Wednesday, September 14, 2011
6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Rochester Service Center
1020 John Street
West Henrietta, NY
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR SEPTEMBER 14

music … wine tasting … crafts … fireworks … games … exhibits
parade … fishing derby … 5K … food … performances … awards

Schedule of Events { View PDF Poster }

7:00-11:00       Kids Fishing Derby (Winners announced at 12:00)
9:00                   Tricycle Race (in front of 54 Main St)
9:00                    5-K RUN for Lupus (Registration 7:30 am)
10:00                 Annual Parade
11:00                  Performance by the TFSD Studio of Dance (East End Stage)
11:00                  Pie Contest P Judging (Winners announced at 12:00)
11:00-6:00       Bounce House & Snack Shack
Noon-9:00       VENDORS ARE OPEN
Noon-9:00       Beverage Tent Open
Noon-4:00       Wine Tasting
Noon-7:00       Dunk Tank
1:00-3:00         SILVER DEAN BAND\ P MIKE TAGGART
1:00                   Bike Rodeo (in front of 54 Main St)
1:00                   Performance by TFSD Studio of Dance (32 Main St.) Open House
4:00-6: 00       “STRING BRIM BAND” – LENNY COLANTONI
5:30                   Memorial Tree Certificate/Proclamation Mayor Paul Gee
6:00                   “FREE RIDE BAND” –  STEVE TETTE
9:00-9:15         Drawing for the winners of the Wine Raffle and 50/50
9:30                   Fireworks Finale

Presented by the Scottsville Rotary Club

 Co-Sponsor: The Village of Scottsville

It’s never too early to think about Girl Scout Cookies! Information is becoming available for the 2011-12 Cookie Season. Here are some of the basics, with more to come before the October 1 Kickoff:

(obtained from the GSWNY.org website)

Girl Scouts of WNY 2011 Cookie Program, October 1 – December 3, 2011

Important Dates to remember:
Initial Ordering (door-to-door): October 1-22
Delivery to Service Units: November 4-8
Direct Sales (booth); November 11-December 3

We have formed a partnership with ABC Bakers. You can expect the same great taste and quality, with Thin Mints, Caramel Delites, Peanut Butter Patties, Shortbread, and Peanut Butter Sandwiches plus some new flavors like, Lemonades, Thanks a Lot and Shout Outs! Take a look at the wealth of resources that ABC Bakers have to offer at www.abcsmartcookies.com.

New for 2011

• Girls go to www.abcsmartcookies.com to create and send animated E-Cards!
(Girls 13 and older can also use Facebook.)

• New Theme: “What Can a Cookie Do?”

• New Mascot: Penguin

• New Cookie: Shout Outs!

• New Package for Thanks-A Lots! By eliminating the carton on Thanks-A-Lot cookies this year, Girl Scouts of the USA and ABC Bakers are taking over 150 tons of paperboard out of the waste stream. It’s a great way to “go green!”

• New options for special recognitions at the 500+ package level.

Vanessa Fulmore, left, 11, Taylor O’Connor, 11, both of Churchville, take evidence photos during a CSI camp Monday at Chestnut Ridge Elementary School. / D&C Jamie Germano/staff photographer

(see original article on the D&C Website, Written by Kevin Oklobzija, Staff writer)

CHURCHVILLE — The 10th season of CSI Miami will air on CBS this fall. The first season of CSI Churchville began on Monday.

As the project for her Girl Scout Gold Award, the organization’s highest honor, Christa Lawniczak of Chili designed and is the instructor for the Crime Investigation Day Camp.

The camp runs through Friday at Chestnut Ridge Elementary School and is a part of the Churchville-Chili Continuing Education program. Participating students are in fifth through eighth grades.

“I just think forensic science is an awesome field and a dream job,” said Lawniczak, a 16-year-old junior-to-be at Churchville-Chili High School.

This is not a new pursuit for her, either.

“She has always enjoyed all the TV shows like CSI and Bones,” her mother Cheryl Lawniczak said. “Even the Scooby Doo mysteries when she was little; anything with mystery-solving and crime-solving.”

The students will use the morning session to learn specific forensic skills, such as deciphering fingerprints and examining dirt composition. The afternoon is then spent analyzing a crime scene, interviewing suspects and determining the offender.

The crimes aren’t real, but the brainpower is.

“It gives the kids some enrichment and gets them out of the house,” said Wendy Reese, director of continuing education for the school district. “I think it’s a great idea for a camp. It gives kids an opportunity to learn some new skills.”

The students were anxious to solve the crimes, too.

Monday’s investigation dealt with the break-in at a real estate agency. The students examined the scene, took photographs, collected and tagged evidence, then analyzed items for fingerprints and other clues.

Vanessa Fulmore, 11 and going into sixth grade, went so far as to sniff the odor from a dish towel. “Every little clue counts,” she said.

“I love mysteries and it’s really interesting to figure out who did it,” said Emily Brockman, 10, who will be in fifth grade.

Hanna Sheehan was quite sure that whoever committed the crime was left-handed, based on the positioning of a pen on the notepad. She said that since she’s right-handed, she lays the pen in a certain direction when she’s done writing. The pen was in the opposite position in the real estate office.

“I like sneaking around and learning stuff,” said Hanna, 11, who’s going into sixth grade.

Which is the point of the class, too: To challenge minds.

Delegate Election — In Girl Scouting, we use a form of democracy to bring issues to the Board of Directors and vote on issues that affect our Council.  Our Service Units and girls are represented by delegates who attend the annual meeting and delegate workshops/meetings as necessary during the year.  Council has changed the way we are appointing these delegates starting this year.  As those of you who have been around may remember, before the merger each Service Unit appointed several delegates for 2 year terms to represent the Unit.  The number was based on girl enrollment in the unit and we had about 4-6 delegates for Black Creek.  After the merger, Council designated so many delegates per county (based on overall girl enrollment, but not based on Service Units) that could be filled by anyone who was interested and filled out an application.  Monroe county was given 29 delegate positions to fill, but less than a dozen of them actually got filled.  I happened to be one of the people who filled one of those positions.  Now, Council has redetermined that perhaps it would be better to have a single delegate appointed from each and every Service unit along with an alternate for a 3 year term.  So, each Service Unit was charged with electing 2 people this month — a delegate and an alternate delegate.  However, those delegates that were already put in place last year (myself included) automatically continue on as a delegate until the end of their term.  So in our case, all we needed to do was elect an alternate since I am already the official delegate until 2013.  So I put out a call for anyone who was interested at the meeting.  I am happy to announce that Shauna Cross (co-leader for troop 60958) offered to do it and the leaders in attendance voted unanimously to accept her as our alternate delegate until 2014.  Thank you Shauna.  As your delegates, we will attend the Council meetings as needed and will report back to you about issues that are being discussed by Council and the Board of Directors.

Service Unit fees are now due — Please remember to get your service unit fees turned into Sue McCoy as soon as possible.  The fee is $5.00 per girl in your troop and the money goes into our Service Unit account to cover a variety of expenses in our Unit each year including costs for events such as Fly-Ups, Camporee and age-level events; scholarship money for girls in our unit; gifts for girls earning their Bronze, Silver and Gold awards; administrative expenses and more.  You can drop off or mail the check (made out to Black Creek Service Unit) at Sue McCoy’s house — 362 Palmer Rd, Churchville NY 14428.

Service Project News and Updates:

PJ Round-Up — A BIG Thanks go out to the troops that participated in this year’s PJ Round-up.  I delivered 70 pairs of pajamas to the Girl Scout Center on Wednesday.  Great job everyone…

Holiday Food Boxes — If your troop is putting together one or more Holiday Food boxes this year, please make sure to drop them off at Anne Hartman’s House ( 59 W Buffalo St, Churchville 14428, phone 293-0884) by the 15th of December.

Toy Donations requested — Carol Ann Pittman is looking for donations of new or gently used toys (for ages infant to teen) to the 4th Annual MOMS Club of Brockport Giftaway program which will be held on December 3 and 4.  Donations can be dropped off at Carol’s home — 180 Euler Road, Churchville) or taken to dropoffs at several locations in Brockport – Java Junction, Ryan’s Big M, SUNY Brockport Judo Dojo in Cooper Hall, & Seymour Library.

Valentines for Vets — A reminder for troops planning to make Valentines, we will be collecting them at the January 25th meeting.  The Valentines are taken out to the Canandaigua Veteran’s Hospital.

Upcoming Events for Troops:

Camporee Committee Meeting – The committee is pleased to announce that one of our older troops (Troop 60916) has offered to plan the program for our Camporee this year.  But we can still use lots of HELP planning out an amazing weekend for all of our troops at camp.  Please plan to join the committee at the next Camporee meeting, which will be held on Thursday December 16th, 7pm at the Tim Horton’s in North Chili.

Mid-Year Finance forms due January 15th — I know that there is always alot going on during the holiday season, but make your first resolution now… Don’t forget to fill out the Finance forms for the period of June 1st – December 31st and send them to Sue McCoy by January 15th.  Thanks!!

Brownie Event planned for January 29th – Troop 60639 is organizing a special ‘Science Fair’ event for our Brownie Troops this year.  The event will be held on Saturday January 29th, from 1-4 pm at the Rochester Program Center.  During the program, Brownies will earn 2 Try-its (Science in Action and Colors & Shapes) as well as a Junior badge (Science Discovery).  Participation in the event will meet bridging requirements for the girls as well.  More information about cost of the event will be coming in an e-mail soon.

Thinking Day event, February 16th — We will be holding this year’s Thinking Day event – Passport to the World – at the Rochester Program Center from 6 – 7:30 pm (set up begins at 5:30).  A sign-up sheet to choose the country for your troop was put out at this month’s meeting.  Several troops have already signed up for the event (see below).  If you would like to sign up, please send an e-mail to Cheryl Lawniczak ( Cheryl@Lawniczak.us ) indicating the country you choose.

Guidelines to follow for the Black Creek Service Unit Thinking Day Event:

Pick a country that has Girl Guides, refer to link http://www.wagggsworld.org/en/world.  Please e-mail me at Cheryl@lawniczak.us or call at 889-8902 as soon as you pick your country.  Choose 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd choice in counties.  Countries will be given out on a first come first served basis.

Research Girl Guides in your chosen country and see what it is like there.  Learn about Girl Scouts or Girl Guides in other countries at www.wagggsworld.org and www.girlscouts.org/girls.  Pick at least 2 of the following activities for your troop to share with the other troops at the Thinking Day fair.:

• Research what kind of crafts they do. Make sure you have a sample and then bring a kit with a picture of the craft and instructions to give to all the leaders that come or if it is an easy craft the girls can make the craft at your booth that night.
• Research games and songs from your country. Bring instructions and words to teach everyone and then be able to handout to all the leaders that come to the event.
• What kind of food do they eat? Bring a sample of the food and have enough to share with everyone.  – If homemade write out the recipe. Also note ingredients used in case someone has allergies.

Research your country:

• Make a poster with pictures from your country. Include interesting facts about the country.
• Make a sample of your country’s flag. It can be out of whatever material you would like to make it out of.  Make sure you have a way to display it at your station.
• Bring a stamp/ ink pad to stamp each girl’s passport as she enters your booth. (Passports will be given out at the event.)

Fashion show as part of Closing ceremony:

• Research the kind of uniform girls guides wear in the country you picked.  Make a sample of the uniform to be worn by at least one girl in your troop in the fashion show/Closing Ceremony.  The sample can be made out of material, paper bags, or large sheets of drawing paper or whatever you can come up with.  The fashion show will be at 7:15. There will be opening ceremony at 6:15 pm and a closing Ceremony as part of the fashion show

Schedule for the event:

5:30      Door open set up room

6:00 – 6:15        Arrival and set up of troop booth

6:15 – 6:20 – Opening Ceremony

6:20 – 7:15 – Visit Countries & get Passport Stamped

7:15 – 7:30 – Fashion Show/ Closing Ceremony

7:30 – 8:00 Clean up

Troop	Age level	Contact	Country	# Girls
60651	Brownie	Deanna Donohue	Italy
60631	Brownie	Keri Neathawk	Mexico
60263	Junior	Cindy Polito	Spain	3
60116	Brownie	Danielle Ahl	Ireland	15
60558	Brownie	Dawn Kapitan	China
60659	Junior	Dawn Kapitan	India
60329	Junior	Karyn Audycki	Canada	10
60488	Brownie	Sherry Faker	Brazil	18
60270/60234	Sr/Cadette	Tina Ruhland	England	15
60235	Brownie	Pam Tabone	France	18
60958	Daisy	Shauna Cross	Haiti	14
60639	Junior	Lori Stafford	Ukraine	15
60956	Daisy	Michelle Kurdt	Germany	10
60673	Daisy	Holly Wadkins		9

Compass Courses available to Troops — We had a great turnout (over 200 people) and a spectacular day at Oatka Creek Park to celebrate Juliette Low’s 150th birthday last month.  However, only a few people got the opportunity to try out the two compass courses I created for the event, as the activities on the trails we set up took longer than originally anticipated.  No worry — I am happy to announce that if any troop would be interested in using the compass courses for a meeting, I will be available to set them up for you at the park at your convenience.  Just give me a call to set up a date.  Also, just a reminder that you can reserve compasses for your troop to use in the course at the Girl Scout Shop.  The compass kit costs only $5.00 (plus a refundable $25 deposit).

Information about new Program Materials and Changes at Council:

Our new Membership Manager — Council has decided to revamp the team approach to delivering service to our Service Units.  Instead of working with a team of women, each of which has a seperate job designation, Council has decided to assign one representative to each Service Unit who will cover all of the different things the team had been doing for us.  What that means is we will have one contact person at Council to call, regardless of what the issue might be.  Our new Membership Manager is now Renee Finnemore.  Renee has been one of the women that was on our team, acting most recently as our Volunteer Manager.  Renee came to Council with lots of personal experience in all aspects of Girl Scouting, having been a Troop Leader and serving as a Service Unit Manger and in various other service team positions.  You will have an opportunity to get to meet Renee at our next 2 meetings, in January and February.  If you need to contact Renee, you can call her at 239-7912 or e-mail her at Renee.Finnemore@gswny.org

New Programs added for girls on GSWNY.org Website — There is a big list of new programs that have been added on the website at http://www.gswny.org/Programs/Programs/ .  I try to send out e-mail updates when I get news about specific programs, but sometimes things get posted without me hearing about it, so you should check the website frequently to see what’s new.  Not on this list, but also of interest to our Older Gilr troops are a series of programs and experiences called Pathways where older girls can experience different activities such as skiing, photography, outdoor backpacking and travel in more depth than at a single day event.  You can see a list of the Pathway Programs here – http://www.gswny.org/Programs/Pathways/

New Journey Book Series coming in December — The new series is called “It’s Your Story — Tell It”.  I brought teaser pieces from the different age levels about the new series for leaders to look at.  This will join the 2 current Journey book series — “It’s your World – Change it” and “It’s Your Planet – Love it” as another option for troops to explore.  To find out more about the 3 Journey series, check out this site – http://www.gswny.org/Programs/Journey/.  There is a great new interactive site called Journey Maps that shows how the 3 series can fit into your troop activities as well – http://www.girlscouts.org/program/journeys/maps/ .  Also, plan to come to a special updated Journey Book Training at our January Service Unit meeting to be given by Renee Finnemore, our new Membership Manager.

New Girl Scout Handbooks are coming in September — National has been updating and revamping all of the program materials for each age-level.  All thier hard work will finally be availble in September.  Each age-level will get a brand new handbook called “The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting”. This new book will replace the current handbooks and badgebooks that we have been using since 2000-2001.

Much of the material in the new handbooks has been updated to reflect the changes in the Girl Scout program, including an updating to many of the badges.  Some badges will be eliminated entirely and a variety of program materials are being phased out.  In most cases, these include badges that were not particularly popular or needed some real updating (like including digital photography in the photography badges).  For our older troops, the significant materials that are being phased out include the entire Studio 2B series of books.  I am told that much of the material from these books will actually be incorporated in the new handbook, but the charms will no longer be available after June.  Recently, National sent out information about the specific badges and materials that will not be available after June 2011.  You can see the list here as well as answers to many of the most common questions about the materials being pahsed out – http://www.gswny.org/Shop/RetiringBadges/ It is suggested that if your troop is interested in earning any of these badges or using the Studio 2B materials, you should plan to do so in the next few months and should try to pre-order the badges from the GS Shop as soon as possible, since once they are sold out, they will be gone.  Council expects to start sending out information about the new badges and examples of the new handbook activites sometime in or around April 2011.

Changes to the Silver Award Tea — At the Service Unit Manger meeting I attended last week, I was given a letter from Council that states that due to feedback they had gotten from parents and Troop leaders, Council has decided not to continue to offer the annual Silver Award Tea as a Council-wide event.  Instead, they are asking each individual Service Unit to  create a celebration for the Silver Award winners in their Unit to locally recognize their hard work.  I am therefore asking for input from you, our troop leaders, as to what kind of recognition we should hold for our girls earning their Silver Awards. I will be holding a special meeting to discuss your ideas on the subject on Tuesday January 11th, 7:00pm at the Tim Horton’s in Chili Center (next to Kmart).  Please note, there have been no changes to the Council-wide recognition for girls earning their Gold Award.  This only affects the Silver Tea.

New requirements for girls earning Bronze, Silver or Gold Awards — As of October 1st, 2010, our Council has adopted the new requirements for earning the Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards.  Any troops who have just started working on these awards since October 1st should be using the new requirements.  Any troops who started work on their requirements last year, can continue to use the older guidelines.  If you aren’t sure, please contact Council to find out if you need to be using the newer guidelines.

You can find specific information about the new guidelines for each of the 3 awards, including frequently asked questions, adult guidelines, and a download for the award packets,  here:

Bronze Award – http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_central/insignia/highest_awards/bronze_award.html

Silver Award – http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_central/insignia/highest_awards/silver_award.html<

Gold Award – http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_central/insignia/highest_awards/gold_award.html

The most significant change to the requirements for each of these awards is that there is no longer a seperate requirement to earn Leadership hours as part of the Awards.  Instead, in all cases, girls must complete 1 or 2 Journey Books as the inital requirement for each of the awards.  For the Bronze Award, the troop must work as a Team on the final project, which will take at least 20 hours per girl to complete.  For Silver and Gold Awards, the projects must be done outside of Girl Scouts, benefitting their community, and will take at least 50 or 80 hours, respectively.  Girls working on their Silver and Gold awards must also attend a training session at Council.  You can see the upcoming training dates here:

Silver Award Training dates – http://www.gswny.org/Programs/Awards/Silver/

Gold Award Training dates – http://www.gswny.org/Programs/Awards/Gold/

New Bridging Award requirements – Along with all of the other new requirements, I passed along information about the new guidelines for earning the bridging awards.  Good news — the new requirements are actually easier than the old ones so I encourage those troops who will be bridging at the end of this year to go ahead and use the new requirements.  You can find and print out the new requirments for each age level in the forms library at GSWNY.org under the ‘General Reference Items’ section – http://www.gswny.org/Adults/FormsLIbrary/ .  Also, a reminder to troops who will be bridging this year — I will put out the Sign-up sheet for the Fly-Up ceremony at the January meeting.  Look for more info about the ceremony in another e-mail from me coming next month…

Constant Contact — In an effort to keep Troop Leaders and Volunteers updated about what is happening at Council, all leaders are encouraged to sign up for ‘Constant Contact”, council’s e-mail newsletter.  To sign up, simply go to the bottom of the GSWNY.org home page and click on the “Sign-Up for e-mail news and updates” link.

WHEW!!  That was alot of info for this month.  Hard copies of a variety of this material (specific for each age-level), as well as patches from the Juliette Low Birthday event were put into everyone’s mail folder.  If you would like to come and retrieve these items, I will have the mailbox out on my front step for the next couple of weeks.  Feel free to stop by anytime.  If you’re still with me, I just have one more reminder.

• Investiture of New Leaders — I invite all of our newest troop leaders to come to be recognised and receive their official Girl Scout pin.
• Collection of Valentines for Veterans
• Journey Book Training — done by our new Membership Manger Renee Finnemore.  Come learn more about the new series and how to utilize the Journey books effectively in your troop programs.
• Annual Leader SWAP — It’s time to clean out the old and bring it in for the new – new leaders that is.  This is an opportunity for our established leaders to share leftover supplies and materials they no longer need with other troops.  Remember, Girl Scouts like to use their resources wisely and recycling it is a great way to do that…

Have a wonderful Holiday!!  See you all in January.

Donna

First Lego League Girl Scouts

We won the top award at the FRIST Lego League Qualifying tournament held at Churchville Chili School. The our team competed against 20 teams and were judged based on Project Presentation (Ultrasonic Sensor belt for the Blind), Technical Presentation of Robot Design, Robot Performance and Team work. Next we head for the Finger Lakes Regional competition at the University of Rochester Dec 5th to complete against the 40 qualifying teams from Western New York. Left: Katrina, Caroline, Jodie, Christa (assistant coach) Cheryl (Coach) missing Emily and Katy

Smiles from the team after their Project Presentation while waiting their turn for Robot Technical Design presentation. We wore our lucky necklaces made by the GS troop from the NYS School for the Blind in Batavia and with their help trying out our invention “Ultrasonic Sensor Belt to aid the Blind” we were able to impress the judges. Left: Nichole, Emily, Katy, Caroline, Katrina and Jodie. Note we use the cookie box for Robot transportation, Thin Mint box is a little too narrow but Do-si-dos just the right size.

Jodie and Katy running our NXT robot “Steve” through the programmed missions.
Cheryl Lawniczak

We had a great turnout for our August 31st Service Unit Meeting.  As usual there was a lot of paperwork for everyone to pick up and plenty of information to pass along.  There were only 11 troops (Troops 130, 237, 281, 486, 508, 543, 638, 697, 916, 921, 932) that didn’t have any representation that night so I still have all their stuff.  As usual, I have put the mailbox out on my front doorstep so that you have easy 24/7 access to come pick up your mail.  If you also happen to be a troop that didn’t early bird in the spring, your registration materials are in the packet from Council and you will want to come get that soon.

Here’s a quick rundown on many of the announcements made at the meeting:  

Upcoming meeting calendar dates:  All of the regular Service Unit meetings are held at the Chili Senior Center and begin at 7:00pm.  Service Team members meet on the same nights, but beginning at 6:30pm.

• Sep 28 – Cookie Training
• Oct 19 – Note change in date – Resource Library and Camping Supply box will be available
• Nov 23
• Jan  25 – Investiture of New Leaders & Leader SWAP
• Mar  22 – Leader Milestone Awards April 26

Upcoming Service Unit events:

• Sep 21 — Recruitment Night and Open House, 6:30-8:00 at Senior Center
• Oct 30 – Download Form » Juliette Low’s Birthday Celebration @ Oatka Creek Park, 12-3pm — this is a new event planned for all ages this year.  The event includes a Scavenger Hunt/Nature Hike around Oatka Creek Park followed by cake and punch at the Pavilion.  We are setting up 3 different levels for the Scavenger Hunt (Easy, Medium and Hard) appropriate for the different levels in Scouting.  Daisies and Brownies will do the Easy Hike and will do activities that will allow the Brownies to earn the ‘GS Ways Try-it’.  Juniors and younger Cadettes will do the Medium hike and the Juniors will complete activities to earn the ‘GS in the USA’ badge.  The hard level is for the more adventurous older girls and will include a longer hike, some physical challenges and an orienteering course.  Cost is $3.00 per girl (badges not included).  Sign-up sheets will be out at the next 2 meetings and troop payment needs to be in by the October 19th meeting night (so we can order enough cake for everyone).
• Feb 22 – Thinking Day Event at Program Center March 6 – Girl Scout Sunday event (TBA)
• Apr 27 — Fly-Up Ceremony at Wheatland-Chili HS Auditorium (Rehearsal will be held on April 6^th)
• May 20-22 – Camporee Weekend (more info to come)

Age-Level events — Any troop interested in organizing an age level event (ie Daisy Day, Brownie event etc) should get in touch with me.  Organizing an event is a great way for troops to get leadership hours.

Older Girl Council Members needed — We would like to start up an older girl council this year.  This group of older girls would help us identify possible program opportunities to do with our older troops and would help in organizing them.  We invite any girls from older troops to join us in a brainstorming discussion at the September 28th Service Unit meeting (we’ll meet with them while you are at Cookie Training).

Troop Sponsorship — It’s been a couple of years since I touched base with all of the organizations and schools that provide meeting locations for all of our troops.  I decided it was time to update our troop sponsorship paperwork this year to make sure that we had all the right contact info for them and that they are all receiving the insurance forms from Council.  The form has changed somewhat with the new Council change and requires more contact info from each troop.  In your folders I placed a Troop Sponsorship form.  Please fill out the name of the organization where you meet (church, school, Parklands, etc) and the information about the contact leader in your troop.  Get the form back to me and I will take them around to each of the sponsors along with some other information about the unit.  Also, a reminder that if the location and/or time of your troop meetings has changed, let me know so I can also update the roster.  Thanks.

Leader Training and Membership Year Information needed — We have been trying to get updated records for all of our leaders on any training you may have taken and how many years you have been in scouting, in particular as a girl as well as an adult.  I have attached a copy of the Leader Training form we would like all of our leaders to fill out and return by the Sept 28th meeting.  A reminder that it is important for all leaders to be up-to-date in their training — which includes having taken Leader Essentials (or the old Getting Started training) and the appropriate age level training.  If you just changed levels, its time to look into age level training for the new level.  In addition, each troop needs to have at least one person with up-to-date CPR/First Aid training (I think every leader should have this) and Outdoor Training (especially if you plan to camp).  Upcoming training sessions at Council can be found on the GSWNY.org website under the ‘Adult” section.  New this year, Leader Essentials and Age Level trainings can be done on-line as well as going to an in-person session.  Links to the on-line training are found on the same web page.  To earn the training, you need to watch a video and correctly answer a series of questions about it.

News from the Service Team:

• Registrar — Faith Phelps — For any troop that didn’t register early in the spring, registration forms for your troop need to be returned to her by the September 28th meeting so that your troop will be allowed to sell cookies.  A pre-printed registration form is in the packet from Council for you to use.  If you add any new girls to the troop, copies of the new registration forms are also in the packet.  For those troops that did early bird, you will have received an envelope with your early bird patches in your mail folders. Leaders who would like an early bird patch, you can purchase them at the GS Shop for $1.  In the packet from Council, you will see a dark green sheet with the names of everyone who registered in the spring.  Check over this sheet for any needed corrections or missing names and contact Faith (755-4387) with any questions.
• Finance – Susan McCoy — Any troops who have had leader changes this year should contact Susan (293-1099) to make the necessary changes to signers on their bank accounts.  Leaders for new troops also need to see Susan first before they go to the banks to set up an account.  Also, just a reminder that we are still looking for a new Finance Person to take over the position at the end of this year when Susan will be stepping down.  The Finance Officer is our liaison with the banks used by our troops, helps to open and close accounts as needed, handles all of the finances for the Service Unit (collecting/depositing fees for events, writing checks as needed), and collects the Finance Reports from leaders in January and July.  This is an important position in the unit and we really need to identify a new person as soon as possible.  Susan and I would like to have a person ready to go by March so we can take care of changing names on all of the troop accounts at the end of this year rather than next fall in the middle of cookie sale.  If you are interested, please let me know.
• Troop Organizers — Faith Phelps, Nancy & Rodney Nichols and Anne Hartman — We are gearing up for fall recruitment.  The Recruitment Night and Open House will be held on Sept 21st at the Chili Senior Center.  In addition, we are trying to have an information table available at all of the Parent Nights in the elementary schools and at the Wheatland Town Sign-up night in Scottsville.  Fliers should be going home at the elementary schools in the first week or 2 of school and articles should be in the local papers as well.  We can use some help manning tables at the Parent Nights (I’d like to see at least 2 people there each night).  If you are available to help, please let me know:
  • Fairbanks Road Parent Night – September 9 — Nancy and Rodney Nichols
  • Chestnut Ridge Parent Night – September 16th — Anne Hartman
  • Wheatland Sign-Up Night — September 16th — Faith Phelps and Dawn Lodato
  • Churchville Elem Parent Night (for 2-4) — September 21 — Tina Ruhland
  • Churchville Elem Parent Night (for K-1) — Sept 22 – Shauna Cross
    Also, we could still use a Troop Organizer associated with Chestnut Ridge School.  If you are interested, let Faith Phelps (755-4387) know.
• Product Sales — Sue Walker — We will be holding our Cookie Training at the September 28th Service Unit meeting.  For those troops interested in boosting sales by redirecting cookies to good causes, there are 2 that you can think about.  Council is partnering with FoodLink and FoodBank to collect boxes of cookies to be distributed to organizations that work with needy families and kids in our Council.  You get your customers to purchase extra boxes of cookies, and they will be directed to FoodLink here in Rochester for that cause.  Also, for troops interested in helping out our military, MaryAnne Sears (director of the Chili Senior Center) is looking for cookies to send to her son’s unit overseas.  She has been trying to score cookies from me for awhile now.  If your troop would like to help, you can contact her at the Senior Center at 889-6185.
• Service Project Coordinator — Anne Hartman — Anne is new to the position this year and will help to coordinate the several service projects we do as a unit.  She put out a sign-up sheet at the first meeting and I’m sure it will be available again next month.  Here’s a reminder of the projects we do each year:
  • Veteran’s Day Cards – bring to October meeting
  • PJ Roundup – bring to November meeting
  • Holiday Food Boxes – deliver boxes to Anne Hartman in mid-December
  • Valentines for Veterans – bring to January meeting
  • Easter Bunny Cups – bring to March meeting
  • Girl Scout Sunday Service Project (TBA) – March 7
  • Scouting For Food and Clothing – March 19 (drop off) and 26 (pick up/sort)
• Webmaster — Debi Bower — If you haven’t checked out our website or Facebook pages recently, go take a look.  Debi continues to do a great job of keeping our sites well-informed and up-to-date.  With the newer Blog and Facebook formats, it is much easier to add information and comment or discuss things that are posted.  We encourage each of you to post about things your troops are doing or interesting places you may have gone.  Several of our girls are ‘liking’ our Facebook page and we are thinking about adding a ‘Girl oriented” Facebook site as well where the girls can talk to and share with each other directly.  If you have ideas or things to share, please let Debi know at blackcreekgsgv@rochester.rr.com
• Camporee Chair and Outdoor Equipment — Jeannie Odell — We are planning to hold a full weekend Camporee this year and the tentative dates are May 20-22.  To plan and effectively run a Camporee, we need a good sized Committee (many hands make small work and all).  If you are interested in helping plan this year’s Camporee, please contact Jeannie (293-3262 or e-mail jpmo@frontiernet.net).  Also, a reminder to troops thinking about camping on their own.  We have several full camping cooking sets available for loan.  Jeannie will bring one to our October meeting so you can see what is available in our unit resources.  There are also flags, candle holders and other items available to borrow.
• Age-Level Consultants — Sharon Hanzlik (Daisy), Dawn Lodato (Brownie), Mary Kaiser (Junior) and Cheryl Lawniczak (Older Girls and Silver/Gold award) — Just a reminder that we have several wonderful ladies who are more than willing to answer any questions you might have about specific issues at any of the different levels in Scouting.  Need a field trip idea or help figuring out how to complete a particular badge?  Having some issue with girls in your troop and don’t know where to turn?  Just getting started on Silver and Gold Awards and not sure how to start?  Try these ladies.  They’ve been there and they know alot.

What’s New at Council? – Three of us (Faith, Lisa Whitley and I) attended the Big Council Kick-off earlier in August at Council.  There have been several new additions to the GSWNY.org website that you may want to know about:

• You can now do on-line versions of some of the basic training (Leader Essentials and Age-Level Training).  To do the trainings, you click on the online icons on the training information page (http://www.gswny.org/Adults/AdultLearningOpportunities/Grades/), watch the video and then answer a series of questions about it.  I still think that you benefit more from attending an in-person training session (as you can ask questions, etc) but this is a great alternative for the person who can’t fit in the dates when trainings are held.
• The new Volunteer Essentials Handbook is available on-line.  This is the handbook of info for all leaders, covering everything about basic troop structure, how many chaperons you need, troop finances, troop fundraising, girl development, etc.  You can find the handbook in the Leaders Tool Box at http://www.gswny.org/Adults/leaders/LeaderResourceToolBox/
• There is no more Safety Wise.  Instead, Council has added a new page on the website called ‘Safety Activity Checkpoints’ where all of the most up-to-date Safety-Wise info can be found — http://www.gswny.org/Adults/SafetyActCheckpoints/ .  If your troop is planning a particular activity, check here first to print out the specific things you need to know to make it safe.
• Thinking about camping?  You can do a virtual tour of all of the Council camp properties at the new and improved Camp Properties web page — http://www.gswny.org/Camps/councilproperties/map/.  Check on any of the camps or properties to see what all of the buildings look like (inside and out).  In addition, you can check out the availability of the particular camp and register for your own trip on-line to use the property.  Go check it out.
• There will be a new Journey Book series available in December — “It’s Your Story – Tell It!!”  The series uses storytelling in a fun and relevant way to teach girls to better understand themselves and their potential.  Through hearing stories, sharing stories, trying out new roles and creating their own stories, girls can gain confidence and see how they can make a difference in their own lives and the lives of others.  The series was developed in cooperation with the Dove Self-Esteem Fund.and a major goal in the series is to build confidence and self-esteem in girls.
• GingerKids “Passport to the World” program — Council has partnered with the GingerKids organization to provide a new and exciting program opportunity.  Passport to the World is an online educational experience that takes kids to different countries each month.  Characters in the program take you on a virtual tour of the country where you discover how people live, their culture, historic landmarks, learn about their holidays, try new foods, make crafts and much more.  Membership is $14.95 per month (you can sign up for as many or as few months as you want) and it gives you access to the website as well as a box of stuff that goes with the program.  The package you receive might contain non-perishable food from the country, craft project materials, recipes, games and more.  Activities will allow you to earn different badges for each country as well.  You can check out the program at the GSWNY.org website.
• The new Program Guide is also available on-line (http://www.gswny.org/Programs/online/).  Hard copies will be mailed out so you should see one in your mailbox soon.

I’m sure I’ve probably missed something important but can’t seem to think what it is.  This is certainly plenty of information to get you all started on.  Let’s have a terrific year everyone!!