Something has to change if the girl scout troop is going to survive. Getting parents at meetings is getting more difficult. Finding field trip dates is getting more difficult. Rotating leadership is getting more difficult. I was a great leader of Brownies and a good leader of Juniors but I have some qualms about my ability as we go into Cadettes. My fear is not the girls or puberty. My fear is the logistics are getting so much more complicated.

Most troops in our area disband long before this point. My troop currently has fourteen sixth graders and I estimate that I will have ten or so girls next year. Girl scout regulations require two adults to be present at meetings. When you meet approximately twice a month and have sixteen or more girls, you only need a one-meeting commitment from the parents. There�s usually at least one or two parents who will give you more than one meeting. At ten girls, you need two-meeting commitments and end up twisting arms.

A smaller group should help with transportation but it doesn�t necessarily. Fourteen girls is three minivans full of girls. Ten girls is two minivans full of girls but the girls most likely to stay have parents who own Toyota Corollas. I�ll still have a driver problem. This year, for close-in field trips, I�ve started just having the trip start at the destination and suggested car-pooling. Maybe that will continue to work.

The girls also have more activities that compete. One already leaves early for elite soccer, one for music lessons, and one for I-can�t-remember-what. Early departures are not a big deal except that I often end up mailing the newsletter to those girls. When I tried giving out the newsletter at the beginning of the meeting, it didn�t make it home at all.

The leadership problem also has gotten worse, although part of that is the age. Last year, girls planned meetings in groups of two. This year, I tried to encourage long-range planning by using larger groups that planned a series of meetings. Mistake! The group has some very strong personalities. The larger planning group encouraged power struggles. We need a different leadership structure than the planning council.

If the group is calm enough after school today, we�ll begin to discuss next year when we become Cadette girl scouts. We�ll discuss the structure: how many meetings, how close together, what type of meetings? We�ll discuss the content: go for a Silver Award (which they will like in principle until they realize that they will have to do work outside of meetings), do more service projects (which they like except that I�ll will hear from each one of them exactly what days and dates they couldn�t possibly do it), continue to have occasional nothing-but-games meetings?

Stay tuned. We�ll see what this all looks like next year.

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Thank you to those who asked. No, Kat did not get a part this time. She says that a lot of the top group is graduating and she thinks she�s positioned to get into the top group next year. We�ll see. There is one more production�the touring play for children�and she hopes to get into that one as the competition is not as fierce.

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