Creekside Girl Scouts

I am moving our email and specific event posts to Big Tent. This will allow you to see all the GS events for our different troops and Service Unit in layers on a month view of calendar. For example in January we have:

• Troop 3763 Mtgs first and third Tuesdays
• Troop 3310 Mtgs second and fourth Tuesdays
• SU403 events Jan 17 card decorating, Jan 23 Polar Swim, Jan 30 Badge Workshop

Additionally, we will be able to do ONLINE & PAPERLESS

• RSVPs
• event payments, and
• permission slips

This will allow me to spend much less time on troop paperwork! It will allow you to read your announcements via email or online or via Big Tent Blink. Big Tent Blink sends you an email at your set frequency and notifies you of upcoming event reminders! Your member information and addresses of our events will be secure in Big Tent because our group is a “members only” group that is not advertised on their directory.

To JOIN Big Tent:

1. Follow the link in the email invitation you received. If you did not receive an invitation or if you cannot locate it, please contact me after looking in your spam box.
2. Create your Big Tent account and enter your name and girl scout’s name(s). You can choose to include birthdays and upload photos also.
3. Join Creekside Girl Scouts
4. Expect another email invitation to the subgroups that you are involved.

I have set up Creekside Girl Scouts and the following subgroups:

• Troop 3763 Lil’ Sis’ Troop
• Troop 3310 Creekside Cadettes
• Troop Committee
• plus the SU403 and GSNETX events will be posted on the main group Creekside GS for each family to determine their interest and level of activity or busy-ness.

We use Big Tent for several of the homeschool groups, field trips, and homeschool co-ops to which my friends and I belong. It partners with Paypal for payment options. You and the troop can link your checking account to Big Tent with no service fees. I will post links about the safety and security of Paypal and Big Tent. We’ve learned to prefer Paypal over our debit card online, it’s much safer!

If you are still reading, I’ll tell you about how I see this working with the blog. The Juniors of troop 8793 are no longer part of “Creekside Girl Scouts” as I have created it. Anita simply decided she didn’t need a co-leader anymore and she will remain the leader of troop 8793. We have troop 3763 for Daisies and Brownies and troop 3310 for Cadettes. Next year we may grow again to include juniors IF there are sisters of girls joining our existing troops and IF there are parents willing to be co-leaders at those levels.

I love the way our sister troops are working together and the way families with multiple ages of girl scouts are benefiting from being part of Creekside Girl Scouts. Additionally, the girls are getting their separate age appropriate Girl Scout program. As a wonderful side benefit, I feel able to minister to families that I meet in the area, often by simply listening to a mom who needs to talk.

This blog https://creeksidegs.wordpress.com will continue to be the “public” place to refer new families, a place to link to all things Girls Scouts for our members, and a place to showcase the fun Creekside Girl Scouts are having. This is a place where your daughters can read and explore too, as they venture online. This blog is Sarah’s homepage for her computer. :o) It helps her keep up with which Girl Scout event is coming up next!

Big Tent will be our “members only site” for events, calendar, cookie announcements, RSVPs, event payment, online paperless permission slips, GS announcements, and member forums, and leadership discussion. I hope you will join me on Big Tent as soon as possible and I hope it will be as profitable to protecting our busy time as moms. God Bless you this Christmas-time!

A big hearty thank you to all the families who have kept up with dues this fall!

Please note that November and December dues are due.  We need the money before the meetings to run the troop smoothly and be able to afford patches and crafts. Please pay what you can afford as soon as possible. We should have received all the dues for the fall meetings by December 2nd. Please ask if you need to know how much you need to catch up.

Cookie sales start in January but those monies won’t be available to the troop until at least April.  The Dues you pay give the troop the money to buy patches, badges, crafts, and supplies for the meetings. To get good pricing we often have to buy in bulk and buy before the meetings. Our Troop Treasury does not have money to do this unless you pay your dues ahead, as some are doing.

Thanks again.