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Tips, Tools, and Ideas for Planning a Great Virtual Meeting 

Keep the Girl Scout spirit strong, no matter where you are.

Planning virtual meetings can feel quite different from the in-person meetings we’re used to: can you successfully engage your girls through their screens? Can you keep your troop’s favorite traditions going virtually? The answer is yes! 

Use this sample agenda and the following tips to prepare for your virtual meeting and get ready to have fun with your girls, wherever their “meeting spaces” may be. 

Sample Virtual Meeting Agenda: Daisy & Brownie
Sample Virtual Meeting Agenda (45-60 min): Daisy & Brownie
  • Welcome (5 minutes)
    • Give girls a few minutes to join the meeting and get settled.
    • Encourage the girls to take this time to chat with each other before the official meeting begins.
       
  • Promise and Law (2-5 minutes)
    • Recite the Promise and Law together. Ask girls to keep themselves muted as they follow your lead. Internet connectivity issues can cause a lag in audio, which can be discouraging and frustrating for the girls when they aren’t hearing themselves in unison.
    • You can encourage girls to have their cameras on, but it shouldn’t be required.
    • Review the ground rules or use this time to create list together.
  • Program Activity (15-20 minutes)
    • Whether it’s badge work or just something fun, the main activity should take up the bulk of your meeting time.  Here are some tips.
  • Social Activity (10-20 minutes)
    •  Play a game, make a snack, or take a dance break to keep everyone happy and connected. Explore examples of activities.
    • Use the same activity at each meeting or try different ones—it’s entirely up to you!
  • Closing (5 minutes)
    • Prep for Your Next meeting 
    • Wind down your meeting by singing “Make New Friends.” Just as you did with the Promise and Law, ask the girls to mute their microphones and follow your lead.
  • Friendship Circle (2-5 minutes)
    • Encourage the girls to share this special time of the meeting with a sibling or even their favorite stuffed animal.  
    • Just as you would with an in-person meeting, ask them to cross their arms and give them a moment to squeeze their own hand (by making a fist) to virtually pass on the squeeze.  
    • Then, on the count of three, instruct the girls to lift their arms over their heads to virtually “twist out” to close the meeting.
Sample Virtual Meeting Agenda: Junior, Cadette, Senior & Ambassador

Sample Virtual Meeting Agenda (60-90 min): Junior, Cadette, Senior, Ambassador

  • Welcome (2-5 minutes)
    • Give girls a few minutes to join the meeting and get settled.
    • Encourage the girls to take this time to chat with each other before the official meeting begins. 
  • Promise and Law (2-5 minutes)
    • Recite the  Promise and Law  together. Ask girls to keep themselves muted as they follow your lead. Internet connectivity issues can cause a lag in audio, which can be discouraging and frustrating for the girls when they aren’t hearing themselves in unison.
    • You can encourage girls to have their cameras on, but it shouldn’t be required.
  • Program Activity (30-45 minutes) 
    • Whether it’s badge work or just something fun, the main activity should take up the bulk of your meeting time.  Here are some tips.
  • Social Activity (30-45 minutes)
    • Play a game, cook a treat, or do a special activity keep everyone happy and connected. Explore examples of activities.
    • Ask girls to take turns leading an activity each week. 
  • Closing (2-5 minutes)
    • Prep for Your Next meeting 
  • Friendship Circle (2-5 minutes)
    • Create a new way to close your virtual meeting with your girls. For example, share “roses & thorns” or a wish for the coming week and close out with a spin and say “See you later, Girl Scouts”. 

 

Conducting a Virtual Meeting

  • Consider adapting the length and/or frequency of virtual meetings. Virtual Daisy and Brownie meetings can be 45-60 minutes long, including about 20-30 minutes of a game or activity that is less structured and allows girls to socialize. Virtual meetings for Juniors and older can be 60-90 minutes long, including 30-45 min of game or social time.

  • Stretch badges and Journeys into more meetings. Building in social time is so important for your girls right now, and it’s totally OK if badges and Journeys take a little more time to accomplish in a virtual space! 

  • Tap into the Volunteer Toolkit. Use the search field on the Volunteer Toolkit to look for “Virtual Friendly” badges and Journeys that have been adapted for online troop meetings. Hint: you can also use these  suggestions to adapt group work, field trips, and more!

  • Keep the sisterhood strong. You’ll have fun working on badges virtually, of course, but also take time during each meeting to just relax and be silly together. This strengthens the bonds among the girls during times of social distancing or when they can’t be together in person—it’s what Girl Scout sisterhood is all about! 

Here are some suggestions for adapting badge or journey work for a digital setting.

  • Develop ground rules. To keep your troop girl-led, work with the girls to establish rules that everyone can agree to, like when to keep cameras and microphones on or off, or raising hands when girls want to speak.  

  • Keep your supply list simple. Remember, not all families have lots of craft supplies on hand. Consider activities that stick to the basics—crayons, paper, scissors, and glue—and give families advance notice if you will require additional supplies. 

  • Be flexible with timing. You might budget one hour for your meeting, but not all meetings will run that long—especially if you have younger girls with shorter attention spans. It’s perfectly OK to end the meeting early if you’ve accomplished everything on your agenda! Younger girls will be able to concentrate on a single task for only about 20 minutes, so plan your meeting in short sections!

Supplies for a Virtual Meeting

Girls and families may already have some basic supplies to power a fun, hands-on meeting activity at home, but you’ll want to give troop families a heads up about what the girls will need on-hand at least one day before the meeting. If an activity requires supplies that might not be easily accessible, give families more notice to gather the materials, and provide potential substitutions wherever possible.

Everyday Supplies

Families are likely to have these items at home and easily accessible:

  • Crayons
  • Markers
  • Glue
  • Glue sticks
  • Children’s Scissors
  • Plain paper
  • Construction Paper
  • Tape

Supplies That Require Advance Notice

When planning activities that use these supplies, consider providing substitutions if families don’t have the exact item on hand:

  • Printouts of meeting handouts
  • Toilet paper tube or empty paper towel roll
  • Paint
  • Pipe cleaners
  • Pom poms
  • Glitter glue
  • Stickers
  • Cardstock