Please Give me some Pros and Cons of Multi-Level Troops

[Joni4TA]

My daughter #1 is a 2cnd year Brownie and I am the Brownie Leader. My other daughter #2 is going to be a 1st year Daisy this year (we early bird registered her). I waited several months back when #1 signed up to see if anyone else would be her troop leader. I didn't really want to do it because I have a lot on my plate. But basically I ended up finally stepping up in November when it was clear no one else was going to. We missed fall product sales and almost missed cookie sales because we didn't have a "formed troop."

 

I am thinking rather than go through all that again with daughter #2, I would just convert my troop into a multi-level one, and have #2 join right in with my 2cnd year Brownies. Then I can run the Daisy and Brownie meetings concurrent rather than fall at the mercy of the scheduling of whoever may or may not step up to be the daisy leader.

 

What are some of the challenges some of you others have faced with a multi-level Troop? Please tell me some pros and cons.

 

thanks!

[Gold Winger]

I'm not a GS leader but I have daughter who's been in GS for nine years now. I think that her troop became a multi-level unit in in second or third year.

 

It does take a dedicated leader with plenty of help, much like a Boy Scout troop or a Pack.

 

The great benefit is that the younger girls have the older girls as examples. A second benefit is that the older girls get to mentor the younger ones.

 

There are different meetings on different weeks for the different ages for the most part.

 

Overall, I'd say that it has been working well.

 

 

[ccjj]

My daughters troop last year was a multi-level troop. She was a Daisy, and there were 2nd grade Browines too. The leaders were a mother/daughter team. For the most part, it worked. Sometimes the Brownies were (as my daughter says) uber-hyper. They did help with the Daisys though.

 

ccjj

[purpledragon]

I have a multilevel troop right now. There are various reasons I am multilevel. Right now I have 3 girls that bridged to Cadettes, 4 girls that are starting their last year as Juniors and possible 2 Daisy Girls starting.

 

I think one of my Cadettes and one Junior may become inactive. I will be posting that I am looking for more girls (and hopefully helpers.)

 

I honestly do not see any reason not to have a multi level troop if you have help.

 

I take that back. Here we cannot have any money earning events (except for money earning projects) unless all girls are in the 6th grade. This makes it difficult for the older girls to raise the needed money for their more expensive events. I decided that I will finish off the last juniors this next year and try to get more of the lower girls. That way I can split the troop into two and run it more in line of the ages like Boy Scouts ad Cub Scouts. That way the older girls will be able to earn what they need for their events and the younger girls have a group.

 

Besides this, I really do not see any reason not to have the different ages/levels in one group if you can handle it.

[allscouting]

I have Daisies, Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes and Seniors in one troop. We have alot of fun the older girls help with the younger ones and can get leadership hours if the want to run the meeting for the younger girls. The older girls that have some problems dealing with her peers can take a break and work with the younger girls when she needs to. The younger girls look up to the older girls and can't wait to be old enough to do some activities. We go camping in January in tents-Friday night to Sunday is for the Cadettes and Senior, Friday night to Saturday afternoon is for the Juniors and the Brownies and Daisies can come out with a parent Saturdy during the day.

[AnneinMpls]

I'll preface this by saying that I am mor pro-multiage level than con, but I'll play devil's advocate here

 

Cons:

You will need to learn more than one set of awards, and know the ins and outs of your council's policies and how they vary from one level to another, and balance this all throughout the year.

 

You will need to spend time convincing troop parents that it works!

 

There may be a lack of support from the SU or council if this is not common in your SU or council.

 

Someone might complain that some age level is getting overlooked when another age level is hitting a critical stage, such as planning for bronze award projects.

 

It's ok to do some activities apart and some activities together - you'll just have to communicate that to everybody else

 

Older girls could in theory feel that it's babyish if there are a lot of younger ones, and few older ones - perception is everything for preteens and young teens.

 

Food for thought

Anne in Mpls

[cubbingcarol]

Let me start by saying I am not experienced with multi-age (level) troops (or dens for that matter).

I am the Daisy leader (my 2nd year as we went ahead and started dividing last year as they are now mandating). So I am still relatively new at GS. I have been a Cub Scout leader for going on 5 years now (my youngest son is Bear so not too much longer to go woo-hoo!!).

I have 6 returning Daisies and have signed up 6 new ones (so far), so we are just the right size in my book. That is reason #1 for myself.

Reason #2 is planning meetings, stuff being too old vs. too young.

We are fairly good sized unit, 40 girls strong. We are only about 2 years old. All of our troops meet separately 3 weeks out of the month then on the 4th week we have our 'Power Hour' (kind of like CS pack meeting).

Just my 2 cents

 

Carol