We had a very fun and productive meeting this month! We also had a guest join us, Lauren, and I was so pleased at how well ALL the girls made her feel welcome and included! We have now completely finished the Our Flag and U.S. Government badges for the Liberty Award.
To Finish the:
U. S. Presidents Badge: all girls need to read a biography of a President on their reading level and tell me, 1. when they were President (& which # of Pres. they were) and 2. something important that happened during their Presidency. Butterflies will also have to write a paragraph on what the requirements are for the job of President. Why do you think these are in place, and would you change any of them? We will assign this as homework at the November meeting, so you don't have to worry about it till then, unless you want to knock it out early!
Elections & Voting Badge: all girls need to 1. visit the polls with a grown up on November 6th. and 2. watch part of the election results, what is a blue state? what is a red state?
U.S. Constitution Badge: Dolphins & Butterflies need to re-write the Bill of Rights in their own words, what does it mean to you? We will assign this as homework in January, unless you want to get it out of the way now, go ahead!
We played Presidential Bingo and learned lots of interesting trivia about the Presidents, and got to know what they looked like a little better, we also made a timeline, and put them all in order from Washington to Obama! We talked about the Constitution and who wrote it, and who signed it, and the process and arguing it took to get the job done. Also, we learned that there has been 1 President from Missouri, ask your daughter if she remembers who he was and where he was from in MO!
We also held our own elections! The red words are some of our vocabulary words that we learned while earning the Voting & Elections Badge. We had three Propositions, two amendments, and a new position to elect. The Amendments were:
1. to change to Quest Clubs which would allow boys into the troop without changing how we do things! This failed 4-5. We decided to re-visit this issue at a later date, maybe with parents presence.
2. Proposition X which would change our meeting times to twice a month instead of once a month. This passed by a landslide! I am considering options, and this will go into effect starting in January! I am thinking that the second meeting of the month be special events, such as one month, have an Otter meeting run by the Dolphins, this would give the Otters more of a chance to do something they want, and the Dolphins, the middle age group, more of a leadership position as the older girls. I was also thinking of having a special Butterfly meeting for just the older girls to do something a little more age appropriate for them. Then the Dolphins would also get a special meeting... or the second meeting could be a Character meeting when we do just a character badge... or an Awards meeting where we work on Life Skills/Make A Difference/Leadership Awards, etc... or we could just meet twice a month, and get more badges done!
The Propositions (Rule changes):
1. No toy closet. This failed, meaning they are allowed into the toy closet. I am adding an addendum saying, only after all work is done, and the room is cleaned!
2. Only Healthy Snacks for snack time. This also failed, so they can still have cookies and brownies and whatever they want!
3. Lori does all the cleaning after the meeting. This passed. I vetoed this. However, I will HELP all patrols!
Our New position was for Job Inspector. This person will check the room after the meeting to make sure everything is how we found it. Two people were nominated and seconded. They were Claire and Megan. Megan won the majority. Congratulations, Megan!
I am really sorry that our Horseback Riding Trip had to be cancelled. However, after talking with several parents, it might be a blessing in disguise! There is a Horseback Riding badge, and a Horse Care badge, and it was suggested that earning these badges might come easier on more of a one-on-one situation. Several local people/families were mentioned as possibilities that we may talk to about helping us, and allowing us to spend a day with them and their horses, and also get to ride them. I will make some phone calls, and hopefully make some plans!
I also spent this weekend gathering supplies for our Fairy Event. This should be lots of fun! I am really excited about doing something very girly and goofy after all this Liberty Award work!
