Girl Scouting

I've wondered about this, because while there are some ways in which Cub Scouts and Scouts BSA is set up to motivate youth better than Scouterna (at least when I was a youth, I see they've re-done the program), I suspect that one way in which Scouterna is more realistically structured is that the switch from mostly adult-led to mostly youth-led is more gradual. We don't expect middle schoolers en masse to be ready to chart their own path. (Some are, but most aren't.) The lanes get wider and wider until you barely notice the Scoutmaster. But the Scoutmaster absolutely pushed us to do things we didn't want to all the time, and it was clearly their job to do so in our eyes. That was part of how they showed confidence in us. The harder they pushed us, the more secretly flattered we were, and more determined not to let them or the rest of the patrol down. (Nobody wants to be the weakling...) Their demands showed us that we could do more than we thought. We were just whiney kids. We didn't expect them to actually listen to our complaining, then we'd never have done any fun adventures! And we knew it. The adults chose things like camps and hike lengths/places for many years because they knew better. It wasn't until high school when the Scoutmaster asked us if we wanted to participate in large camp X or hike Y and told us to plan a hike for weekend XYZ. Before Senior rank, they didn't ask, they told. And by the time they started asking, we'd accumulated enough personal experience to have qualified opinions so we felt ready. Also, frankly, we were much more mature! Scout-led always has an asterisk on it - *age-appropriately. It's just that we Scouters usually don't know exactly what is age-appropriate at whatever age so it can be tricky to ask just the right amount for growth. But the advancement in Scouts BSA is well-structured, I think, certainly compared to what we had as Senior Scouts back in the day. Hopefully Scouterna has improved that part of the program.

We're moving ahead with girls-only for now, we have 2 boy troops in town already, and we are already moving along with the AOL boys preparing them to select one of those troops to join at crossover. I could be convinced to change that at some point, but that's not the plan for starting out next year regardless of what we find out in February. 

It may be kind of dated, but the original Fieldbook (from late 1940s-50s) is basically a step-by-step manual of activities (called pow-wows) for a fledgling patrol (or troop of patrols).  Table of Contents page 1 One could easily modify it with more modern equipment and skills. I bet a good prompt into ChatGPT while uploading a PowWow would be an easy way to do this. Then hand the newer version to the PLs.

While I would  "Be Prepared" to create a new, all-girls troop, February will be when the announcement on coed troops comes out. If I was a betting man, I would put my money on coed troops.  

We're in the early stages (working with CO and Council) to kick off a girls troop for a small group of girls completing their Cub Scout journey in March. I'm going through the SM training and trying to start to formulate a plan to hit the ground running in March despite having a roster of 11-year-olds and no older scouts to teach skills and lead younger scouts.  We have a CO on board already, same CO as our Pack and CO of a boys troop, and we initially have agreement with the boys troop to have a shared Committee.  From a high-level perspective, I'm just curious if anyone who has been through this or watch new troops get started have any advice, recommendations, tips, tricks, cautionary tales, etc., that could help along the way in these early stages of creating a troop and thinking about those first few months and first meetings.  What worked well? What would you do differently if you had to do it again? I know there is only so much I can do with limited resources to start, so what should a new SM in a new troop prioritize? Program? Recruiting? Fundraising? Events/activities/summer camp? All of the above?