Studio2B

[OutdoorThinker]

I will be starting to work with a Girl Scout outreach group of middle schoolers in the next month or so. Thus far in my Girl Scout leader career I have only worked with Brownie and Daisy aged girls. Although I am looking forward to the new group, I am a little apprehensive.

 

My question is have any of you worked with the new Studio2B program? Has it been successful? What are your thoughts on the program itself? What are your girls thoughts on the program? I havent decided if I like it or not. We'll see what my girls think once we get up and running.

[ScoutNut]

I presented the program to my girls when it first came out. They were less than impressed. As a matter of fact they were rather insulted that GSUSA would provide a program that encouraged girls to pretend they were not Girl Scouts. They felt the materials were way to expensive and that the cost could add up to quite a bundle by the time you finished. The topper was when National came out with the rule that you could subsitute earning a charm for earning an IP and apply it to your Silver or Gold.

 

They feel that it might appeal somewhat to 5th, 6th & 7th graders (because of the charms), but beyond that, if girls are still in Scouting it won't be because of Studio 2B.

 

Remember, this is the opinion of my girls only. They are also currently in 12th grade and waiting on approval of their Gold Award project. Maybe you could borrow some of the books from your council so you could let your girls look at them without forking over big bucks. Give them the facts and let your girls decide. If they have never been Girl Scouts before this program might interest them.

[SR540Beaver]

Guess what I ran across on CNN's website this morning?

 

http://www.cnn.com/2003/EDUCATION/10/15/hip.girl.scouts.ap/index.html

 

Girl Scouts work to punch up image

 

New program hopes to attract older girls

 

Wednesday, October 15, 2003 Posted: 11:58 AM EDT (1558 GMT)

 

PHOENIX, Arizona (AP) -- Since she was 5, Patti Duncan has faithfully attended weekly Girl Scout meetings, earned badges for taking care of pets and writing to soldiers and sold lots of those famous cookies.

 

But each year, fewer and fewer of the 14-year-old's fellow troop members returned. This year, Patti and her mom couldn't even find four other girls in their large suburban neighborhood to form a troop.

 

"They didn't want to do the badge work and just wanted to hang out with their friends," Patti said.

 

The Girl Scouts have an image problem with older girls. It seems the 91-year-old organization -- known for service, leadership development and, of course, Thin Mints -- becomes uncool with the 11-and-older crowd. Of the Scouts' 2.8 million members ages 5 to 17, 88 percent are younger than 11.

 

That number made it clear to Girl Scout officials that they needed to offer something different to attract -- and retain -- teens like Patti and "tweens" or preteens. After much research, a new program called Studio 2B was launched earlier this year.

 

"Everything was tested with girls," said Harriet Mosatche, senior director of research and program. "It is very much a 'by girls, for girls' approach."

 

Studio 2B doesn't have girls wearing uniforms, earning badges or going to weekly meetings. Instead, girls plan what they want to do when they want to do it, with advice from a college student or young adult. They can earn "rewards" if they want.

 

Patti said she prefers traditional scouting but is interested Studio 2B. The idea of having more control over what the group does, even down to the details of putting on an event, appeals to her.

 

"You plan something that you want to do," she said. "You think it over and decide whether it's a good idea or not."

 

Yoga, manicures

The Studio 2B's Web site makes no direct reference to Girl Scouts. Its content is the stuff found in teen magazines: advice columns, polls, guides to good skin care and planning for the future.

 

The optional "rewards" are silver bracelet charms. A mirror, for example, represents the topic of body image; a money bag symbolizes money management.

 

"We're not taking anything away from anyone. We're providing more options," Mosatche said of Studio 2B. "We know that what we have to offer is important for girls that either have never been in Girl Scouts or have dropped out."

 

In southeastern Georgia, the Studio 2B program sponsored a forum that included sessions on travel, rock climbing and fashion design. At a spa night, girls in southwestern Louisiana did yoga, had their hair styled and got manicures.

 

The Cactus-Pine Council in Arizona held pilot Studio 2B events, including an aerobics night and a mall scavenger hunt. The launch event was a night at a swank salon where the girls learned about nail, skin and hair care.

 

"This is what they're already interested in," said Margaret Spicer, project manager of girl programming for the Cactus-Pine Council. The girls were so attentive in the salon, "you could have heard a pin drop."

 

Nights at the spa and the mall are a far cry from the activities that the Girl Scouts have been associated with historically. During World War I, they sold defense bonds. During World War II, they collected scrap metal and grew Victory Gardens.

 

The evolution to Studio 2B, while surprising, is somewhat predictable, said Mary Rothschild, an Arizona State University professor working on a book about the role of Scouting in American womanhood.

 

"Girl Scouting has always tried to both lead girls and keep up with what girls are doing," she said.

 

 

 

[Fat Old Guy]

Maybe I'm missing the point. It looks like the only function of Studio 2B is to keep revenue coming into GSUSA.

 

Baden-Powell and Julliette Low must be turning over in their graves.

 

 

[OutdoorThinker]

Thanks for your input Scoutnut and SR540Beaver.

 

FOG, in response to your comment, I think you are missing the point, or at least part of the point. Girl Scouting has had a continuing problem with losing girls in middle school. My understanding is that Studio2B is an attempt (maybe not an ideal attempt, but an attempt nonetheless)to keep preteen girls interested in Girl Scouting. Although it is nontraditional Girl Scouting, it's aim is educating girls and help to develop their self-esteem and their character, which is a focus of the Girl Scouting movement anyway. My girls that I will be working with are similiar to the Boy Scout's Scoutreach boys, who are nontraditional scouts and have never had experience with the scouting program before. Perhaps a non-traditional program will work for them. We'll see what happens.

 

[KoreaScouter]

I have some experience in Cub/Boy Scouting, and even a little in Girl Scouting; my daughter's a Junior, been in since Brownies, and I've been through their outdoor and basic leader training.

 

I'm going to paint with a broad brush here. In my experience, Girl Scout Troops are organized and operated much like Cub Scout Dens, but without the Pack leadership to keep everyone moving in the same direction (although they are much better than us at collecting and managing $$). Each GS Troop leader is an independent entity, designs her own program, gives or doesn't give the girls a real share in the planning/leadership (depending on the leader's comfort level, confidence, experience), and the girls are just along for the ride. I realize that some Cadet and Senior troops may be different, but I've seen many that aren't. It's a coincidence if what the leader wants is what the girls want. Not surprisingly, many find something else to do as they get older. Shopping around for a Troop that fits your daughter's interests is impractical.

 

My daughter really enjoyed her Junior Aide time (almost identical to BSA Den Chief duty), but there are very few structural opportunities to mentor younger girls like that. You do it once, then it's over, and you're back with peers in your Troop. You don't have the dynamics of older, more experienced girls working and interacting with younger less experienced ones in a large troop setting with experience-based patrols. I've never understood why not. I know GSA has provisions for large troops to organize into patrols and give girls leadership opportunities, but I've never seen it anywhere we've been associated with Girl Scouts (3 councils now).

 

KS

 

 

[Fat Old Guy]

" My understanding is that Studio2B is an attempt (maybe not an ideal attempt, but an attempt nonetheless)to keep preteen girls interested in Girl Scouting"

 

As I said, "keep revenue coming into GSUSA." Maybe it is more like Venturing but I don't see too many Venturing crews going to barber shops as an outing.

 

What I know about Scoutreach is only what I've read but from what I can tell it is a traditional program delivered in non-traditional ways. It isn't a program that hides the fact that it is Boy Scouts.

 

Korea Scouter, my daughter's GS troop is an interesting situation and I consider myself pretty fortunate that she fell into that troop. The troop has Daisies, Brownies, Juniors and Cadets. The Juniors have some level of self-direction and the Cadets are pretty much self-directed. The downside is that the different groups interact very little. The Cadets don't provide leadership for the younger girls.

[ScoutNut]

KoreaScouter - If your daughter has gone to summer camp she has most likly been exposed to young women and older scouts helping run the camp. The GS Junior Badges and Cadette/Senior Interest Projects, are full of requirements such as - "show a group of younger scouts how to do this", or "share your skills with others". The Junior Aide badge, the Junior Leadership Pin, and the Junior Bronze Award all have elements of service and leadership. They just do not necessarily require it be with younger scouts. If your daughter earned her Bridge to Junior GS award she worked with both younger and older GS. All Bridging awards have this element in them.

 

Girl Scouting is all about progression. Once she becomes a Cadette and then a Senior scout there will be many more opprtunities for her to work with younger scouts. There is Cadette and Senior Program Aide, Leader-in-Training, Counselor-in-Training, and Apprentice Trainer to name a few. Like Den Chief however, it is up to the leaders of the younger troops to take advantage of the girls and their skills.

 

Of course, once the current Cadette and Senior programs have been replaced by Studio 2B (which is happening now even though they keep saying S2B is only in the evaluation stage) you might not have these opportunities any more.

[AlphaCentauri]

I haven't worked with girls in Studio 2B yet, but it wouldn't have appealed to me at that age any more than traditional scouting. The last thing I wanted was someone telling me to do things that were good for me. I got that all day at school. Instead of going into Cadettes or Seniors, I joined an Explorer post and did a lot of canoeing, camping and hiking, with absolutely no introspection at all. But I learned a lot about leadership without realizing it. If you have to function as a team or crack up your canoe on a rock or end up stranded two days from civilization without toilet paper, you learn.

 

If I were going to make the Girl Scouts more attractive to teens, I'd ditch some of the touchy-feely stuff. I'd have badges that go more deeply into focused skills instead of having a variety of requirements that cover a very broad topic. I'd also avoid badge requirements that a girl can't realistically do as an individual -- 9 year olds can't interview strange adults who make a living doing whatever the badge is about, for heaven's sake; if the troop doesn't do it as a group, the girl can't pursue it as an individual interest. If she is really interested in something and wants to delve into it deeply, that should be something she can do on her own. Let the more general awards like the Sign of the Star or the Gold Award serve to tie it all together into a coherent leadership program.

 

And I'd crank up the publicity for the Gold Award. Everyone knows what an Eagle Scout is; no one has heard of the Gold Award. And I don't just mean sending photos to suburban weeklies. I mean real PR, stories in regional and national media outlets, public service spots from former Gold Award scouts who are now leaders in the community, etc.

 

Some girls do want to do the makeup and hair stuff, and there is no reason they can't. But they are probably more interested in learning the how-to than talking about the importance of a positive body image. The trick is to have requirements that lead them to think about important issues without having them feel it is being shoved down their throats.

 

Then there is the general problem that the harder the girl works for something, the smaller the patch (or charm) is. Maybe we should rethink the big colorful patches for showing up at a pizza party...

[AnneinMpls]

Some of the Studio2B stuff is ok for an add-on to program, but if they're truly going to make this *the* older girl program umbrella, GSUSA is no longer going to have an older girl program.

Why can't they find a way to do it right? BSA a while back in the 70s made a mistake with program and got back on course. GSUSA got offtrack then too, but never bothered to redirect (although the 5 worlds of interest were pretty good - wish they'd bring that back!)

You should have seen the look of disgust on our Cadette's face when she compared her books to what our Junior girls had just received. Council tells me if I just get her the S2B materials she'll be happy. I really don't think so.

Arrgh.

Anne in Mpls

[Campfire Fairy]

Since someone else resurrected this thread, I'll have my say now. Yes, I admit, I didn't want to bring this one back from the dead if no one else was interested... I figured, I missed my chance to rant and rave about the troop mentioned in the article Beaver was so kind enough to post in here. But now, thanks to Anne, I can.

 

I think it's precisely troops like that one that deny girl scouts any considerable amount of respect. Spas and yoga and shopping trips and the like are not the kind of events that teach the girls to be strong, ambitious, competent women and community leaders. If anything, it's teaching girls to digress to the pampered-housewife stereotype that women today are now trying to break out of. Maybe this is just the feminist in me protesting, but I know that in the boy scouts, girl scouting is generally a joke. The boys in my Venture crew know not to make any degrading comments about girl scouts *smiles innocently* but I know that there are people-- and not just in boy scouts, but people in general-- who think Girl Scouts is an excuse for girls to get together with other squeaky, squealy girls and paint nails and do makeup and hair and occasionally talk about world hunger and the struggle for world peace, and then earn a badge for it. And to be brutally honest... I think that's crappy.

 

I will say that the concept of the girls planning meetings and events based on what they want to do is a good one. I won't knock the Studio2B program because I personally have not had any influence on it nor have I been influenced by it, but I will say that if I were still in scouting and my troop converted to this program, I would remain in scouting only if we did more of the things I wanted to do and less of the girly things. I can do makeup and hair anytime I want at home. When I'm with scouts, I want to be able to do something I can't do by myself. Like AlphaCentauri, I think it's ridiculous to expect young girls to contact and arrange with some corporate CEO or whomever to shadow them for a day, just to complete one lousy requirement for a badge. Who does that?!?

 

Okay, I'm stopping myself now before it gets to be several more paragraphs until I can manage to be rational enough to realize I'm going ballistic and generally making a fool of myself. It's weird how I can no longer be involved in girl scouts and still be passionate about it and protective of it. I guess I must have had a good time after all. Either that, or it's that little feminist voice in my head getting overly excited.

 

Either way, rest assured I would have tons and tons more to say about this, although maybe I should start my own thread... *ponders* hmm, maybe I will... *prances off to do just that*

[AnneinMpls]

Some of the Studio2B stuff is ok for an add-on to program, but if they're truly going to make this *the* older girl program umbrella, GSUSA is no longer going to have an older girl program.

Why can't they find a way to do it right? BSA a while back in the 70s made a mistake with program and got back on course. GSUSA got offtrack then too, but never bothered to redirect (although the 5 worlds of interest were pretty good - wish they'd bring that back!)

You should have seen the look of disgust on our Cadette's face when she compared her books to what our Junior girls had just received. Council tells me if I just get her the S2B materials she'll be happy. I really don't think so.

Arrgh.

Anne in Mpls

[jamie]

I am a 17 year old senior girl scout and I want my say in all of this. I belive that the Studio 2B stuff is ridicules because it is ment for the younger girls not really for the older ones and also that it is pricey and not at all beneficial to these girls that want to lurn to be a good leader or to lurn how to do stuff with other troops and younger troops. I also belive that the s2b stuff cannot be used insted of the ipps to earn the gold or silver awareds because they are easier to get but why cant we use the internat ipps to help us get to the point that we can think about earning our gold or silver. I have not really looked at the books yet I only glansed through them so I may be bised but that is my say please tell me it was not bised at all!!!

[jamie]

I am a 17 year old senior girl scout and I want my say in all of this. I belive that the Studio 2B stuff is ridicules because it is ment for the younger girls not really for the older ones and also that it is pricey and not at all beneficial to these girls that want to lurn to be a good leader or to lurn how to do stuff with other troops and younger troops. I also belive that the s2b stuff cannot be used insted of the ipps to earn the gold or silver awareds because they are easier to get but why cant we use the internat ipps to help us get to the point that we can think about earning our gold or silver. I have not really looked at the books yet I only glansed through them so I may be bised but that is my say please tell me it was not bised at all!!!

[jamie]

this is an attchment to my later post I am a 17 year old senior girl scout that has been in scouting for 10years!!