Walnut Creek Service Unit Meeting

Minutes

January 6, 2005

Meeting started at 6:35 p.m. with the flag ceremony.

Nelda Kammlah

Nelda Kammlah, a WCSU Girl Scout Leader/parent, passed away on January 1, 2005, from breast cancer.  Penny passed a card around for her family that the leaders could sign expressing their prayers and wishes for the family.

Cookie Booths

Nelda Jones passed out the cookie booth list and data.  The troop cookie coordinators/leaders drew numbers for booth selections for the first weekend of cookies sales.  The leaders/coordinators selected booth in the order of the number they drew and each troop had two rounds to select booths.  Some cookie booth news/reminders:

• Marketplace wants the girls to set up inside the store on 5^th and Rodeo (aisles are labeled with street names).  This is towards the back of the store.
• We have two new RaceTraks to sell at this year.
• At Wal-Mart, make sure the table and/or girls are at least 10 ft from the door. 
• At any booth, have the girls ask the customers only on their way out.
• At any location, do not ask to set up inside the store.  If the manager offers this to you, then that is fine, but we can not ask.
• Cookie booth coordinators/leaders may call Nelda on Thursday, January 13^th from 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. for additional booths for the first weekend of sales and for the rest of the first week.

Junior Day

Junior Day this year will be hosted by Troop 259 and is offered to all Juniors and bridging Brownies.  The Troop is tying Junior day into “Explore UT: The Biggest Open House in Texas!”, a program being offered by UT.  The girls will be able to explore more than 300 activities and events from the following categories:  Arts Adventures, Cultural Crossroads, Engineering Expeditions, Public Service Passageway, Science Safari and Longhorn Trail.  It will be on Saturday, March 5^th from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the University of Texas.   There is no fee to attend this event and no registration is needed.  Troop 259 will get the girls together for a sack lunch some time during the day.  Contact Carrie Manongdo at: cmanongdo@austin.rr.com    to let her know if any of your girls want to participate.  Arrangements will be made to coordinate.

Trail of Lights

There were 247 volunteers and seven service units represented.  The service units joining WCSU for this event were Bluebonnet Valley, Circle Tree, Sunnyside, Lakeline, PAW and Oak Hill for a total of 7 service units.  Suggestions for next year included stressing to the city to start the Trail at exactly 7 p.m. and end by 10:15 p.m.  It was also suggested that we have a couple of volunteers from our service unit to help at the volunteer booth next year.  Melida Barrera of troop 2047 and Sheri Medina of troop 259, volunteered to man the hot chocolate booth!

BAIR Foundation

Sixty-three kids were helped by the following service units that participated in this endeavor: WCSU, Southern Oaks, Ladybird, Circle Tree, Boy Scout Scorpion Patrol, Southwood, Del Valle, Lakeline, West Round Rock, Monarch, Songbird, PAW, Red Poppy, and Westwood for a total of 13 Girl Scout service units and 1 Boy Scout group.  The BAIR Foundation sent a Christmas card thanking WCSU for their assistance.

Thurman Heights Project

PJ knew of one family that lived in Thurman Heights that needed help decorating their walls to help soundproof the rooms.  This family has since been assisted, but PJ was sure there were other families that needed assistance if you wanted to help out.  She will keep us apprised of any need that may come up in the future.

Christmas Tree Recycling

WCSU will help the city with the Christmas tree recycling on Saturday, January 8^th from 9:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. at Zilker Park.  Becky passed around a sheet confirming the numbers for each troop that were participating.  Becky suggested that everyone wear long sleeves and bring a knife to help cut the tree bindings.

Wal-Mart Grant

WCSU was given another $500 grant ($1,000 total now) to be used to help the senior citizens in our area.  Carrie’s troop (259) is working on their Bronze Award and is planning to gear it towards helping the senior citizens and possibly using some of this money.  They are planning to complete their Bronze Award by December 2005.  If your troop would be interested in using some of this money to help a senior citizen group, then send Penny or Christy an e-mail outlining what you plan on doing with the money.  One idea that Carrie had was to help with the “Be a Santa to a Senior” program, that involves Wal-Mart putting out a tree each year that has gift tags on it that express the needs of some of the senior citizens in our area.

Thinking Day

This is now listed in the most current Possibilities that should go out next week.  To ensure that any new girls in your troops (or any new troops) receive their possibilities, send an e-mail to Michaelle Pomerleau, our MDE at Council.  Her e-mail address is michaellep@girlscouts-lonestar.org.

Penny is going to have the tables arranged in the same order as the passports.  If your troop needs an electrical outlet, let Penny know as soon as possible. The following people have signed up to help Penny with Thinking Day: 

• Nancy G. is making the passports
• Elizabeth  will be covering check-in
• Raechel S. is covering the WAGGS booth and PJ is now going to assist her.
• Melida Barrera will be in charge of the Parade of Nations.
• Heather Cook will be in charge of the opening flag ceremony.

E-mail your troops passport questions to Penny as soon as possible.  Penny will send out Thinking Day Guidelines to everyone.

The countries to be represented at Thinking Day so far are:

Ghana – Troop 181             Greece – Troop 1452/1274             Italy – Troop 22

Japan – Troop 259              India – Troop 359                        Peru – Troop 224

Australia – Troop 87            Samoa – Troop 172                      Switzerland – Troop 2047

Canada – Troop 67             Jamaica – Troop 1996                             The Netherlands – Troop 16

Brazil – Troop 324               Gambia – Troop 305/309

Christy has the historically speaking binders for certain countries, for those that are interested.  Please email her at Christy_currey@hotmail.com or call her at 796-0669 to borrow a booklet.

Thinking Day will be held on Saturday, February 26^th from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. at MUMC.  All participants must be there by no later than 9am to get their tables set up. 

Feedback from last year’s Thinking Day was that it was too crowded and this was because one of the rooms weren’t unlocked. 

The Lone Star Council will keep 10 % of profits from this event.  Last year the cost was $10/girl and adults were supposed to be charged $5, but the money wasn’t taken from the adults.  The fees are $10 a girl and $5 an adult.

It was voted that leaders wanted patches to be available at the Thinking Day event.  Penny polled the leaders so that she could get a count of how many patches she needed to order.  Penny will order extra patches so that the people attending this event from outside of the Service Unit may purchase a patch while at Thinking Day.

P.S. patches are ordered and there is a $.15 discount from the $1.50 cost of the patch.  Bring your troop checkbooks and be ready to let your girls and adults go home with a TD 2005 patch.

Cookie Buttons

To use the council button machine we have to do so at the annex.  If you are able to help Penny and Sheri make buttons for the service unit, go to the council annex anytime on Friday, January 14^th from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Applebee’s Fundraiser

The Applebee’s at 183/I-35 will give all their lunch and dinner proceeds on Monday, January 17^th (MLK Day) to Girl Scouts.  25% of the funds will go to Friends of Girl Scouting and 75% will go to our Service Unit.  Penny needs girls to help greet people and represent Girl Scouts from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Applebee’s.   So far, the following people have signed up:

• 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.      -         Becky Chen and Karrie Mannella (and girls)
• 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.        -         Dixie Paulos and Peggy Rutherford (and girls)
• 2 p.m. – 3 p.m.        -         PJ   (and daughter)

Everyone needs to e-mail Penny as soon as possible if you or anyone from your troop are able to help with this and what time you would like to sign up for. 

Cookie Delivery

Cookie delivery will be on Saturday, January 8^th from 12 p.m. – 2:45 p.m. at Bel-Air Delivery in Pflugerville.  The address is 2411 Patterson Industrial Drive.

P.S. It went great and thanks so much for everyone’s help! You all are awesome!

The meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m. while the cookie booth selections continued.

Minutes submitted by:

Jamie Riscen

1-10-05