls that will be in your Girl Scout troop. Do this by putting out flyers, and other informational notices at the local schools, churches, libraries, community bulletin boards, and if possible on television.
6. Begin to hold your meetings. Start holding your meetings. On average, the meetings should be held once a week, as consistently as possible. However, if there isn't enough time to do this each and every week, then try to hold it every other week. The absolute minimum would be once every three weeks; otherwise the girls will begin to loose interest.