To register for any face-to-face Adult Learning Opportunities please go here.
Required Core Leadership Series
- Girl Scouting 101 (brand new – see description below)
- Welcome to Girl Scouting
- Basic Girl-Led Troop Management Training
Required For Day Hikes, Outdoor Cooking Or Day Camp
- Footsteps to the Outdoors
Required before taking girls overnight camping
- Outdoor Training
Please note the course descriptions as well as the prerequisites. Several of these courses will be available via webinar or other electronic media. Watch the website and the e-newsletter for updates.
- Girl Scouting 101
Girl Scouting 101 is a brand new (as of August 2011) 45-minute, self-paced online orientation to Girl Scouting. This fabulous resource replaces the existing Online Volunteer Orientation, the Leadership Essentials Online, and GSLE Overview (commonly known as “Ask Sophia”). Girl Scouting 101 is broken down into eight parts… read more - Welcome to Girl Scouting
This is a pre-requisite for any courses listed below. This is the orientation to the Girl Scouting community in which a new volunteer to the area lives. Topics in this learning opportunity include; Girl Scout principles and goals, USA Girl Scouts in an overseas setting, structure of your local Girl Scout community, the Girl Scout Leadership Experience (GSLE), position responsibilities, and other volunteers as resources. - Basic Girl-Led Troop Management
- Basic Girl-Led Troop Management is a one-day training that encompasses a morning session with basics to get troop leaders started with their troop and an afternoon session with basics to get troop leaders excited about the program age JOURNEYS that the girls will enjoy.
- For those who have already taken the on-line Basic Leader Training and do not want to take the whole day course, there is an option of taking just the afternoon JOURNEY session.
- Prerequisite –“Welcome to Girl Scouting”
- Course Content Includes:
- Foundations of Girl Scouting
- Safety principles
- Guiding and Partnering with Girls
- Diversity
- The 3 keys of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience (GSLE)
- Girl characteristics and how they impact delivery of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience Use resources, girl Journeys and accompanying adult leader guides as well as current resources to deliver the Girl Scout Leadership Experience
- How to facilitate activities that are girl-led, cooperative and learn by doing
- Developing purposeful partnerships with girls
- Footsteps to the Outdoors
- This learning opportunity prepares a volunteer for day hikes, day camp or simple cookouts. It will entail lessons in outdoor cooking for “one-pot” meals and simple stick cooking (s’mores) as well as basic outdoor skills such as knots, knife safety, fire-building and planning hikes.
- Prerequisite –“Welcome to Girl Scouting”
- Course Content Includes:
- How to collaborate with girls to design outdoor day events that are girl-led, cooperative and learn by doing
- How to plan and prepare for the outdoor experience with the girls
- How to provide appropriate adult ratios, supervision and insurance for planned activities
- How to listen to the girls and guide them to evaluate their experiences
- Fee
- $5.00 (Manual included)
- Note: Manual used in two classes:
- Footsteps to the Outdoors
- Outdoor Training
- This learning opportunity prepares a volunteer for day hikes, day camp or simple cookouts. It will entail lessons in outdoor cooking for “one-pot” meals and simple stick cooking (s’mores) as well as basic outdoor skills such as knots, knife safety, fire-building and planning hikes.
- Outdoor Training
- This learning opportunity prepares volunteers with overnight camping skills, sleeping in the out-of-doors on the ground and in tents, food preparation involving the use of Kaper charts on camp stoves, charcoal fires, and/or wood fires, outdoor skills such as hiking, compass and map, environmental education, use of knots or lashing, program planning incorporating girl/adult planning principles, and safety & supervision based on the minimal impact (Leave No Trace) outdoor ethic.
- Prerequisite for this course is the “Welcome to Girl Scouting” orientation & “Foot Steps to the Outdoors” or equivalency.
- Course Content Includes:
- Plan and prepare
- Camp and travel on durable surfaces
- Pack it in. Pack it out.
- Properly dispose of what you cannot pack out
- Leave what you find
- Minimize use and impact of fires
- This learning opportunity prepares volunteers with overnight camping skills, sleeping in the out-of-doors on the ground and in tents, food preparation involving the use of Kaper charts on camp stoves, charcoal fires, and/or wood fires, outdoor skills such as hiking, compass and map, environmental education, use of knots or lashing, program planning incorporating girl/adult planning principles, and safety & supervision based on the minimal impact (Leave No Trace) outdoor ethic.
- Grade Level Training
- This is a course that is currently being updated. When it is available it will provide enrichment and additional program support for volunteers in the areas of:
- Prerequisite –“Welcome to Girl Scouting”
- Grade level awards including Journey awards, “Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting” badge work, and the older girl Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards
- Online Self-Study Guides are also being updated to be used with the National Core Leadership Program and the new Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting
- This is a course that is currently being updated. When it is available it will provide enrichment and additional program support for volunteers in the areas of:
*Prerequisites to all of these courses are the online trainings from GSUSA. Currently that entails the online “Volunteer Orientation” and online “Leadership Essentials.” However, by the end of August, GSUSA is planning to launch its new “Girl Scouting 101” online course that will encompass “Volunteer Orientation,” “Leadership Essentials” and Journey pieces in a 50 minute format. This exciting new learning opportunity came about because GSUSA has listened to what the volunteers have had to say about needing a learning opportunity about the GSLE that is concise, relevant and meaningful to their volunteer experience. We believe this piece will fit the bill.
Further Adult Learning Opportunities with USAGSO include the following:
- Troop Management- 3 hours
This course offers information regarding troop meeting management techniques utilizing girl input, using a variety of behavior management methods, and identifies troop activity planning tools used to develop a calendar for meeting goals of the girls in the group. Additionally the course covers understanding group dynamics and the impact of these dynamics on troop management, how to facilitate girl led budgeting process within a troop and resources available to Girl Scout leaders for troop activity planning.
Other Courses
- “Enrichments” will also be offered throughout the year through webinars, at your OCC meetings, in your regions and other opportunities for learning will be soon available on our website. Stay tuned!
- Girl Scout volunteers are encouraged to take advantage of workshops and course being conducted in their local communities. Colleges, private organizations and military community and recreation services offer a multitude of adult learning opportunities that support the delivery of Girl Scout program.