Quick Start 0.2: Who Can Join Girl Scouts - and How?

Girl Scouts is about sharing the fun, friendship, and power of girls and women together. Any girl—from kindergarten through 12^th grade—can join Girl Scouts. Girl Scout volunteers are also a diverse group-- you may be a college volunteer working on a community action project, a parent volunteer ready for an outdoor adventure with your daughters’ group, or any responsible adult (female or male, who has passed the necessary screening process) looking to make a difference in a girl’s life.

What all members share, whether girls or adults, are the Girl Scout Promise and Law. Each member also agrees to follow safety guidelines and pay the annual membership dues of $12 (adults have the option to purchase a lifetime membership for $300).
 

Girls at Every Grade Level

After girls join, they team up in the following grade levels:

• Girl Scout Daisy, grades K–1

• Girl Scout Brownie, grades 2–3

• Girl Scout Junior, grades 4–5

• Girl Scout Cadette, grades 6–8

• Girl Scout Senior, grades 9–10

• Girl Scout Ambassador, grades 11–12

Flexible Ways to Participate

Across the country, the Girl Scout community is hard at work on a whole new approach to make sure that everyone can participate in Girl Scouting in the ways they want to. As a volunteer, you can choose from flexible ways to participate that offer the freedom to tailor your level of involvement to fit your schedule and lifestyle. You can also volunteer behind the scenes, in your council office, helping with short-term projects such as serving on council and regional task groups, instead of volunteering directly with girls.

During the 2012 membership year (October 1, 2011 – September 30, 2012) GS-TOP will begin the transition into these flexible ways to deliver Girl Scout program. Girls will be able to choose any one, all, or some of the options—camp, events, series, troop, travel, and virtual*— within a single membership year, while you will have the option of partnering with girls throughout a membership year or committing to an opportunity for only a few weeks or months. (*Note that virtual is still in development.)

Based on external independent research and extensive surveys with thousands of council staff members from around the country, we have a good sense of which options will interest girls, based on their grade levels (see the chart below).