Guest Author - Diana Laulainen-Schein

In a previous article, I mentioned the cooperative model of leadership that is being used by some troops. If you were a Girl Scout as a child or have an older child who has been a Scout, this model may be unfamiliar to you. In today’s busy world, the single leader/co-leader model was failing in that the responsibilities of leading a troop were too overwhelming for one or two parents to fulfill. That system worked great in the "Leave it to Beaver" days when mothers often had fewer things on their plate than they do these days. These days, asking two people to be solely responsible for the well-being of an entire troop of girls and then, on top of it, to plan activities to keep those same girls engaged and interested is somewhat akin to asking for the moon and the stars.

Instead, some troops have organized themselves under a cooperative leadership model. In a nutshell, each parent commits to coordinating an activity about twice a year. In our troop, parents prefer to work in teams for the companionship, so it works out to be about four activities a year. Each parent must register as a Girl Scout in this model for the safety of the girls and to ensure they are covered under the Girl Scout insurance plan.

In my experience, it is best if one person serves as an overall organizer. This person is sort of the weaver who takes all the threads of the other volunteers and shapes them, maintaining a master schedule and a list of activities that each volunteer wishes to lead.

I also recommend that a tentative schedule is planned out for at least four months in advance at the beginning of the school year (and then again in January) so that each individual knows well in advance when they are "on" and can plan accordingly. Individuals should choose activities that they are comfortable leading. This is the real bonus of this model. No one person is good at all the possible activities that a troop could do. Under the cooperative model, each person brings their strengths to the troop and shares their expertise.

Some of the other "jobs" that can be divided amongst the volunteers include the following: cookie parent, paperwork coordinator, treasurer, field trip organizer, and neighborhood meeting representative.

My experience is that the girls are very excited to have their parents involved and tend to be very proud to be involved in this parent-and-me activity. Retention in these troops is also very high and the parents get the added bonus of meeting and making new friends.

There a few things to worry about if you choose to go this direction. First, even though leadership of meetings is rotated, there must be a trained volunteer at the meetings and someone who is trained in CPR and First Aid. In my troop's experience, this hasn't been a problem because we have multiple parents who have both certifications, and, in general, a majority of the parents attend the meetings even if they aren't the "lead leader" of the week. If your troop truly plans to rotate leadership with only a few parents attending each week, however, you will have to ensure that the leaders in attendance are meeting the safety guidelines outlined in Safety Wise.

Girl Scouting has always attempted to be flexible to meet the needs of the girls, and the cooperative leadership model is evidence that the general framework is flexible enough to accomodate the needs of today's busy families.