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April 26 April 24 MeetingAbsent this week were Bug and BooBoo Kitty, for religious studies and illness respectively.
Loopy brought all of the items for our Infant Care Kit Service Project. Items were sorted, separated into five complete care kits and bagged for donation. Loopy will get together with her contact this week to make the donation.
A few more pages were added to the Renaissance Activity Book and the cover design was assigned to Princess. Pugnatious decided to thwart the authority of her Leader/Mother and usurp a piece of this project. She outlined a shield and banner on the cover which Princess will decorate with script and floral touches. Any more pages that are to be added will need to be presented by next meeting (May 1). Princess has agreed to make the donation to the library on behalf of the troop. I would like to go on record saying that I would prefer that we made the donation as a troop in a formal way.
*Reminder - Buy a dry erase marker set for inclusion with Activity book.
That leaves the Conflict Resolution Interest Patch Project on the table to complete. We may or may not finish it. Interest is very low.
Discussion about what to do next year has become the priority topic. There is interest in working toward some type of mission trip where we could do some good AND have some fun. There is also interest in just planning a fun trip with no agenda. Ideas will be explored more in depth in the next few weeks. Hopefully, we can reach some sort of compromise and begin planning the steps toward whatever our new goal is.
In addition, Loopy is still exploring ways to narrow her Gold Award Project focus. She is now considering ways to pursue her Counselor-in-Training patch this summer in preparation for working with younger girls at Camp in 2007.
I believe that next year's agenda needs to be extremely individualized. Pugnatious must decide how she wants to end her Girl Scout years, Loopy, Princess, BooBoo Kitty, and FamilyGuy will have to make firm decisions about what direction they would like to head, and Bug will need to make plans with her own Leader/Mother to make the most of Girl Scouts without a troop for the most part.
Getting ready for big changes is nothing new, but that doesn't make it any easier. I sincerely wish that I could extend my obligation to this troop because I think we all need it on some level, but I have become so over-extended in the rest of my life that I can't give it 100%. I believe in doing whatever you can to assure a strong future for our children. By the end of the 2006-2007 school year, I will have given 9 years to these girls and to this organization. I love these kids, but it's time I let them go to grow on their own. They're strong, capable, smart, and compassionate. These kids are going to make a difference in our world. I believe that.
Until Next Week,
Mrs. B
April 18 April 17 - No MeetingThis is Spring Break for my girlz. We normally don't meet during school breaks unless there's a time-sensitive project on the table, so no meeting this week.
Since there are so few meetings left for this year, I'm going to nag a little. Please remember to finish your parts of whatever project you're working on. Loopy called last night to report that the service project baby items have been purchased, but that we went about $22 over budget. I expect a full report from her next week. Be ready to "bag & tag". This donation must be made. We'll discuss lessons learned while we package.
Until Next Week
Mrs. B April 11 April 10 MeetingSmorgasbord!!! I must have missed the memo! We had garbage bread with several different types of stuffing, chocolate covered bananas, and black-bottom brownies tonight! WOW! These girls can cook!
Ok - meeting notes - 2 members missing. Bug and FamilyGuy had other things that needed their attention tonight. That happens a lot this time of year. Loopy brought her English project to work on because it required the sewing machine that I convinced her to leave here last week. It turned out very nice. I hope she gets an A.
Most of the meeting consisted of doing everything possible to avoid doing anything at all. I finally managed to help the girls understand that we only have about 5 meetings left and 3 unfinished projects that need deadlines desperately. So we set the deadline for the Renaissance Activity Book for two weeks. With school break, they should all be able to complete their pages and make arrangements to donate the book. When we meet in two weeks, we'll need to set a deadline for the service project and the Conflict Resolution patch.
I'm hoping that we can get these things done so that next year we can concentrate on cleaning up all the loose ends and shutting this troop down. Yes, you heard me right. After one more year, troop 654 will be no more. I have informed all the girls that I will still be available (probably for the rest of their lives) to answer questions, provide a place to get together, guide if need be, pick them up if they fall ... whatever. They will always be MY girlz. Pugnatious will be headed off to college in the fall of 2007, and that's where my energies need to go, too.
For those who aren't that familiar with Girl Scouts, this info is just FYI. Since Pug is the oldest of the troop, I feel like I'm leaving the others in a little bind, but there are alternatives. What I'm advising if they are unable to find another leader (a very likely scenario) is to register as Juliettes. This is the name for independent Girl Scouts who are doing program without an official leader or meeting space. It will give them time to work on projects that they need to finish or that interest them and leave me free from the paperwork and training schedule that comes with being an official leader. I'm not sure that they'll do it, but the option is there.
Keeping girls in scouting this long is a feat in itself. The usual drop-out time is about 6th or 7th grade. There is also a chronic need for adults to get involved and be leaders to these kids. It seems we can find time for a lot of other things, but not time to get involved in the lives of our children. I applaud those who, like myself, do whatever it takes to stick with it. But if you haven't gotten there yet, please consider it. There is really nothing in the world as important as giving the right start to our children.
Whether you can be a leader, help at meetings, come in once in a while to provide special instruction, or maybe even set up a fun trip, try to do it. I've seen the difference organizations like Girl Scouts can make to the kids, and I've felt the difference it's made in my own life. I leave you tonight with some words of wisdom.
One hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much I had in my bank account, nor what my clothes looked like. but the world may be a little better because I was important in the life of a child.
Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something. Think about it.
Until Next Week,
Mrs. B
April 04 April 3 MeetingI'm trying to get a better handle on the news this week. Meeting was very casual.
After reading the book The Hundred Dresses at 15, I took it as a personal challenge to see if I could do the same thing. I had a lot in common with the girl in the story back then, and it just felt like the right thing to do. I lost count somewhere around eighty, but have continued to design through the years, so it's more like several hundred now. I recently brought my old sketches out for the girls to see. This week, Loopy brought in a binder with her own 100 sketches. Some are truly inspired. I was very impressed that she actually designed 100 dresses in about two weeks. When that girl puts her heart into something, stuff happens! I wonder if she'll read the book?
I have tried to challenge the girls at different points to pursue something that seemed to interest them. Sometimes it works. Loopy still wants to be a Nurse, but maybe in between, she'll design nicer hospital gowns! I can dream! We all talked a little about what we want to be when we "grow up". Besides Nurse/baker/designer (I threw that last one in), we have a budding pastry chef/dog groomer, an equestrian business manager (maybe), a rock-and-roll journalist, and a lawyer (though I can see her doing other things). I can't remember what BooBoo Kitty wanted to be and she was out sick this week, so I'll have to ask her later. These girls seem to have a much better handle on who they are than I ever did at their age. I have very high hopes for all of them.
There's always a little tension when discussion comes around to people outside of Girl Scouts that effect our lives. This week it was a boy at school. This particular person has come up in conversation before, so I knew the name when I heard it, but tonight he was the target of much anger from one of the girls who has defended him in the past. I believe that she's justified in her anger and I wish I knew a good way to help her through it, but sometimes we just have to deal with the pain of betrayal in our own way.
Certain others who didn't like the boy to begin with should be feeling vindicated (happy for your friend to be seeing the real truth) right now, but are instead choosing to focus on their own anger toward their friend for not being able to see his true character before. Bottom line --- it's just life, girls. Get over it. Yes, the guy is bad news. Yes, your friend got hurt. Yes, you feel like she should have seen it coming, but come on! She needs you right now. Do the right thing. You'd want her to be there for you if you made a mistake, too. That's what a real friend is.
Lesson for the week: (for me, too) Life doesn't come in nice neat little packages. It is full of surprises, full of the un-expected, full of things that we don't want to see. How we handle those surprises defines who we are. It builds our character and helps us to grow. AND it's a lifelong process. Be strong, girlz. Look forward, not back. Face those un-expected things head on. The world is yours. Don't let it break you.
Until Next Week
Mrs. B
p.s. Loopy finished three nighties for the Service Project during meeting. One page was added to the Renaissance Activity book. No other meeting business was discussed.
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