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Welcome to the Scouts Honor board!
Board: Scouts Honor
Aug 10, 2006 9:51pm
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Welcome to your new board! Enjoy!
Re: Welcome to the Scouts Honor board!
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32192 by Green Tortuga
Aug 10, 2006 11:08pm
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How fun! Thank you, thank you, oh green one!

=) Wild Rose (of PBandJ)
Re: Welcome to the Scouts Honor board!
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32192 by Green Tortuga
Aug 10, 2006 11:22pm
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Thank you GT

DM
Re: Welcome to the Scouts Honor board!
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32198 by Dilton Martian
Aug 11, 2006 4:36am
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This is so cool! Thank you for doing this for scouting!!!
PLBR for Girl Scout Troops
Board: Scouts Honor
Aug 11, 2006 5:55am
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OK, now that we have our own scouts honor board, I am curious how many Girl Scout leaders there are out there.
I am thinking of starting a PLBring that may go to each troop and the leader will work with the girls to do a troop box to send along......
I have not yet done a PLBring, only waiting on our first PLB to arrive any day now.
Does this sound like something that would work or does it sound too complex?
If it would work, it would have to be initiated in a couple of months since here in North Carolina at our council our "official GS year" starts October 1-we would need to get our troops underway to have some time to get all the stamps together.
Of course, the theme would be Girl Scouting and I'm thinking anything to do with Girl scouting would be OK (awards, badges, cookie logos, something unique to their council,etc).
All of you PLBring experts out there start letting me know what you think. I will start the ring after I get feedback (if it sounds doable).
I guess the other issue I am not sure about is how do we keep the cost at a minimum since most every troop I know of works off a shoestring budget.
Thanks all of you creative GS leaders out there!!
kwmom
Cadette troop 589
GSCCatawba Valley Area
North Carolina
Re: Welcome to the Scouts Honor board!
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32192 by Green Tortuga
Aug 11, 2006 6:01am
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WooHoo!!

We bow to thee with our humble thankfulness

Thanks GT!!!

MJ
P-mail
Board: Scouts Honor
Aug 11, 2006 6:08am
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Quote Ha!
It is "private" mail as in send me a private e-mail-
I feel so "in the know!"....


Why thank you for sharing your new-found privledged knowledge!!! LOL
Re: PLBR for Girl Scout Troops
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32218 by kwmom
Aug 11, 2006 8:06am
Thread Board (disabled)
This could be a very fun ring!! I have not organized a ring as of yet, but have been in a few great ones. Some fabulous organizers are Thunderbird (GS?), Dixiekin, and Heysukey. You might contact them directly with questions.

Our troop doesn't get going until after soccer season, usually in November. This impacts the time frame, which is the one difficult issue. The rings that I have been in take 3-4 months to complete. If troops meet every two weeks like ours that would slow things down tremendously! This could make it necessary to circulate the boxes between meetings. You have an older troop so some of that responcibility could go to the cadettes. Soulds fun but I don't think I would take it on with our troop. ;-(

Wildhair
GS troop 2915
Columbia River
Oregon
Re: PLBR for Girl Scout Troops
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32229 by Wildhair
Aug 11, 2006 8:50am
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I have a troop of Juniors, and I'm also the Service Unit Manager. This ring idea sounds really fun. I think timing would have to really be careful, because I know that many troop leaders get overwhelmed at certain times of the year. I think there would be a potential that the boxes would get hung up for long periods of time if they happen to hit a troop during cookie time, or at the beginning of the troop year, or near the end when camping preparations are being made. You'd want to be very clear about your expectations and perhaps stipulate that the troop leader should just send the box on if they are too overwhelmed to handle its arrival.

Our troop year begins in September, but my girls are experiencing their first year in Middle School, so I'm not sure when we'll start having regular meetings until I know what other activities they'll be involved in so that we can get a meeting time that works for everyone.

That's my 2 cents,

Thunderbird
Troop 932
Central Whildbey Island
Totem Council (Washington)
Postcard Exchange
Board: Scouts Honor
Aug 11, 2006 8:54am
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And since we have this cool new board, have you guys ever done that world-wide Thinking Day Postcard exchange? It's huge fun, but you should get on it early in order to have more time to gather postcards.

Here's the e-mail from the coordinator:

Hello everyone,

It's time to start creating the list for the 2007 Thinking Day Postcard Exchange! This will be the tenth year and I am looking forward to getting it all started and it becoming the biggest and best yet! Please spread the word to all your Girl Guide and Girl Scout friends to help make this project a huge success. Last year we had 2458 US troops, and 445 international units from 38 countries that participated.

To sign up or to learn more about the program, please visit http://www.mythinkingday.com/ click on the Where are you? link and fill out the registration form.

The exchange will begin the first part of September.

Please spread the word about the project to those in your councils and any others around the world.

Thanks so much.
Jan McKinney

Basically, there's a huge yahoogroup with a list of every participating troop. You e-mail other troops to ask for exchanges, send them postcards, and you receive postcards from them in return. To be honest, it's a lot of work monitoring the e-mail, but the girls got a huge pile of postcards from all over the world, which I will scan and give them on CD.

Thunderbird
Re: PLBR for Girl Scout Troops
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32235 by thunderbird
Aug 11, 2006 9:06am
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There is a Girl Scout Letterboxing Yahoo Group, and they created a series of boxes carved to match girl scout songs. Now, this wasn't a postal but someone could request the boxes to use for training or possibly to hide for a Girl Scout event. Flit Girl and I were new to lbing and didn't think we could carve anything to contribute at that time, so I didn't follow too closely.

Anyway, here is a link to the yahoo group if you want to see what they are up to (Amyerica is a member I think).

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LetterboxingGS/
Re: Welcome to the Scouts Honor board!
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32192 by Green Tortuga
Aug 11, 2006 9:12am
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Thanks GT. When will it show up on the list favorites?
Re: Welcome to the Scouts Honor board!
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32238 by Flit girl
Aug 11, 2006 9:36am
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I checked the box on my Favorites list this morning. It's in the Hobby Box list.

Thunderbird
Re: PLBR for Girl Scout Troops
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32235 by thunderbird
Aug 11, 2006 10:05am
Thread Board (disabled)
<qoute>I have a troop of Juniors, and I'm also the Service Unit Manager. This ring idea sounds really fun. I think timing would have to really be careful, because I know that many troop leaders get overwhelmed at certain times of the year. I think there would be a potential that the boxes would get hung up for long periods of time if they happen to hit a troop during cookie time, or at the beginning of the troop year, or near the end when camping preparations are being made. You'd want to be very clear about your expectations and perhaps stipulate that the troop leader should just send the box on if they are too overwhelmed to handle its arrival.

Our troop year begins in September, but my girls are experiencing their first year in Middle School, so I'm not sure when we'll start having regular meetings until I know what other activities they'll be involved in so that we can get a meeting time that works for everyone.

That's my 2 cents,

Thunderbird
Troop 932
Central Whildbey Island
Totem Council (Washington)


Re: PLBR for Girl Scout Troops
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32240 by Alaska hsm
Aug 11, 2006 10:08am
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Opps sorry about that, don't know how to do qoutes.

Thunderbird, I am also a service unit manager. Is this your first year? This is mine and it is very confusing, any help would be greatly appreciated. I have a homeschool troop so we have daisies, brownies and juniors.

Alaska HSM





























I have a troop of Juniors, and I'm also the Service Unit Manager. This ring idea sounds really fun. I think timing would have to really be careful, because I know that many troop leaders get overwhelmed at certain times of the year. I think there would be a potential that the boxes would get hung up for long periods of time if they happen to hit a troop during cookie time, or at the beginning of the troop year, or near the end when camping preparations are being made. You'd want to be very clear about your expectations and perhaps stipulate that the troop leader should just send the box on if they are too overwhelmed to handle its arrival.

Our troop year begins in September, but my girls are experiencing their first year in Middle School, so I'm not sure when we'll start having regular meetings until I know what other activities they'll be involved in so that we can get a meeting time that works for everyone.

That's my 2 cents,

Thunderbird
Troop 932
Central Whildbey Island
Totem Council (Washington)
Re: PLBR for Girl Scout Troops
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32229 by Wildhair
Aug 11, 2006 10:09am
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All the members of my Senior Troop are in the HS Band so they are busy every Friday night (football game) and Saturday (competition) so we only meet every other Sunday. We are planning to participate in the postcard exchange this year for the first time and although I've never done a postal ring, we'd love to give it a try :)
GS Troop 485
Elon, NC
Re: Postcard Exchange
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32236 by thunderbird
Aug 11, 2006 10:11am
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Yes, we are planning to do the postcard exchange for the first time this year. We will look for you on the list :)
GS Troop 485
Elon, NC
Re: PLBR for Girl Scout Troops
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32218 by kwmom
Aug 11, 2006 11:41am
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I am learning so much-just open your ears and ask! I am hearing a lot of interest and I am hearing that a GSPBLring is not a new idea so there are some experienced LBrs out there with good experience.
Keep the ideas coming in! This could be great fun if we can get the timing right. Mid-October/early November is sounding like a reasonible time if we have enough interest during that time. It should be before the holiday rush, but after the BTS school rush. Hopefully troops have already started meeting regularly by then.
Keep those wheels turning.
Thanks all of you Girlscouters........
kwmom
Re: Postcard Exchange
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32236 by thunderbird
Aug 11, 2006 11:44am
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Our Jr Troop did it 2 years ago-it is a very neat idea and a lot of fun. I also love that there is the technology to scan and give the girls a disc with all the cards.
We may look into doing it again this year as a Cadette troop.
kwmom
Re: PLBR for Girl Scout Troops
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32242 by The Meyers Family
Aug 11, 2006 11:48am
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We did the postcard exchange a couple of years ago! The girls enjoyed it but I think we were all a bit overwhelmed as we haven't signed up since! I will ask them if they want to try again this year. We managed to exchange cards with almost all 50 states.

I think a PLB ring among scout troops might work a little better if it were handled more like a travelling mascot... anyone done one of those? sorry if I'm not making sense. I just think with so much going on among scout and the constraints of working within a school year, well, smaller is better. ;-)

MoonBunny
Girl Scout Council of NW GA
Re: Postcard Exchange
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32236 by thunderbird
Aug 11, 2006 12:50pm
Thread Board (disabled)
jeez!!!! a CD! how brilliant! why didn't I think of that!

we participated a couple of years ago and the girls decided they wanted to make a quilt out of the postcards. We planned to scan the cards to make iron-on transfers to iron on to fabric... etc... anyway, as you might guess, such a big project has never been finished. Though I have many 6.5" squares of fabric lying around. I will offer the girls a CD this year I guess.

(they keep saying they WANT to finish the quilt, but apparently not so much that they actually are willing to give up other activities to do it.)
Re: PLBR for Girl Scout Troops
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32241 by Alaska hsm
Aug 11, 2006 5:11pm
Thread Board (disabled)
I have to agree that timing will be the big issue. Usually people try to stamp in and send on a box in a PLB ring within a couple of days. Even so it takes months for the whole ring. In our council (Pacific Peaks, Southwest Washington) the vast majority of troops meet only every other week. If they have a box and miss a meeting to stamp in, there's a month right there! Holiday time, cookie time, campouts, Thinking Day, I can think of a lot of times that would slow a ring down considerably! I think the mascot type idea is better. If each troop just did an individual postal box instead of a ring it might not be as bad.

Wild Rose (of PBandJ)
Re: Welcome to the Scouts Honor board!
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32192 by Green Tortuga
Aug 11, 2006 6:30pm
Thread Board (disabled)
Woot! thanks.

The Pink Muffin of DOOM -- Senior Girl Scout =)
Re: Welcome to the Scouts Honor board!
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32192 by Green Tortuga
Aug 11, 2006 6:44pm
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Thanks a bunch Ryan! I knew you'd come through for us. I think this board is ready for take off!!!

Fire Goddess
what about us adult scouts?
Board: Scouts Honor
Aug 13, 2006 3:45pm
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'allo to all. question on the girl scouting letterboxing ideas. what about those of us who are adult scouts? we don't have troops, but we do stay active, helping troops.

done with that question. i'm sporky rat from mississippi, and i'm actually looking forward to this year's scouting year.


sporky rat
Re: Welcome to the Scouts Honor board!
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32192 by Green Tortuga
Aug 13, 2006 6:37pm
Thread Board (disabled)
Thanks so much, GT! This is going to be a great resource for scouts of all ages!
Re: Postcard Exchange
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32236 by thunderbird
Aug 13, 2006 6:43pm
Thread Board (disabled)
The postcard exchange is great fun. A lot of work for the leader that chooses to take it on (organizing, setting up exchanges, getting cards out, etc) but so worth the time and effort. Our girls really enjoyed it, especially getting the cards in and reading about girls from other councils. In fact, Carolina Drama Queen and I participated in a limited manner the next year when our troop opted out. It was a great way for her to learn that helping other troops out was just as important as the exchange itself.

Another really neat activity is the Council patch exchange (especially with the realignment going on). Scouts exchange council patches across the US and world and create collections with their patches (CDQ earned a JR badge and an IPP with our patch collection). Again, this hobby has sites on Yahoo (or you can contact me and I will share information as well as exchange patches).
Re: PLBR for Girl Scout Troops
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32241 by Alaska hsm
Aug 13, 2006 6:51pm
Thread Board (disabled)
Quote I am also a service unit manager. Is this your first year? This is mine and it is very confusing, any help would be greatly appreciated.


HSM,

I'm the co-Service Unit Director for our SU. I'm also a first-year, but have the advantage of having a great, experienced director with whom to share responsibilites and learn as much as I can. I'll be more than happy to help out any way I can with whatever you need. It is very confusing (and especially at this particular time in the GS movement), but I love it.

Hopeinnc
Iredell, NC Service Unit
GS Council of the Catawba Valley Area
Re: Welcome to the Scouts Honor board!
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32582 by hopeinnc
Aug 13, 2006 7:39pm
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I'm not sure I've found this board yet? I'm at the Yahoo group - is it the same thing????
Re: Welcome to the Scouts Honor board!
Board: Scouts Honor
Reply to: #32591 by iSignASLily
Aug 13, 2006 7:46pm
Thread Board (disabled)
i haven't found it either and i have clicked on favorites to try to find it but i can't!!! we need help!!!

katwrangler