GS patch help!!

[Jennifer3141]

Help!

 

DD did really well on magazine/candy sales and she got all these little patches that I remember from the brochure were supposed to fit together in a nice pattern. It's a flamingo and a wave and a sun and more. I figured out the palm tree goes above the wave but I don't remember how the flamingoes, sun, super seller, and share patch fit into this.

 

And i threw the darn brochure out!!

 

And are these patches supposed to go on the front or the back of the sash?? Front, right?? The back is getting crowded with our fun patches and all the darn anniversary patches.

[trlt]

I don't know how they are supposed to fit together but I am pretty sure all cookie patches go in the back of the sash.

[Mrs_JWM]

Is it like this?

 

 

I have no idea, but I want to ask you another question and slightly hijack this, so I looked around a little to try to answer you...

 

My SIL says she doesn't give out any patches until the end of the year. That sounds weird to me. Wouldn't the girls enjoy earning their patches throughout the year as they achieve things? She's also (according to her) being forced out of her troop leader position by a mother of a kid who's in a gifted and talented program, so she's a little...off.

[Jennifer3141]

Is it like this?

 

 

I have no idea, but I want to ask you another question and slightly hijack this, so I looked around a little to try to answer you...

 

My SIL says she doesn't give out any patches until the end of the year. That sounds weird to me. Wouldn't the girls enjoy earning their patches throughout the year as they achieve things? She's also (according to her) being forced out of her troop leader position by a mother of a kid who's in a gifted and talented program, so she's a little...off.

 

 

Those are the patches!!! But there are more to that set but now I know where to start looking. I knew they fit together like a crazy little puzzle. Thank you!!

 

I think your SIL is a little nuts. Yes, putting the patches on the uniforms as you go is part of the excitement. What I'd love someone to explain to me is why some of the patches iron on and others have to be sewn on. We have this 6 stage anniversary patch that has to be sewn on so only two of 25 moms has done it. That seems a little dumb to me.

[QueenCat]

What I'd love someone to explain to me is why some of the patches iron on and others have to be sewn on. We have this 6 stage anniversary patch that has to be sewn on so only two of 25 moms has done it. That seems a little dumb to me.

 

Use liquid stitch.

[In The Great White North]

Teach dd to sew

[Jennifer3141]

 

Use liquid stitch.

 

 

THANK you!! I'm not a crafter so I'd never heard of this until now!!

[Reeciecup]

The reason leaders wait until the end of the year to hand out patches is money. They are really expensive. I spent $200-400 a year on badges for my troop, and we wait until we have cookie money to buy them. The girls enjoy getting them all together as much as they enjoy getting them one by one.

 

When my girls were Brownies I gave them out twice a year, in big family invited ceremonies. Now that my girls are all Cadettes we give them out once a year in a big ceremony at the end of the year. It would be a pain for me to have to go buy badges every week.

[Bear23]

I rather give as you go or have an award monthly. When I was leader that is what we did. We are also in a military community so girls coming and going is quite common. I personally don't like waiting for the patches. We always bought what we could at the first of the year out of pocket and then reimbursed oursleves later. If we waited until the year started or towards the end the local store would usually be sold out. I have been helping/leading Girl Scouts for the past seven years now from Daisy to Cadette.

[Jennifer3141]

I rather give as you go or have an award monthly. When I was leader that is what we did. We are also in a military community so girls coming and going is quite common. I personally don't like waiting for the patches. We always bought what we could at the first of the year out of pocket and then reimbursed oursleves later. If we waited until the year started or towards the end the local store would usually be sold out. I have been helping/leading Girl Scouts for the past seven years now from Daisy to Cadette.

 

 

I would not like waiting at all. DD was new to GS. If we had to wait until the end of the year, her sash would be empty while her peers' were half full!

[Reeciecup]

It's a 45 minute trip one way for me to buy badges. Do you go out and get them each week? Do the parents pay for them? It's pretty common around here to give them all at once, usually at the end of the year. They like to get the ribbons full of awards. We have a big party and all the parents and grandparents and siblings come and watch them receive the awards, and get recognized for all the things they have accomplished. Here are my girls holding their awards.

[unsinkable]

Age level earned awards go on the front.

 

Sales patches and fun patches go on the back.

 

I think younger girls should get patches often, like every 2 or 3 months. I also think they should be told...more than once...what the awards are and what was done to earn them.

 

When I had a Brownie troop, we had sleepovers and camps dedicated to earning try-its. They got the try-its at the end of the sleepover or camp. It would have been ridiculous to wait months, til the end of the year.

 

You can also order the awards and have then sent thru the mail.

 

DD and I sew on all the badges. Those badges ain't going nowhere!

[unsinkable]

Oh, and as for money...

 

Set aside some dues money until the cookie money comes in to go towards the badges.

 

 

[unsinkable]

Reecie, great picture.

 

The girls look thrilled. But they earned so many, I'd guess you could have had an awards day half way thru the year then they'd have some badges on their vests and sashes.

[Reeciecup]

Reecie, great picture.

 

The girls look thrilled. But they earned so many, I'd guess you could have had an awards day half way thru the year then they'd have some badges on their vests and sashes.

 

 

We used to do that, award badges halfway thru at Christmas. But the girls voted to do one ceremony a year at some point, so that's what we do now. They put a lot of effort into planning the ceremonies, and once a year is enough. The girls in back are newly bridged, so that's why the naked vests. They are very full now that they are 2 years into cadettes.

 

We are usually a pretty broke troop at Christmas, so we don't have a lot of money for badges then. We spend what we do have on service projects at Christmas. We spend most of the cookie money before the GS year is over, because I believe the girls that earned it should be the ones that benefit from it, so we don't carry much over from year to year. Parents are welcome to buy badges anytime, and they know that, but they never do.

[Mrs_JWM]

Thanks for everyone's input - my SIL is nuts, but apparently not completely nuts in this GS patch procedure!

 

She feels that her 13-y-o daughter can't adequately explain why she has earned certain patches, but they're not a big talking family anyway. My niece has had some learning difficulties as a result of frequent ear infections and slow language acquisition as a toddler combined with her mother's own learning delays, so there's some resentment against this alledged usurper (and her G&T daughter) who is trying to push my SIL out.

 

I think that my SIL doesn't really take the time to make connections between the badges and their novel, real-world applications, not just what's in the Journeys book or the questions that are apparently asked in the earning process. By the time the ceremony rolls arounds, I'm not surprised that my niece can't really remember what each is about.

 

My SIL tends to resent people - even children, such as my own sweet child - when she feels she has not gotten something she deserves, and sadly, her daughter is being raised similarly.

 

Anyway - sorry about all that, but it's been on my mind!

[Reeciecup]

Does GS not practice immediate recognition? That's one of the methods of BSA: as soon as practical, the boy is recognized (rank, mbs). I can't imagine the headache of sewing on 25+ patches at a go... Do they all earn rank at the end of the year? BSA progress through ranks at the boy's pace--we had a boy make Star tonight--he has age-cohorts that haven't made 1st Class, two haven't made Tenderfoot and one is Life already. BS is not like Cubs--they don't all advance at the same rate.

 

Girl Scouts don't have ranks. They change levels based on their grade.

[Mrs Mungo]

Does GS not practice immediate recognition? That's one of the methods of BSA: as soon as practical, the boy is recognized (rank, mbs). I can't imagine the headache of sewing on 25+ patches at a go... Do they all earn rank at the end of the year? BSA progress through ranks at the boy's pace--we had a boy make Star tonight--he has age-cohorts that haven't made 1st Class, two haven't made Tenderfoot and one is Life already. BS is not like Cubs--they don't all advance at the same rate.

 

I cannot speak to Girl Scouts. But, with American Heritage Girls? The national organization limits the number of times we are allowed to place orders. It's not yet a big enough organization to have the shops and other resources that BSA has. But, yes, it is a VERY big headache to award lots of badges, pins, service awards, religious awards, etc. at once. Our last badge order at the end of last year was around $1,500, and it took 6 hours for several people to sort.

 

We don't have ranks; we have levels organized by age. The girls can earn level awards, but again, that's mostly age-based.

[Reeciecup]

There are steps to complete to earn the gold, but they aren't ranks, and there aren't any awards to give out for the various steps. There used to be awards at for each step, but they changed the program a lot very recently and now you just follow the steps, which are more complicated than it used to be, and then do the project and you are awarded the gold.

[Mrs Mungo]

Okay, by age, not rank. That makes more sense that you'd wait to do big orders. We tend to do orders for our troop about once every two months as it's six hours of driving. And they're not open on Saturdays when the kids have sports stuff. It's more meaningful to the boys when they don't have the big pile just dumped in their caps--that was an annoyance with Cub Scouts. They didn't even remember what they did for a belt loop if they had to wait 4 months to get it! I like the rank advancement method--it's up to the boy how fast he wants to advance. If GS and AHG don't have ranks how do they make Gold or Patriot? (I think AHG calls it Patriot--the Eagle-level award).

 

Patriot is the level of oldest girls in AHG (ninth through twelfth grades), but it's not the highest award. The highest award is called the Stars and Stripes. That's part of how the set-up is different. Their awards are not connected with a "rank" within the troop.

 

First, the girls must earn their Dolley Madison Level Award when they are at least 15 years old *and* in their second year of Patriots (they may be in it longer). They must earn one badge from each of the six AHG "Frontiers" (Heritage, Family Living, The Arts, Outdoor Skills, Personal Well Being, Science and Technology). They must perform at least 20 hours of community service for each year as a Patriot (these hours cannot be used toward their final S&S project), attend one Special Event for each year they are a Patriot (awards, parties, etc), earn the religious recognition award for their denomination, they must plan a multi-Troop activity or community outreach project, they must participate in an AHG recruitment event and participate in a Board of Review.

 

They can apply for their Stars and Stripes package and be approved six months after they complete the Dolley Madison Award, and they must finish before their 18th birthday.

 

For the Stars and Stripes, the girls must:

 

-Earn a minimum of 16 badges, nine of those must be: Citizenship and Government, Camping, Family Helper, Outdoor Skills, Emergency Preparedness, Home Care and Repair, Our Flag, Money Management and a "fitness type" badge.

 

-Hold a troop leadership position for a minimum of six months.

 

-Develop and implement a community service project. The project should require 100 hours of community service, which includes the hours of any people helping the girl with the project.

 

-Complete a life ambition/spiritual walk essay.

 

-Make a mini-resume.

 

-Produce letters of reference from non-family members.

 

-Complete a S&S BoR.

[KungFuPanda]

When I was a leader, I handed out awards AT LEAST quarterly during events that parents attended like Investiture, closing camping ceremonies, etc. I think the parents are more likely to actually sew them on if you hand them a few at a time throughout the year. I can see a big end-of-the year pile of awards getting stashed, then lost over the summer without making it to the vest. We did give out a significant number at the end of the year, and those were the items most likely in need of replacing by fall :-/

 

I will own up to being spoiled by having two GS stores fairly close to me.

[unsinkable]

For the Girl Scout Gold award:

 

Girls need to be in high school to begin, senior (9th, 10th)or ambassador (11th12th) level

 

They must complete a "journey" which is an age level program if they have earned their Silver award. If they have not earned their silver award, they must complete 2 journeys. Journeys are like big multi-step projects, with little mini projects that must be completed along the way. Journeys ARE EARNED AWARDS in and of themselves. Girls either get a pin or a patch for each journey they complete. (But the journey is much more involved than the old Interst Project Patches)

 

Once they are done with their journey(s), they can begin the Gold Project process. A projecy must bea minimum of 80 hours. A girl must work on her own project, but in a leadership capacity. IOW, she can't just do something by herself for 80 hours. The project is supposed to bring about a sustainable and measurable impact.

 

In our council, the way it works is that the girl needs to put together a team, with an advisor from the community, to help implement her project. She also has to map out the project, hour by hour, before she begins.

 

So she can't say, "I'm going to have a food drive," because that is a service project. It doesn't demonstrate leadership enough to be considered a Gold Project. But if she said, "I'm going to teach cooking classes in conjunction with food drives to educate people about hunger issues in XYZ town and about the XYZ Food Bank" that would be more likely to be approved.

 

Then she'd have to plan, hour by hour how she'd do it. Like: Research problem of hunger in XYZ town, 2 hours. Contact XYZ food bank about food drive, 15 minutes. contact ABC location about holding cooking class, 15 minutes. reasearch recipes for cooking class, 1 hour. make flyers for cooking classes and food drives, 3 hours etc. She'd plan the entire 80 hours BEFORE she even started and this would be submitted in her proposal. This is so that it is clear from the beginning it is at least an80 hour project.

 

This is our council, FWIW. Once she submitted the proposal, she'd get a GS Gold advisor who she'd work with from that point on.

 

Any other questions, let me know.

[unsinkable]

Do GS have Positions of Responsibility?

 

That reminds me of Rodents of Unusual Size. LOL.

 

Troops are supposed to be girl led, using various forms of "government" according to age level.

 

Daisy Circle, Brownie Ring, etc.

 

There are troops that divide into Patrols, with Patrols Leaders but it is up to the troops to decide if They want that system.

[Mrs Mungo]

 

 

That reminds me of Rodents of Unusual Size. LOL.

 

Troops are supposed to be girl led, using various forms of "government" according to age level.

 

Daisy Circle, Brownie Ring, etc.

 

There are troops that divide into Patrols, with Patrols Leaders but it is up to the troops to decide if They want that system.

 

 

AHG has options for patrols too. It mostly depends upon the size of the troop. Our troop has 70 girls; we have girls in every level. Some of our levels are broken into patrols. For example, our 1st-3rd grade group has 24 girls and is broken down into 4 patrols of 6 girls each.