Trainings

Required Troop Leader Training

You wouldn’t try to build a house without a hammer and nails! The trainings below are the "hammer and nails" you need to build your troop leader skills. The videos are short, fun and interactive! View them at your own pace in your own space. All of these videos are part of the Troop Leadership Pathway in gsLearn.

All trainings are required to complete the learning pathway with the exception of the grade level trainings. You only need to complete the training for the grade level you are leading. if you have a multi-levle troop, choose all grade levels you will be leading. You will also be asked to review our council's volunteer policies and sign a volunteer agreement.

GSUSA Foundation Courses

These four short, interative courses provide an introduction to Girl Scouts! Learn why the Girl Scout program is effective in building girls of courage, confidence and character. Explore strategies to create an inclusive, girl-led space and the role the troop leader plays in setting this framework. Finally, review troop management and operational guidelines around running a troop, as well as avaliable council and service unit support.

All four of the following courses are required.

Foundation 1: The Girl Scout Way

Foundation 2

Foundation 3

Foundation 4

Child Abuse Awareness and Prevention

This essential training helps you spot the signs of possible child abuse, gives you info on how to report any suspicious behavior, and how to keep your girls and yourself safe. This training is required for all volunteers who work directly with girls, and must be repeated every 3 years. The quiz has also been separated out for your convenience. There is a quiz after the video with questions for review. You may want to take notes!

Child Abuse Training Video

Grade Level Training

Choose the Grade Level Training video for your troop to get all the info you need for a great year!

Daisy
Brownie
Junior
Cadette
Senior
Ambassador

Volunteer Toolkit Training

The Volunteer Toolkit is your official source for delivering easy, fun troop meetings year-round! With this step-by-step guide, you can start your troop year strong and spend more time adventuring with your Girl Scouts!

GSUSA Volunteer Toolkit - Troop Leader View

Tools At Your Fingertips

Outdoor Training

You live in a world of screens—smartphone! laptop! TV! tablet!—and sometimes you just want to get away from it all. We get it. Help girls develop the kind of outdoor skills it’s hard to get anywhere else. Skills like building a campfire, pitching a tent, or canoeing across a lake.

Many outdoor activities require additional certification training. We offer a wide variety of outdoor certification courses, so you can safely get your girls into the great outdoors!

Webform to submit Activity Specialist General Recertification

Archery Activity Specialist

Learn the basics of archery, how to instruct students and find out about the Girl Scout Safety Activity Checkpoints related to this sport. Participants skills will be evaluated as to whether they are ready to instruct youth in archery after taking this course.

Backpacking Activity Specialist

During this course, you will learn what to take along, what to leave behind and how to pack it, the importance of proper footwear, and the mechanics involved in backpacking. This workshop will teach you how to backpack safely with respect for the environment. The class will incorporate a hike where you will be able to make use of your newly acquired skills. This course is required to take a troop/group on a lengthy backpacking hike which often involves camping overnight. This is an in-person course.

Camping In

This course is required in order to hold overnight activities with a troop. It is also a prerequisite to Camping Out. Camping In is available as a self-study online.

Camping Out

Do you want to take girls camping in the great outdoors? This course gives you the knowledge and skills to camp in a tent, cook meals over an open fire and practice Leave No Trace camping techniques. You will learn to appreciate the outdoors and pass the love of nature on to the girls. Camping In is a prerequisite for Camping Out. This course is required to take a troop on an overnight camping trip which involves sleeping in tents. Certification in Outdoor Cooking and Fire Building is also included in this course.

Cost of Camping Out - $30

Camping Out Certification – Overnight
Camping Out Training certifies you to take youth camping. Camping In is a pre-requisite.

Canoeing Activity Specialist

This is the basic course for entry-level adults who would like to be qualified to take girls canoeing on non-moving or slow moving waters (small lakes, ponds and slow moving sections of creeks and rivers). This course is required to take a troop/group canoeing. This is an in-person course.

Fire Building Safety

By completing the self-study below, you will be certified to build a simple camp fire that does not involve outdoor cooking with your troop/group. Download the fire building guide, then complete and submit the activity specialist form.

First Aid/CPR

First Aid/CPR training session provided by a certified Red Cross instructor are available depending on location and availablilty. The training provides certification in both First Aid and Adult/Child CPR. If you have a group of 5 or more and would like a training, please email CustomerCare@bdgsc.org to see if one is availble in your area.

We accept training certificates from Red Cross, American Heart Association, and other organizations as long as they provide a hands on training.

Hiking Activity Specialist

Learn the basics of taking your group hiking. Find out what gear you will need, how to plan a hiking trip, safety and emergency procedures. This course is a must for any troop/group that plans to hike. This course is required to take a troop on a hike which involves more than a simple walk around the neighborhood. This is an in-person course.

Knots

Girl Scouts will use several different knots while camping and adventuring in the outdoors. Get started by learning these basic and advanced knots.

The Overhand Knot. It's the most simple knot, but also the most essential to understanding the rest of the upcoming series.
Round Turn & Two Half Hitches Knot. It's a knot with multiple components, but the components are simple and easy to remember.
Clove Hitch. It's a hitch with structure that requires memorization, but the motions are uni-directional and easy to remember.
Square or Reef Knot. It's easy enough - two half hitches stacked on top of each other. However, their relationship to each other is tricky and it's easy to accidentally tie a variation of the square/reef knot rather than the knot itself.
Sheet Bend. This knot requires more specific memorization than the last.
Bowline Knot (pronounced "bowl - in," not "bow-line.") It's essentially the sheet bend, but with a very different application.
Bowline On a Bight (Pronounced "Bowl - in," not "Bow - line"). It has the same structure as the Bowline, but with a much more complicated procedure.
Taut Line Hitch. It's more difficult due to it's many turns and direction changes.
Cleat Hitch. It's easy once you've memorized all the different turns and nit-picky particulars of the knot.
Double Figure Eight knot is complicated. It has many turns, direction changes, and requires a lot of memorization. Once mastered, it is a very useful heavy duty knot.

OWLS Training Weekend (May 13-15, 2022)

Join us for a weekend of camping out with your leader friends! Canoe over a placid lake! Cook in a box oven! Do you want to learn these skills, so you can share the joys of being in the outdoors with your girls? The upcoming O.W.L.S. (Outdoor Weekend Learning Spectacular) training event provides all of these learning opportunities and more! This outdoor training conference will be held at Camp Rocky Ledges near Milton, WV, over the weekend of May 13-15. Come for a weekend getaway to bone up on outdoor skills, make new friends and rejuvenate! Click here to learn about all the available activities and to download a schedule of events.

Wilderness First Aid

Prepare for the unexpected with this fun, hands-on introduction to wilderness medicine, taught over two days. Attendance both days is required.

If you like to take short trips relatively close to medical resources, work at wilderness camps, enjoy weekend family outdoor activities, or just spending time in the outdoors, this course is for you!

This course is great for people of all experience levels and is best suited for those who work and play outdoors where EMS response time can be expected in more than 30 minutes but fewer than 8 hours. This course is strongly recommended for adults who run camps in rural areas (including Rocky Ledges and Camp Gisco!), as well as any Troop Volunteers who take their girls hiking, backpacking or traveling.

You'll learn the Patient Assessment System, how to provide effective first aid treatments for injuries and illnesses common in the outdoors, and how to make appropriate evacuation decisions.

You'll learn both in the classroom and in outdoor settings regardless of weather, so come prepared for wet, muddy, cold or hot environments!

Prerequisites: Participants must be at least 14 years of age to register. Participants must also have a current adult CPR/AED Certification, as well.

Check out our Council Activities page to see upcoming training dates.

Additional Training

Outdoor Videos

Funded by a grant from the Elliott Wildlife Values Project, we created six outdoor-skill-building videos especially for volunteers newer to Girl Scouts and older girl members taking younger girls outside.

Three Processes

How do you incorporate the Three Processes into your troop meeting? This video shows you how!

My GS

My GS is your Girl Scout home base and how you access other great tools to manage the Girl Scout experience for your family and troop! By logging into My GS in the upper right-hand corner you can:

Manage your Girl Scout membership and all the memberships in your household and troop(s).
Find exciting in-person and virtual events for your Girl Scout, your family, or your troop to attend.
Maintain your contact information, preferences and manage any changes within your troop.
Access essential tools like the Volunteer Toolkit and gsLearn to make your Girl Scout volunteer experience a breeze!

gsLearn

gsLearn is Girl Scouts’ official online and on demand training platform. Confident leaders are prepared leaders, and these online learnings will give you all the info you need to be a great troop leader.

gsLearn isn’t just for volunteers! All members have access to this great tool. Click on myGS in the upper right-hand corner to login and check it out.

gsZoom

Zoom is an easy, reliable video conferencing and messaging platform with powerful security, that works across mobile and desktop devices. Safely meet with your Girl Scouts and families through virtual meetings to stay in-touch when meeting in-person is difficult. GsZoom is our unique partnership with Zoom organization to provide this essential product at a vastly reduced price point for our volunteers.