The Volunteer Toolkit (VTK) is an awesome digital tool to help you manage your time and your troop. You can use it to renew troop members, communicate with caregivers, plan your year, track attendance and badges earned, and submit your troop’s finances. Girl Scouts of the USA maintains this resource and will continue to update content and features to better meet the needs of our busy Girl Scout volunteers. So consider it your new digital assistant!

Have you taken it for a test drive yet? You haven’t? Then it’s time to check it out for yourself. Sign up for one of our volunteer learning webinars (choose webinars from the drop down menu under Troop Leaders, then scroll down to Go Digital – Volunteer Toolkit) and you’ll soon be feeling like a pro using this awesome resource.

Need more convincing? Check out Girl Scouts of the USA’s video (above), “Superpower Your Girl Scout Troop Year with the Volunteer Toolkit.”

Ready to try out the Volunteer Toolkit?

Go to our council website www.gswo.org and click on “My GS” (in yellow letters on the right), then click on “Volunteer Toolkit.” Enter your username (the username is the email we have on file for you, if you have several emails addresses and are not sure which one was used, please call Customer Care 888-350-5090) and if you remember your password (same password as your Member Profile account), login and you will see several tabs across the top like My Troop, Year Plan, Meeting Plan, Resources, and Finances.

Click on the Year Plan tab and click on Specify Dates and Locations (in green under tab) to create a calendar of future meetings and meeting locations. You can choose to not meet on certain holidays, assign meeting locations, and update this information as the year progresses by adding activities or meeting dates.

In the Year Plan tab click on Explore the Year Plan Library. Your troop can choose a Badge Year, a year focused on one of our Journeys, or you can Create Your Own Year Plan and let your girls build a custom year. Use the preview option or the Year Plan overview PDF to help girls make their choice.

Once you’ve chosen a year plan you can click on the Meeting Plan tab to access meeting planning materials and communications. Click on the arrow on the right of each meeting header to advance to future meeting plans.

VTK Scavenger Hunt

Now that you’re logged in and have chosen a year plan, challenge yourself to a VTK Scavenger Hunt by completing the tasks below!

• Find the My Troop tab and open an email to the parents.
• Under the Meeting Plan tab, replace the first meeting with a different program level activity. Need a hint? Click on replace this meeting and select something from the library.
• Lengthen the closing ceremony from 5 min to 10 min. Need a hint? Scroll to the bottom of one Meeting Plan.
• Switch the order of two activities on the meeting agenda by dragging and dropping.
• Open a “Reminder Email” within a meeting plan to tell parents what to expect.

Did you complete all the tasks on the VTK scavenger hunt? Then you’re ready to super power your year with your new digital assistant!