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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.

 

Resources for 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.

Volunteer Position Descriptions

Each volunteer holding a postition with a service unit and/or troop must sign the volunteer position description for each position held for the Girl Scout year. Please contact your volunteer specialist for the most up-to-date position descriptions. Volunteer@girlscoutsdiamonds.org 

Resources for Troops

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. 

Virtual Meetings and Activities Agreement - This agreement is required for all virtual meetings or activities that are recorded with girl participation. 

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!

Resources for Virtual Meetings

Virtual Meeting Training

The Virtual Meetings Playbook—A great step-by-step guide to virtual meetings

Check out GSUSA’s Tips for Troop Leaders blog for articles and insights about running virtual meetings!

Zoom instructional PDFs

Virtual Meeting Safety

Virtual Meetings and Activities Agreement—This agreement is required for all virtual meetings or activities that are recorded with girl participation. 

Resources for Conflict Resolution

In Girl Scouts, we hope that most, if not all conflicts and disputes can be resolved informally by being sensitive and respectful to each other. Many complaints and concerns can be resolved if they are brought to the attention to the appropriate individual with a genuine intention to discover a resolution satisfactory to all parties involved. We believe in living by the Girl Scout Promise and Law . We ask that all Girl Scout parents, volunteers and girls do the same. Below are helpful resources in managing conflicts. 

Conflict Resolution Guide

Resources for 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

 

Resources for Marketing and Public Relations

For logos and other branding materials and information, please check out our Brand Center.

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 thousands of 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. If your service unit does not have a PR coordinator, please reach out to the Girl Scouts - Diamonds communications team at online@girlscoutsdiamonds.org with any questions you may have about pursuing media opportunities.

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

A few basic things to keep in mind when considering any promotion in the media:

  • Please avoid contacting television stations without reaching out to the Girl Scouts - Diamonds communications team at online@girlscoutsdiamonds.org. Opportunities for tv coverage are limited and we want to make sure we are not overlapping on our efforts. 
  • Is your event newsworthy for a broad audience? If you as a troop or service unit have just a few opportunities for possible coverage, be selective in what you submit for promotion. The bigger your community, the harder it is, so make sure you're getting the best "bang for your buck". If you live in a small community, especially one with a hometown newspaper that loves to cover everything you do, count yourself lucky and keep sharing all the great Girl Scout news!
  • Remember that whether the communications team initiated a media interview or your troop or service unit did, we can provide talking points and other materials to help ensure we are on brand in voice and visually as well. Contact us with any questions or needs.
  • If you need a template for a news release, please reach out: online@girlscoutsdiamonds.org for assistance.

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.

STEM Training Toolkit (DBJ Coding Basics)

Welcome to the STEAM Badge training toolkit. This toolkit was designed for volunteers wanting to learn more about how to deliver STEM badges or journeys with their troop. This toolkit focuses on the Daisy, Brownie, and Juniors Coding Basics Badge but knowledge learned can be transferred to other STEM badges.  This toolkit contains a webinar that covers information on STEM programming, how to use VTK, advice on how to do a STEM badge with your troop, and you will learn how to successfully deliver badge activities. There are also activity videos to assist volunteers that are wanting to lead their Daisy, Brownie, and Juniors through the Coding Basics Badge. Lastly, this toolkit contains a training guidebook for Service unit volunteer that would like to lead a STEM badge training and Coding Basics badge training.

How to use the STEM training Toolkit:

  • Badge Activity videos: 
    Please watch the Intro to Coding Basics before proceeding through the rest of the videos.
    Daisy Activity 3
    Brownie Activity 3 | Brownie Activity 4
    Junior Activity 3 | Junior Activity 4

  • Webinar: This webinar was created to help volunteers feel more comfortable with doing STEM Badges with their troop. In this webinar you will learn about why stem is important for girls and best practices for doing STEM badges. You will also learn more about STEM Program content on the VTK and do a deep dive into the Coding Basics Badge with hands-on activities.

  • Guidebook: The guidebook was created to serve as a guide for service units and staff members that would like to deliver an in-person training for volunteers that would like more guidance on leading STEM badges and journeys.