Question About New Girl Scout Program/Journeys Any Leaders Out There?

Updated on August 29, 2011
T.F. asks from Pleasanton, CA
8 answers

I'm a GS leader at the Junior Level. The whole program is changing and we won't have training or the material until late September UH, Isn't the GS Motto "Be Prepared"? LOL

I'm not as resistant to change as some and realize you will see that in the form of criticism when a program changes. My question is, Are there ANY positives to the Journeys? I haven't heard ANY! Zippo, Nada, None! Usually there are those visionaries who look past the uncomfortableness of change and can champion or atleast point out the positives. I haven't seen that at all IRL or on the net and it's rather discouraging. My undersanding is the Journeys consist of reading and workbook type material. That is consistant with the one I considered doing with our troup as Brownies. Our girls want to do, do, do and go, go, go so My thought is we are going to do a LOT of tweaking if this is the case. I'd feel much better if I heard some positives about the new program though! It's going to be interesting to see what the comments are when our girls find out the badges are pink possibly flourescent pink. :-)

LOL Margie, Well, I was hoping for positives but validation is also useful. :-) It is disssappointing GS seems to be off track.

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So What Happened?

We are slowly getting up to speed. We've seen the Junior book and it looks very well organized. We've also read through one of the Journey books. As I suspected, we can either make it very bookish, or create activities that accomplish the same thing. It will be some work but I think we can make it a great year for our troop!

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M.M.

answers from San Francisco on

I have a High School daughter in Girl Scouts. She has been in her troop for 11 years. I still think Girl Scouts is a great thing. Regardless if it is "dorky" to still be in it or not. I think they get a lot out of it. In the older level the girls do thier Bronze, Silver and gold awards and those things helped my daughter get into some of the top high schools in the Bay area and I am hoping it helps on her college application. Some Gold Award reciepiants were talking about how they felt it got them into some of their colleges they were shooting for.
I am hoping for the same in the next two years. Good luck. I know the rules and requirements keep changing but it still seems worth it.

:)

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L.R.

answers from Washington DC on

You must have been reading my mind. I've been trying to get information on the Journeys (I'm also a Jr. leader) from our council but can't even find out if or when there is training on them -- or whether they are 100 percent mandatory to use or just another potential resource. I also don't want to invest in the books until I can have a good long look at them, but seem unable to get any detailed information online; it seems that we must purchase them to see them in any detail. I am not averse to change! But if "girl ownership" is the credo of GS, and we ask our girls, "Here's this program, do you want to pursue it," and they say... No, then what do we do? The flexibility to do what works for our particular troop has always been the best part of being a leader and I hope that won't change. Our troop, like yours, Stitch, wants to go and do all the time. Of course we want them to reflect on things and think about lessons learned but I have no idea yet if the Journeys series is going to do that for them or not.

I have been told this week by our council, by the way, that the "old" Junior Badge Book is still valid until spring of 2012, so you should be able to use that with your troop all this coming year. Double check with your own councils, though.

Joy -- It's not true that the only difference in the new badges is their color. GS is eliminating loads of badges that have been in the badge book. They're cutting down to a small handful of "legacy" badges like first aid; two cookie-related badges; and a few badges for each Journey level, tied to the Journey content, I think. (Like I said, it's been hard to tell!). It's not a matter of redesigning the look of the longtime badges; these are new ones (a few are repeats, like First Aid) and there are MANY fewer once the Journey badges are the only ones available. I'm assuming this means that once spring 2012 is past, if a girl were interested in something more individual and quirky like the Architecture badge, or Hiking, or Horse Fan -- those will no longer exist and girls can't earn them any more after that point. That's what I take it to mean when they say "the Jr. Badge Book is valid until spring 2012."

If you need badges that are in the current (non-Journey) Badge Book, figure out now what your girls will be earning this year and order the actual badges NOW, not in a few months or at the year's end! GS is no longer producing the badges and when stocks sell out, that's it, and you'll end up with an awards ceremony but no awards. Check online; different councils around the US have different stocks. I just ordered a bunch from a Massachusetts council though I'm in Virginia!

Leaders, please post to Mamasource this fall as you get trained or have opinions. Would love to hear them. Let's all watch for the term "Girl Scout Journeys" if we post and put that into our titles, OK? Thanks!

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J.P.

answers from Chicago on

I am a Junior Girl Scout leader. I hope to find out a lot during our training sessions in early October. I recently called the Girl Scout store around me and they said not to expect the new handbooks until Nov. 1st! So... until then I was suggested to just teach from the old handbook but to make sure that the store has those badges. (Because once they run out of the old ones, that's it on those badges.) I was told that the only difference in the badges is that the trim around them will be a different color. I haven't heard anything good or bad about Journeys. I just wish that they had this squared away before my meetings started! (Especially since I am the only leader for my troop.)
Good luck!

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A.V.

answers from Sacramento on

I could have written this myself. My co-leader and I went to the GS store a couple weeks ago only to find materials would not be available for another month. I had only heard negative reviews of the Journeys and two women there suggested using the Junior handbook to go along with the Journey material. One of the leaders there said she tries to turn each "reading" in the Journey into an activity, outing, etc. that goes along with that reading. The idea of having the girls read each page in a meeting or at home is like schoolwork or homework. Whoever came up with the whole Journey books and ideas was somehow not cognizant of how real troops work. So frustrating!
A.

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A.M.

answers from Kansas City on

I'm a Daisy Troop Leader...we tried the one of the Diasy Journeys and the girls were BORED out of their little 5-6 yr old minds! However we are going to try the animal and garden one...I bought the Leadership Guide as well...they have activities to go along witht the reading that has to be done.

The "new books" are based on the Journey's and there are "extras" to go with them. It's goint to cost me an arm an leg to buy Daisy ones...so we are waiting to buy Brownie books...we will be bridging in April so I'm not wasting troop or parent money.

If I have to I will buy one Daisy and make photo copies...AACK...yes I said it!

I think I will base our activities off of the books but not necessarly make the books the activities! I know...I know...

As far as training they are no longer going to do Age Level Training since the Journey's all have the same concept.

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M.P.

answers from San Francisco on

I am not a troop leader but I am the "nut Mom" and am involved in my daughter's cadette troop. GS has changed, not for the better, which is very disappointing. It seems to have turned more "business-like" and less concerned with the girls. Isn't GS all about the girls? I think they have completely lost focus and it's a shame.

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M.M.

answers from Washington DC on

We have the Journey for the Cadettes and it does have some ideas, but the crafts don't work and they're stupid

We were supposed to make a salve for our skins with lime juice and rose water, don't do it.
I did do a smell test, that was kinda fun. I put different smells on cotton balls in baggies.
then we did a silence one, we played music really loud, obnoxious, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin then soft classical music then sat in silence for 5 minutes.

We were supposed to discuss how these smells and sounds make us feel.
It's all about touchy feely stuff and how to be nice to each other. You don;t need a book for that, just put it in practice.
Our girls would rather do good than sit and learn how to do good in a classroom type setting.

Oh, you want positives, haven't got any.

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J.C.

answers from Cleveland on

Sorry, can't help you. I'm a Brownie leader, and looked at the Journeys, but chose not to do them. Trust your instinct, you know your girls.....what do you think they would like?

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