New Girl Scout Arrangment

So, recently, we have had several changes to our Girl Scout troop.

We had two leaders leave, leaving us with two leaders including myself left, and took four girls with them.  It's something that happens in troops and I was sad that it happened to ours.

 

Now, we are down to twelve girls, two leaders, and one very involved mom, and two regular involved moms.  We still have our wanted even numbers of Daisies and Brownies; 6 Daisies and 6 Brownies.

 

Having even numbers on both sides leaves to have fun with Big/Lil' Sister projects and activities in the future.

 

Just before the losses of two leaders, our main troop leader came up with a different seating arrangement.

 

This year, we had each of the girls have their own set of supplies, and as leaders, we would set them out at their seat before each meeting.  We had the girls in assigned spots, accounting for personalities at every turn.  We kept snarky ones away from each other, put quiet ones with louder ones to help bring them out as well as help mellow the loud ones.  Overly sensitive ones stayed away from ones that are more abrasive as well.  When you get to know your girls, it's not as hard as it sounds to arrange seating.

 

We meet in a conference room, so it is large and spread out.  We had the girls sit in a large horse shoe shape with a single table at the opening for the leader.

 

The change we made was to the arrangement of the tables.

Evelyn is that Brownie in the front

 

Instead of having these skinny table in a horse shoe, they are now arranged to make large tables.

2 Daisies and 2 Brownies to a table; each table had a table leader, chair leader, supply leader, and trash leader.  Table leader is responsible for making sure the three others do their jobs.

 

In this new arrangement, every Girl Scout gets to have important responsibilities on simpler levels.

When it comes to Girl Scouts, it's all about teaching the girls to be responsible and care for others.

 

During our first trial of this new arrangement, Evelyn was the leader for her table, and she did a great job.  It seemed easier to have the room cleaned up when each table had their own girl responsible for cleaning off one table, one girl at each table responsible for only four chairs, and one girl at each table responsible for only four sets of supplies.

 

It's surprising what little changes can do.



How We Did Our Invesiture

It all started with searching on Pinterest.

I had not heard of a Girl Scout Investiture before I was reading blogs and posts about Girl Scout Daisies.  I hope this post helps you with any questions you've been having about what an investiture is, and how to have one.

 

First, we had to decided when to have it.

We made it our second "meeting" with the girls.  Our first meeting was an intro and we didn't require anyone to have their memberships.  Some parents were still unsure if they wanted to do Girl Scouts, and the first meeting was a preview of what the girls would do.  We ended up having all but one pay their membership fee at the parent meeting.  That one paid when dropped off at the intro meeting.

We allowed parents to stay if they wanted, to see how things would be done, but only one stayed.  We were fine with that.

 

We made these invites for the parents and gave them out at the intro meeting.

 

 

Next thing, from deciding when, was to decide how.

 

My leaders and I held a meeting together to decide how we would do the investiture.

I told them to come with ideas, and you can see mine below.

(The 'Daisy Poem,' is not the poem, but what would be said to the girls after reading it.)

 

We did my ideas I had, and also the few things my co-leaders brought in.

In the meeting, we decided whom what do what.  One of my co-leaders has a friend that started doing photography and she was able to do the photos for us for free.  It was great!

Over the next few days, I wrote a script for us.  I also wrote a script for the photographer, mapping out when there would be special moments we wanted photographed.

 

The script; I know it's a lot to read, but it should help you plan your own Investiture.  It did take up all the time we wanted it to.

We leaders also received membership pins, a surprise for us from one of our co-leaders.  I had planned to, but she had surprised us.  I was fine with that, I just wanted us to be separated and recognized in our positions.  It was fun, we pinned each other!

The cut out parts were when we had the girls' names.

How you call them: "Susan Q, as a Girl Scout Daisy, would you come forward?"

She walks up.

As you pin her: "Welcome Susie, here is your Daisy pin."

[Girl Scout hand shake]

You can find the "I'm a Girl Scout Daisy" song here with lyrics.

We played it for the girls over and over again at the end of our first meeting and the girls knew it by the Investiture.

 

I added motions:

point to self "I'm a Girl Scout Daisy"

waving hands "Take a look at me" 

point to self "I'm a Girl Scout Daisy"

cheek poking "Happy as can be"

march "We're having fun and sharing each and every day" 

point to self "I'm a Girl Scout Daisy"

clap "Hip!"

 clap "Hip!"

 throw up hands "Hurray!" 

point to self "I'm a Girl Scout Daisy"

waving hands "Take a look at me" 

point to self "I'm a Girl Scout Daisy"

cheek poking "Happy as can be"

march "I'm going on a journey with friends along the way" 

point to self "I'm a Girl Scout Daisy"

clap "Hip!"

 clap "Hip!"

 throw up hands "Hurray!" 

 We ended with a blessing of our refreshments.  You may ask, why we scripted our prayers, but doing so made sure we didn't get flustered by our nervousness.  We are a new group working together, and sometimes it can be greatly intimidating, standing in front of all the parents and family, watching you, questioning how you are doing things.  It's best to be ready for it all.

 

You can see here on this post, what our Investiture looked like.

 

Our layout of our Investiture

 

 

 

 I think I've learned a lot already, and I know I haven't come close to learn half. 

Girl Scouts has so much for us, and as leaders, we need to know all of it, parents expect us to.

That's why I am showing you all this.  It's scary to not be prepared and to have a mass of parents judge you for it, but it's alright.  You don't have to be perfect and know it all at once, even if the parents say you should.  Take your time and have fun, include your parents, and let the girls make their own way.

 

I am completely fine with you using any of my ideas, especially about Girl Scouts.

All I ask, is you come back here and tell me how it went for y'all.  Tell me what you used, what you didn't use, and what you changed.  I'm always open to new ideas; that's how we become better.

 

Thanks so much!

Excited to hear from y'all!

Daisy Investiture

Myself and two co-troop leaders worked so hard to make this Girl Scout Daisy Investiture the best it could be.  The Investiture is the official welcome to new members into Girl Scouts.  New members receive their membership pins and we celebrate the joining of new 'sisters' into Girl Scouts.

This post is just a quick view of what our Investiture looked like.

I will go into details of our process and script at another time.  Soon.

We printed up Beginning Certificates, I wrote each girls' name and signed them, then they were laminated.  Each person's name plate housed their membership pin and was set onto of their certificate.

Saw this on Pinterest and we had to do it.

The set up was the parents were on either side of the 'stem,' at an angle, and the girls were set in the back, in two rows.

View from the girls' seats.  When they would be called to be pinned...

 ...they would walk up the stem...

...and stand in the center of the colorful daisy as they are pinned.

We ended up switching the candle table and certificate table.

Each candle stick represents a petal, which come from the Girl Scout Law.  The large white candle represents the Girl Scout Promise.  As we said them, we lit them.  It's one of the candle ceremonies of Girl Scouts. 

One of my co-troop leaders made this and each girl took a picture with it, as well as their families.

We plan to make photo book, and we will use the picture with this as the start of each of their books.

We barely got the Fall Product under the wire, we started late since we just became a new troop.

We put an order form on the front table.

Front table.  We had our programs and fall product on it.

Raven fell asleep, and stayed asleep (Heavenly Father always knows how to help me!), while we decorated for the event!

As the girls file in.

 Family!

The completed certificate table after it had been switched.

Cake table.

I made the cake.  The 'patches' are printed from the computer, I taped them to foil and cut them to shape, the council ID, insignia tab, and the troop spot was flattened banana Laffy Taffy.

This didn't turn out as good as I wanted it to be, but I didn't plan my time well enough to make it better.  Learn from my mistake, if you make a cake for an event, do it the night before, and just refrigerate it.  Don't worry about it drying out, that always puts me off for doing it the night before, but don't fear that.  If you do it the night before, you will save yourself time and stress.

Sign in table just before we start.

My co-troop leaders and me!

They are such great ladies!  They work hard for our troop and I am lucky to have two women that are such supporters.  I know other have, and others are, struggling to have reliable help in their troops.  I am blessed to have them with me!

I didn't mean to stick out my tongue.  This was about our fifth selfie, and I was trying so hard to make it a good one.

How did your Investiture look?

Want more info on how we made this look?

Comment!

Happy to hear from y'all!

See here how we planned and scripted our Investiture.

Update: Over last Christmas holiday sales, we purchased battery operated candle sticks as opposed to wax candles that need to be lit by a flame.  We hope this will make it easier and quicker during our Rededication this year.  Look for that next month!