From: dlm@galileo.ifa.hawaii.edu (Deborah Maraziti (aka Spacee))
Subject: Re: Girl Scout story
Organization: Institute for Astronomy, Hawaii
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1992 02:21:27 GMT

In article <iJaFqB4w164w@glnserv.UUCP> kati@glnserv.UUCP (Lady Dragon) writes:
>I just got a call last night from the leader of our troop, saying that
>they won't be needing me anymore since half the girls that flew up from
>Brownies to Juniors won't be coming back. I had spent the summer getting

Yipes!  Right here already is a signal that something is funny about
the troop...

>most of the training I needed to be a good co-leader. But I kinda knew in
>the back of my head that she might not need me, as we had 4 co/leaders and

Gees, I wish _I_ had parents like you in _my_ troop!  I had to twist
arms to get a co-leader this year and the parent of my _program aide_
was the cookie manager last year since everyone else refused to do it.

>18 girls, and we assume that some would not be joining again. I thought
>that I would simply join a new troop and work with them. My daughter is
>thinking that if her friends don't join, that she might quit the first
>troop too. Since the friends quit two years ago because the leader has an
>abrasive personality, it is unlikely that they will join again. So now I

When you went through training, did you meet someone at the Council
office that you feel comfortable talking with about this?  No troop
should be subject to an abrasive leader.  It defeats the purpose of
having a "troop" if the leader becomes a dictator.

>am off looking for a new troop where I and my daughter can join, and
>possibly the friends too. They joined up for the camping, (according to my
>daughter) but they left because of the leader.

This is really sad.  As I leader, I hope-invite-encourage the girls
to plan as much as they can on their own.  We worked on the "Be-A-
Decisionmaker" badge last year to help them learn how to come to 
a consensus on decisions from meals at overnights to choosing a
song to sing at the bridging ceremony.  Every leader should 
make the time to do this badge to allow the girls freedom to 
make their own decisions. 


>Mostly she is very controlling (I don't know how she will ever let the
>girls learn to "govern" themselves) and she sometimes **belittles** girls in
>the troop.

That kind of behavior is unacceptable and could be considered child abuse
(mental) according to the Council.  By belittling, do you mean in 
words (ie name-calling) or by just not allowing them to do challenging
things?  In either case, I think that the Council's attention is
needed.  Perhaps she needs to go for additional training.  Has she
been a leader for a while?  Maybe she needs to brush up on her GS politics.

How easy would it be for your daughter to join another troop?  Here in
Hawaii, it's very easy to change troops.  The meeting places are 
fairly well known and are close together (within the Honolulu Service Unit,
anyway).  Is it the same in Texas?  I still think that your council should
hear your story; maybe in the meantime, though, your daughter
and her friends should start attending the meetings of another troop.

Hope this message wasn't too garbled.  Someone was sending me about
30 test messages all through it!

 

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Spacee                            ~     I'm conducting a search for a
dlm@galileo.ifa.hawaii.edu        ~     planet made of chocolate.
(astronomer in lace)              ~     Funding is hard to come by... 
Newsgroups: rec.scouting,alt.discrimination,alt.politics.homosexuality