Kick-Off Parent Meeting

There's a lot to go over at the first parent meeting of the year, but in my opinion there are two areas that need to be addressed. The first area to look at is all the paperwork that goes with the scouting year. The Girl Scouts do LOVE their paperwork!

• First, make sure that all the girls have their paperwork filled out. You'll want to check with your council to make sure that you have all the official documents in order.
• Next, make sure you have all the information that you are going to need for the upcoming year. I know that a lot of the information about the troop members is available by logging into my council website, but sometimes that isn't convenient or it doesn't contain everything I need. So I created a few forms of my own that help me contain all of my troop information in my handy Troop files.
• Tell Us About Your Daughter - This asks a few basic questions about the girl so that I know a bit more about her than what is included on the Health History form.
• Parent/Guardian Communication Survey - Here I ask for communication information (phone numbers, emails, etc.) for everyone that parents want to receive my emails and texts.

The second area, and possibly the most important for your mental well-being, is setting expectations for the parents. Let them know what's coming up for their daughters, what you are going to need from them, and what their level of commitment needs to be for a successful troop.

• Troop Handbook - I spent a lot of time online exploring other troop's handbooks to see what they had to say to their parents. I finally came up with a handbook that sets the tone for our troop and what we expect to do with our time together. A handbook is optional, but I do like to use one as a place to keep all of my troop policies.
• Yearly Planner - This one page document is a simple listing of meeting dates and special events as I know them now at the start of the scout year. This is handed out so that families know now when the important events for the troop are happening (Court of Awards, scout holidays, field trips, etc.). Of course, dates are subject to change, but the basic outline of the year will remain the same.
• Review Volunteer Opportunities - To have a successful troop, you need to have a lot of volunteers willing to help out. I like to share my list of available volunteer options with my parents right from the beginning. I also talk to them about the required paperwork that they need to complete for themselves so that they can be a part of the troop.
• My Promise, My Faith Award - This is a pin that we will not be working on as a troop, but is something that I let the parents know their daughter can work on in their own time. As long as they get me proof of the pin requirements before the end of the scout year, they will have earned the pin.
• Money - The final thing to discuss is what is expected as far as payments to support the troop. Dues, fall sales, cookie sales, prices of trips, etc. I do as much planning as I can up front so that my families can plan ahead for any financial commitment that they might be required to make.