Badges are a big deal when it comes to keeping kids motivated and feeling accomplished, especially in groups like Girl Scouts. How and when you hand them out can play a role in how much they’re appreciated and actually put to use.
Some leaders have decided that doing three award ceremonies a year works really well. Especially when you make sure parents are involved by inviting the families to attend.
It’s a system that keeps things organized, helps parents stay in the loop, and makes sure badges don’t just get lost in the shuffle.
Concept of Three Award Ceremonies a Year
Scheduling badge ceremonies a few times throughout the year makes things so much easier.
It keeps the process organized and ensures the badges actually get noticed and put where they belong—on uniforms. Handing them out one by one as they’re earned might seem convenient, but it often leads to badges getting misplaced or forgotten.
When you bundle them together for a ceremony, parents are more likely to take the time to attach them all at once. It cuts down on waste and makes the awards feel a bit more special.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Improved Badge Placement: Parents tend to attach multiple badges at the same time after ceremonies, reducing the risk of badges being forgotten or scattered.
- Streamlined Parent Communication: Ceremonies serve as touchpoints for conveying critical information and gathering required forms.
- Increased Parent Engagement: Parents are more likely to attend when ceremonies are planned in advance (give “Save the Date” notice at the start of the year) and involve fun, social elements.
- Efficiency in Award Management: Tracking, ordering, and distributing badges becomes more organized with scheduled ceremonies.
Cons
- Planning Required: Hosting three ceremonies demands advanced planning and coordination.
- Attendance Variability: Not all parents may attend every ceremony, potentially impacting communication efforts.
Timeline for Ceremonies
- October Ceremony: Recognize summer badges and launch the new Girl Scout year. This ceremony doubles as an opportunity to collect permission slips and health forms from parents that all councils require each year. Providing blank forms at the event ensures they fill them out on-site if they haven’t already done them.
- January/February Ceremony: Award badges earned during the fall and prepare for cookie season, if your happens to start around then. Adjust the timeline if you need to as this is a great meeting to ensure families know the rules of cookie selling and sign up for any cookie booths so you know which ones you will have good attendance at. These ceremonies are extremely helpful to help parents receive essential information for the upcoming sales season.
- May Ceremony: Celebrate end-of-year achievements with remaining badge awards. Include a pizza party or ice cream social to foster a relaxed environment. Use this time to collect RSVPs and permission slips for any summer events, ensuring more reliable attendance tracking.
Enhancing Communication Through Parental Attendance
Timing award ceremonies to align with important points in the year makes a big difference. Parents can be tough to get ahold of, but when they’re physically present at these events, it’s so much easier to pass along updates, hand out forms, and get sign-ups done in one go. It saves time and helps make sure everyone’s on the same page. For example:
- At the October ceremony, leaders collect annual forms and permissions directly.
- During January/February, parents are briefed on cookie season and opportunities for participation.
- In May, leaders finalize plans for summer activities and events.
Tracking Achievements and Presenting Awards
Maintaining a detailed and organized system for tracking badge achievements, such as using Girl Scout TRAX spreadsheets, or Emilee’s Badgez, ensures no badge is overlooked.
Keeping a sign-in roster for meetings and documenting badge requirements helps know who attended when. It’s often hard to remember. But you usually remember which badge requirements you do on which meetings.
Presentation styles can range from simple ribbon bundles to more elaborate displays, like personalized corkboards/picture frames, or pinned to a windmill — a special touch for end-of-year celebrations.
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