jeannefree

Thanks for the link to Safety Wise! We are trying to provide our girls with the Scouting experience with out too much involvement with the council. If we were to even try and create a new troop the council would probably not approve it. We could have handled the psycho mom, if the council hadn't just taken her word for everything. This mom had women who didn't even have girls in our troop calling to complain about our Junior leader. This has been one wild ride! I was a Girl Scout when I was young too and never would have thought it could be this awful. The ones really getting hurt here are our girls and that really makes me angry. I truly hope no one else has gone through anything like this with their Girl Scout Council. Thanks for the help! If any one has any other ideas we would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you both for your responses. We do have 6 Brownies and 6 Juniors who meet, with moms, to work on badges. All but 4 of the girls have sisters (Hope this makes sense). We have all registered as individuals, because of the goings on at past troop meetings. When we meet it is each Mother as "leader" with her Daughter as her "scout". We meet together for resources and to give the leader/scout teams the opportunity to work with other teams and to share experiences. When we decided to the Juliette program we were informed by the council that the ONLY rule was that we couldn't fund raise. They said nothing about not meeting with other girls. We have tried talking with the council and they will not discuss anything pertaining to the situation with us at all especially the CEO. We found out recently that some "parents" were worried about our girls safety. This "parent" informed the council we were meeting at our grade school every week. Well, the council member showed up at school on a Monday night and was amazed to discover we weren't there. She even confronted the Principal about the matter and he told her we had never been at the school with a "Girl Scout" meeting. The council member didn't believe him. We have requested someone from our council come to the private home where we get together to see what we are doing and they refuse. They are trying to use the portion of Safey-Wise, the part where some of our dues goes to pay for insurance, against us (We were given a copy of the page with the threat of revocation of membership). We called Mutual of Omaha to find out what the policy covers. It seems that unless a council member is present at an event the insurance doesn't cover the girls. Even at our "Troop" meetings the girls are not covered, because we have never had a council member present. So the use of the insurance doesn't really apply. Not to mention that all mothers "leaders" are in attendance at all times. This is extremely frustrating as it seems our council is out to get our girls. We are planning to attend all the Girl Scout programs this year, buy badges, and contribute to the good name of the Girl Scouts. None of us are bothering anyone. We are encouraging the girls at school to join the Girl Scout troop they are trying to put together. None of the Junior aged girls in our school have been contacted, at this point, by a leader or the council. A lot of the Mom's are aware of the problems from last year and don't want to have anything to do with the organization. By the way, where can I get a copy of Safey-Wise? Is it only for leaders? Thanks again for your advise. I look forward to resolving this problem and getting on with it for my childs sake. Thanks! Jeanne

I have a really big problem and would love anyone's advice. Last year in our Girl Scout Troop there was a really big problem instigated by a mother accusing the Junior leader of "beating" her up outside during a meeting. I can tell you this did not happen as I was present. Our council has never fully investigated this matter, because they never contacted me and I was listed as a witness. The Junior leader "resigned" at the end of the school year as well as our Brownie leader, because the council was accusing her of other issues, which were also not true. This came from the same mother. This is a very long story and would be happy to give more detail later. My issue at this time is, that I don't wish to have anthing to do with a troop setting, so I registered myself and my daughter as individual "Juliette" Girl Scouts. Our council said we had access to everything any other Girl Scout does, with the exception of fund raising. Some of the other mothers and I got together and decided to meet as individuals to teach our daughters together. When we meet to work on badges, Two moms get together to present the badge. They research and gather the supplies needed so the girls can earn the badge. We each have different strengths and decided our girls would get much more out of Girl Scouts this way. All of us are registered. Our council has recently revoked 2 adult memberships saying they were "leaders" of an unauthorized group. We don't have any leaders. The council has never called us nor come to see what we are doing. It is completely a mother/daughter thing, we just have mothers who are interested in presenting a badge for all of us to learn. I even received a letter threating my membership. Are we wrong? We have asked and asked for rules governing Juliettes and were informed that there weren't any. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas?