
Virtual Meeting Planning

Planning virtual meetings can feel quite different from the in-person meetings we’re used to: can you successfully engage your girls through their screens? Can you keep your troop’s favorite traditions going virtually? The answer is yes!
Use this sample agenda and the following tips to prepare for your virtual meeting and get ready to have fun with your girls, wherever their “meeting spaces” may be.
Sample Virtual Meeting Agenda (60-90 min): Junior, Cadette, Senior, Ambassador
Consider adapting the length and/or frequency of virtual meetings. Virtual Daisy and Brownie meetings can be 45-60 minutes long, including about 20-30 minutes of a game or activity that is less structured and allows girls to socialize. Virtual meetings for Juniors and older can be 60-90 minutes long, including 30-45 min of game or social time.
Stretch badges and Journeys into more meetings. Building in social time is so important for your girls right now, and it’s totally OK if badges and Journeys take a little more time to accomplish in a virtual space!
Tap into the Volunteer Toolkit. Use the search field on the Volunteer Toolkit to look for “Virtual Friendly” badges and Journeys that have been adapted for online troop meetings. Hint: you can also use these suggestions to adapt group work, field trips, and more!
Keep the sisterhood strong. You’ll have fun working on badges virtually, of course, but also take time during each meeting to just relax and be silly together. This strengthens the bonds among the girls during times of social distancing or when they can’t be together in person—it’s what Girl Scout sisterhood is all about!
Here are some suggestions for adapting badge or journey work for a digital setting.
Develop ground rules. To keep your troop girl-led, work with the girls to establish rules that everyone can agree to, like when to keep cameras and microphones on or off, or raising hands when girls want to speak.
Keep your supply list simple. Remember, not all families have lots of craft supplies on hand. Consider activities that stick to the basics—crayons, paper, scissors, and glue—and give families advance notice if you will require additional supplies.
Be flexible with timing. You might budget one hour for your meeting, but not all meetings will run that long—especially if you have younger girls with shorter attention spans. It’s perfectly OK to end the meeting early if you’ve accomplished everything on your agenda! Younger girls will be able to concentrate on a single task for only about 20 minutes, so plan your meeting in short sections!
Girls and families may already have some basic supplies to power a fun, hands-on meeting activity at home, but you’ll want to give troop families a heads up about what the girls will need on-hand at least one day before the meeting. If an activity requires supplies that might not be easily accessible, give families more notice to gather the materials, and provide potential substitutions wherever possible.
Everyday Supplies
Families are likely to have these items at home and easily accessible:
Supplies That Require Advance Notice
When planning activities that use these supplies, consider providing substitutions if families don’t have the exact item on hand:
Check out these proven tips for how you and your Girl Scouts can adapt your badge, journey, or award activities to a virtual setting.
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