I am a Girl Scout Leader.

My tribe is made up of Girl Scout leaders. Leading a group of girls, whether it be a small bunch of friends or a large party of different personalities and experiences, is one of the most rewarding volunteer opportunities there is.

To all of my fellow Girl Scout leaders: Happy Girl Scout Leader Appreciation Day! You are amazing!

Why are you amazing? Because you have a direct impact on the future. Just think about it. You help shape some pretty great girls into amazing women. Every time a glass ceiling is shattered, I would bet my bottom dollar that a Girl Scout Leader is standing on the floor with her arms raised, elevating that girl into a powerful woman. If you want to get in on the action, check out the Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois.

All that is an awesome responsibility, but don’t be intimidated. Being a Girl Scout leader is fun, sometimes crazy, and maybe stressful at times. I appreciate that you take the job anyway. Frankly, if your ducks are in your pond then you have this leader experience down. We do our best to help our girls live by the Girl Scout Law. In honor of you, Girl Scout Leaders, today I present the Girl Scout Law from our point of view:

The Girl Scout Law

I will do my best to be…

Honest and Fair,

• Honest – The best troop planning meetings are done with $1 mug-o-ritas and a big bowl of queso.
• Fair – Everyone needs their own bowl of queso.

Friendly and Helpful,

• Friendly – Over committing yourself for ambitious plans after too many of the previously mentioned mug-o-ritas.
• Helpful – Binge watching Grey’s Anatomy while hot gluing 300 googly eyes onto craft sticks.

Considerate and Caring,

• Considerate – Keeping my inner dialogue to myself.
• Caring– I’ve achieved expert level at wiping tears, cleaning up scrapes, and listening to stories that contain nothing but run-on sentences.
• Considerate – Not eating the leftover treats in front of the girls.
• Caring – Pretending some Go Noodle song (that you are hearing for umteenth time) is your most favorite song in the whole wide world!

Courageous and Strong,

• Courageous – Continuing to plan big troop events even though I end up filling out an accident report for my kid every…time.
• Strong – Carrying all the meeting supplies and the entire troops cookie recognitions in the building in one trip.
• Courageous – Tent camping with 15 Brownies…in 90 degree, 80% humidity weather…with a pit latrine for the bathroom.
• Strong – Stacking cookies four cases high so you don’t have to make several trips from the car to the house.

and,

Responsible for what I say and do,

• My ducks are not in a row, they are in the pond. That’s as good as it is getting, folks.
• Staying up until 2:00 a.m. to get a troop activity ready because you promised to do it two weeks ago and promptly forgot about it 

and,

To respect myself and others,

• Taking time to blow up the queen size air mattresses and bringing the extra to share because the leaders have already done their time on the ground
• Keeping a list of badges we adults should be able to earn… (Mixology, Gourmet Campfire Food, Brownie Wrangling, etc.)

Respect Authority,

• Pinterest: the best resource guide available, also the place to wallow in your inadequacies in craft doing and snack making.
• Obviously, Buzzfeed is the ultimate authority when it come to tell us who we are, so take the What Kind of Girl Scout Leader Are You? quiz.

Use Resources Wisely,

• In the name of poster boards and tri-folds everywhere…it’s just better if the leaders are in charge of that.
• Saving all your empty onion and orange bags because one time a fellow leader needed some for an activity. Not sure if or when, but surely someday they will be needed again.

Make the world a better place,

• Being the cookie mom/dad because everyone loves the cookie parent hook up!

and,

To be a sister to every Girl Scout.

• My GS Leader tribe is the first to call for celebrations, emergencies, vent sessions, etc. They have the most creative ways to come at any situation.

So, whether you are a rookie Daisy leader who needs use redirection over 100 times in an hour or seasoned Ambassador leader who just need to make sure the girls don’t do anything crazy, I salute you. Thank you for being a guiding light and sound voice in a girl’s life. As long as one girl can look back with fond memories of her scouting days it is worth all of the effort of being a Girl Scout Leader.

{A special thanks to my co-leaders. Without you, our troop’s crazy shenanigans wouldn’t be nearly as fun. We all bring something unique to the table and that’s what makes it interesting. In the words of our founder Juliette Gordon Low, “The work of today is the history of tomorrow and we are its makers.”}

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