Basic Meeting Plans are designed to have minimal supplies and still hit the GSUSA Requirements. Most meetings can be done in a 90 minute time frame.
WARNING – This badge plan can be done in 90 minutes if you plan and prep at a meeting before this. Some troops may want to break this up into two meetings so they can do a deeper dive on some of the activities instead of an overview look at the topics.
Items needed:
- Guest Speaker – Spotlight a local heroine by inviting a guest speaker to your troop that exemplifies that line of the Girl Scout Law. Make sure you learn all about the female role model’s job in an interview.
- Device that can access the internet to search for various information to fulfill the requirements. (Optional) Leaders print pages of songs w/lyrics for scouts to look through and sample biographies of local famous Girl Scouts.
- Supplies for World Thinking Day cards for a Cause
- Paper, Pen/Pencil for each scout
Instructions:
Guest Speaker Interview
Action Needed: Focus on one line and spotlight a local heroine by inviting a guest speaker to your troop that exemplifies that line of the Girl Scout Law. Make sure you learn all about the female role model’s job in an interview.
Follow-up: Thank the Guest Speaker and allow them to leave after their interview time OR invite them to join the rest of the activities.
(Requirement 3 Earned)
Scout’s Own
Info Needed: A GSUSA Scout’s Own is a special, often informal, ceremony created by Girl Scouts and Girl Guides to celebrate the principles and values of Scouting. These ceremonies are typically reflective or inspirational and can include elements like poetry, songs, stories, and personal reflections. A Scout’s Own can be held at any time and in any place, and it provides an opportunity for Scouts to express their thoughts and feelings about the Scouting experience in a meaningful and personalized way.
Action Needed: Take an action to show courage by planning and holding a Scout’s Own where you make World Thinking Day cards for a specific cause.
(Requirement 2 Earned)
Note to Leaders – It is easier to have planned this Scout’s Own at a previous event where you know what cause they will do and where they will be going. If it lines up with the Guest Speaker, even better.
Protect the Environment
Action Needed: Protect or promote the environment by creating a list of 10 ideas on a specific issue where you can do a concrete act (during a campout or one each day at home) for 10 days to make a camp or outdoor space better.
(Requirement 4 Earned)
Note to Leaders – Guide them to keep the ideas simple and small that are easy to accomplish. Like when you are protecting the ocean, limiting your disposable plastic is a small action but makes a big impact when all of us do so.
Three Local Famous Girl Scouts
Action Needed: Research biographies of three local famous Girl Scouts AND starting a new tradition of your own by deciding how you will continue to do this Girl Scout Way badge every two years as the new levels move up, but still keep it new and fun.
(Requirement 5 Earned)
Note to Leaders – Instead of using devices for research, cut down the time needed by having pre-printed sheets of a few local famous Girl Scouts. Local can be in your community, state, or even anywhere in the U.S.A. if there aren’t enough choices in the nearby area.
Singing
Action Needed: Split into three groups. Each group uses a device to find a song from another cultures around the world that inspires others to action about a cause they are passionate about. Each group teaches the other two groups their song.
(Requirement 1 Earned)
Note to Leaders – You can have a list of songs pre-printed for the scouts to look through and choose.
Meeting End
Scouts can keep looking through songs until it’s time to go home.
General Notes
Note to Leaders – No Basic Plan compiled by The Badge Archive will earn multiple badges in one level. Part of being budget friendly is not costing more than the price of one official GSUSA badge per meeting.
Some badges will take two meetings to finish. This helps scouts enjoy activities and keeps the troop budget in mind by only needing one GSUSA badge for every two meetings. Troops may choose to get a fun patch for one of the meetings if scouts want a badge/patch for every meeting. Scouts can earn the fun patch if they only attend one meeting and get a fun patch and the official badge if they go to both.
The Badge Archive 