DATE & TIME CHANGE: CAROLING!

 Due to conflicts in time, we will not be able to Christmas Carol @ Bethany on  Saturday Dec. 3rd.

We are changing Location, Date & Time to Friday, December 9 @ 4:00pm at Martha Washington 2324 West Irving Park Road. 




We can use their parking lot on Irving Park Road and enter thru the front doors to the main office where we can gather before entering the "community" room. Everyone should arrive by 3:45pm if possible. Our contact person, said it would be ok to bring in homemade holiday treats. If every scout brought in a small plate of goodies (tied with a bow)

Everyone should wear holiday hat i.e. santa hat, reindeer horns, etc or scarf, etc. 

Holiday Happenings and Special Events!

We have been invited to join the Cub Scouts at Bethany Retirement Center on Saturday, December 3rd - 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm.   We might be invited to go with the Boy Scouts but right now I don't know any details. Also, the Cookie Kick-off with the Chicago Wolves is Saturday, January 7th - cost $15, you can get a food voucher for an additional $4.50).   Activities beforehand from 2-4:45 pm, entertainment 5-5:45 pm, game at 7:00 pm.  $15 includes t-shirt and ricket, girls will receive a patch.  We can order tickets as a group or you may do so on your own, but you will need to decide quickly since this event was sold out last year.  Tickets are ordered via the Chicago Wolves not Council.  ChicagoWolvesStore.com to order online.  Contact Marla Fish (mlfish@chicagowolves.com) for more information.

The Nutcracker by the Joffrey Ballet?  Information is below, Liz (lizwannemacher@yahoo.com) is planning on ordering tickets on the 28th for the Brownies but this can be open to all, however, you would have to pay on 12-01.  Cost is $30.

Joffrey Ballet - The Nutcracker
Dates: Wed 12/21/11 2-5 pm
Location: Auditorium Theatre - Chicago, IL
Grades: K-12
Cost: Girls $30.00  Adults: $30.00
Spend an afternoon or an evening at the Joffrey Ballet in downtown Chicago. In this classic holiday performance dolls, soldiers, snow flakes and flowers come to life to the unforgettable music of Tchaikovsky.  

For Christmas Caroling at Bethany, see below.  Girls can wear their t-shirts or holiday colors.  To be in sync with the Cub Scouts, each family coming should also bake or purchase a treat for the residents.  It is from 3-4 pm. Respond back if you are interested to Robert Rojas (trimm@aol.com) or myself for the caroling.

The boys/girls will sing carols (5-7 songs) on stage for the residents. We can make up song books like last year. We need someone to play the piano (Borelli and McCabe's names have been thrown around). Boys should wear their uniform, but add something festive (ie. santa hat, reindeer ears, etc.). After the songs, the boys will play a group game with the residents (holiday bingo?, any suggestions?), something that allows the boys to interact with the residents. We can ask each boy to bake/purchase some sort of treat (cookies, muffins) to bring and we can share that with the residents. Bethany Retirement Community is at 4950 North Ashland Avenue.

INNOVATORS OF TOMORROW!

Girl Scouts in unveiling some new innovation badges in an effort to grow the new era of female workers for the brave new word on innovation and the technology needs of the future. Here is Fast Comapny's article about it!

What Designing The New Girls Scout Innovation Badges Taught Us About Raising Leaders

As part of the organization's rebranding, the Girl Scouts has introduced an innovation component. In designing the program, Jump Associates developed some tips for training girls to become future leaders.

As the Girl Scouts approach their 100-year anniversary in March, they are introducing a whole new lineup of badges. Way back in 1913, the organization had badges like Flyer and Electrician to represent those trailblazing professions. Today, girls live in vastly different times and have wider opportunities in business leadership. With that in mind, Jump worked with the Girl Scouts to develop a badge program to expose girls to cutting-edge fields such as web design and social innovation.

In thinking about what we’ll need from our future leaders, executives have come to realize that the ability to innovate will be one of the foremost qualities--that is, the ability to quickly identify solutions for problems, many of which don’t even exist yet. To paraphrase President Barack Obama: Innovation is our ticket to success in the future. But in the U.S., women are still poorly represented in leadership teams. At last count, there were just 12 women CEOs in Fortune 500 companies. In addition, while technology is fueling a lot of new business growth, it’s an industry still maligned with very low numbers of women.

[The badges for Cadettes, Juniors, Brownies, and Seniors]

When we started to design the program, we realized that it would need to be much more than about designing cool stuff; it would have to involve developing empathy. It would also have to be age appropriate across four age levels, from second to tenth grade. The program caters to younger girls’ interests and capabilities, yet grows as older girls develop more critical-thinking skills. For this reason, the first level of Innovation, the Inventor badge, is about creating new things, while senior Girl Scouts work on building new businesses for the Social Innovator badge.

To better understand the full value Girl Scouts has had on women, and to learn what girls need today, Jump spent time talking with Girl Scouts alumnae (of which there are over 50 million today), current Girl Scouts of all ages and their parents, and executives within the organization.

Our findings led to some core principles that guided the definition and development of the Innovation badges. These principles are relevant for anyone developing ideas and businesses, not just children and young adults.

1. Leverage children’s existing creativity

Children are naturally curious and creative. The last thing one would want to do is stifle those tendencies by prescribing one path toward innovation. At the same time, there are best practices that the girls can benefit from learning. The trick in creating the Innovation badge curriculum was to strike a good balance between providing suggestions and letting the girls’ inner interests guide them. Rather than dictating the right way to develop new ideas and businesses, the Innovation badges let the girls choose among three options at each step, encouraging them to work on something they’re passionate about. This way, they can customize their own program to match their unique interests and style.

2. Train hybrid thinkers

Solving the ambiguous problems that plague our society, such as health care or access to clean water, will require working across multiple disciplines. Instilling the value of hybrid thinking--the mashing up of disparate disciplines--will ensure that we have leaders ready to tackle pressing issues. The Innovation badge program incorporates methods from many fields--such as anthropology, engineering, graphic design, and business strategy--to help the girls identify what’s needed, imagine what’s possible, and see how to make ideas a reality.

3. Build empathy before solutions

Making the world a better place for those who inhabit it is not about creating cool, shiny new objects. To have real impact on the world, to make the world a better place--the heart of the Girl Scout ethos--the girls should be able to identify what people really need. Each of the four levels of the Innovation badge has activities to help the girls gain empathy for the people for whom they’re designing solutions. To this end, the girls are trained, for example, to observe, take notes, and experience things first hand.

4. Enable great storytellers

One of the oft-overlooked softer skills that can decide whether an idea becomes a reality is good storytelling. Many great ideas never see the light of day because the creators neglected to craft compelling stories--no one ever got the full potential of the idea. The Innovation badge program builds good storytelling skills by instructing the girls on how to pitch an idea through a variety of means, from giving a presentation to using advertisement or even putting on a skit.

5. Get feedback early and often

Creating great products and services requires getting good feedback along the way. The Girl Scouts Innovation program reinforces the importance of asking people for feedback through a variety of means. The program also underscores the value of collaborating with friends and family members to make ideas better. As the world gets increasingly more complex, future leaders will have to be experts at enlisting others to help create solutions.

Given how complex and uncertain that future is sure to be, it’s assuring to have organizations like the Girl Scouts focusing on building the skills our future leaders will surely need. With the Innovation badge and the rest of the new badge lineup, the Girl Scouts are well positioned to develop the leaders of tomorrow.

Lauren Pollak leads Jump's New York office. She advises business leaders in industrial materials, packaged food, financial services, and retail on achieving their growth objectives. She has taught new productdevelopment as an adjunct professor at the George Washington University School of Business and served on the Innovation Advisory Board for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Lauren has published several articles on managing innovation and fostering a culture of exploration and has pioneered Jump's innovation methodology. She has a background in physics and engineering. Prior to Jump, she applied this knowledge to create innovative science education programs for high school students.

wo/Oct 17 2011 Memo

Dear Junior G.S. Parents, A couple of things... 1)  A huge hug and thank you to all of the mom's who assisted at the Troop meeting on Thursday night!  I want you to know how much I appreciated it that you 'grabbed the reigns' and set up for the s'more's and the songs we sang!  A great time seemed to be had by all who participated!  Rain or shine, we Girl Scouts know how to have a great time!!! 2)  I will be picking up my order from the G.S. shop at 20 S. Clark Street on Thursday this week.  If you have placed an order (or if you will be placing an order) for your daughter's AMUSE Journey book, her uniform, etc., please let me know and I will be happy to pick up your order while I'm there!  Placing an order is easy on-line and you can select that it will be picked up at the downtown location!  Go to: www.girlscoutsgcnwi.org.  The Amuse Journey book is $7.00. 3)  Fall Product Sale packages were distributed at our meeting this past Thursday.  We are asking that each of the girls, at a minimum, complete the 'Subscription Connection' booklet by placing a total of 7 names and addresses of relatives and friends of the family, teachers, doctors, dentists, etc. on the forms provided and submit the completed booklet to us!  For every completed booklet, our Troop #21397 will receive $2.00.   We also ask that the girls do the best they can to try and sell candy and nuts, along with magazine subscriptions.  Our troop will be receiving 15% of the total sales as our incentive.  The deadline date for Fall Product orders submitted is actually a week from today, Sunday, October 23rd.  Leaders must key-in all orders on Monday, October 24th prior to 5 p.m.  Therefore, we have a very short time frame to work within.   Since we will not be meeting again until Thursday, October 27th, I must ask you to please drop off your daughters' orders and the completed 'Subscription Connection' booklets to my apartment no later than Sunday, October 23rd!   My address is: 5734 N. Artesian Avenue, Apt. #1.  The names of Volpe and Connolly are on the doorbell.  If no one is home, please slide your order packet through the mail slot in the front door.  I'll pick it up when I arrive at home!  Our apartment is 1 block west of Western Avenue and 1.5 blocks north of Bryn Mawr.  It is a one-way street going northbound.  The building is right in front of a fire hydrant on the left side of the street.  Easy to drop off here!  My cell phone is 847-778-7657 if you get lost or need additional directions.  (If you do not drive, please connect with me and we can make special arrangements.) 4)  Our Halloween Party is booked for Thursday, October 27th from 6 pm. to 7:15 p.m.  Costumes are optional.  We will have a craft, games, story-telling, and a special treat for the girls to take home with them!   There will be room upstairs above the meeting area for the parents to group if they would like to!   I hope that everyone who went to White Pines over this weekend had an enjoyable experience!  Sorry I could not make it this time, but will try to the next time! As always, please let me know if you have any questions. Sincerely, Lisa Volpe, Co-Leader Flora Caputo, Co-Leader Jr. Troop #21397 - Queen's