Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Climate Challenge Patch Workshop

WHO: Girls in grades 5-12

DATE & TIME: 17th August 2024, 11 AM - 12 PM

COST: Free

LOCATION (in person): 10215 E McDowell Mountain Ranch Rd, Scottsdale, AZ 85255
The session will take place in Room 2 of the Arabian Library.


**If you are interested in attending the event in-person, register as soon as possible because the space is limited.

The event will also be offered over Zoom on August 25, from 11AM-12 PM.  Please sign up for the Zoom session here.

DESCRIPTION: Our climate is changing. Carbon and other greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere. This causes hotter summers and warmer winters. Glaciers are melting, changing beaches and shorelines. Animals and plants are losing their habitats. Weather is more extreme with droughts, hurricanes, and blizzards. The Girl Scout Climate Change Challenge Patch is an opportunity for you to deepen your knowledge about climate change and learn how you can help improve the situation; putting you at the center of science and community action. 

This event is geared towards girls 5th-12th grade, however, if there are younger girls interested feel free to join. PLEASE NOTE that by attending the event you will meet all the requirements needed to earn the patch, however, you will need to purchase the patch will need to be purchased after the event.

MATERIALS: Please bring a charged device (even your phone should be good enough) and a water bottle to keep yourself hydrated.

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

May News

2023-2024 CALENDAR

May 2024

June
June 17-21: Neighborhood Day Camp (full, please join the waitlist)

2024-2025

TENTATIVE 2024-2025 Calendar

AUGUST & SEPTEMBER
Recruitment Event: Pool Party
Recruitment Event: Ice Skating
Recruitment Event: Brownie Badge Workshop
Recruitment Event: Junior Badge Workshop
Recruitment Event: Ice Cream Social

SEPTEMBER
Recommended Troop Activity: Ballet Under the Stars
 
OCTOBER
October 18-20, Encampment, Willow Springs
October 30-31, Haunted Yard

NOVEMBER
Recommended Troop Activity: ASU Earth and Space Exploration Day
November 2 (tentative), Juliette Low Birthday Party
November 4, Cookie Training

DECEMBER
Recommended Troop Activity: Hike Pinnacle Peak (holiday story usually can be found along the trail during the month of December)
December 4 or 11, Leader's Holiday Social

JANUARY
January 10, Cookie Rally
January 18 or 19, Cookie Delivery
January 20, Cookie Sales Begin

FEBRUARY
February 23, Thinking Day
February 28-March 2, Encampment at Marapai

MARCH
Recommended Troop Activity: McDowell Sonoran Preserve Family Day

APRIL
April 7, Leader's Gala
April 18-20, Pima Camp Jammin' at Parson's
April 30, Older Girl Bridging

MAY

June
Day Camp

Monday, May 13, 2024

Food Handler's Cards

Want to help Pima continue to offer GREAT encampments? Get a food handler's card
and volunteer to do a shift in the kitchen.  Pima runs its own kitchen under the guidance of Mike Grant. The food is always plentiful, delicious, and cost-effective.  Mike can't do it alone though and even pitching in for one meal service helps us continue this great approach to meals.  

To work in the kitchens, however, you need a food handler's card.  Cards are easy and inexpensive to attain (usually less than $10).  


Here is an example: https://www.efoodcard.com/  The course is completely online and should take less than an hour.  You get your credentials are available to download immediately and are valid for three years.


Other courses: 

https://www.azfoodhandlers.com/ 

https://foodserviceprep.com/

Please direct questions to Lee.

Friday, May 10, 2024

Volunteer Recognitions 2024

Volunteers of Excellence

For outstanding service providing the Girl Scout Leadership Experience to girls or supporting building girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place.

  • Ariana Schein
  • Austin Banghart
  • Lia Ryan
  • Tina Langevin
  • Annie Cheang
Sustained Service Awards

The Sustained Service Award recognizes individuals for their continued outstanding service for 3 years after receiving the Volunteer of Excellence Award.
The following volunteers were received the sustained service award. We are particularly grateful to these long-serving volunteers of excellence.
  • Kelley Hurley
  • Melissa Caramucci
  • Liz Sinkwitz
  • Penelope Plache
  • Serena Schein

Standing Ovation Awards

The Standing Ovation award recognizes a product program volunteer (Fall or Cookie) who has gone above and beyond the expected product sales duties and given service of exceptional benefit which warrants recognition. 

Each year Pima uses this award to recognize individuals for their service to the council in working at the cookie cupboard and for those leaders and cookie managers whose troops post high sales numbers in the product sales, as well as those who manage multiple troops and who volunteer for cookie distribution and cookie rally.

Thank you and congratulations to the following:
  • Amanda Borg 
  • Cari Allen 
  • Kiri Arnold 
  • Mary Heath 
  • Jenn Kelly 
  • Colleen Crosby 
  • Devon Vero 
  • Stacy Reeves 
  • Amber Beamish 
  • Jessica Salanic 
  • Hillary Cuda 
  • Kaitlyn Verbanic 
  • Melissa Jamshidi 
  • Elizabeth Tolson
  • Adrianna Hagan 
  • Jennifer Oh 
  • Kelly Prikyl 
  • Kat Ford 
Rising Star Awards

Rising Star Awards are given to outstanding new troop leaders and recognizes a volunteer during their first three years for service beyond the expectations for the position. We particularly recognize this group of Rising Stars for their perseverance in the last two difficult years. Pima's 2024 Rising Stars are as follows:
  • Jessica Holemon
  • Beth Garcia
  • Jennifer Ross
  • Kim Handy
  • Anna Boon
  • Anh Clayhold
  • Julia Rutledge
  • Abigail Ganser
  • Kortney Hohle
  • Jessica Starost
  • Valerie Davis
Years of Service
Three years of service pins: Abigail Ganser, Kate Janson, Anh Clayhold, Anna Boon, Beth Garcia, Emily Paladino, Jennifer Ross, Jessica Holemon, Jessica Starost, Julia Rutledge, Karen Conner, Kim Handy, Kortney Hohle, Lori H, Paula Coulter, and Valerie Davis

Five years of service pins: Anita Rawlings, Cheryl Graham, Cinda Heeren, Jennifer Oh, Jessica Useleber, Jyoti Pillai, Laura McNelis, Monica Foster, Russ Perry, Susan Baer, and Sarah Harris

10 years of service pins: Nadia Day and Penelope Plache

15 years of service pins: Teresa Dempsey, Brandy Altstadter, Emiko Bolton, and Andrea Brugger

The following pins will be handed out at the council event in the fall:

25 years of service: Sandy Stratton

35 years of service: Diana Laulainen-Schein

Numeral Guards
Numeral guards are awarded for every five years of membership (girl + adult years). The following members received guards:
Five-year guards: Cheryl Graham, Jessica Useleber, Jyoti Pillai, Russ Perry, Angelina Paz, Anna Boon, Jessica Rough, Kaitlyn Verbanic, Karen Conner, Kim Handy, Jennifer Oh, Monica Foster, Sarah Harris, Susan Baer, and Paula Coulter

10-year guards: Brenda Kimery

15-year guards: Melissa Caramucci

20-year guard: Brandy Altstadter

25-year guard: Sandy Stratton


Finance Reports


All Financial Reports must be completed online.  To do this, you must log onto the Girl Scouts Arizona Cactus-Pine website and go to "My GS."  Once logged in, select "Volunteer Toolkit" and then "Finances."  The online form will then load to fill in using the numbers from your detailed cash report.

Please upload a copy of your last bank statement and your detailed cash report when you submit your finance report.  Council has provided this handy-dandy instruction guide to help you with these tasks.

Troop Finance reporting is a condition of auditing and must occur yearly.  The due date for submission is June 30th but we highly recommend you complete this by the end of May before the summer lull hits.  Early registration incentives will not be received by troop who do not complete their finance report on time.

Please direct questions to the Lesley, our neighborhood money manager, or to Karel Shoger who can be reached at council via: banking@girlscoutsaz.org

Friday, May 3, 2024

Communication Information and Guidelines


Need to post about an event you are hosting? Want to send out an email reminder? Read through these guidelines to make it happen.  

Please be mindful that we are all volunteers and requests for information to be sent out immediately may not be possible. It is best to plan ahead :)  

All requests for blog posts, emails, and Facebook posts (for those without an accounts) should be sent to pima.neighborhood@gmail.com.

BLOG POST

In an email, send your blog post with the Who, What, When, and Where details
written as you would like it to appear. Do not send this information via Word document, text, jpg, or pdf because those do not allow for a cut and paste of the information.  

It is best to already have your sign up form completed so that the link can be included in the original blog post.  We generally use Google forms for sign ups.  Please add pima.neighborhood@gmail.com and pimamoneymanager@gmail.com as "editors" to any forms you create.

Be sure to include costs and how to pay. Reminder, troops must pay for all neighborhood events must be troop checks written out to Pima Neighborhood.  Individual families only may pay via Venmo for their own expenses only. Venmo details and physical addresses for individuals will NOT be published on the web.  It is best to look at old posts to see how this is handled.

Attach a jpg of any clipart you'd like to include and send request to pima.neighborhood@gmail.com. 

It is best to announce any neighborhood event at least two months in advance to ensure good attendance.  Experience also suggests that events discussed at the monthly leaders' meeting have better attendance.

EMAIL

The blog is our main vehicle to disseminate information. Our email account is nothing fancy and is monitored by a single individual with no ability for recipients to "unsubscribe." Many individuals are sensitive to the number of emails they receive and, although we may not view our email as "junk," recipients often do not feel the same way.  Additionally, Gmail also considers the account a nuisance if we send out too many group emails in a short period of time and flags the account if that happens, shutting it down for a period of time.


For this reason, we almost always used eBudde ONLY to convey information to leaders and cookie managers about the cookie sale. Please do not turn off your notification settings in eBudde since you will be cutting off your only avenue for important information.  Cookie email requests will always be re-directed back to eBudde.


Within these parameters, the neighborhood strives to send no more that two to three emails a month, including a monthly meeting agenda with a summary of "what's happening" and otherwise only for urgent information.  We do our best to combine information; therefore the email list is not to be used for "reminders" unless absolutely necessary.  Once an event is off the ground, please use the participant list to target those attending.

If you believe an email is necessary, please write the email you want sent, complete with your contact information.  Do not send an email that says "please send an email" without providing the text you want sent out. Doing this prevents misunderstandings about the information you wish to convey and saves time. An email asking for an email without the text you wish to send will simply generate a response to provide the text.

FACEBOOK

Everyone does not have a Facebook account but many do so do not count this avenue out as a way to disseminate information.  The account is private and once you are a member you can post information.  Please be mindful that the site is to be used only to share information about Girl Scouts but otherwise, you are free to post as you please.

If you do NOT have Facebook account, you can send a request for your information to be posted to pima.neighborhood@gmail.com. Do not send pdfs.  They cannot be posted.  If you have a graphic to post, it must be sent as a jpeg. Otherwise, follow the same guidelines as with an email and send the text and contact information you wish to have posted.

OTHER COMMUNICATION OPTIONS

Finally, the service team continually reviews our communications options.  Group sites like Rallyhood are only as good as individuals' willingness to use the platform. Repeatedly, we have been told that another app is not the answer so until we find a better route that everyone is willing to use, these are the chosen routes.  You are welcome to suggest other solutions and also to advertise your event through any means, but experience suggests these three routes are best.

Send questions to pima.neighborhood@gmail.com

Friday, March 29, 2024

Early Registration


Early Registration for 2024-2025 starts on April 1.  Here are the incentives available;

Incentives to Troops 

Register your troop by April 15

Any troop who registers at least five girls and two adults by April 15 will be entered into a drawing for a MY25 Cookie Kit which includes a wagon, yard signs, table, tablecloth, Girl Scout branded canopy, and a feather flag sign. 20 winners will be selected.

Register from April 1 to April 30

  • Exclusive Cookie Booth Round for the 2025 season
  • Renew at least five girls and two adults to be eligible. 

Register from April 1 - May 30*

  • Receive up to four free troop leader membership renewals.  
  • Troops with 5-9 girls – two troop leader registration fees paid.
  • Troops with 10-15 girls – three troop leader registration fees paid.
  • Troops with 16+ girls – four troop leader registration fees paid. 

*To take advantage of this offer, Renew the girls in your troop by April 30 (Do not renew the leaders who will be registered for free), and submit this brief form to tell us which leaders you would like us to renew. 

Register from April 1 – June 30

  • Receive the 2025 Early Registration Patch. 

Incentives to Service Units

Service Units that renew 60% or higher will receive 50% off their 2024 encampment fees (percentage off is limited to building reservations only).