[alum]

What usually happens in our area that all the girls from a service unit switch in 7th grade to the SU older girl troop. There are some leaders that keep their troop separate, but most are happy to step in the role of an assistant adult leader and take a bit of a break until the current troop leader is ready to "retire." My daughter's troop leader from 7-10th grade had run the troop for 10 years. A older GS troop of 65 members must have a lot of assistant leaders and a head leader who is not a micromanager. Both the past senior leader and the current one have been excellent. The current one had four years of "training" as an assistant adult leader.

In terms of the GS vs. the BS I really wish the Boy Scouts focused on career development a bit more. Our GS Council places senior Girl Scouts on Capitol Hill as volunteer Congressional Aides. The area BS Council does not have a similar program for teen boys.

There is a list on GSUSA for Gold Award Scholarship information. It's mostly women's colleges that issue automatic GA scholarships but there are a couple of co-ed schools. A Gold Award recipient in our council is getting an automatic $5000 scholarship to Randolph-Macon Women's College due to her GA. That plus academic $ will reduce the cost of that school to less than instate at William and Mary (public Virginia school).

Even if my daughter gets no specific $ due to her GA, it has led to her selection in several programs that hopefully will get her into the college of her choice. Again, hoping this will be the same for the younger child.