TIPS For Girls Using
Purpose The purpose of this guide is to help girl scouts, Go Gold trainers, Gold Award Mentors, project advisors and anyone else who may find themselves in conjunction with a Gold Award understand what the process of using the GoGold online platform looks like. This will take the reader through the platform and show them step by step what information needs to be included in their proposals and where.
Registration The first step is to go to https://www.girlscouts.org/gogoldonline/ and click on Register now! You will come to a page that looks like this. You will have three different choices as to how you would like to declare your prerequisites: Learning more about the Gold award, received your Silver Award, or if you have done two journeys. Click on the one that pertains to you.
When you click on either option you will get these prompts asking for the completion dates of the prerequisite. Fill these out to the best of your ability. The more accurate you are the better, but if you don t know the exact day you did your journey, that s not a problem. Once you have entered all the information, hit continue to Registration.
You will be directed to a new page that will ask you to create your profile. First you will select your council: Kentuckiana. This should automatically fill in all information for the council. You will also be asked for your personal information. Make sure to fill out all the fields. Also make sure that it is accurate before you proceed!
Starting on the Proposal You will be brought to your home page. You can always come back to this page by clicking on the green house. This will show your progress as you go through the steps. There are also helpful tips on the right sidebar. These can be anything from information helping get college scholarships to helping you through the process of your proposal. Check them out!
Step 1: Choose an Issue This step is to help you find your inspiration and choose an issue you care about to help you do your project. Take advantage of the Tools and Resources tabs. They give you great ideas, tips and help on writing your pitch! If you want to make notes for yourself on something that may not be covered in the questions, this is the place to do so. Don t forget to save before exiting the page!
At any point you can save your progress and complete later. You just need to make sure to click the green words at the bottom left hand side. You must answer all of the questions or you will not be able to advance to Step 2. After filling in all the boxes with your interesting thoughts, you will need to check that you have read the tips provided in Tools and Resources. Again, we highly recommend reading any tips they have on the right hand side before starting each step. When you are done with Step 1, you will hit the complete this step icon. You will only be allowed to move on to the next step if every box has something in it and you have checked the box saying you have read the tips provided. Once you have gone through all of Step 1, you are ready to move on to Step 2!
Step 2: Investigate This is a tool to help you get your thoughts out on paper. You can download the mind mapping handout and start to make your own conclusions. This is a great way to get to the root of an issue, and start to find solutions for that root cause. Your project should come from those solutions you find for that root cause. If at any point you would like to go back to a previous step you may click on the green icon at the bottom of the page or go to the home screen and click on the step you would like to revisit. If you have connected a social media account to your GoGold account, you can always share your progress with your friends! Click the icon at the bottom of the page. When you are finished with this step, make sure all boxes are filled and then click the complete this step. If you need to save in the middle of the step, hit save progress and complete later.
Step 3: Get Help This is a very important step in the planning of your project. You want to choose an advisor who has expertise in the area your project will address. This should not be a relative or troop leader, the Gold Award is getting you out making new connections in your community. You are also putting together the team you will be working with to get the project off the ground. These are some of the bigger roles in your project. They should be less family members, and more community partners. Make sure their role in your project is specifically defined. When finished, make sure all boxes are filled in where possible (you do not have to fill in all the boxes of the Team Member section), and hit Complete this step.
Step 4: Create a Plan Step 4 is the start of the proposal. Everything that you wrote in Steps 1 and 2 are for you. These were spaces for you to work out your ideas, really find what you wanted to work on, get them in order and figure out how to explain it to others. Step 4 is where you put all of that good work into a clear and concise proposal. You want to be aware that the approval process will take on average 45 days to complete, so be aware of that when you are putting together your proposed start date. From here you will need to click on the arrows on each green bar to drop down new questions about the description, planning and impact of your proposal.
Project description With all of these be very descriptive. In your description of your problem, there should be obvious evidence that you have done some research into your problem. We don t need a full article or bibliography of your research, but facts and figures woven into your pitch with the name of the source is always a good way to explain why your project is needed.
Project Planning This may be the most important part of your project: The steps to putting your plan into action. Be sure to be very detailed in this answer. The more detail you give the panel to read, the more we will understand how you wish to put your project into action. A good rule of thumb is after reading this part of your proposal, someone should be able to duplicate your project. Make sure to check out the Tips on the right hand side to guide you with sustainability and your budgeting plans.
Project Impact Budget Again be aware of the tips for the budget. This final number should match the one in the project planning. When you are finished make sure you go back, make sure you have been detailed and have answered everything in the form. When this is all done, click complete this step.
Step 5: Present Your Plan Step 5 should come autofilled as long as you have the correct council selected. You will be able to download a copy for your own records by hitting the download icon at the bottom of the page. AUTO FILL You will also be prompted to attach any extra papers you wish to attach to your proposal. This can contain pictures, explanations of different elements of your project, a budget spreadsheet you have created, etc. Anything that you feel would be helpful to the panel in determining the approval of your proposal. You are only allowed to attach one document, so if you have multiple documents you have need to place them all in one zip file that does not exceed 10MB. When you are ready to submit, click Email your project proposal, and wait for your feedback! Action Step 6: Take
Step 6: Take Action Step 6 should be completed during the progress of your project. This will help you keep things straight, and make sure you are getting all those hours logged correctly! Time Log Make sure to log all hours you have completed before going on to Step 7. These get locked in once you go on, and it can be hard to add more after. Budget Log
This is a way to check your finances. Remember, any income should be used by the end of the project. Any leftover income could be used for the sustainability of the project, but needs to be expressed somewhere within the report. Create Post You will also be able to create posts as you go. This is a way to help remind yourself of all the exciting steps you took along the way of your project. This also will help you later to write your report in Step 7. These do not have to go to your social media, but can if you would like to share.
Step 7: Educate and Inspire This is the start page of Step 7. You will need to drop down the arrows on all the green bars in order to work through all of the questions. Again, in all of these answers be very descriptive and make sure the panel understands exactly what you have done. Go back to the letter you received from the Older Girl Specialist giving you the elements we will need to see in your end report. Make sure all of these elements are addressed and highlighted in some way. Make sure to read the Sharing Tips and Reflection Tool tabs under Tools and Resources. These will help you as you finish your report.
Project Details We are really looking for you to know your project, and synthesize the results of it. Hopefully you did some really great work in your community! However, if it didn t get the results you wanted, explain why and how you would do things differently!
Project History Be sure to include links to any websites, Facebook pages, videos on YouTube, or anything else that can be accessed through the internet. This is something we are very interested in seeing on the panel! It gives us a bigger picture of what you did and how you did it!
Project Impact The Impact on the Community boxes will be automatically filled in with what you had written in your proposal. Take the information you were planning on, and use that to look at where you are now. Use that to inform the examples you give from your project. These will automatically be filled from your proposal. After doing this project, did the impact you saw on yourself change? Use this to reflect and answer the following questions. This is GSUSA s date for reports. Reports also take an average of 45 days to get approval. The Council deadline is August 15 th of the year you graduate from high school.
How to submit Submitting your final report is very similar to submitting your proposal. You may download a copy of your final report for your own files by clicking the green Download Your Final Report icon. You will also be prompted to add any additional information by zipping it together and uploading as one file. Again, this could be pictures, a more specific budget sheet, a letter from the receiving organization, your journal entries throughout the process, etc. Anything you feel will help the panel get a better sense of what your project was. When all of that has been done, click the I am ready to submit my Final Report icon, and you will have your report submitted. All you have to do is wait for feedback and approval and then: CELEBRATE!