Becoming a Girl Scout Troop Leader

If you are in Orlando, you would be in Citrus Council, so start here:

http://www.citrus-gs.org/for-volunteers/Pages/default.aspx

Recruitment in our council has always begun *after* school starts, usually late September. If yours is anything like ours, you're likely to have no trouble putting together a troop, because your council may try to place girls who want to join but have no troop openings at their school with yours.

It would be very helpful to line up a co-leader now, so you can both take advantage of training asap.

In addition to what your council offers, please check out your service unit meetings as well. Lots of info and help with upcoming events should be available there.

Have fun! My daughter took a while to warm up to Girl Scouts, but eventually loved it, and earned her Gold Award last year (before she aged out). :-D

ETA
My timeframe was based on school starting around Labor Day (those were the days, lol). Sounds like a lot of areas would get an earlier start now!

You can do it, you probably wouldn't start recruiting until a couple of weeks into the school year anyways- gives people a chance to settle in. By October you can really start and you'll probably get a few additions along the way. There must be a book that the council gives you that gives you sample "lessons" for your first few meetings. Use them as a guide in the beginning and then you can adapt them to your troop's style. Have fun!

You need to contact your local council. I know here at our council they send out a flyer to all kindergarteners a week or 2 after school starts, and have a meeting for families who are interested in starting a troop. They will explain about the leader trainings and what it takes to start the troop, and from there, a leader or co-leaders will usually emerge. That person (persons) attend the trainings and start the troop. The troop can be up and running by Christmas (and certainly in time for cookie sales, ha!)

With our troop (they are 2nd graders, Brownies now) after the initial meeting we all got together one more time to hash out who wanted to commit to being the leader, and what kind of help she would need. Then that person just got it all started for us. I think we were having regular troop meetings by the end of October if I recall. We have lost a girl and added 3 girls since then over the years, some mid-year.

I agree with all Celtic W. said below. Also know that while Girl Scouts starts up with the beginning of the school year, most new troops (at least in our council) don't really get going until Oct or Nov (or even later). It just takes a while to get organized, and honestly other than possibly getting some training done there's not much that can be done for pulling a troop together until school is back in session.

Good luck with it! I've been a leader now for three years - I took over my daughter's troop - and while it can sometimes be frustrating it is truly a wonderful thing to do!

I assume it's the same everywhere. Our actual gs year where you pay your membership is Oct to oct. My "training" involved watching an hour or so of online video from council and one meeting w the area rep to go over questions. We had a waiting list given to us. We set the night for meetings that worked for my cleaner and I and that eliminated a few.. It really is fun and rewarding. Just do what works for u and people should be great fun u voluntwered.

Check online for resources and get v a binder/ girls book. And that will start u off.

I'm just starting a new Brownie troop this year for my daughter's class too. I think you have plenty of time if you start now. Contact your Council for your regional leader, and set up a meeting ASAP to get the information. There is a bit of set up you'll need to focus on these next couple weeks, but I think if you have a letter of info ready by the time school starts, you can host a parents' meeting for those interested in early Sept, and explain to the families what they need to know, need to pay and what you plan to do for the year. This will buy you a bit of time to further organize/planning. Start the official first meeting two weeks after the parents' meeting and away you go! If you work hard for a couple weeks, you'll have all the info you need, and once you get the girls' interest at that parents' meeting, you'll register all of them, and you're good to go! Good luck. I'm new at this too, and just starting to get info pulled together and our year begins on Monday (yikes!) Good luck!!!