Q. What’s the format for The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting?
A. The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting include badges, handbook sections, awards log, accessory pages, and more.  (Daisies earn Petals instead of badges.) Each level has its own Girl’s Guide and is presented in a beautiful standard-size binder. 

Q. How do journeys and badges work together?
A. The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting works with national leadership journeys to add skill-building to the leadership skills girls learn through the three keys of Discover, Connect, and Take Action.  Journeys are the only program resources that cover all 15 outcomes.  Badges build specific skills and are primarily aimed at the Discover “Girls develop a strong sense of self” outcome.  National leadership journeys and The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting make up the program portfolio. 

Q. What badge categories are included in The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting?
A. National proficiency badge categories within The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting includes Legacy, Financial Literacy, Cookie Business, Skill-Building, and Make Your Own badges. 

Q. What are the sections in the Girl’s Guide?
A. The three sections are: Handbook, Badges, and My Girl Scouts. More specifically, the Girl’s Guide includes the grade-level handbook; requirements for Legacy, Financial Literacy, and Cookie Business badges, and Make Your Own badges; information about earning Bridging and Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards (for Juniors through Ambassadors); and accessory pages such as scrapbooking pages.

Q. What can be added in?
A. Skill-Building Badge Activity sets can be added.  A set includes the requirements for badges tied to each of the three journeys. The first three sets will include requirements for five badges. All physical badges are purchased separately and individually.

Q. What is the difference between Service and Take Action projects?
A. When girls pursue service projects, they are addressing an immediate short-term need in the community. When girls pursue Take Action projects, they take time to identify and understand the root cause of the issue they are addressing.  For example, as service projects, girls might organize a book or clothing drive, paint walls to cover up graffiti, or hold a one-time march or fair to highlight a community problem. Although these projects address a need in the community, they do so for only a short period of time.

A Take Action project picks up from where a short-term project leaves off. For example, girls organizing the book or clothing drive could start a Take Action project by creating a clothes closet for the community. The girls who painted the walls to cover up graffiti can create a club that travels around the city painting beautiful murals on buildings that have been defaced. And the girls who held the march or fair could expand the event to include community artisans and make it an annual gathering.

An easy way to remember the difference between short-term service projects and Take Action projects rests on whether the project is being done for the community or with the community. If a girl is doing something for the community, most likely she is working on a short-term service project. If she is doing something with the community, she is working on a Take Action project.

Q. Why is GSUSA eliminating the XYZ badge?  It was a popular badge girls loved.
A. In developing The Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting, GSUSA carefully reviewed all Try-Its, badges, Interest Projects, and other awards. Many had not been revised in more than a decade and were obsolete or outdated.  With the launch of the Girl’s Guide, requirements for the revised badges—developed specifically for each grade level—will reflect the most current information on a range of topics. Also, badges are housed in a binder format so new badges and updates can be added easily.  Lastly, content is written with a multi-disciplinary approach, meaning that specific interests, such as geology and architecture, can be woven into badge and journey activities and experiences.