My daughters trrop leader for the past 2 years, is much better than the leader she had for Brownies, however, I am at the point of finding another troop for her when she goes to cadettes next year. This leader is always late--to everything, and in turn shows up in a foul mood. The foul mood then rubs off on the girls. My daughter said that she doesn't want to go on activities because she doesn't want o hear the leader yelling and her own daughter (which is all the time. The co-leader is a joke does nothing and when I spoke to her about this to said she could do nothing for me and that I should either be grateful that someone volunteered to be leader or find another troop!!! I don't think Girl Scouts should have a leader that yells at the kids and is late to everything. What kind of example are you setting to the girls by doing this...? I had a hard time getting my daughter place in her current troop and that was only because this lady did step up and become leader. If I change troop again, I could get someone worse...ugh!! Any advise?

The obvious advice is that you should consider becoming a leader your self. Maybe you can start a new troop and your timeliness and positive attitude will attract lots of other girls. Or, maybe you can offer to help this leader since you feel her co-leader "is a joke." A good co-leader can make all the difference in the world to an overwhelmed leader. In other words, stop complaining and step to be part of the solution.

I agree with Fran. Finding quality volunteers to lead child/student related groups (PTA, girl scouts...etc...) is difficult. Everyone is either busy or just don't want to. Perhaps you stepping up and becoming a leader will help you to have the kind of troup you envisioned.

I don't think it is at all fair to tell the OP to "stop complaining and step up the be part of the solution". Not everyone, regardless of whether or not they have children who are interested in GS, have what it takes to be a troop leader (that is in no way an insult to you Pitty!). Being a troop leader and doing it well requires a great deal of time, energy, and sometimes financial commitments that make it difficult for busy working mothers to provide. And even if time isn't an issue, not everyone is gung-ho about leading groups of yes, sometimes whiny, irrational, uppity, rebellious and not always lovely preteen girls through sometimes confusing and difficult to handle badge work (speaking from experience here :)) From the sound of it, your daughters current troop leader doesn't have the time to keep up with it and most likely only stepped up to do it so that her daughter would still have a troop to attend. (When no troop mother steps in, a troop disbands, and some girls are left with no other troop to join.) I worked for Girl Scouts and can guarantee you that the leadership your daughters current TL is providing is absolutely NOT in accordance to what GS as a whole is looking to represent. If you seriously feel this is an issue, and other mothers agree with you, you can submit a formal complaint to the Council Office for your district. Also, you can submit a request to the Council office inquiring whether or not they have a PALS Van, which is a program where women who work in the council office will actually come to meetings with a GS van full of activities, games, educational tools and GS goodies and lead educational programing. If, when all is said and done, you are stuck with this Troop Leader, and can't find a troop that your daughter is really enjoying and feels fulfilled by, she can always enroll under Juliette status and earn her badges free of a troop at all. That being said, a lot of the fun of being in GS is the camaraderie. Good Luck! Jillian Jayde

Nothing against Pitty. I spent years as a PTA/PTSA and PTO?PTSO president and treasurer. It was always frustrating when parents complained about what was/wasn't being done but never stepped up to the plate to help. I believe that parents enrolling their children in outside activities have an obligation to lend a helping hand and get involved at times. Just my thoughts. I truly understand Pitty's dilemma having been in a similar situation many years ago. So what I did was - I became the assistant troup leader. That gave me first hand experience, which enabled me to pull my daughter out of that troup with nary a guilty conscious because I did step up - there was just no helping that woman.

I have been a leader for 9 years, so I can sympathize with the problem. I have had my daughter since daisies and several older girl troops over the years. My suggestion is to sit down with her and talk. Find out if she is just overwhelmed, it happens to all supermoms, and then let her know you want to help. If you don't have a lot yourself to make a weekly commitment, maybe you offer to lead the troop once a month. Our troop has 9 seniors in it now but due to a lack of leaders we are inheriting 11 cadettes. We have had a parents meeting already and asked all the parents to sign up to do at least one thing on a list of 30 choices. They know it's in their daughters best interest to be involved. This way they have several weeks to several months to fit it into their schedules. It has worked in both our girl and boy scout troops for over a decade. Good luck.

It sounds to me that the troop leader's heart was in the right place when she volunteered to step into the leader position. But once in the position it was overwhelming for her. Since she is always late I would show up early to be with the girls and get things organized so when the troop leader does arrive things are not so chaotic. I am a Service Unit Manager and have had several chronically late leaders over the years. When I knew they were trying their best I have tried to be supportive however I could. On the other hand though, if I knew their heart wasn't in it I would speak to our Council rep. about removing the leader.