Guest Author - Diana

It's a new year and a good time for resolutions. This year, make it a goal to attend your local service unit/neighborhood meetings.

Neighborhood meetings are run by volunteer service team members who generally are leaders themselves. Service team members are not paid for these jobs, although many of them require many hours of dedication. They take care of jobs that are beyond the realm of a troop but are not of a council or national level. As such, they serve as a liasion between the troops and your local council. Generally, any member of a service team is going to be an invaluable resource to you as a leader. They are there to help, so talk to them!

As for neighborhood meetings themselves, the purpose and content of any particular meeting can be as varried as the neighborhoods in which they are held. They are intended to disseminate information from the national, council, and neighborhood levels to the individual troop leaders. For example, these meetings are where information about registration, fall product, and cookie sales will be distributed. In addition, information about training and policies and procedures will be made available in this setting.

Leader meetings also provide an opportunity to network with other leaders, to ask questions, and to share ideas. Finding a sister troop to work with should be a snap at any meeting. Some neighborhoods will take the opportunity to provide social activities for leaders at this time whereas others will be all business. Opportunities for leader enrichment, such as training, may also occur at neighborhood meetings.

Neighborhood meetings are also the place where neighborhood events will be planned and information about how to sign up will be disseminated. Neighborhood activities can include events such as back to school and round up activities, skills days, sing alongs, father/daughter and mother/daughter activities, and more. The only limit to the kinds of activities that can be planned and offered is whether someone can be found to volunteer to coordinate such activities.

With all this excellent information available to you just by attending a neighborhood meeting, make it a resolution to attend as the new Girl Scout year gets under way.