April Leader Meeting
Room 10, NR Town Hall –
April 11, 2016
Meeting Start: 7:40 pm
In attendance: Debbie
Nearing 73891, Michelle Gerokoulis 62796, Lisa Ayer 62798, Kerri Antonuccio
62803, Karianne Bekier 62803, Joanne Gibson 69175, Kristin Puliafico 85118,
Amber O'Driscoll 76211, Melissa Audier 73894, Ruth Kennedy 73899, Lisa
Coroa-Bockley 85121, Mays Hanegraaff 78188, Dawn Gonthier 71890, Amy Kelly
73897, 79107, Jenn Vant 85337, Kate Mahoney, 71868 Stephanie Musgrave 71868
Pledge of Allegiance and
Girl Scout Law
Debbie ran tonight’s
meeting in Anne’s absence and thanked all the volunteers mentioning that this
is Leader/Volunteer Appreciation week for Girl Scouts.
Leader Appreciation:
Ruth made special
packets for each leader in attendance with flower seeds, chocolate kisses,
candy lifesavers, and a nice poem. Thank you to all our leaders and volunteers
and thank you Ruth for assembling the gifts! It's nice to have the girls make a
card or a token to give to the volunteers in your troop, such as a hardworking
cookie mom or dad.
Outstanding Volunteer
Nominations:
If you have a volunteer
you would like recognized or a leader you feel deserves to be recognized as an
outstanding volunteer and you would like to nominate her or him, contact Debbie
Nearing before May 15th.
GSEM President’s Award
for North Reading Service Unit:
The North Reading
Service Unit was recently nominated and endorsed by their peers and the
selection was approved by the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors to
receive the GSEM President’s Award for 2016. We were one of 6 Service
Units who were selected out of 178 in our region! We qualified because we
met our membership goals this year placing all the girls and we went above and
beyond by increasing our numbers for adults and girls. There is an award
luncheon in Framingham at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center on May
14th. Check in starts at 11 and the event starts promptly at noon.
Council will allow 4 of us from the ST to attend and then we will pay for the
others from the Service Unit Account if they want to attend. Not everyone
from the ST is available that day but half of the ST will be attending to
receive their award and if any Leader or Volunteer is interested, you should go
online with GSEM ASAP to sign up. It’s $25 a person but space is
limited. The GSEM Award Letter is being posted to the blog!
GSEM Appreciation Pin:
We would also like to
congratulate Kristin Puliafico who has also been nominated and endorsed by her
peers to receive the GSEM Appreciation Pin at the GSEM Awards and Recognitions
Luncheon the same day. Kristin will also be a free guest for lunch and
that is one less on the ST who we will need to pay for if all want to
attend. Kristin received this award for all of her dedication to the
Service Team in not only serving as the Service Unit Coordinator but for taking
on multiple roles on the ST and running events. Congratulations!
Cookies-n-Canvas is
April 21.
Last day for forms is
the 14th. Please get in touch with Lisa Alexander with any forms.
Update: Only 20 have
signed up so there is room for older girls if anyone wants to invite older
girls to attend. **Please
contact Lisa Alexander ASAP.**
Encampment:
We have 14 troops
registered as of tonight. The encampment committee will meet next week on
Thursday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m. to discuss more particulars. The meeting is at
Lisa Alexander’s house. Debbie will get the info out to all leaders as soon as
she sorts through the envelopes.
Update: We have approximately
47 day campers and 38 overnight campers. Unless we get more participation
in the next few days, we will be returning most of the tent sites on April 22nd
and just keeping the 2 Yurt Sites and Health Lodge with day use for the Dining
Hall and this should be enough to hold the overnight and day troops. This
encampment will be about the same number who attended in spring 2014.
The theme is a luau and Kerstin is canoe and waterfront certified and we will have swimming and hopefully canoeing. We may have a Kona ice truck or even hula dancers as well as an outdoor activity for older girls, but it all depends on the cost. Daisies usually come for the day around 9 a.m. and stay until 5 p.m. On Friday night, the girls staying can make s’mores and hike and explore the camp as there is no scheduled activities. This is a good opportunity for troops to work on badges, SWAPs, journey’s or just bond with one another.
If any girl needs to
leave the camp and come back, please see Debbie or Kerstin and let them know so
we know at all times who is in and out of the campsite. You will need to bring
your own wood more than likely as last year there was not any wood, but all of
these things will be addressed in a few weeks.
These were just
questions that were asked at the Leader meeting and answered on the spot.
We also mentioned that we would look at doing the SWAPS event at a time
convenient for those girls who have sports and need to leave and come back,
probably around lunch time.
S.W.A.P.S. for Encampment:
Time to think about
SWAPS! Swaps are “some whatchamacallits affectionately pinned
on someone” (little tokens each girl can make to hand to another
girl at camp). They are fun to make and girls enjoy exchanging with other
girls. Look at www.makingfriends.com, Pinterest or www.swaps4less.com for ideas or kits to purchase at a small cost.
Each girl can make as
little or as many as they exchange one for one for encampment. Most girls do
between 10 and 15. However many you make, you will trade and get that
amount back.
Scavenger Hunt:
May 22nd from 5-7pm at
the UCC. Anne sent an email to some troops and asked if the older girls
are interested in this event. If there is not enough interest, the event may be
cancelled. Troops, in Grades 6-12,
please get back to Anne ASAP if you are interested.
Memorial Day Parade:
Please do not throw
candy. Your troop can hand out flowers, flags or something similar. If the
troop is not participating, all girls are still welcome to march with the other
Scouts or a parent. Wear uniforms, sashes, GS pins, etc.
Start working on your
banner which can be for a specific level or for the entire 12 years with
changing names as the years go on. Use something sturdy that will hold up
in inclement weather as we march rain or shine. Also, use some kind of
ink that won’t run if it gets wet. The banner should not be too heavy on
a pole or too long for the girls to trip when they carry it in the parade.
Troop Financial Reports:
Due to Lisa Alexander
sometime in June but no later than June 30th. Typically, reports and bank
statements are turned in at our June 15th Leader meeting.
It is perfectly fine to
end your financial report as of May 31st since bank statements for June won’t
be released by June 15.
Council would prefer you
don't keep a lot of funds in your account and if you have funds, especially
more than $200, that are unused as of June 30th, you need to attach an
explanation of what your troop is planning to do with the money and when you
will plan on using it. If you are saving for an activity or a trip,
please write what you are saving for. Remember that you can pay for the
girls to reregister with the troop funds or pay half and have the parents pay
half. It should be a decision you make with the girls.
Remember too that the
money doesn’t belong to the girls but rather the troop. Each year, the troop
stays the same with the same troop number and you go forward with those funds
to start the new year October 1st.
Although the Girl Scout
membership year is 9/30, you can still reregister in the early bird
registration which is open online now.
Year End Gathering for
Volunteers/Leaders:
We would like to have a
year end event June 15 for the Leaders and Volunteers. The ST was wondering how
much interest there would be in attending this event. The ST would
provide the adult refreshments and food.
Update: The leaders in
attendance at the April Leader meeting said they would attend and liked the
idea of having a social at a Leader’s home as we have done in the past.
More info to come on this!
Amy: Early Bird
Registration:
Starts at the end of
April. Council has changed from Ebiz and you have to set up a new login and
password and you should have received an email to do this. There will be no
more paper registrations, everything will be done online.
New families joining GS
will be able to go online and see what troops they can join and pick and sign
up by the day/time convenient for them. For new Daisies, parents can choose by
school. Also, folks can decide to be a volunteer of these new troops right
their online and council will contact them with the necessary procedures to go
forward with those girls in their troop.
The troops will now have
12 girl slots with an open capacity for more girls if a new scout signs up for
your troop. You can no longer choose to have less than 12 girls if a
parent signs up their child to be part of your troop. GSEM would contact
you directly once a girl signs up for your troop so you are aware.
There is now an 800
number for all questions you have and you WILL receive a LIVE person to speak
with and you won’t have to wait any longer for a response. The number is online
with GSEM as well as in our latest Monday email.
Membership Star Discs:
Can everyone bring to
the next May Leader meeting any colored plastic discs that go behind the
membership stars that you have left over from other levels from your troop?
Cookie incentives should be here the end of April.
NRGS Food Pantry
Collection:
NR Food Pantry wrote a
nice thank you note thanking the girls for all the food they collected. Girl
Scouts collected over 700 lbs. of food for the pantry in March. Thank you so
much.
Meeting end: 8:50 pm which included Fly Up information from
Kate, Stephanie and Dawn.
