December VINE

By Girl Scouts of Central Maryland on December 15, 2016 • ( Leave a comment )

Holiday Card Contest Winners Announced

We received a whopping 43 submissions for our holiday card contest, and while it was a tough call, our staff was able to declare a winner for each Girl Scout level. And the winners are:

Rachel, a Girl Scout Daisy from Troop 458
Marlow, a Girl Scout Brownie from Troop 601
Chloe, a Girl Scout Junior from Troop 10077
Olivia, a Girl Scout Cadette from Troop 1848
Harshika, a Girl Scout Senior from Troop 1044

Congratulations and thanks to all for participating! To See all of the entries visit our Facebook!

Here are the winning designs:

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Invite a Friend has been EXTENDED!

New Deadline: January 31, 2016

Join GSUSA’s effort to build 1500 new troops nationwide. Any registered adult member can invite a friend to start a new Girl Scout Daisy, Brownie, or Junior troop and win! The steps to win are simple:

Invite a friend to become a new troop leader
Have the new leader complete a background check by selecting the “Background Check” tab here and registering here
The referring volunteer completes a survey at girlscouts.org/inviteafriend after their friend agrees to start a new troop
GSUSA will send an online coupon code for $50 to the referring volunteer and a new leader kit will be sent to the new leader once GSCM confirms the new troop, troop number and plans for the first meeting

There is a limit of 2 new leader referral incentives per registered adult member. New troop start-ups must be confirmed by GSCM by 01/15/17.

CEI Update: Volunteer Systems will go live on January 4, 2017!

Keep an eye on your inbox on January 4th! You will receive an email welcoming you to the Volunteer Systems Member Community. This will now be the portal you will use to manage your personal, household and troop profiles and access the Volunteer Toolkit.

With Volunteer Systems, current and new members will benefit from interactive and user-friendly improvements including a more seamless join/renewal process, and improved resources for volunteers that will allow them to spend more time where it counts–with their girls! For more information about the Volunteer Toolkit, watch these videos!

Events and activities registration will continue to be through our current Online Registration system. For more information please visit gscm.org.

Questions? Contact us at 410.358.9711 or membercare@gscm.org.

Way to go girls!

What a great Cookie Sale

A BIG heartfelt thank you to the adult GS volunteers who supported our girls’ cookie sale successes this year! What you do is so very important to skill development of our girls and the vitality of the council.

Preliminary reporting reflects a 7% increase in cookie sales over FY’16.

Cookie Share donations also increased from 21,660 boxes last year to 22,288 boxes this year. Donated boxes are already being delivered to the military bases for soldiers to enjoy throughout the holiday season! Here is a list of recipients so far:

Ft. Myer, VA
NSA
Ft. Bragg, NC
8th and I – USMC Holiday Party
Pentagon
Operation Enduring Warrior to distribute at Bethesda Naval Hospital
TAPS
Army Navy Football game

The armed forces are also providing free shipping for 50 cases of cookies being sent to military personnel stationed in Iraq. Our first overseas shipment!

Girl Scout troops will be picking up some of the donated boxes over the next few weeks and delivering them to local charities and first responders. We will share that list of recipients in January.

S’More great news…123 troops earned the Great Cookie Dash Prize for doubling their initial orders by November 17, 2016. That’s up from 89 troops last year. Everyone LOVES their Cookie Cart and over 900 girls will be proudly wearing their customized Cookie Dash patches.

Your Voice Matters!

Be a Delegate at the 54th National Council Session!

Girl Scouts of Central Maryland is looking for delegates to attend the 2017 Girl Scout convention and 54th National Council Session or G.I.R.L (Go-getter, Innovator, Risk-taker, Leader) 2017.

Every three years, Girl Scouts gather together at the National Council Session (NCS) and Convention to reinvigorate our Movement, celebrate our accomplishments, and chart our future. Our 2017 National Council Session/54th Convention, which takes place in Columbus, Ohio, October 4 through October 8, promises to honor our cherished traditions and, at the same time, propel the Movement forward for girls and young women.

It’s an exciting opportunity to use your parliamentary procedures skills and see them in action. If you are an adult member of Girl Scouts of Central Maryland or a girl member age 14 or over, you are eligible to be a delegate. Girls, here’s an opportunity for you to take part in the political process of Girl Scouts and let your vote count.

If you want to be a part of the Girl Scout Democratic process, please refer to the Important Information about the National Council Session and complete the application. Delegates, who must be registered members of GSUSA at the time of the convention, will be elected at the Annual Meeting in May 2017.

Download the application

The application deadline is January 15, 2017.

Distinguished Women Shadow Girl Application Deadline: December 31

Each year five Girl Scouts are chosen to be a Shadow Girl to one of the five Distinguished Women’s Award Celebration honorees.Shadow Girls spend a day with an honoree for an up-close look at how she manages her time, staff and family/community responsibilities. It’s a unique one-on-one, hands-on experience from which you can learn from women who are some of the best in their chosen professions.

If your daughter wishes to apply, please note:

The Distinguished Women’s Award Reception will be held Thursday, April 20, 2017, 5:00 pm – 8:30 pm at the Baltimore Country Club, Roland Park.
Rehearsal for Honorees and Shadow Girls (mandatory) is Wednesday, April 19, 2017 from 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm.
Shadow Girl speech rehearsal is Monday, April 17, 2017 from 4:30pm – 6:00pm.
Shadow Girl Applications must be postmarked or e-mailed by December 31, 2017.
Interviews will be conducted January 21, 2017 from 8:30 am – 12:30 pm at the GSCM Program Center.
Applications are available on http://www.gscm.org

The 2017 honorees are:
Christine Aspell, Managing Partner, KPMG Baltimore
Barbara Bozzuto, Philanthropist, President (Ret.) Bozzuto-Lowenstein Marketing
Katrina J. Dennis, Partner, Saul Ewing, LLP
Kathryn Freeland, CEO, A-Tek, Inc.
Dr. Leana Wen, Commissioner of Health, Baltimore City

For more information, please contact: Karen Blake, Special Events and Corporate Relations Manager, 410.358.9711, ext. 254 or email kblake@gscm.org.

GCSM loves STEM!

Stephanie Alphee, GSCM STEM Specialist, attended the White House Conference on Inclusive STEM Education for Youth of Color in October.

In case you missed it: We had a very STEM-Y Fall! In November, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics swept across every county in Maryland as part of the statewide Maryland STEM Festival. To celebrate, GSCM hosted a fun filled day of STEM and the arts, Girls STEAM Ahead, to expose girls and their parents to various careers in these fields on November 14th at The SEED School of Maryland. Girls explored careers in chemistry, construction, architecture, medicine and computer science through hands-on activities led by female STEM professionals.

Hundreds of Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts from across Central Maryland gathered at Aberdeen Proving Ground for STEM in Scouting Day on October 1st, where they participated in a variety of hands-on STEM activities. Workshops included working on badges related to robotics, computer science, financial literacy and engineering. The fun-filled day also included vendor displays that ranged from unmanned vehicles and military communications equipment, to insects and other critters from the Army Public Health Center’s Entomology Department.

GSCM’s robotics teams are off to an electric start! Teams have been exploring the interactions between humans and animals for this year’s First Lego League theme, Animal Allies. Daisies and Brownies in the First Lego League Jr. program are learning about bees for their theme, Creature Craze!

Girls can still get involved with our STEM program! If you want to see first hand how fun and engaging the robotics program is, volunteer to judge our qualifier on January 22! Teams from across Baltimore and Central Maryland will compete at our Seton Program center. Come and serve as a judge to see who will qualify for the state First Lego League Championship! For more information about volunteering, email STEM@gscm.org. High School students can volunteer for service learning hours!

Share your inspiring story and you could win a $500 scholarship!

That’s right! The 2016 Girl Scout Challenge is still going strong—so strong! So far, we’ve received tons of amazing stories of girls taking the lead to build a better world. In an earlier blog post we shared a few stories to keep the excitement on high and to remind all Girl Scouts to share their awesome stories for a chance to inspire readers far and wide and win a $500 scholarship sponsored by MetLife Foundation!

Remember the 2016 Girl Scout Challenge ends 12/27/16.

Adult Learning Roundup at Camp Conowingo

Save the Date: May 13

Join volunteers from around the council for a day full of trainings and workshops. Sessions from last year included Rock Wall certification, Archery training, Ceremonies and Traditions, Tent Camp training, Parent Engagement,Geocaching, and more. Details and registration information will be coming in early 2017, but mark your calendar now for this fun-filled day of learning.

Adult Learning Updates

The Basic Troop Camp training pre-session being held on March 22 at Camp Woodlands has a date change for the overnight portion of the training. The overnight will now be April 1-2 (instead of 8-9). Please be sure to register early for all of our Camp trainings since our spring sessions do tend to get filled. Reminder – Outdoor 101 is a pre-requisite for Basic Troop Camp Training.

Spring dates for grade level trainings will be posted by the beginning of January.