VISTA 8:

Co-managers

Marisa Naujokas 847-332-2829 evgs@comcast.net
Sara Sullins – 847-733-2953 sullinss@bcbsil.com

Evanston Registrar

Jan Sarkor – 224-723-0735 jansarkor@yahoo.com

Agenda

1. Reminder of new Council changes

- Our council name: Girls Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana.
- What is Cluster 58?
- Merging VISTAs into a cluster to encourage more interactions between a broader base of leaders; allow for mini workshops; and provide better Council news delivery. However, product sales and bank accounts still handled separately. We are in Cluster 58 with 3 areas from northern Chicago.
- Access to 13 properties at council rates; new food options offered (Council can buy your groceries or cook your food for higher rates, less than other camps like YMCA camps).
- More council-wide activities and access to great resources in Chicago.
- Order supplies from Mary Therese Staub at the Chicago shop, and she will bring your purchase home the same day and leave it on her porch in Evanston (312-446-2500, ext. 227).
- New cookie baker for us: Lil Brownie Baker. Great online resources for girls to help goal-setting.

2. We have a cookie team! Be sure to thank these volunteers who make cookies possible!

 Mary Fitch (Cadette leader; St. Mary’s): Cookie Ambassador (3rd year) evgscookies@comcast.net
 Sara Sullins (Evanston co-manager): Order Coordinator
 Cathy McCullough (Cadette Troop 6 parent; Chute): Site Sale Coordinator
 Becky Zwolinski and Rachel Sobel (Junior/Cadette leaders; Chute and King Lab): Cookie Delivery Day Coordinators
 Caroline Miller (Senior/Ambassador leader; St. Mary’s): Incentives Coordinator

3. Volunteers needed. Remember that what makes Evanston great is its volunteers, people like you!

 Ski trip coordinator (coordinate with Grand Geneva to take RSVPs, make reservations, and handle money and paperwork). This task could be shared or managed by a Senior or Ambassador troop.
 Age-level leader trainers. Thanks to Paula McKernan for all of her help with new leader trainings. And thanks to Mary Beth Molenaar for stepping forward to do age-level trainings. We need more help with age-level trainings. If you have just moved on to a new age-level, consider sharing your experience with the last level. You can start out by observing a training, and then leading yourself with lots of support from veteran trainers.
 Daisy/Brownie ice skating party coordinator. This is a single event that is straight-forward to organize. You coordinate with the Skatium in Skokie to provide 2 hours of skating. You handle RSVPs and money collection.

4. Leader trainings -- completed and coming up. We had a Super Saturday leader training day in Evanston, and several new and veteran leaders came. Veteran leaders who are bridging to another age-level came for age-level training. We have a few more trainings coming up this fall, and then will have more trainings later in the year.

Remember all new leaders are required to do the Volunteer Essentials training, and at least one leader from your troop is required to do the age-level leader training.

If you need more information on any GS trainings, know of any potential leaders who would like to start a troop, or have any great references to share with new leaders, please contact Paula McKernan at 847.475.1715 or peacherino@gmail.com.

Description of trainings

Orientation to Girl Scouting includes basic information about Girl Scouting including the Promise and Law, Girl Scout Mission and History, and the Girl Scout Leadership Experience. You can do this training in person or on-line (and come to the V.E. training a little later). To train on-line go to http://training.girlscouts.org/, choose English or Spanish, and type the password discover (without the quotation marks), click login. When you fill out form, Marisa Naujokas is our Evanston Volunteer Manager so add her e-mail evgs@comcast.net.

Volunteer Essentials is a group session for New Leaders that covers essential information for volunteers who work with girls including: council structure, council and national policies, standards and procedures, safety, Girl Scout grade levels, managing troop finances, traditions and more!

Grade Level Training is a group session for New Leaders and Leaders changing levels.

CPR and 1st Aide trainings are required for one adult attending each Troop Meeting. Classes are scheduled by our Evanston VISTA, can be done in your community, or scheduled by our GS Council. https://www.girlscoutspw.org/program/search.php

Field Trip and Camping; Outdoor Ed; Training Outdoor Education is so you can take your girls on field trips -
part 1 online - Discover the Outdoors, take your girls on field trips;
part 2 - Cabin Camping, take your girls overnight- group training; or
part 3 - Tent Camping group training, which includes fire-building. You must take part 3 if you camp in a cabin and build an outdoor fire. Contact Sara at SULLINSS@BCBSIL.COM with questions.

Here is the Evanston training schedule: (many more training options at other sites are available on the Council Website https://www.girlscoutspw.org/program/search.php):

Wednesday, October 21st. Orientation/Volunteer Essentials at St. Mary’s Church, Girl Scout rooms in the lower level of the Parish Center, 1012 Lake Street in Evanston. Enter alley for parking from Maple, Parish House is on the northeast corner of the parking lot. 6-6:30pm Orientation to Girl Scouting 6:30-9:00pm Volunteer Essentials

Wednesday, November 4, 6-9pm. Grade Level Leadership Essentials - Brownie training (will try to add others by request) Pope John XXIII Cafeteria* Register on-line for trainings: https://www.girlscoutspw.org/program/search.php STEPS: Go to My Profile and register at bottom of screen, enter your info, Go to Search & Register, scroll down to Adult Training, check Leadership, click Search Adult Training. Find correct Training Class Heading (hit Program Details to get locations). Click Register when you find the right date and location. There are no fees for the above trainings. As this system is new and Council wide, Please also RSVP to us for Evanston Trainings.

Outdoor Ed. The training dates are online at the same sites listed above. Sara Sullins is a trainer. She will be at one at Morrison in Lake Villa on October 24 from 8-4 and one at the Center for Learning and Development in Chicago on November 14 from 9-5. These are actually the ones closest to us. There is a $10 fee for each training. Module 2 is in the morning, and module 3 is in the afternoon. Contact Sara at SULLINSS@BCBSIL.COM with questions.

CPR/1st Aide - The cost for the classes is $20. The class will be conducted by Ron Sanders. Please contact Anne Linehan, linehanann@aol.com or 847-733-9018 to register for the classes. We need to have at least 10 participants in each class or the class will be cancelled. Please make your reservations soon.

Tuesday, November 10 7:00pm to 9:30pm First Aid St., at St. Nick’s Church Oldershaw Hall
Tuesday, November 17 7:00pm to 9:30pm CPR, at St. Nick’s Church Oldershaw Hall
Wednesday, November 18 7:00pm to 9:30pm CPR, at St. Nick’s Church Oldershaw Hall

* St. Nicholas Church & Pope John XXII School, 806 Ridge Ave, Evanston (just South of Main). The parking lot is behind (West of) the church. Enter through alley from Ridge (just South of the church), Washington St.(one-way East) or Madison(one way going West from Ridge). RSVP to Paula so we can get a head count. Oldershaw Hall is at the East end of the parking lot with doors opening on the South side of the rectangular building; Pope John school cafeteria is in the large school building with double glass doors opening into the parking lot.

5. Fall Product Sales are winding up this week. All orders and validated deposit slips are due to Kathy Bauer by October 21st (newbauer4@comcast.net), no exceptions.

6. Music Day is coming up November 7th. Registrations are full for both Brownies and Juniors, and this year we have a wait list. Money and final girl counts are due Oct. 17th to Mary Beth Molenaar. 3550 Grove St. Evanston/Skokie. Questions? 847-676-2060.

7. Registration update: Jan Sarkor still has a few remaining troop packets that have not been picked up for 2010 Registration. Please contact her as soon as possible to pick up your packet, if you have not already done so. All girls who sell Fall Product and/or Cookies must be registered and entered in the database. There were several changes to registration this year. We are using a new deposit slip and GSUSA national forms. If you need any registration materials or have any questions please email Jan at jansarkor@yahoo.com or call at 224-723-0735.

8. Evanston Girl Scouts Web Site: A resource for leaders Evanston GS has a Web site with pictures and activity ideas for Evanston leaders and families. The site currently has 33 pictures with captions from our activities last year. Please visit http://www.ilcrossroads.org/vistas/8/photos/ to see the pictures. You can click on Troop Activities under http://www.ilcrossroads.org/vistas/8/resources/ourvista/ for activity ideas from what other troops have done. If you have your troop’s activities and pictures to share, please send them to Ivy Sundell at crowwoods1@aim.com. Please include details that might be helpful to other leaders (costs, things to look out for, what was great about it, etc.).

9. Upcoming Events

--Northwestern Music Day: Saturday, November 7th; a great Evanston GS tradition, sharing a wonderful musical experience with Northwestern music students; contact Mary Beth Molenaar at m-molenaar@northwestern.edu.
--Northwestern Scout Days: Football, volleyball, and soccer. Call 847-467-6862 for more information.
--Check the council Web site www.girlscoutsgcnwi.org for lots of Science Sampler days and STEM Saturdays (Science Technology Engineering and Math).
--Every registered GS family should have received a Program Resource Guide in the mail which lists just about everything!! Girls can go with a parent or troops can sign up, too.
--Camp Duncan March 20-21 (Elizabeth O’Connor eoconnor999@yahoo.com)

10. Upcoming Evanston Leader Meetings

Remember that 4 leader meetings this year will be combined with other VISTAs from Chicago (in Chicago they were called Service Units). This year we decided to rotate locations and meeting days to meet at the usual time and place for each VISTA; Today’s meeting (October 15, 2009) is the first of the four cluster meetings. Therefore, some of our meetings will be on different days of month other than the 3rd Thursday. And locations will vary. We can meet at the St. Nicholas parking lot and carpool and caravan to the new sites. Meetings generally run from 7:30 - 9:00 p.m., though cluster meeting times might be different.

VERY IMPORTANT—COOKIE PARENTS AND LEADERS NEED TO COME TO THE MEETING!!

You must have a cookie parent registered and in place by then! There will be some people meeting at the Pope John parking lot at 6:30 pm to car pool and caravan to the meeting.

 Cluster meeting CHANGED!!! Monday, November 23 - St. Phillip at 2500 W. Bryn Mawr, entrance off Campbell 7 PM start; if you like, meet at St. Nick’s parking lot at 6:30 pm to car pool/caravan.
 Evanston meeting Thursday, January 21 - St. Nicholas
 Cluster meeting - February - Queen of Angles, 4520 N. Western
 Evanston meeting Thursday, March 18 - St. Nicholas
 Cluster meeting - April - TBA  Evanston meeting Thursday, May 20 - St. Nicholas

11. Important Girl Scout procedure reminders:

A) Do you want to have a campfire with your girls? At least one leader needs to have completed Outdoor Ed Level 1 (online), Level 2, and Level 3. You learn very important safety tips and practical skills. Even if you have been camping and built many a fire, you are required to do the training. It is very different to build and maintain a fire with a group of girls around you than with your own family. Moreover, these outdoor ed trainings are the most fun of all the trainings, and you get to visit some GS properties that you might want to visit with your troop. You also learn some helpful troop management skills for outdoor trips.

B) Always use permission slips when you take the girls somewhere other than your usual meeting place. It is helpful for parents to know where girls are, and for you to know where parents are. Make sure you take the leader training required for trips (Outdoor Ed Level 1 online and Level 2).

C) If you have girls who need financial assistance, use the form in the Volunteer Essentials book, and follow instructions for sending it in to Council. This procedure is different from previous procedures. Every troop should have one copy of Volunteer Essentials. If your troop does not have a copy, you may pick one up on Marisa’s porch at 1108 Maple Ave in Evanston. Please adhere to the one copy per troop. It saves trees and GS funds.