Recruiting Girl Scouts

When finding girls to be in your troop, things could get hard. After all, you don't know what to expect or even what to do. It intimidating; it's definitely confusing. A lot of things can factor in when doing -  main one being where you live. I've known service units being as big as having 500 plus girls and I've heard of some having no more than 10. The bigger the city, the more girls. Don't let anything get you down though. Juliette Low started her troop with 18 girls and now look as us!

The first important step (if your service unit doesn't already have something set up) consist of finding girls for your troop; Recruitment. Now, the Girl Scout year is from October 1st to September 30th. So you'll want to factor that in when recruiting potential girls. You can speak to the principal in your district and ask if you could hand out flyers to each classroom or maybe set up a table with freebies and a sign up sheet during open house. You can also hang flyers around your neighborhood (with permission) or set up your own table around a popular spot. The point here is to get the Girl Scout name out there and get girls interested!

When recruiting, remember the very first level of Girl Scouts are Daisy's; Kindergarten and 1st grade. You'll want to make things easier on yourself, especially if your new to this, and only recruit Kindergartners for your troop. That way, they all bridge and move up at the same time. Just don't turn away others who are willing to join! Make sure you know where they can go and the troops information.

If you're feeling brave (like myself), you can recruit any girl no matter which level they would start at. It takes more planning and time - you might even have to do separate meetings, but if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish it. (Don't let anyone tell you that you can't. Isn't that the point of Girl Scouts? Showing them they can achieve anything they put their heart into?) I started with a troop of K and 1st, and since they all moved up in grade level, two of them became Brownies. So I went from an entire troop of Daisies to four Daisies and two Brownies (1st and 2nd graders).

There's also the power of Social Media! Create photos or google Girl Scout logos and post them everywhere. And I mean everywhere! Ask your friends to share the post. Trust me, the power of the media is real. I recruited two girls because of Facebook and all I did was message two old high school friends of mine and ask if their daughters were interested in joining (they were going into 2nd grade so it turned out perfect for me). 

Once you have girls that are interested, be sure to have forms and cards handy. These should always be with you. I keep some in my purse! Cards also hold my name, email and phone number so I can easily hand them over to anyone who asks. Don't be shy about it! You never know who's too shy to ask you either. Give those cards to everyone you're trying to recruit (I've recruited one girl this way). Trust your instincts and remember... "She believed she could, so she did." R.S. Grey

Good luck!! 

Have an idea for recruitment? Leave a commnet down below and you could be featured in a future post of mine!




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