The Dirigo service unit held their first leader meeting of the new Girl Scout membership year on September 5 and they addressed some changes to their future meetings. The service unit has two eighth grade girls as part of their service team whom are both babysitter certified and CPR certified, so as a unit they decided to start adding babysitting to their meetings. It is up to the girls, with some guidance from their mentor, to plan what they will be offering during this time since one of the biggest comments from leaders is lack of child care. They have reserved two rooms for each meeting and a member of the service team will watch the girls while their parents are in the meeting. The service unit has also built in extra insurance so they can accommodate Tagalongs (non-registered brothers and sisters) as part of their babysitting service. At this first meeting, the babysitting offering brought in at least six more leaders who wouldn’t have been able to attend without it...plus all the kids had fun!
Hoping to find more ways to include leaders, they added technology to their meetings by utilizing Facebook Live. The service team worked together so they would have the best livestream experience possible. They decided to have one service team member hold the iPad in a stationary position so there wouldn't be a lot of movement. Before they went live, they also asked that side conversations be kept to a minimum so their audience could hear them clearly. It was a success! When they went live for the first time, they noted:
- The lack of camera movement minimized distractions;
- They could easily answer questions from their laptop that were coming in during the livestream;
- Answering questions online kept the conversation moving forward without stalling the conversation;
- Questions kept the audience engaged and kept them connected.
Throughout their Facebook Live, they would ask people to wave if they were watching as a way to check attendance and gauge people's interest. The service team found that a huge benefit to doing this was that everyone was getting the same information at the same time. The morning after they went live on Facebook, they asked for feedback from their audience about their overall experience. The only thing that people would want others to know is that you may need headphones for better audio. We call that a successful Facebook Live!
If you have any questions about Facebook Live, feel free to reach out to Amy Broadbent at broadbam76@hotmail.com.
