Our brownie troop is full of some very social girls. Our meetings seemed to be filled with myself and Christine constantly asking the girls to be quiet, listen or pay attention. I was beginning to question myself as to why I was still leading the troop, as I was no longer enjoying it and didn’t feel like the girls were getting anything out of it.

After doing a little searching online and using a little creativity, we implemented a bee themed “rule” idea and the girls were very receptive. Everyone participated and came up with troop rules and wrote down on our bee paper.

After doing this, we discussed having a “bee sheriff”. I don’t recall where I found this idea and have searched for it again so I could offer credit, but have been unable to find it. The idea behind this is to give the girls in the troop a little authority. The “sheriff” will raise their hand when a girl is not following the rules. When the leader acknowledges them, they will say, “______, please pay attention, or ______, please clean up your mess.” The girl not following directions must apologize to the troop and then follow the rule. We were very clear to not tattle and to be polite. After trying this for the first time at our last meeting, we realized it may be better for the sheriff to simply raise her hand with the girl scout sign to be quiet. It’s a learning process. The sheriff gets to wear a cute little badge.

Although we’ve only done this once, it appears to have had a positive effect on the girls in the troop. Hopefully our future meetings will continue to be productive.