Girl Scout Girl Binder (plus a few tips)

Excuse my lateness!

The new Girl Scout year has officially begun!

This year we have added something to our weekly activities and I'm really liking it.

Last year, our first year as a troop, we had a floppy folder for the girls' journeys.

This year, we have implemented having a regular 1 inch white binder they use for every activity.

This is Evelyn's binder.  Since she has bridged to Brownies, her cover page is a Brownie "quilt."

Daisies have their own design on their binder.

There is a lot going on here first thing.  We have Daisy Dollars/Brownie Bucks in the pocket.  These are dollars the girls can earn by being a good Girl Scout.  They can use them to "buy" items from the treasure chest for $5 each.

The page in the pocket, is the activity we just had.  October is anti-bully month and, for the second year in a row, we have had the girls make a blue pinkie promise to not bully and to help stop bullying.  This pledge page was sent home to be colored and signed, and will be put further into the binder when complete.

The first page of each binder is the current month's calendar.  On the calendar, the girls will see all meetings, field trips, birthdays, due dates, times for said things, and snack and drink assignments.  This year we have more girls so snack and drink is now a shared task.

Next page is their level.

(Evelyn's coloring has improved, even over the summer!  I'm so excited!)

First divider is the Girl Scout Promise and Girl Scout Law

We had found this picture with the flowers, covered what was there, and added in the GS Law.

The next divider is the "Girl Scout Song Book."

This section has the songs the girl have learned...

 ...and more will be add through their Girl Scout years...

...as they learn more.

The girls are responsible to bring this binder to every meeting.

This is one reason I like this; Girl Scouts is supposed to teach girls how to be responsible and be leaders, and this binder is a help in that effort.

This year, again, Girl Scouts is selling started kits with cinch bags.  Starter kits include; vest/tunic/sash, waving flag, council ID, troop numbers, trefoil pin, membership pin, insignia tab, one journey book, and, new to the line, a levels binder.  Since all the girls have purchased a starter kit, either this year or last, they all have a bag they can carry their binder in.

Tips for the Girl Scout Mom/Leader

 Tired of your girl forgetting her vest when you're trying to get your own things together?

Keep her vest in her cinch bag.  If you didn't buy the starter kit, you can find pretty cinch bags at Dollar Tree.  Having a cinch bag also means she can bring all her projects from activities home without so much complications.

On this year's cinch bag, there are blank trefoil shapes.  I put Evelyn's name, our council initials, our troop number, "Brownie," and the years she will be a Brownie [2017-2020], and had one left for something I might think of later.  I used an Elmer's medium point painters marker from Walmart.  (Find it in this pretty sky color here.)

I also added these little ribbon key chains to the cords of one side.

I did both these things to spot Evelyn's bag easier since the only difference between cinch bags just might only be the color.

 Last tip for the day!

Sew all your front patches on.  I used double stick tape and little strips of  paper to hold together the numbers and council ID as I sewed.  I sewed a regular straight stitch around and a zig-zag stitch where they needed to connect.  For the flag, that was a little different.  To keep it cleaner, I didn't want white stitching on the red stripes, I did a tight zig-zag stitch around the flag.  It makes it look fuzzy but I like that better than white stitching on the red or blue field.
I don't know why, but Evelyn's were the only patches not to come off from the front in our troop this last year.  Her fun patches on the back have been coming off though, from her Daisy tunic.  I decided to not even attempt to iron on patches this year.  I'm sewing them all, but I know that can be a lot, so I am advising to sew at least the front patches since they are the most important, especially for ceremonies.  You don't want patches falling off during a ceremony.  We ran into that during our start of the year ceremony.

Hope all this was helpful, in the least, informative!

Can't wait to hear from y'all!

Girl Scouts Leader Binder

A couple weeks ago, Evelyn and I attended a Girl Scouts recruitment meeting.  They told us all the troops were full and anyone that would join that day would need new troop leaders.  Tom and I had talked about the possibility of me becoming a troop leader, but we never solidified our decision.  Not a single person raised their hand and people were avoiding eye contact.  I raised my hand, still a little iffy, but she accepted me quickly.

The representative said I would need helpers and two women from the front immediately raised their hands; and so it begun.

The first thing I did when I got home, was create a new board in my Pinterest account, the second thing was start my leader binder.

I took out some health sheets from a half inch binder and started filling it up with Girl Scout things.  I started planning, then once I had the money, I bought three 1.5 inch binders, two packages of reenforced notebook paper, plastic sheet protectors, and three pencil pouches.  I also bought 15 folders with brads and pockets for the parent folders.

I made a simple front with our troop number, name, and a watermark of the daisy petals the girls earn.

Opened up, the pencil pouch housed two pens and three gold arrow paper clips.  As you can see, the front pouch has changed.

I had a second pouch that house different notes and such and now have the pens for parents.

The first thing I had printed up was the program guide for our Girl Scout Council.  This is the start of my binders.

I inserted a few things from the recruitment night into the Program Guide.

I went through all the events, highlighted the events Daisy could attend, and struck out all events they couldn't or already passed.

Next, was the sign in list from the recruitment meeting with the girls that would be in my troop.  (Update: I made a new roster, we just got one more girl, and I made it vertical; it makes it much easier to read and use.)

A large print of the layout of the Daisy tunic and vest, and beside it a page I made of the patches and pins the troop fees would pay for.  (Update: I put in a different print out of this left page, that now has our Council ID.)

I couldn't find a simple list of the petals, name, and color, so I made my own.

Printed version of the brainstormed activities separated into their respective petal categories.

Holding onto the Daisy membership pins for the Investiture.
(Update: This is no longer in in my binder.  We had an amazing Investiture!)

Notebook paper, with reenforced holes.

Membership forms for both adults and girls.

A copy of the about me page; "I'm a Daisy Girl Scout!"

Copy of Volunteer sign up.

(Update: 'Application for Day Trip/Tours' has been added to my forms category.  I actually fill those forms out on the computer and email them immediately; I keep this, and soon others like it, to keep on hand as a reference and incase of urgencies.)

Plastic sheet protectors in the very back for future print outs and such.

UPDATE:
Since I posted this, I have changed a few things in my binder as our Troop has developed.
I separated my binder in to categories: Roll, Petals, Activities, & Future Ideas, Most Recent Activity Coming Up, Completed Activities, Notes, and Forms.

As I was shopping for science project stuff at The Dollar Tree and saw these vertical dividers.

I really did need these.  I had added dividers, but since I had plastic page protectors, they were mostly blocked.  These vertical dividers helped me find what I need quickly.  I still have my regular dividers also.

'Completed Activities' are the notes and plannings of each activity we've already done.  This category will periodically be emptied and put into a separate folder so my binder isn't over packed with old news.  You may ask, "Why keep them?"  I am new to the council and we are getting many new troops this year.  I've been chatting with other leaders about what we do and how we do it; keeping our notes can help me help another person.  Another reason, we plan to make photo books to the girls at the end of the membership year, and our memories are not the best, notes help us remember what happened.

I got a new pouch, on sale at Walmart for just $1, and it has two pouches.  The slightly bigger, lower zipped pocket now houses paper clips, binder clips, and small sticky notes.  Those white tabs are extra labels for my vertical dividers.

We just had our first Cookie Training!  I have my notes right up front in my left binder pocket.
Cookie selling starts on January 14th!

Having a binder is a must as a troop leader, as any leader, and I hope this helped you start yours.

What do you have in your leader binder?


Update: I no longer have these files to share.  I give permission to copy/mimic my ideas from this Girl Scout Leader Binder in this post.