LEADER SUPPLIES
- Leader's materials including your Volunteer Essentials training manual and Camping manual
- Age Level Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting
- Age Level Journeys (get the set with a copy of the girl's book and the leader's guide)
- Age Level Badge Requirements
- Safety-Wise document
- Storage box (bought, or photocopy paper box, or a wheeled suitcase you have.) A wheeled luggage cart with a milk crate or craft/scrapbooking cart with pockets for supplies is great!
- Sharpies (multiple colors, if possible)
- Adult scissors (for adults to use)
- Tissues / Kleenex
- Hand sanitizer
- First Aid kit (purchased or put together from recommended supplies)
INCOME
- Start up grant from Service Unit or Council, if available (many require it to be repaid after cookie sales)
- Dues (decided by girls, often based on cost of badges and patches if not budgeted in product sales earnings)
- Start up fee from parents to cover the first batch of pins, patches, etc
SUPPLIES
- Look in your own cupboard. If you buy new crayons or markers each year for personal use, you may have a lot of boxes sitting around! Same with craft supplies
- Watch garage sales and thrift stores for supplies. Don't be afraid to mention that it is for a Girl Scout troop - some people will give discounts or donate.
- Be ingenious - leaders have used one of those beaded car seat covers as source material. For example - knotty people swap - http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/9092/knotpeop.html
- Suggest a “supply swap” at your next Service Unit meeting - each leader brings items and craft materials no longer used, and goes home with a supply of new things
PAPER/PHOTOCOPIES
- Ask parents for old office letterhead, and use the back. Great for drawing, paper airplanes, etc.
- Some companies will let employees use the printer/copier for the cost of paper, or for free as community service. See if one of your parents can do this.
GIRL SUPPLIES
- Have each girl bring in her own supplies in their own box, or buy a box of zippered plastic bags and each girl gets her own bag. Have them contain:
- scissors
- crayons
- markers
- pencil
- glue or glue sticks
- paint set (optional)
- Ask parents for donations of excess craft materials, then base the crafts on what is available.
- If a badge calls for something special, have each girl bring that item in (i.e. oatmeal container for drums or constellation viewers, shoebox for making dioramas, etc.)
- Ask parents to save certain items for future use (i.e. the tabs off Kool-Aid Bursts for SWAPS, Snack-to-Go containers for trail mix, old greeting cards for crafts.)
- Divide the girls into smaller groups - one per supervising adult. If one group cuts while another glues, then you need half the number of scissors and glue sticks.
- Borrow what you can! Both parents and other leaders might help.
CHEAP GIRL SCOUT ACTIVITIES
- Sing songs
- Practice a flag ceremony (some service units and the council have flags they can loan).
- Do service projects, like planting flowers at a fire or police station
- Volunteer time with an animal shelter, soup kitchen, meals on wheels, at a nursing home or working at the council camps - great tie ins to badges
- Schedule one meeting to just go to the playground, eat a sack dinner and PLAY! Girls have a great time.
- Pretend you’re tourists and “visit” your town, hitting all the tourist destinations. Stop at the local ice cream parlor for a treat on the way home.
- When the weather gets nicer, get outside the meeting place and practice putting up, taking down, (not losing parts) and putting away tents so the girls are ready for tent camping during the summer.
JULIETTE LOW BIRTHDAY PARTY OR TROOP SHOWER
Ask girls and parents to donate items for a Juliette Low birthday party. Provide a list of suggested items that could be used for crafts, supplies or the troop First Aid kit. Each girl brings in an item, wrapped, and then they take turns unwrapping the presents. Girls will enjoy opening and showing the gifts for their troop!
A game can be made of the unwrapping: Each girl holds her wrapped gift and the leader starts the "Left/Right" story. Gifts get passed from one person to another around the circle according to the directions in the story. When the story was done, each girl is holding a different gift and gets to open "her" present. An example of the story is at http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/1132/stories.html
What isn't supplied for the First Aid kit, ask you local hospital or pharmacy if they can donate what is needed.
