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Volunteer Resources

Welcome, Girl Scout volunteers! 

You belong to a network of nearly 1 million adults who share an important commitment: preparing girls to lead successful lives.

Now you can prepare yourself to be a more successful volunteer!

Check out these online resources and training courses that you can access whenever it’s convenient for you.

 

Volunteer Resources - Service Units

Girl Scouts – Diamonds Council is divided into 50 geographic areas known as Service Units. These areas are managed and staffed by volunteers and have three primary functions:

  • To deliver and extend the Girl Scout program to all girls grades K – 12 in all socioeconomic, religious and ethnic groups within the jurisdiction.
  • To give ongoing support to adults who work with girls.
  • To offer and promote opportunities for troops in the Service Unit.

Service Unit Meetings

Service Unit team members and troop representatives meet several times throughout the year to share ideas, receive training, and talk about important announcements. Service Units may organize events such as community-wide service projects, summer day camps, family events, Cookie Rallies, World Thinking Day celebrations and Award ceremonies.

Most Service Areas meet monthly during the school year and all Troop Leaders are encouraged to attend. If a Troop Leader cannot attend, a member of the Troop Committee should attend.

During meetings, Troop Leaders may network, give input about Service Area program opportunities for troops, receive information from council staff and receive pre-ordered items from the council shops.

Participate in the Stellar Service Unit Challenge to secure some extra cash for your service unit. The challenge runs from August 1-July 31 of the membership year. See the form for details.

2019-2020 Stellar Service Unit Challenge - Due August 15, 2020
2018-2019 Stellar Service Unit Challenge - Due August 15, 2019

Volunteer Position Descriptions

Service Team Members: The council requests that you have each volunteer sign their volunteer description for the Girl Scout year. Please turn in all signed volunteer descriptions to your regional Girl Scout office in the fall of each year.

Troop Pathway:

Event and Series Pathway:

Travel Pathway:

Service Team:

Volunteer Resources - Troops

Diamonds Troop Road Map - This guide is designed to help you cover the basics for a successful year. Complete the activities at each stop between August 1-May 31 and your troop will earn the GO GIRL Road Map to Success fun patch! See the form for details.

Diamonds Troop Road Map 2019-2020 - Due June 15, 2020

Journeys - Need a little help with the Journeys? Check out this page for Journeys-in-a-year plans and how to make a troop Journey map.

Girl Scout Ceremonies - A go-to, how-to guide for ceremonies of all types - flag ceremony, investiture, bridging and more. 

Girl Scout Bridging Guide - A comprehensive guide to bridging, from basics to step-by-step planning for every level. 

Silver and Gold Podcast - A place for Girl Scout adults to connect, grab great ideas, share cool stuff and feel like youre never alone, because you've always got friends — new or old — silver and gold.

Helping Girls Become STEM Superstars - Provides Girl Scout volunteers with the tools they need to keep girls’ passion and curiosity for STEM subjects alive. This guide offers something for everyone with girls in their lives, showing just how easy it is to make STEM matter for girls—through conversation starters, troop activities, and examples of STEM role models.

Safety Activity Checkpoints - What you need to know to ensure troop safety on your next adventure!

Forms - From permission slips to awards trackers – we’ve got the forms you need! 

GSUSA Tips for Troop Leaders - With this informative resource from GSUSA, you'll be ready to meet any challenge that comes your way. By providing accessible advice and inspiring ideas from our panel of Volunteer Experts, Tips for Troop Leaders supports both new and returning troop leaders as they encourage their girls to grow into the leaders they were born to be!

Global Resources - The resources below include an overview of Journeys and Girl Guides to Girl Scouting for each Girl Scout level and where leaders can find activities to highlight global viewpoints, customs and traditions, as well as foods, songs, and languages from other countries. This will allow girls to learn more about different cultures and build a global perspective as they discover, connect and take action to make the world a better place.

Global Action Days Toolkit

Global Elements-Ambassador
Global Elements-Senior
Global Elements-Cadette
Global Elements-Junior
Global Elements-Brownie
Global Elements-Daisy

Tip Sheets – These helpful tip sheets cover a wide variety of topics.

Volunteer Resources - Financial Management

For troop and service unit financial information, please refer to the Girl Scouts - Diamonds Troop Financial Management, as well as the Troop Finances section of Volunteer Essentials.

You may also find financial management tools and forms on the Forms and Documents page

For questions, please contact your service unit treasurer, or email the Girl Scouts - Diamonds troop finance liaison. 

 

Volunteer Resources - Marketing and Public Relations

Public/Media Relations Resources:

Press Release Templates:

Public/Media Relations at the Service Unit/Troop Level

What’s the challenge? At Girl Scouts – Diamonds of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, we do our best to report on exciting stories and important information relating to Girl Scouting within our council, but, with 79 counties and more than 10,000 girl and adult members, it would take considerable resources in staff time, energy and funding to issue media releases on everyone’s activities! That is where service unit and troop PR volunteers come in! You can work with your Service Unit Public Relations Coordinator to promote your Girl Scout news and activities in local media.

The Service Unit Public Relations Coordinator will work in conjunction with troops and individuals who would like to assist with Girl Scouts – Diamonds public relations activities.

Positive media coverage is one of the best ways to promote the Girl Scout Leadership Experience. When we share our Girl Scout news and activities it:

  • Increases our visibility in the community
  • Promotes our brand and signals value for the Girl Scout Program
  • Boosts our membership
  • Increases financial support

Including a picture with your news release increases the chances that your news will get printed! Here are some helpful tips:

  • Take pictures that support your event and try to take a lot of pictures so you will have many shots to select from.
  • Unless your intent is to wow people with the number of girls you can put in a straight line… avoid those dull group shots if you can. The group shot has its place but action shots are more fun and can make your event look more interesting. Get in close to capture faces and girls doing something!
  • Only submit bright, focused, good quality photos. Pictures should be saved as Jpegs and be at least 300 dpi (dots per inch).

Representing Girl Scouts: When a Girl Scout or Girl Scout volunteer is representing Girl Scouts in any way they must behave in an appropriate, mature manner that fairly represents the Girl Scout Movement. If a Girl Scout and/or Girl Scout volunteer acts in violation of this procedure, they may lose their membership privileges.

Emergency Situations: If an emergency situation occurs, Girl Scouts and volunteers must follow the Girl Scouts – Diamonds Emergency Procedures which include making NO statement of ANY KIND to the media. Do NOT give out any names or information. Ask the media to contact the Communications Department, at 800-632-6894.