Mail Chimp Rocks!

What exactly is Mail Chimp?   CLICK HERE

An awesome new way to communicate with your troop parents and it is FREE!  Whether this service is used for your Service Unit or your personal troops, you will find this electronic newsletter a dream!  While creating and hosting a troop website is wonderful, it is time consuming and often under-utilized.  Mail Chimp allows you to create professional looking newsletters ABSOLUTELY FREE (I am still shaking my head over this.)  If you are familiar with Constant Contact the transition to this free service is pretty simple.  

For you techy friends there are a few disadvantages: 1) you cannot attach files, total bummer.  I place my files on my website host and point readers to the location using a URL address.  For those of you who don't understand what I just said, I suggest you insert a photo of a PDF file or attachment and sum up the flier in the body of the text box.

Another disadvantage: 2) for whatever reason the program does not like gmail addresses.  So when you enter the from address and you place a gmail address for contact information (and this must be done) it will flag the system every time and you either "accept the risk" or change it to a different email.  I guess gmail has some new security precautions in place that may prevent the newsletter from delivering or being opened by readers. 

Finally the program does take some time to learn.  It is pretty user friendly, but on occasion you may find yourself scrambling to complete an otherwise simple act like sending the newsletter.  It has taken me several times of using the program for it to become intuitive. In other words there can be a learning curve.  

The Good News: you can't screw up the program.  If you are willing to learn and spend some time by trial and error, you can put together an AWESOME looking email in a matter of minutes.  And you will get faster each time you make a newsletter.  It's worth the initial investment of time because in the near future you will be able to publish a professional looking newsletter quickly.  Plus, you can send to a list of readers instantly without having to enter emails over and over.  You can designate groups too.  So in my case I have Troop 4005 and all the parent emails as one group, group #2 4036 and group #3 my service unit leaders.  

TIP:  There is a difference between a "Template" and a "Campaign".  This was confusing for me at first.  Once you create your 1st newsletter save it as a "Template".  Then in the future you can pull up the template erase the unwanted info and add new info and the newsletter will have the same format and look.  Each newsletter that you create and SEND is considered a Campaign.  These campaigns will be saved in an archive so you can see what you have sent in the past or resend it if necessary.

CLICK HERE is a completed newsletter I recently sent to my Service Unit Leaders recapping our recent service unit meeting.  This is a great way to keep your leaders connected and it is easy for leaders to access resources.  Hopefully this will fuel ideas for your own troop(s) and service unit.

Junior Flower Badge by Ginger Forst

Networking is extremely important as a leader.  You can get some great ideas talking with other leaders.  For this reason I have several ladies I like to brainstorm with over lunch.  My go-to-gal is Ginger Forst, she has lots of great ideas to share.   She recently completed the Flower Badge with her Junior Troop and I can't wait to use her ideas so I thought I would share them with you too!  She was kind enough to submit a Guest Blog Post.  ENJOY!

Before the meeting:

In preparation for this badge, I had my girls press flowers at home.  We were going to be making bookmarks with pressed flowers.  I did find a video on YouTube that showed how to press flowers in the microwave, which was very helpful.  This way they can be done in a matter of minutes versus days.  I did not have access to a microwave at our meeting location, so having them prepare them at home ahead of time was perfect…plus it got the parents involved too!

Here’s a video https://youtu.be/wGQJPVrgpjc

I also took time prior to the meeting to shop for flowers.  The girls were going to make a bouquet for one of the steps.  Shop around for the best prices.  I was able to get three bunches for $10 at Central Market.  Trader Joe’s has great prices too.  Select flowers in a variety of shades (for example, I had many different shades of yellow flowers for the girls to choose from) as well as two different colors that would go well together.  I chose purple since it was the complimentary color of yellow.  Remember to purchase some filler (green leaves).  I have a small troop and I still spent a good amount of money on flowers.  If you are working on a tight budget, you could suggest that parents donate flowers.  Sometimes local nurseries or grocery store flower shops will donate some flowers when you purchase flowers from their store.

You’ll also need:

Vases – I chose to purchase mason jars, but Dollar Tree has a large selection of vases

Ribbon- to tie around vases if desired (Dollar Tree again)

Sachets- Dollar Tree, in the Baby Shower Party favor section- 6 for $1!  (see photo)

Dried Flowers- I bought some potpourri at Hobby Lobby and some Lavender from Amazon

Bulbs- I bought a box of hyacinth from Sam’s Club

White Carnations- at least one for each girl

Cardstock- cut into bookmark size, any color you like

A laminator- hopefully you have access to one or packing tape to laminate!

Flower snips/scissors for cutting stems for the arrangements

For the steps:

1. Uncover the Science of one Flower- I chose to let the girls take home five bulbs to plant for the “Grow your Flower” choice.  They were able to choose the bulbs and put them in a baggie, along with photocopied instructions on how to plant them.  You could actually have little pots and soil and they could plant them at your meeting.  
2. Look Under the Petals- Dye A Flower using food coloring- Again, this task was to be sent home.  I had planned to dye the carnations with the girls at the meeting, but as I researched it, I found out that it can take hours for the carnation to start to change colors!  So, they each took a carnation home.  I asked them each to send me a photo of their dyed carnation.  I also suggested they have an adult split the carnation up the stem with scissors (carefully) and place each half of the stem in different colored water.  I won’t tell you what happens, but it’s pretty cool!
3. Find Out How Flowers Help People- Flowers are Healers- For this, I brought my own essential oil diffuser which I had on for the meeting.  I brought about 10 different essential oils for them to smell, along with a print out of common oils from flowers and their uses for them to learn about. Also the girls created potpourri sachets with lavender to place in a drawer at home. 
4. Have Fun with Flowers- Dried Flower Art- The girls glued their dried flowers to bookmarks and laminated them.  I also had a hole punch handy along with some scrap ribbon that they could add to the top of their bookmark if they desired.  They turned out really cool!
5. Send a Message in Flower Code- Make an Arrangement- I printed out some “meanings of flowers” to look at with the girls.  You can find a lot of them on Pinterest.  However, the florist that I spoke to said that not to get too caught up in the “message” of the color and that is really an old fashioned idea.  She suggested that if the person that you are giving the flowers to likes it, then that’s all that matters!   

I had the girls watch a video about arranging flowers and then they created their own flower arrangement.  They turned out beautiful and most importantly the girls loved the hands-on activities.

https://youtu.be/ZrjD5V05xZE

This badge did take quite a bit of prep work, but it was a blast!  The girls loved it and so did I!