My daughter joined as a Brownie. It was a troop of friends that grew up together. After about four years, the troop leader lost interest as the girls didn't seem to share her enthusiasm for the GS. They were more interested in the social aspect rather than the lessons that were being taught. At that time, she was going into middle school and was also losing interest in the troop and did not latch on to another troop as her troop disbanded. I'm not sure if this is common that participation in GS wanes after the Daisy and Brownie years, but if so, perhaps more updating is in order to make it more appealing to older girls.

I have a brownie and a junior scout and we are sad to see the uniforms go away. When we went into the girl scout store to buy our new uniforms we were disappointed to find out the uniform consisted of a vest and any version of white shirt and khaki pants. We are also not fans of the new journey programs. At first glance the books look cute and fun, but after flipping through them a little closer it is more like Girl Scout homework. I don't know if they plan on slowly phasing out the badges but that will be quite upsetting to the girls in my troop. We love to look through the badge books to see what our next adventure will be.

I think the Girl Scout organization is misguided in why girls are losing interest in the program. You need to have leaders who are excited about the program, willing to teach the girls new things and go new places, and make the program reflect what that particular group of girls want to do. It is up to the leader to make quality meetings that the girls are excited to come to. Rather than teaching the leaders how to accomplish this they focus on whatever is was I learned in training. Honestly, it must not have been anything worth hearing since I couldn't begin to tell you what we learned; it was just a box to check so that the girls and I could get on with having fun.

I know our service unit claims to have a bunch of girls who are not placed in troops because of a lack of adults willing to become leaders. If this is the case this could be why they are losing 1-2 percent membership every year. Think of how many girls are not in a troop in our unit, and multiply that by the thousands of other units out there. Leaders are not recognized by council for their work and service unit directors can be cruel to the leaders who do step forward. I lead because I know I can create a fun program for my girls and could care less what they have to say to me. As long as my girls are having fun and they are safe they have no reason to complain. I have yet to have a girl quit because she is bored or uninterested.