Category Archives: Meetings

GSVSC Archives Group Meeting, March 13

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S'more Great Moments Snack BagMy sister Kerri and I attended another Archives Group Meeting this week, and we created some S’mores Snack Mix to share with everyone. She made the snacks, and I made the label, using Stampin’ Up’s My Digital Studio.

The S’mores Snack Mix is made up of the following:

  • 1 box of Honey Maid Lil’ Squares, Honey Graham Flavor
  • 1 bag of mini marshmallows
  • 1 large bag of Hershey’s Drops

Dump everything together and stir to mix it up. If the proportions seem off, add a bit more. I think Kerri added some extra Drops. You would substitute Golden Grahams Cereal, but the little graham crackers are perfect. We found that you could create a teeny s’more by stacking things and microwaving about 20 seconds as well.

At the meeting, part of the group focused on cataloguing some Girl Scout Handbooks and related resources using index cards and a standardized system for tracking the materials. Kerri and I checked in a “Journey Through Our Girl Scout Past Suitcase” and then did some maintenance work on a couple of existing Suitcases (shifting resources into sturdier suitcases). The suitcases are described on the Virginia Skyline site.

After the working session, we talked briefly about my proposal to digitize a Camp History book that the committee wrote and distributed. The book only exists in print form, and all copies have been distributed. I’m taking on the work of scanning the book, so that it can be downloaded and printed as desired. That work will begin with cutting up my copy, and then I’ll move to a long scanning session (likely more than several days of work). I’m hoping to experiment with creating some alternate way of accessing the information as well.

GSVSC Archives Group Meeting, February 12

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Cats-and-Dogs BadgeKnowing my love for manuscripts and historical documents, I felt sure that I would enjoy participating in the Archives Group here in the Virginia Skyline Council. The group manages a collection (pdf) of historical uniforms, badges and other insignia, and artifacts from troops, service units, and camps.

At this first meeting, we helped assemble a display on the history of Girl Scouting for the Museum of Culpeper History. The display is to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the council, so the collection we assembled included uniforms, badges, and handbooks from 1963. We also discussed adding recruitment information to the display, so that any family that comes through the museum and needs a local contact will be able to find out how to help their girls join. We created a hands-on activity, where museum visitors work to match badge requirements to badges using intuition and the handbooks. If you need a tip, that’s the Dogs and Cats Badge pictured.  Hope that we get to see some photos of the final display from the fine folks in Culpeper.

We also inventoried the boxes of Junior and Cadette badges before returning them to the storage closet and having lunch. The next meeting is scheduled for February 27.

2013 Annual Meeting of GSVSC

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Materials from the 2013 Annual MeetingToday, I attended the Annual Meeting of the local Girl Scout Council in Vinton. It’s the first council-wide event that I’ve been to in years. The meeting included a 50th anniversary celebration for the Council and the keynote speaker, Kate Geniatis, was the CEO of the Council when I was active. It was so wonderful to see her and to get back in touch folks.

30 years pinDuring the afternoon, special awards were given out. It’s been so long since I attended a Council function that I was very behind on my years of membership and years of volunteer service pins. I have been a Girl Scout since I was a second-grader (that was the earliest you could join when I was young). That is 44 years of being a Girl Scout! When I graduated from high school, I moved directly to being an adult volunteer. I have racked up 33 years of adult volunteer service, and the lovely pin is my reward.

Community Restructuring Meeting

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I attended my first local Girl Scout meeting in a very, very long time tonight. I used to be highly involved in local events. I know that I served in a variety of roles including leading Junior and Cadette troops, registrar for the service unit, cookie cupboard manager (I stored the cookies in my bedroom), and council trainer. That was all very long ago, when I was in college. After that I moved away to Texas and then Illinois. While I’ve been involved as a helper behind the scenes for my sister’s Daisy troop and council product sales, I haven’t had any official job in years.

Tonight’s meeting was about the council’s plan to restructure the local service units into communities (lingo provided by GSUSA). It seemed like a good blank slate, so to speak, so I thought I’d see if there was something that I could contribute in the new plans for our local communities. The idea is that 2.5 service units are going to unite in one community. It’s a challenging revision to the systems that were in place, but there was a lot of positive energy in the room.

I hope that there’s something that I can do in the new system. I know my shortcomings—I’m horrible at the organizing work, and no one sane would ask me to manage the financial positions (I hate math). My ideal task would be to work on blogging, social media, and a website that communicates with adult volunteers, girl members, and their families (as well as others in the local community who are interested). I would LOVE to do that kind of work.

The one thing we are sure of at this point is the name of our new organizational structure: Girl Scouts of Radford City and Montgomery County (GSRCAMC).