Several large mixed level troops in our council have struggled with how to plan trips with older girls who are ready when younger girls are not. All the money they earn goes into one pot but if a few of the girls are traveling then the spending is not equal. It’s also hard to give the travelers enough time to plan and enough opportunities to earn their way to adventure. In mixed level troops the younger girls often go on all the same activities as the older girls but it doesn’t mean that they’ve learned the same skills, especially when it comes to learning to plan and budget and being independent.

What are the solutions, specifically related to travel? I have a few suggestions.

One answer is to set up age group patrols within the multi level troop. The “travel patrol” works on girl planning for the trip each week for a portion of the meeting. Or schedule a separate meeting such as “Travelers only” this week or “Travelers stay late” and have only them for the last half hour of the meeting. The whole troop can go together on transportation field trips and camping trips to practice travel skills. Eventually the travelers will come home and share their experiences and enthusiasm with the younger girls.

Another answer is to wait till the whole group can travel together. It’s not possible to take the whole mixed level troop for the San Francisco Bridging Event Weekend (which is for bridging Juniors only) but it would be fine to take a whole troop to San Francisco some other weekend! Girl Scouts would like for you to wait till all the girls are age 11 and up when everyone would be ready to go. Resist the urge to have the younger girls bring all their moms because they aren’t ready to be on their own. You’re better off waiting till you can travel with safetywise adults and girls who are ready to travel independently.

The financing of a trip is a little tricky with a multi-level troop when all the girls aren’t going on the trip. Girl Scout rules allow a troop to budget money for various categories, such as travel, highest awards projects, celebrations, field trips, etc. Sometimes when we talk about this, we say (very unofficially) that these are “buckets” which the girls can decide to put effort or money into, and take money out of. Also the girls who are going on the trip can do money earning projects that can go toward the trip. Basically, the other girls sit out of a specific troop money-earning project and it’s run by the girls who are traveling and the money earned is put in the “travel bucket”. The girls who are traveling can also direct a portion of their product sales profits for a year or two toward a trip if the entire troop votes to allow them to do so. Another option would be for the troop to vote to allow the travelers to take a certain amount, say $100, out of the troop account for a trip and plan another activity with the rest of the group to use the same amount of money, like a sleepover at SeaWorld, and then let the travelers earn the rest of the funds with separate money earning projects with the adults who are leading the travelers on the trip.

While we assume good intent, goal setting, decision making, business ethics and people skills come into play when working on a budget that encompasses multi-program levels. In the end planning and executing a big trip involves some diplomacy and good communication with all the girls AND parents in the troop. Building consensus about travel can be very, very challenging…even more so when your troop is large and spans many levels.