Using Volunteer Toolkit (VTK)

In this tab, leaders can manage troop contacts, track awards and badges, track attendance, and communicate with parents/guardians.

• Click on a girl’s name to see detailed information like her address, birthday, and phone number.
• You can see a list of awards, badges, and attendance in each girl’s record.
• Click on email contacts to email all the families in your troop.

In this tab, leaders can preview and select different year plan options, or create their own! The first time you log in to VTK for the year will bring you to this page.

In this tab, leaders can plan out their troop’s year. Some features in this tab differ by troop level.

Features for All Troop Levels

Organize Troop Meetings

• The petal/badge and Journey Year Plans are organized by 15 meetings in default order. You can drag-and-drop these to reorder them.
• Use the Specify Dates and Locations tab to set your meeting dates/times and troop meeting location.
• Under Calendar, you can set meeting dates, frequency, and times (make sure to add in any holidays that will change your regular meeting times). Click “Update Calendar” to save your changes.
• Under Location, you can add your meeting location and address. Click “Add” to save your changes.
• To combine troop meetings, you can organize multiple meetings on the same date.
  • Click on the troop meeting date in your year plan.
  • In the pop up box, click on the calendar and choose to combine meeting dates.
  • Choose one date for both meetings and click save.

Milestone Dates

Look for Milestones in orange to remind you of upcoming dates for council events, product sales, and other important dates you need to know.

Customize Activities For Indoors and Outdoors

In each meeting where there are outdoor links, you will see an evergreen tree symbol you can click on to see a choice between doing the activity inside or outside. Depending on what you choose, the activity will be customized to the setting (and if you choose to do the activity outside, the tree turns green).

Features for Multilevel Leaders

There are year plan options for K-5 and 6-12 multilevel troops. There are three STEM year plan options for K-5, and 2 STEM year plan options for 6-12.

Using Create Your Year Plan

• Use the search box or the filters option to view meeting options.
• Choose the meeting plans you want. Make sure if a badge has two meeting plans (part one and two) that you choose both meeting plans.
• Click Add To Year Plan to add your meetings.

Combining Meetings on One Date

Combining meetings on one date allows multilevel leaders to have their Daisy, Brownie and/or Junior meetings on the same date.

• Inside the Year Plan tab and click on the green-colored meeting date box for the date you want to combine meetings.
• Find your meeting date and click on the calendar icon. This will open a box with the choice to Change Date/Time, Cancel Meeting or Combine Meetings.
• Choose Combine Meetings and click on the meetings you want to combine.
• Click Continue and use the calendar to choose the date for those meetings to occur.
• Click Save and when you view your Year Plan, you will see multiple meetings on that date.

In this tab, you can customize meeting activities, delete ones your girls don’t want to do, and replace them with new ones.

• Choose a meeting by clicking on the colored meeting date box. You must specify your meeting dates and location under the Year Plan tab to see your Meeting Plans.
• In each meeting you will see:
  • Overview – Click on the overview to see a quick summary of the meeting you are viewing.
  • Activity Plan – Gives you details of each meeting’s activities.
  • Materials List – Tells you everything you need for that meeting.
  • Edit/Send Meeting Email -Gives you a scripted email for families that you can edit as needed to remind them of what the girls will be doing at that meeting.
  • Record Attendance and Achievements – This is where you can keep track of what badges girls have earned and who was at each meeting. It is populated into each girl’s information in the My Troop tab.
  • Meeting Aids – Includes worksheets, songs, and other types of reference materials you will need for meeting activities. If there are outdoor components to the meeting, you may also see videos to help you get girls outdoors.
  • Meeting Agenda – Lists all the activities for the meeting with the recommended times for each activity. You can change the order of activities by “dragging and dropping,” or delete activities by clicking on the activity title. You can also edit the times allowed for each activity. Activities with an outdoor component will have an evergreen tree you can click on to get girls outside with the activity.
  • Add Agenda Item – This is where you can customize your meeting by adding additional activities (like celebrating Juliette Low’s Birthday) to customize your troop meeting.
  • Your Opinion Matters! – For meetings with an outdoor component, take the time to do a quick survey to let GSUSA know what you thought about the activities. This will help them to continue to improve VTK with your input.
  • Add a Note – You can leave notes to the other leaders in your troop to see. Parents cannot view notes.
  • Select Year Plan to return to your troop’s year plan.

Use this tab to find a variety of resources on safety, traditions, and more. Some of the resources on this page bring you to the Girl Scouts of the USA website, and others link you to Girl Scouts River Valleys Volunteer Website. Can’t find what you are looking for? Be sure to visit volunteers.girlscoutsrv.org for all of your troop leader resources.

The VTK finance tab is not currently used. Stay tuned for more information on submitting your finance report later this year.

• 5 Tips & Tricks to Help You Navigate Volunteer Toolkit
• VTK, Activity Plans, & More! Making the Most of Troop Leader Resources

Use the VTK Overview Presentation and the accompanying facilitator guide at leader meetings and other trainings to support troop leaders on how to access and use VTK.

Check out pages 13-14 of the New Leader Guide for basic information about VTK.

• Currently, you can only register or renew membership through the Volunteer Toolkit.
• To register girls for programs and learning opportunities, visit GirlScoutsRV.org/Events.
• To register girls for summer camp, visit Camp.GirlScoutsRV.org/Register.

•  As noted above, you cannot access council events or resources found on our websites inside of VTK. VTK is an additional tool that is separate from the GirlScoutsRV.org and Volunteers.GirlScoutsRV.org websites.
• Financial tracking. Continue to access troop financial forms from our website.
• Information on Highest Awards, bridging, safety awards, and additional badges and awards are not included in the VTK. Refer to the Girls’ Guide to Girl Scouting or the troop leader section of this website.

• Parents/guardians can log in to their online account using the MY GS tab on our website and view parts of the VTK, although they cannot make any changes.
• Using the Troop tab, parents can view their girl’s membership, but cannot see other girls’ information.
• They can view the Year Plan and Meeting Plan, and search for resources.
• Parents/guardians can use their online account to make changes to their Girl Scout’s information (contacts, membership, family profile), but cannot change the troop information.

You can download and save your VTK plans into any digital device, laptop, tablet, or smart phone. You can also print VTK plans to take with you to your meeting.

The VTK can be accessed from any electronic device – tablet, smart phone, or laptop – with internet capability. Libraries are a great resource for those who don’t have access to internet at home. You can print meeting plans or download them onto an electronic device to use without internet access at your meeting.