Troops and Juliettes (individual Girl Scouts) make friends, build new skills, earn badges and awards, and have fun!
What Troops Do
To have a well-rounded Girl Scout experience, we encourage all troops to:
- Meet an average of twice per month during the school year
- Hold a family meeting
- Keep it girl-led
- Complete a Leadership Journey
- Earn badges and awards from a variety of skill building areas
- Explore the outdoors
- Attend a council event or plan a field trip
- Participate in the Girl Scout Cookie Program
- Attend or hold an end-of-year celebration or event
- Participate in at least one summer activity
Complete these ten steps and earn The Ultimate Girl Scout Year Award
Resources For Completing Journeys and Badges
Girl Scouts River Valleys offers three different resources you can choose from to complete Journeys and badges: Journey books and The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting, Girl Scouts River Valleys’ planning guides, and the Volunteer Toolkit (VTK).
Download our Where to Find Program Content Chart to quickly compare these three resources.
Journey Books and The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting
Journey books and The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting are the primary resources for program content. Each Journey book consists of an adult guide and girl book. The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting is an easy-to-use binder that is program grade level-specific and full of great information and badge activities. You can purchase these books online or in our council shops.
Girl Scouts River Valleys Planning Guides
Girl Scouts River Valleys Planning Guides are an online resource to help troops and Juliettes complete Journeys and badges. Our planning guides include many of the badge and award options for your program grade level and include downloadable 90-minute activity plans. Planning guides for Journeys consist of three activity plans, and badges consist of one or two activity plans. Find your grade level’s planning guide under the troop leader section of this website or below.
The Volunteer Toolkit (VTK)
The Volunteer Toolkit, also known as VTK for short, is a digital tool to help you plan your Girl Scout year. Login to VTK through My Account to access additional activity plans resources to complete Journeys, badges, and awards. You can select a meeting-by-meeting year plan or customize your own. You can also use VTK to view your troop roster, send meeting reminders, and track meeting attendance. Learn more about how to use this tool.