223/365 Girl Scout Merger

My girl scout troop has roots at my parish, but is made up mostly of girls not from my parish. The majority come from our school, Oak Grove, and many of the girls live on my street but do not attend our school or the other one with a sizable number of girls, St. Fidelis.

For the most part, up until January, the differences didn't matter much. Girls merged pretty well and played nice together. But now they're older (4th and 5th graders) and the differences are becoming more apparent. I like this--I like that it isn't just an extension of the school day. And the girls do interact with each other in other realms. Several girls who do not attend Fidelis play on their sports teams. Fiona, obviously, fits into two categories, and girls know each other from different churches and neighborhood groups. So it has been good.

But as I've written on my other blog, the January camping trip was a smack in the face for me and for a big group of girls who were present. The three girls who caused all the trouble all happen to attend St. Fidelis. And I was starting to hear a lot of "Fidelis Girls" talk within different groups of girls associated with the troop. There were neighborhood girls, Oak Grove Girls, and Fidelis Girls.

Not that big of a thing, except that Bree's family is seriously considering Fidelis for junior high (Arch Street ends at 6th grade). And Zelda told me this past week that Bree has started worrying that once she goes to Fidelis, that the other troop girls (I suppose the Oak Grove girls, since the neighborhood girls will still know otherwise) will consider her to be a "Fidelis Girl" and look down at her or expect her to screw up.

So after our talent show this afternoon, we had a talk. None of the Fidelis girls, either the ones who caused the trouble or the ones who didn't, was there, but the girls who were there are savvy enough to know exactly what I was saying. We wrote a behavior contract that everyone will sign before we go on another overnight. And one of the things in the contract is that we are a troop, that no matter which school we attend or what our connection is, we are the troop first and foremost and those other delineations need to fall away.

I'm hopeful this will work. I'm hopeful that the girls who caused all the trouble last time will come around and be productive members of the troop. Barring that, I hope they fall away from the troop and move on to different activities. Because I'm not going to be caught off-guard next time. And I'm not going to put up with nonsense anymore.