NEW Girl's Guide to Girl Scouting

For the past 5 years, Girl Scouts USA has been building the GIRL SCOUT LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE, a nationally consistent program in which girls develop leadership skills so they can make a difference in the world. You may have heard about and seen the Journey Books, which take girls on an adventure of Discovery, Connecting to the community and Taking Action.

Now it's time to learn more about the NEW GIRLS GUIDE TO GIRL SCOUTING.

The newest addition to the National Program Portfolio is the Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting (GG2GS). The GG2GS will be at a Girl Scout shop near you in September 2011. The GG2GS will be a true memory book of each girl's Girl Scout experience and it is designed as a binder so girls can add pages if they wish. The GG2GS will include several sections including the Handbook, Badges and Awards, and My Girl Scouts.

• The Handbook section will include the Girl Scout traditions.
• The Badges and Awards section will include:
• Legacy Badges
• Financial Literacy Badge
• Cookie Business Badge
• Awards
• The My Girl Scout section will include space for the girls to keep memories of their Girl Scout time.
• There will be opportunities to add Skill Building Badge Sets that tie into the Journey Books.
• Anatomy of a Badge: Each program level will be arranged the same with a clean and concise format. The topics for the badges will be seen across all program levels so that girls can progress through the skills.
• There is a clearly stated purpose so the girls understand the goal of the badge.
• Each badge will have five steps for the girls to complete before earning the badge.
• During each step the girls will have three choices to choose from, girls only need to do one.
• Each badge will include a tip for tying the badge activities into a Journey.
• There will also be ideas on how the girl can use her new skills to give back to the community.

For more information or questions, please contact your local Pathway Coordinator.

-Emily Hoppe

Girl Scout Day at the Capitol

Vivian here! Just dropping in to tell ya'll a little bit about the Girl Scouts' Legislative Day I had the honor of participating in at the capitol. First, I wanted to emphasize how important civic engagement is because, ultimately, our government exists to serve its people; and it can only do that if we make our opinions heard!

Our main role at the capitol was to encourage representatives of the 46 counties that GSCTX covers to support bills pertaining to GSUSA's legislative agenda. A few examples of bills are Rep. Strama's bill on expanding the definition of "bullying" to include cyberbullying as well, Rep. Alvarado's on banning sugary drinks from public campuses in order to minimize childhood obesity levels in Texas. While we as an NGO do all we can to build girls of courage, confidence, and character, it is important to make our mission heard at higher institutional levels as well!

Talking with representatives was such a great experience for me, and I encourage everyone to visit the capitol building while the House is in session! I was surprised by how accessible the representatives' offices were, and how accommodating and eager to help all the staff members were.

After visiting the offices of more than 10 representatives, we settled down for a fantastic reception. The evening's honorees were the newly inducted members of a new Girl Scout Honorary Troop, Troop 1920, led by Representative Angie Button and Senator Leticia Van de Putte. We even held an investiture for them! I was touched by their enthusiastic support of Girl Scouts and the things we stand for; and it has been so encouraging to see how much other people care about the causes I support as well. Thank you, GSCTX for this opportunity, and I hope many more of our girls will be inspired to take civic action for the causes they believe in!

-Vivian S.

Courage, Confidence and Character

It's no secret that the mission of Girl Scouts is to build girls of courage, confidence and character but sometimes that idea gets lost in the shuffle of planning troop activities, earning badges and making sure the needs of each service unit are being met. For Girl Scout Mari of Round Rock, that mission statement is a reality. Cookie seasons come and go, but this one in particular meant quite a lot to her and her mom. Her mother tells GSCTX that Girl Scouts helped her once shy daughter come out of her shell and she made new friends and sold lots of cookies because of it. “I don’t think she slept the night before [her first booth sale], she was so excited,” said Mari’s mother. “She practiced on her brother and sister at home and practiced at her troop meetings.” And in the end, it all paid off.

So when you take a bite into your beloved Thin Mint, remember what you did for a girl. You helped get her one step closer to being the strong leader she is capable of being. To Mari and everyone else who participated in this year's cookie sale, great job! GSCTX is proud of you and your accomplishments.

Annie's Blog: That's a Wrap!

Girls, thank you so much for making the 2011 Teen Conference such a great success! I hope everyone who attended enjoyed the day as much as I did, and maybe learned something cool along the way. A huge thank you goes out to all of our wonderful workshop leaders and performers, and to Olga Campos and the women at Texas Youth Word Collective for speaking at our event. I was really thrilled with all of the workshops I attended, but my favorite was definitely the UT Austin campus tour led by the UT Kappa Thetas. I will be attending UT next year, and the tour made me even more excited to start college! I can speak for all of those involved in the G.I.R.L.S. planning committee when I say this year’s conference was a smash hit! If you enjoyed it as much as we did and are interested in planning next year’s conference, along with other similar events, join the G.I.R.L.S. committee! We’d love to have you, and as some of us are graduating soon (me!), we need new members to continue the great work of the committee. Feel free to contact Avery Orendorf if you’re interested in pursuing this opportunity. We also welcome any comments you may have on the conference for next year! I’ve had so much fun reporting to you through the months as the Teen Conference was being planned, and I’ll continue to keep you updated as I work on new projects with the Girl Scouts.

-Annie L.

For photos of all the fun at this year's conference, visit our Flickr account.

Annie's Blog: The Big Day is Almost Here!

Hey ladies! The 2011 Teen Conference is almost here!! Please join us this Saturday starting at 9:30a.m. at the University of Texas Alumni Center in Austin for a fun day of interesting and helpful workshops ranging from college preparation to cooking, yoga, and dance classes! I’m so excited to see all of the G.I.R.L. planning committee’s hard work finally pay off, and I can’t wait for all of you to come experience it as well. If you still haven’t registered, you can do so online here or at the door. (GSCTX will be accepting all forms of payment at the door.) Tonight is the last G.I.R.L. committee meeting, and we will be putting together tons of great goodie bags!! Each attendee will receive a free goodie bag loaded with cool stuff. And don’t forget to bring the Teen Conference postcard you got in the mail (or print one out) to receive another gift at check-in. The day of the conference I’ll probably be sprinting around making sure everything is running smoothly, but I’m definitely going to take a break to catch one of the exclusive, all-access tours of the UT campus courtesy of the girls from the Kappa Delta sorority. I hear they are going to show us a sneak peak of a bunch of cool spots around campus. I can’t wait! See you Saturday!! :)


-Annie L.

Annie's Blog: FREE Giveaway!

Hey gals! It's Annie here with the latest updates on the Teen Conference. The date is fast approaching (Feb.19!!!) so the G.I.R.L. committee along with everyone at GSCTX headquarters have kicked into high gear to finalize the important details of the conference. We have booked some great lunchtime entertainment, including a Bollywood performance group and a fun martial arts team. I also just designed a postcard for the conference, which you can see below. If you received this postcard in the mail, be sure to bring it with you to the conference and you'll receive a free gift at check-in! If one wasn't sent to you, no worries! Just print out the image below and bring it along. We are down to the last few days so make sure you and all your friends are signed up to attend. You can register here on our website. It's sure to be a GREAT day! I can't wait to see you all at the 2011 Teen Conference. :)

-Annie L.

The Mystery of the Disappearing Cookies, Answered!

Hey Girl Scouts, parents and volunteers! There has been a lot of talk recently about Girl Scout cookies being cut down to just 6 types of cookies and 2 flavors being discontinued. That program is being implemented by the other cookie baker, Little Brownie Baker. Please remind customers that we receive our cookie products from ABC Bakers and continue to offer EIGHT flavors of cookies. Please let us know if you have any questions regarding this matter.

-Girl Scouts of Central Texas