We will begin talking about Thinking Day and talking about the Thinking Day assignments for the girls (see attached for a copy of the assignment).   We will be again holding our own Thinking Day celebration this year on February 21st.  Although the 21st falls during February recess, we will still be having a meeting that night.  Your scout can visit http://www.wagggsworld.org/en/world to see what countries are part of the world scouting organization as well as get detailed information about the countries they have picked.  The following countries have been picked for presentations:

• Madie O – Poland
• Alicia – China
• Abigail S – Germany
• Aggey W – Italy
• Cassie – Japan
• Maddie J – Finland
• Sam – Greece
• Janae – Haiti
• Lindsay – Egypt

Also this month we have a field trip scheduled to see an RIT Women’s Hockey game on Saturday January 22 against SUNY Plattsburg.  The game starts at 3 pm at the Ritter Ice Arena so we will be meeting there at 2:45.  Admission is free so please feel free to bring the entire family. 

Faith and I are planning on putting together a family sledding day.  I know I have talked to a couple of people about it already.  We are looking at the first Saturday in February (February 5th).  We are still deciding on location (thanks for all the info Mike) but we wanted to put it out there to see what kind of interest there may be.  Please let us know if you are available that weekend.  There will be a sign up sheet at this week’s meeting.

• Tagalongs – 0
• Thin Mints – 0
• Samoas – 0

Here is the listing of who is signed up for booth sales Saturday:

• 9-11: Maddie J, Lindsay, Abigail S, Madie O, Alicia, Janae
• 11-1: Cassie, Lindsay, Mackenzie, Madie O, Alicia, Janae
• 1-3: Abby W, Madie O, Alicia, Janae

Since we have not had anybody sign up for either of the Sunday booth sales, we are going to see how we do on Saturday to decide if we are going to cancel one or both of them.  If we have a lot of cookies left after Saturday, then we will need to either try again on Sunday or coordinate another way to sell the cookies since the troop is has to pay for them. Hopefully we will be sold out nice and early on Saturday!  Faith and I will let you know how it goes this weekend.

November 19 – PJ Pajama Party Overnight from 7:30 pm to 9:00 am.  Please let us know if you scout is planning on attending

December 2 (Thursday night) – Scout Night at the George Eastman House – we need a minimum of 10 scouts to attend in order to receive the discount rate of $4/girl and $7/adult.  Please let us know ASAP if your scout will be attending.  If we do not have the minimum number of scouts, we will not be attending the trip.  Money will be collected at the November 15th meeting as we need to make payment in advance.

Faith and I have been discussing with the girls a trip to be taken in 2012 as a way to have them work towards a troop goal.  2012 is a big year for Girl Scouts – it is the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouting so we want the trip to be tied to Girl Scouting.  The place we were thinking about was Savannah GA because it is the birthplace of Girl Scouting.  The main purpose of the meeting on Monday was to let the parents know that this trip has not yet been planned and that we need the parents to help in the planning process.  It was mentioned that since Savannah was far away (approximately 15 hours), if it was possible to fly there for a long weekend.  Since the trip is two years away, we have plenty of time to look into that possibility.  Right now, we have Jennifer M. looking into transportation options and costs and Deb C. is looking into hotels.  I will be looking into what programs are available at the Juliette Gordon Low birthplace as well as what else there is to do in the area.  We will be bringing this information back to the next meeting scheduled for November 15th.

If you have any questions/comments, or are able to help with the planning, please let either myself or Faith know.

•  Cookie Orders Due- Cookie order forms are due this week.  If you do not have your order form ready for Cris tomorrow, please make sure that you contact her to make arrangements to drop off the form.
• Letchworth Hike – We have a hike scheduled for next Saturday at Letchworth State Park.  The entire family is invited to attend with us.  We will be meeting at the church parking lot at 9 am and it will take approximately one hour to get to the park.  We will be visiting the museum on the grounds as well as doing some hiking.  Please make sure that you pack a lunch for your Scout (and anyone else that is going to be coming along with us!).  If you are planning on coming with us, please be aware that there is a donation for entry into the museum ($1/adult & $.50/child).  There is also an $8 fee per vehicle fee for access into the park so please try to carpool if possible.  We should be expected to return around 1:30.  We will have permission slips at this week’s meeting. 
• Juliette Lowe Birthday Party – This is scheduled for Saturday October 30 at Oatka Creek Park.  The cost is $3 per person for anyone planning on attending (the troop will be paying the cost for our scouts.).  I will need to turn in the final headcount and payment this week so please make sure that if planning on attending, you have signed the sign-up sheet and completed a permission slip.  The event will be held rain or shine so please make sure everyone is dressed appropriately.
• T-Shirt orders are due – if anyone is planning on ordering a new t-shirt this year, please make sure that you have completed the form and turned in payment.  The cost is $5 per shirt.
• Binders & Homework – please make sure that your scouts are bringing their binders to every meeting.  This week we will be going over the homework from the first meeting (the worksheet on the girl scout law). 

If you have any questions, please let either myself or Faith know. 

Jennifer

Meeting Dates and Times:  We will still be meeting at the Presbyterian Church on the first and third Monday’s of the month, however we will be extending the meeting time.  We will be meeting from 6 to 8 pm upstairs at the church this year.  Since we have a longer meeting time this year, we decided to bring back snack.  There will be a sign up sheet at Monday’s meeting.

Field Trips: Faith and I have gone through the program guide and unfortunately there is not the selection of programs that were available last year so we do not have a lot of the trips planned out ahead of time this year.  We will be keeping everyone updated as we schedule more field trips.  Right now, we have the following outings scheduled:

•    September 30 – Council Cookie Kick Off (6:30 to 8:00 at Rochester Service Center on John St)
•    October 10 – Girl Scout Night with the Amerks (5:05 at the Blue Cross Arena)
•    October 30 – Juliette Low Birthday Celebration/Scavenger Hunt (12 to 3 at Oatka Creek Park)
•    April 2 – Field Trip to Strong Museum (time TBD)

Cookie Sales: Cookie Sales start on Friday October 1st.  There is a Cookie Kick Off event being held at Council on Thursday September 30 at 6:30.  We will be having our parent meeting at our October 4th troop meeting.  Please make sure that you are able to attend in order to sign off on the paperwork in order to allow your scout to sell cookies.  2012 will be the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouting so we were hoping to plan a trip for the troop to either go to Savannah Georgia or to Washington DC to celebrate this milestone.  We would like to try to put our fundraising efforts towards the trip so we will again be participating in Cookie Booth sales this year.  We have already reserved a place at the airport the weekend of November 13 (both Saturday and Sunday) and Faith is looking into booking Sam’s Club/Wal-Mart as well.  

Community Service Projects:  This year we would like to do more community service projects in addition to the ones we’ve done in the past.  We are thinking about making pies around Thanksgiving and having a cookie exchange around Christmas for the senior center.  If anyone has any ideas for community service projects, please let either myself or Faith know. 

Bronze Award:  This year, we will begin working on the Bronze Award as a troop.  There is a lot of work that goes into earning this award and will take us both years to complete.  If you are curious about what the requirements are for this award, they can be found here.

Registration/Dues/Health Forms: If you have not already done so, registration/dues/health forms need to be brought to Monday’s meeting.  Registration is $12 and checks need to be made payable to “GSWNY”.  Dues are $35 and checks will need to be made payable to the troop.  These need to be paid separately and cannot be paid using the same check. 

Uniform:  The troop will be paying for uniforms for any girl that registered last spring for this year so we will need to know what size vest to purchase (if your Scout would like a sash instead, please let us know that as well). At the bridging ceremony last year, your scouts received some items that will go on their Junior uniforms – the insignia tab, the girl scout pin, the rainbow (only the girls that attended the bridging fair received these) and the wings.  In addition, some items will be transferred over from their Brownie uniform – membership stars/colored discs, and world trefoil pin.  You will also need to purchase some additional items from the Girl Scout Store – American flag, Girl Scout Council identification set and Troop Numbers (our troop number is 60096).  Here is a link to a document to show proper placement of the items on the uniform.

Handbook/Badge book:  This year each girl will receive a binder for their paperwork.  As we go through badge work and the Journey, each girl will receive copies to keep in their binder.  They will need to bring these to each meeting. If you think your Scout will want to work on badges on their own, you may want to think about getting them a badge book but it is not required.  The troop will pay for any badges earned during troop meetings/troop field trips.  We will put a list up on the troop webpage of the badges that we will be working on as a troop. 

Supplies:  Faith’s letter asked for supply donations.  We don’t have any specific projects in mind but items such as beads, ribbons, puffy paint for t-shirts would be put to good use. 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact either Faith or myself.  Have a great weekend and we will see you on Monday!