4715 Newsletter

Everyone had so much fun! There was a staff shortage at the camp, so we were able to negotiate all our activities by trading some of our highly skilled equestrian volunteers for archery and low ropes instructors, who had suddenly become equestrian staff. It worked out great for our horse lovers, because they had riding lessons on their own levels. Ask Christina about Grits the pony!

Food was good (thank you, Mrs. Kennedy and Rossie). Pat’s book report was interesting, and we’ve decided to proceed with more work on the negotiation process. The Conflict Resolution IPP looks like something that may work right in with this project.

Who needs some leadership hours and would like to plan our Girl Scout Birthday Party for the next meeting? We will need to work on our bridging ceremony and on several things for The Big Trip. Whoever she is, she will need to tell everyone who does not remember why March 12 is the Girl Scout Birthday. Thoughts continued below...

Don't forget our Embry Hills Kroger cookie booths! Here's who signed up. If your name is not here, please call Mrs. Lott and get scheduled.

We had a hard-working meeting on Friday night with Terry Otto helping us think about the planning process for our Bridging Ceremony and clueing us in on the things that the Council will need from us. Probably at our next meeting on March 12 we'll be ready to get more of the details worked out. The jobs that were assigned for the event are these:

Date	Things we need to do (some of which we’ve already done!)
February 10	Visit SU meeting to announce dates – thanks Katie & Christina!
February 6	Form committee – that would be us Committee assignments – see your assignment above
March 9	Flyer to the Service Unit Meeting (Luckily mom made this and is asking Mrs. Lott to take it.)
March 12 (aka our next meeting)	Maria and Mrs. Unger need to develop a budget Diana and Mrs. Callaway need to work out the exact plan Confirm first aider – we have several choices and need to find out who can do this Evelyn and Chandler, the logistics team, should complete our Council Event Application Christina and Tabby will need to work out the registration procedures and forms Rossie and Jenny will need to work with Christina and Tabby on the forms to explain how we want to handle food Stephanie and Katie will need to design invitations for troops and for special guests – maybe they can start making the list of special guests Callie and Brittany will need to start making a list of equipment we will need, where it is, and who will get it Anne and Karen will petition St. Bede’s to waive the $100 use fee, decide if we want to have patches, and think up where and what kinds of signs we’ll need
March 13	Find out if we can borrow or have to purchase banners for Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards
April 13	Service Unit Meeting
April 16	Troop Meeting Develop an evaluation form (Do we really need one of these?)
April 17	Mail any kind of confirmation that needs to go to troops Mail invitations to special guests
April 30-May 2	Troop Camping
May 1	Registration deadline Make programs with names of Gold, Silver, and Bronze Award recipients
May 3	Reconfirm location and consultants
May 7	Troop Meeting Finalized Roster and Emergency plan to EMP
May 8	Callie, Brittany, and Pat shop for supplies Karen, Anne, and Chandler make signs Diana and Evelyn put together the final work plan and assignments
May 9	3 Leaves Service Unit Bridging Ceremony
May 11	Service Unit Meeting
May 15	Complete volunteer thank you’s, final report, and final budget

We need to practice some songs and think about swaps. Pat thinks that each of the nine girls going on the trip will need at least 20 swaps and that each girl should have different swaps so that we won't cancel each other out when we want to trade with other troops. That's a lot of swaps, but maybe if we all work together we can make enough.

There is also a big question about rooming. Do we want to room with each other or do we want to have roommates from other parts of the world? Discussion needed!!!

One of the songs that we need to work on is the venerable Girl Scouts Together. At the recent leaders' weekend it was discovered that many leaders are weak on the second verse! Your astonished advisors also discovered that a third verse was added sometime after the original was written in 1942, when it only won third place in the national song contest. We wonder what won first? We need to practice before we head off to make new friends in London, so here are all three verses.

Since you have two fearless advisors who have learned a new skill, you have the opportunity to learn it, too. Psyanky (That's the plural. Singular is psyanka) are very fancy Ukrainian Easter eggs that look much harder to make than they actually are. Pat will be doing workshops for four girls at a time (She has only 4 kistky - those are the tools you use). To sign up for an empty spot or negotiate another time to learn how, call Pat.

For five of our girls, this will be their last official Girl Scout meeting as "girls." Heavy thought! Still we will have so much to do to finish our plans for the May Service Unit Bridging that we probably won’t have time to be sad.

Friday night we decided that we need to put our feet on Misty Mountain, even if we can't stay there, so we will stay nearby at The Pocket, which is a state park. We'll pitch tents - family tents rather than the big Council tents, and try to get signed up for activities or at least hiking at Misty Mountain.

Alas, we’ve lost Jenny to the Young Singers trip to Paris to sing before the First Lady of France. We’ll miss her a lot! Everybody who is going on the Big Trip remembered the December payments. Here’s the rest of the payment schedule for ready reference:

Committees
Event Coordinator	Anne, who will make the planning time line
Preliminary Budget	Maria and Beth
Agenda for planning meeting	Diana and Pat
Visit SU meeting 2/10	Christina and Katie
Planning logistics	Evelyn and Chandler
Registration procedure and forms	Christina and Tabby
Produce publicity	Stephanie and Katie
Prepare final event agenda	Diana and Evelyn
Plan and organize food	Rossie and Jenny
Final budget	Maria and Elizabeth
Get equipment, supplies, resources	Callie, Brittany, Pat
Prepare event site (signs etc)	Karen, Anne, Chandler
Place supplies where needed	Chandler

2004 Due Dates	Total balance for each girl is $1,115	Total balance each adult is $1,415
Due by our meeting on Jan. 9	$400	$400
Due by our meeting on Feb. 6	$400	$515
Due by our meeting on Mar. 12	$215	$400