I started off my scout year thinking, I will create this blog and post every week. I should have know better. I tend to get to involved in things and ideas like my blogs take the back seat.
My troop has been super busy and it is hard to believe that it is March and we are working towards the end of the year and bridging! I will create posts on our badge work in separate posts.
But I want to use this post to vent. It has been a rough few months. Not with my troop but with D.R.A.M.A. with another troop in the area.
I have heard that it is a problem everywhere but man it sucks. I have worked very hard to improve the view of the local community about scouting. When we started in Daisies, so many people would say, "We tried scouting but the kids were wild and parents just used it as an hour long baby sitting service." I did not want that for my troop. I wanted the girls to get the most out of scouting and to truly benefit from the community service.
The first year was horrible because of lack of support to a new leader.
The second year was drama because of infighting with the leader and parents, which lead to the leader stepping down and moving her daughter to a different troop.
Third year, I went from assistant leader to leader. Things were getting better until a crazy world- wind cookie season that divided our troop. The stress of selling over 4000 boxes of cookies with 9 girls was to much!
Finally this year, we had the idea. We have had an amazing group of girls and parents who let us do our thing. My new assistant is truly in the program to better the girls. We work well together and we are different enough to give the girls more variety but we still enjoy each other.
Our problem is with the other troop who originally started off as a 3rd grade brownie troop just like us.
Now we live in such a small area that there really is only about 100 kids in 3rd grade. The new troop was lead by our crazy cookie mom from the last year.
I don't know why she left, but man am I glad that she did leave. It took all the stress about how my year would go away. I have my suspisions on why she left. I don't believe she liked that we were switching to a drop and go troop. I don't think she liked that I did not want her help. I dont think she liked when I said no men at camp. I think these are the reasons but I am not sure. All I know is that I am glad to be rid of her.
But she keeps popping into my life!
First she recruited girls from my troop who were no longer coming back due to other interests.One girl has soccer practice on scout night, one girl did not want to come back. She called parents up and asked them to join her troop and not mine.
I can not even begin to tell you how that hurt me, and it took me a while to get through to myself that it isn't about me or my numbers, at least the girls were still scouting.
Then came the Halloween parade and the news that a parent was run over by their float. WHAT??? Yes, her foot was run over causing her to need surgery on her foot. And the real kick in the pants was that none of the newly required paperwork was filed on the parade.
So council requires us to do a roster for insurance reasons, that troop leader does not fill out the form, takes the troop to something she doesn't have approval on, and THEN an injury happens. An injury SHE DID NOT REPORT! What happens to this woman.... Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
In November I found out that my former co-leader decided not to come back but to instead join her troop. I found out in the most horrible way possible. I saw on Facebook that she had joined this troops page. Nice! We were friends outside of scouts and to be told personally would have been nice. When asked what she was doing with her kids, she lied to me.
We learned that in order for this troop to hit sales goals, not only was she recruiting girls from 3rd grade but she was also recruiting daisy age girls. She had daisy girls under her brownie number and did not tell our council rep! In fact the service unit leader had no idea. I only found out about it when a parent asked if we were taking other age groups because a friend of hers had both her girls in one troop. What happened with that, oh they allowed her to keep two troops AND she was still given the big troop reward from selling fall product.
WHAT??? She not only recruited people from other troops but then LIED on registration forms and added girls on so she could hit the high numbers need for troop incentive. SHE BLATANTLY broke the rules and you gave her the reward she broke the rules for?? How is that teaching girls to be "honest and fair"???
In early January I start to get messages from that troops former leader who was in charge of the troops nut sales. She starts to tell me all these horrible things about the troop and ends with, I want to join your troop. Look I will never turn down a girl especially if they are being mistreated by an adult. Just because you are having issues with the parent, you do not take it out on the kid.
After talking with my assistant, we agreed to bring her over to our troop. This all happened right before cookie season. I did not want this troop leader to go all nuts so I asked the mom to not inform them that the daughter was coming to my troop. Honestly I didn't want to hear it. Why invite drama?
This little girl is loving our troop and she fits in so well. Her first meeting she ran over to her mom and said she didn't want to leave and that they never did anything like that in the other troop! That made us feel so good. Because at least we are doing what is right by those we are supposed to be serving, the GIRLS.
My assistant and I went where we shouldn't and were catty. We giggled and said, there is no way they will make it through cookie season in tact!
Queue cookie season.....
We start hearing that a troop has already been selling the presale cookies since Decemeber. Big no no.
We try to set up cookie booth areas, they have already been claimed for weeks, another no-no.
It just seemed like we were banging our heads on walls. The Cookie manager could not do anything because there was no solid proof. The grocery store only had it listed as Girl Scouts. The people who bought cookies could tell us the names of who they ordered from but there was no proof. We needed solid proof not just hear say that looked like we were out to get this rival troop.
In the mean time, my kids started to participate in the Odyssey of the Mind program with my service unit managers daughter. We were getting little bits of information all the time.
Like that troop ordered 5000 boxes to start the booth season with.
Like the troop had set up cookie booths in areas where council had already set up booths. Even after the cookie manager denied the booths, the leader called council and complained and they let her have them.
The pick up of cookies was nasty and ugly between leaders of the troop.
Girls were being removed from booths they signed up for to make room for girls the leader liked better.
I went into the grocery store and a mom says to me that she was told to "rethink her daughters involvement in the troop" when the mom told the leader that they were not going to sell at booths.
Found out and had pictures from 2 booths were there was not enough people at. Council says you must have 2 parents and 2 girls at booths. One booth was just a parent and the other one was a parent and daughter.
But nothing is being done about this from council.
She is being aloud to carry on because she is a P.I.T.A. and no one wants to deal with her. She is not a good role model for the girls and yet, nothing is changing!
I am so frustrated at this point. And disappointed with our council. I feel like they are letting her get away with this because of both high troop sales and high numbers of girls in the troop. When we confronted our rep about this all she would say is that we wont have to deal with it next year.
What does that mean???
This woman wont get a troop??? Or she wont be doing cookies???
What about the girls stuck in this situation?
What about the girl who over hears that their troop leader wants her gone because her cookie sales aren't good enough??
What about the girls who are being shown the WRONG way to run their cookie business??? What does that teach them???
What about the girls who don't want to go to scouting anymore because they do not do anything but go on trips?
Who is looking out for these girls??
I am so thankful that this is not in my troop. I am so happy that I have an amazing group of girls and parents. But I hate that all the hard work of those who really are passionate about scouts is turned to garbage by those like this woman. If that was your troop would you bring your girl back for another year? There is no way in hell I would, that is for sure.
