When building your Girl Scout troop and your troop’s leadership team, there are many opportunities for supporting girls and amazing programing for them! Although you may think you have it covered on your own, running an organized troop program that supports the needs of all girls is much easier when you have many volunteers supporting the troop’s efforts. The classic parent volunteer team includes a Troop Leader (or co-leaders), a Troop Treasurer, and a Cookie/Fall Product Program Chair, but there are so many Girl Scout Parent volunteer positions that allow parents to participate in supporting the troop! Here are just a few volunteer troop roles that you may want to consider in addition to your current volunteer team.
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Troop Photographer
Documenting memories and making sure they are properly stored is an important part of the program for girls. This not only is a way to show girls how much they’ve grown, but also helps you show potential troop members what your troop is all about. From taking photos and curating those memories to making an iMovie of special events, the troop photographer can make sure those amazing Girl Scout memories last! With many badges that can use media to support learning, this is an important role in your troop.
Safety Specialist
Understanding safety-wise checkpoints is vital to the health and safety of everyone in the troop. Knowing what adventures you can go on as well as what measures need to be in place to do them in the safest way possible is vital to any Girl Scout adventure. This parent can also serve as the first aider and manage CPR certifications, as well as any other required troop certifications.
Troop Event Coordinator
From planning big events to keeping in touch with service unit or council events, the Troop Event Coordinator can make sure everyone is in the loop. If you have a large troop, this role can help you make sure girls are put in touch with events that fuel their creativity and passions. Have girls complete a survey of what they like to do and then have a Troop Event Coordinator promote programs and opportunities to attend, take care of meeting logistics (especially important when meetings are digital!), or even just keep all the other volunteers on the same page.
Community Action Coordinator
From Take Action Projects to finding ways to help your troop support their community, the Community Action Coordinator will lead the way. This role can also help support the management and recording of volunteer hours for things like the Presidential Volunteer Service Award. In our troop, this person also leads our “adopt a sailor” efforts and “troop to troop” cookie collections.
Troop Manager (or Administrator)
If you have a large troop, this person can be the “go-to” for anything and everything Girl Scouting. This person should know everything and anything about Girl Scouting and encourage leader learning, girl programming, and overall troop management. In my troop of 40, I serve as the Troop Manager. I not only lead the leaders in our troop but also regularly attend trainings, stay current on news about Girl Scouting, and also serve as the mediator between troop members (adults and girls). I also ensure that activities planned all align with the Girl Scout Leadership Experience: Discover, Connect, and Take-Action.
Girl Mentor
From helping support higher award planning and execution to knowing what girls need and supporting them any way we can, the Girl Mentor role is important for supporting the needs of individual girls. This person should be highly invested in your troop and each girl member, presenting themselves as a go-to person for girls to talk about their problems, goals, and needs.
Depending on the size of your troop, there are so many ways for volunteers to support troop success. It helps disperse the workload so no one volunteer feels overburdened, making your troop’s activities more sustainable, and helping girls stay involved in Girl Scouts for longer, which has a proven effect on their success in life! Running a successful troop is easy when you have a strong team with defined goals that is ready to make the Girl Scouting philosophy come alive.
What to do next:
- Recruit new parent volunteers to your Girl Scout troop.
- Have a great volunteer team? Thank them with some tried and true volunteer appreciation.
Richel Newborg—Richel is a troop leader to Troop 2740 located in Fort Worth, Texas (although she was born and raised in California). Her mom and grandmother were also Girl Scout Leaders. Her favorite memory so far as a troop leader was packing friends, family, and excited girls into her living room (almost 50 people) when their bridging/rededication ceremony was rained out. It was crowded but an awesome celebration of Girl Scouting and they even managed to have a real bridge!Richel is a troop leader to Troop 2740 located in Fort Worth, Texas (although she was born and raised in California). Her mom and grandmother were also Girl Scout Leaders. Her favorite memory so far as a troop leader was packing friends, family, and excited girls into her living room (almost 50 people) when their bridging/rededication ceremony was rained out. It was crowded but an awesome celebration of Girl Scouting and they even managed to have a real bridge!
