News from Lafayette Girl Scouts

Service Unit Activities
Council sponsored activities in the Choices catalog
Activities where girls walk or ride their own bicycles as part of their regularly scheduled meetings
Trips that are located within one hour driving time or 60 miles from the regular meeting place, and are less than 6 hours in duration, and are not high-risk.

For all trips that do not meeting one of the above criteria, the Trip and High Risk Activity Notification & Approval Form must be turned in to the Lafayette Service Unit (at least 2 weeks, 4 weeks, or 1 year in advance as indicated on page 22 of the Council Resource Guide and on the THRNA form).

Please contact me with any questions!

- Sandra

MEMBERSHIP

Membership Coordinator: Interim Sandra Patterson 296-9281

A warm welcome to our new and returning leaders. Thank you for everything that you do for our Lafayette girls. As we form new troops and add girls to existing ones, we hope that you will extend an open and cooperative spirit.

Registration
Please get your registration to the Registrar, Geni Federas 944-4768, ASAP. If you have not reregistered yet then you do not have insurance coverage from Girl Scouts since the new membership year began October 1.  This means you are not to have any meetings with girls until this has been turned into the Registrar.

School Organizers
Thinking of starting a troop? Be sure to talk with your School Organizer! The School Organizer is there to help you! Along with recruiting and placing girls into troops, part of their job is to provide some guidance for new leaders and troops. If they don't have the answer, at least they can steer you in the right direction!

Please contact your School Organizer at any time! They are here to help!

Burton Valley - TJ Kirke 284-1455
Lafayette
  K-1 Nicole Carberry 658-2461
2-5 Jenny Burford 284-4167
Springhill - Geni Federas 944-4768
St. Perpetua - Denise Rosson 284-1766
Stanley - Alison Wash 934-3404
Seniors - Donna Colombo 284-4403
Happy Valley - Currently Happy Valley does not have a school organizer. Sandra Patterson is acting SO. We are looking for a leader or a parent to take on the job. Please contact Sandra if you are interested or know of anyone who might be a good candidate.

SERVICE UNIT NEWS

Does your troop need a bank account?

If you are a new troop or a troop that for some reason has not had a bank account, please take the time to read the Council Resource Book and set up a bank account.
From the Council Resource Guide:

YOUR GROUP'S BANK ACCOUNT
Troop/group funds must be kept in a bank account opened for that purpose. If at all possible, groups are asked to set up accounts at Wells Fargo Bank. The Nonprofit Checking account at Wells Fargo offers the best value for Girl Scout troops and features:

Free checking account with no minimum balance requirements
Free access to Wells Fargo Business Online Banking
ATM access
Complimentary first order of checks

To find out how to set up an account please refer to the Council Resource Book. Click here for the 2009-2010 edition.

Got to page 27 for a discussion on Money Matters.
Go to page 33 for instructions on how to set up an account. Note that the first step is to contact the Service Unit. You do not need to contact me prior to setting up the account; our Service unit does not require that we be signers on your account.

Please do notify me after you have set up your account and provide the following:

Troop Number
Leader Name and email address (this is the 01)
Treasurer name and phone number
Bank
Bank Account Number
Names of 3 signatories

Any questions? Feel free to contact the Service Unit Treasure: Anne Mitchell or call 925-284-2784.

COMMUNITY, COMMUNICATIONS & PRODUCTS

Lafayette Service Unit Co-Director: Colleen McCarty 944-7163

Fall Sales
The initial fall orders take place between October 2-18 and the public booth sales take place Nov 6-22 (product deliveries will begin in early November). Troops interested in participating can still contact Colleen to get materials.

This is a much smaller program than the cookie program and a good way for troops to earn money early in the year and for girls to learn some basics of business smarts: setting goals, organizing, presentation skills, budgeting and keeping track of money.

Did you know?

Your initial order on Fall Sales is ONLY what the girls sell! You do NOT need to order additional product to round out the case! So no left over product to sell!
Troop profit is based on the price of each item and ranges from $.90 to $1.35!
Booth sales are available in Lafayette this year.
Fall Sales are required for Troops wanting to do additional fund raising activities.

Cookies

Cookie Manager Training is December 1st! We still need one to two more volunteers to help with Cookies! The most urgent needs is for a Booth Coordinator! Please notify Colleen if you would like to help!

If you have questions or suggestions about the Fall Product Sale Program, please contact Colleen McCarty

SAVE THE BAY - October 17th

It's that time of year again! Amazing Bay Day is upon us. On October 17, 2009 we celebrate the birds at our Flyway Fiesta. In an effort to reach as many of our members as possible the event will be at four locations throughout the council:

Shoreline Aquatic Park, Mountain View, Santa Clara County
Sugarloaf Preserve, Walnut Creek in Contra Costa County
Rush Ranch Nature Center, Suisun City, Solano County
Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Redding, Shasta County

The day will be filled with fun activities to learn about our local bird friends, have fun and perhaps restore some of their habitat. Participants will receive a wonderful fun patch for spending the day with us.

Ways to volunteer

For those of you who have a troop that has a fun enviro activity (does not have to relate to birds) we welcome to host a booth at the event location of your choice. This would a medium to short activity that can be shared with girls and families of all ages. We want our girls and troops to showcase their environmental spirit.
For those troops and girls who may not have an activity already designed GSSTB has plenty of fun activities that you can help us to share.
For girls who would like to earn leadership hours we have several jobs that would help the event run smoothly and give you an opportunity to be a part of the action!
For adults who would like to volunteer we invite you as well! We have several posts needing to be filled with your skills at each location.

If you have a favorite local organization that you would like us to invite please email the contact information to the site coordinator for your location and we'll invite them to join us to help our girls learn more about birds, our environment and them!

Click here for more information.

GIRLS NIGHT OUT DANCE!

"Dance for the Breast Cancer Cure" and bring new "super soft" (non-wool) hat, scarf, slippers or socks to donate to breast cancer patients.

Girl Scouts and non Girl Scout girls and female adults are invited!

Date: Friday, November 6, 2009
TWO SESSIONS
6:00-7:30pm K-2 grades
8:00-9:30pm 3-6 grades
Place: Stanley Middle School
Cost: $10 per Person

Lafayette Girls (LASSIES) AND THEIR LADIES
Join us for a fun and memorable evening that will include snacks, dancing to music provided by a D.J., crafts, and an event patch!

Sponsored by Girl Scouts from Troop 31077.

Make checks (non-refundable) payable to the "Girl Scout Lafayette Service Unit", and return by October 15, 2009 to: Sandra Patterson: 3282 Isola Way Lafayette, CA 94549

Questions? Contact Sandra Patterson

Let's celebrate 100 years of Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting!

April 10, 2010 will mark the launch of the 3-year celebrations - the 100th day of the 100th year of Girl Guiding & Girl Scouting.

This date will also mark our celebrations in 2011 and 2012.

This activity pack is the first of 3, one each year, which will provide ideas for different age groups to celebrate each year.

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