Rules Governing Girl Scout Juliettes

[jeannefree]

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?

[AnneinMpls]

Hi - sounds like you've all been through the wringer! I too have had some encounters with very odd parents making wild accusations. I can definitely understand that it would leave a bad taste in your mouth regarding troop politics, etc.

I'm checking in Safety-Wise as I remembered something that might pertain to your predicament with the council:

Take a looksee at program standard 20 on page 72. "A group consists of at least 5 girls from more than one family." That to me looks like a definition....if you're getting together with only 2 or 3 other girls, then you're not a "group" according to Safety-Wise, and the council shouldn't have anything to say about it. Heck, sounds like in your council if me and my daughter get together with Deborah and *her* daughter and work on a Try-it together we might get one of those lovely letters! (Doesn't your council have better things to do??)

On the other hand, if it's 5 or more girls involved in this, then, yes, you are then obligated to register as a group of some kind with your council and they may have several different options for doing this. Around here, you could register as a "group troop" or a "co-op troop" or a regular troop. There are also policies regarding "short-term interest groups". Anyway, if you have 5 girls doing this, it does make sense for the council to have you known and registered because that is the point at which you have organized enough to need to be held accountable to all the Safety-Wise and council regulations. But, dang....threatening revocation of membership?

Also, what is your relationship like with your Service Unit? Here, our Juliettes (Solos) and their moms attend our monthly Service Unit meetings - it helps us to remember to keep them included in event planning, and helps them to still feel connected to the larger Girl Scout family. If you are active in your Service Unit, you may find you'll have advocates for you and your girls' program. I know you've been through some icky stuff - try to move past it - this too is all good valuable modelling for your girls.

Peace out,

Anne in Mpls

[ScoutNut]

From what I can tell there are no national rules governing Juliettes. Each council runs there own program and the way they do it varies from council to council. Contact your council's Membership Development Director and ask about the Juliette program. Are the other girls Juliettes also? In my council Juliettes can get together as a group (no formal group # since they are all registered individually) now and again to do things. This allows the Juliette to have some of the group interaction that a girl in a regular Troop does.

 

It seems to me your council kind of went off the deep end. Especially with you receiving a nasty letter also. Contact your council immediatly and find out what is going on. There is no rule against girls getting together outside of a Troop meeting to work on badges together. Also, just because these parents have had their GSUSA membership revoked does NOT mean that they have to stop working with their daughters on badges. None of the adults "have" to be registered, unless your council requires a Juliette to have a registered advisor. Then that advisor does not have to be a family member.

[jeannefree]

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

[AlphaCentauri]

Try

http://shop.girlscouts.org/bookshop/prodpages/safety-wise.asp?cartID=10225AAB

 

I give you credit staying with scouting with those kinds of hassles. But why don't you form a troop and let psycho-mother stay with the old troop?

[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.