Scouting trouble
By maccer50
@maccer50 (39)
United States
October 13, 2008 9:46pm CST
We have had a lot of trouble with our girl scout organization. The problem is that two of the leaders in our town stepped down and let another lady run the troop. That lady ran it for one year and then she left. She stopped leading suddenly and it fell to me and another lady here. We were supposed to be trained this summer, but the training wasn't ready until two weeks ago, when we finally took the class. The class was unstructured and unhelpful and we were told they would have the books but they didn't. The lady who stepped down most recently didn't give us the roster or craft items, or books or anything. We tried to ask our Service Unit Manager for help, but she is new because the lady who was going to do it,and who did it last year left suddenly. She tried to get help from the district manager, but she quit last week -- SUDDENLY. What the heck?!! I'm not sure what we should do, but I think we are just going to keep having our weekly meetings and try to muddle along. We don't have any money because we weren't given any financial information, the check book, or even the name and location of the bank which holds our troop account. The co-leader and myself are buying our craft items and snacks out of pocket. Still, the reason I am sticking with it is because I want my daughter to have the opportunities provided by scouting and to make new friends. What would you do?
2 responses
@BubblyIan (750)
•
14 Oct 08
Get involved yourself and find other willing parents to do so. You may need to start a new bank account and keep donations separate until you can track down the previosu signatories and the money. Perhaps involve the police if fraud is suspected. Otherwise consider mergind with other nearby similar groups. There will be a national organisationa s well that you can contact for help and support. They might be able to find a temporary leader to help you through.
Best of luck and let us know what happens.
1 person likes this
@maccer50 (39)
• United States
14 Oct 08
Thank you for responding. We are trying to recruit more kids through the public schools this week. It is very difficult to get parents to involve themselves. I just keep asking. The folks in our regional office are supposed to be working on the problem with getting the check book and other stuff, but for a month they have told us that they are working on it. I'm not sure what will happen with all of that, but we will just continue to hold meetings and work toward badges.
@shanarenea (26)
• United States
18 Jan 09
I first want to Thank and congradulate you for sticking in there and helping. Someone at your council should be able to help. If you still cannot get any help from them call the national head quarters.
Make sure you save all of your reciepts so that the troop can reimburse you when you do get everything figured out.
@maccer50 (39)
• United States
18 Jan 09
Hi Shanarenea,
I appreciate your response. Since I first posted this on the blog site, the council sent someone to collect the craft items and other things from the previous leader. I finally have the checkbook, but the council closed the old account and we will open a new one once we have funds. I am surprised how long this has taken to resolve. We also lost some people since I didn't have the roster from August until December. One family dropped out because they didn't want to be involved with a group that had "...some kind of drama..." associated with it. Another 2 families dropped out because they simply didn't know we were still a group, since I had no way of contacting them. They moved on to other activities. Probably the oddest thing for me was that the former leader said that she didn't want the fact that she was stepping down to ruin our friendship. I assured her that it wouldn't, but that was before we went through all of this unnecessary drama. All she had to do was hand over the troop property and the checkbook. I don't understand why she became reluctant. Except it may have had to do with the fact that she spent almost all of the money that the troop had accumulated over the years. The leader before last had raised funds with cookie sales and she told me how much there was before the last leader took over. We currently have only $5.00 left. Even so, as long as she can show reciepts and where the money went, it is still not a problem. Anyway, we are having our current cookie sales and recruiting drive, so I am looking to the future.
