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Level Up!
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Are your girls bridging to a new grade level? Learn more about what that program level means for you as a troop leader. You will learn about developmental milestones, what girl-led looks like at this level, and what programming opportunities are available to girls at their new level. Level Up trainings will be available through gsLearn beginning May 19.
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Camp NOARK Open House
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Camp NOARK's Open House on May 20 is the perfect time to show your camper around our beautiful camp. Come and see all of our improvements and what your lodging will look like for summer camp. You will even get to meet summer camp staff!
Wear your close-toed walking shoes and bring the whole family or troop to this free event! Sign up here.
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Highest Awards Ceremony and Graduating Senior Ceremony
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Join us on June 10 in Springdale as we honor our Girl Scout Silver and Gold Award recipients as well as our graduating seniors. Invitations are being sent to honorees. Questions? Email Bianca Dugger.
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GirlBots Scheduled in Midwest Region for June 24!
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Daisies and Brownies will earn their Design a Robot badge. Juniors through Ambassadors will begin their robot badges to complete later with their troops. All levels will also receive ABB Stem Kits and badges to complete with their troops or on their own.
GirlBots will be held in Fort Smith. Register by June 15; $2 per girl, free for registered Girl Scout adults.
Sesson 1: 10:30am-12pm - Daisies and Brownies
Session 2: 1:30-3pm - Juniors, Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors
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STEAM Center Day Camp
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Join us for a fun week of day camp July 17-21, with NEW extended hours 9 am-5 pm, at Burnham Woods and the STEAM Center. Girls will experience hands-on activities and skill-building opportunities in the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) fields and the outdoors. During camp, girls will participate in a badge series or Journey. Registration includes the entire week. Email steam@girlscoutsdiamonds.org if you have questions.
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Community Events
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Our membership team is frequently at community events and we need your help locating these opportunities. For example, we will be at Bark in the Park at Lake Friarson on May 20 from 8 am to noon. We will connect with this community event by making dog toys to donate to the Humane Society while sharing information about joining Girl Scouts. Please let your membership specialist know about any potential events in your area.
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River Cities Dragon Boat Festival
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The Children’s Protection Center (CPC) is a non-profit, child advocacy and safety center to help abused children. They are looking for older girl or adult volunteers for the River Cities Dragon Boat Festival. This event is a two-day celebration that starts with set up and a kick-off party on June 9 and culminates with a full day of racing and fun on June 10.
Due to policies, Girl Scouts are not able to raise funds on behalf of other organizations, and this includes participating in fund-raising walks/races. However, troops can volunteer to help before or during events
River Cities Dragon Boat Festival video
River Cities Dragon Boat Festival Facebook Page
River Cities Dragon Boat Festival website
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Spring Renewal Notes
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Thank you for participating in Spring Renewal! If you registered for the 2024 Membership Year during Spring Renewal, but you haven’t ordered your Spring Renewal t-shirt, be sure to get your order in soon.
Troops who have earned the shop discount will receive an email at the end of May with details.
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Disbanding Troops
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While we want every troop to join us for another year of fun, friendship and adventure, we understand that responsibilities and schedules change. If your troop is planning to disband, please email training@girlscoutsdiamonds.org. Your regional volunteer experience specialist will walk you through next steps and timelines.
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Corporate Office Move
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We have exciting news to share – especially for our central Arkansas region! We found a new home for our corporate headquarters at 1719 Merrill Drive in Little Rock and will be in place there beginning June 1. We will be sending a separate communication to all members this week.
Our new location offers the accessibility, visibility, convenience, and size we hope will serve our girls, volunteers and staff members well. It is 0.2 miles away from our current location and provides closer frontage to Rodney Parham. There are parking improvements and a large meeting room that will be free for members to use. The Merrill Drive property is roughly 5,300 square feet, which is about half the size of our current location.
The Little Rock retail location will be closed for a short period of time during the move. Please see the retail section below for all the information for the closure and re-opening dates and times.
Please be aware that our staff will continue to work a hybrid office/remote schedule and we highly recommend calling before visiting a physical location (in Little Rock and all our regional offices).
If you find yourself coming to our new location in the next few months, please excuse our mess following the move as we get settled in and spruce things up a bit. We can’t wait to welcome you to our new home!
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NOARK Improvements
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Spring has sprung at Camp NOARK! April was the month of blossoming and growth. Projects included completing new gathering areas at the dining hall, accessibility projects at the Lodge, Dining Hall and Comfort Station, new roads and even a concrete drive from the driveway hill to the barn.
Our Black Hills Energy and AT&T partners assisted in labor projects to clear tree debris, build new hammock hangouts, construct two additional tent platforms at Pooh Corner and hang new curtains at Enchanted Hollow. We are so grateful for the tremendous support from Black Hills Energy at Camp NOARK. This year was extra special as we celebrated a $19,000 donation from Black Hills Energy to Girl Scouts to support ADA improvements at the Dining Hall, barn and the Comfort Station at camp.
The Sutherland Foundation also gifted $25,000 to Camp NOARK for road construction.
We can’t wait for you to come check out these improvements at our Open House on May 20!
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Book the Barn at NOARK
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We are continuing to book weekend horse lessons for the fall, but contact us soon if you want to reserve a date. This year we’ve realized that troops and families are looking for customized experiences rather than pre-designed programs booked through the events calendar. We’re hoping to deliver high-quality customer service by being your one-stop shop to contact, customize and take payment for your group. Build the weekend you want for your family, or troop, or leave the kiddos at home and bring on the adults – the sky’s the limit. We can do individual lessons up to encampment-type experiences. We’re here to help you create a personalized experience at your barn. Email barn@girlscoutsdiamonds.org to get started.
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Troop Year Planner
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NEW! Introducing the Troop Year Planner! Designed to simplify the troop leader experience, Troop Year Plans offer a year packed with a variety of fun and exciting activities progressing across grade levels. With these online or print-ready plans, troop leaders can jumpstart their planning while allowing for girl-led customization.
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Get Your Free Troop Money Bag!
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Troops who submit their annual Troop Financial report through the online VTK Finance Tab by May 31, 2023, will receive a troop money bag. Financials must be complete with supporting paperwork (large attachments can be emailed to dwolverton@girlscoutsdiamonds.org by May 31, 2023). Extension Requests and late submissions will not qualify.
Please see the 2023 Troop and Service Unit Financial Information for information on Troop and Service Unit Annual Financial Reports.
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Important CheckAlert News
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Council staff received notification on April 24, 2023, that CheckAlert LLC will be closing their business on May 31, 2023. CheckAlert LLC is the vendor the council uses for check recovery. We are advising service units/troops/groups to send the letter from Service Unit Talking Points signed by Marie Gieringer, chief financial officer, to their bank prior to May 31. The letter instructs the bank to have all returned checks sent to a signer on the account instead of CheckAlert. The talking points document also includes the CheckAlert Closure Letter to Merchants for your information.
Please know that we are working on a solution for returned checks and will be sending information as soon as possible.
If you have any questions regarding CheckAlert or returned checks, please contact Dana Wolverton, senior troop finance liaison, at dwolverton@girlscoutsdiamonds.org, or 870-558-2533.
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Service Unit Cookie Proceeds Update
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Due to unforeseen circumstances that occurred after planning the 2023 Cookie Program, the product program team is making adjustments to the service unit proceeds structure. The original service unit proceeds structure was $0.04/cookie package with a chance to receive a $0.02 bonus if a service unit met 110% girls selling OR hosted a service unit cupboard. Service units who met the 110% proceeds criteria will still receive $0.06/cookie package sold (base proceeds plus the two-cent bonus). Since service-hosted cupboards were not an option this year due to limited cookie supply, all other service units will receive a one-cent bonus, $0.05/cookie package.
Service unit proceeds processed to service unit accounts on May 12.
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Cookie Rewards
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Cookie rewards will begin shipping to service unit product managers (SUPMs) in the coming weeks. SUPMs should note that shipments are likely to come from multiple vendors. It is recommended SUPMs keep an eye on their email inboxes for shipping notifications. Once shipments arrive, they should be opened immediately and checked for missing or damaged items. Please report missing/damaged items to product@girlscoutsdiamonds.org.
Diamonds Dollars will be emailed directly to troop leaders/product managers. Troop leaders/product managers are responsible for dispersing these to the recipients.
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2022-2023 Product Program Survey
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Volunteers - we want to hear from you! Please complete the 2022-2023 Product Program Survey by May 28, 2023. Your feedback will help the product program team assess areas we do well, areas we could do better, or areas that we need to do differently.
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Important Little Rock Retail Store Relocation Information
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In case you missed it above, we have found a new home for our corporate office. Due to this move, the Little Rock retail store and all retail staff will be unavailable beginning Friday, May 26. This means the team will be unable to fulfill customer orders and will have limited availability to respond to email and phone order inquiries. Please be sure to plan accordingly. Don’t forget that we are always open online at www.girlscoutshop.com.
The Little Rock retail store will re-open on Tuesday, June 6. Stop by and see us in June and July to receive a SWAP that commemorates our new space.
NEW RETAIL STORE HOURS
Tuesday and Thursday
9am-6pm
Closed for lunch 1-2pm
2nd Saturday of the month
10am-2pm
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Merchandise Exchange Form
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Do you need to exchange mission-critical merchandise (badges, uniforms, insignia, resources), but don’t live near a Girl Scouts – Diamonds retail store? We’ve got you covered.
Step 1: Complete the Merchandise Exchange form.
Step 2: Include the completed form along with the merchandise you would like to exchange and ship to the Little Rock retail store location.
Step 3: A retail specialist will contact you regarding any questions or needed payment
Step 4: A retail specialist will ship the exchanged items to you free of charge.
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