Spring is the perfect time to revisit a group agreement. If you did one in the beginning of the year, your girls will have grown a lot since then, you may have added new girls, and you likely have some summer trips planned and revisiting what behavior is expected is a good idea. And if that doesn’t quite fit your group, you sure can save this episode for the start of the next year. What is the point of a group agreement: The goal is to set a standard of rules, guidelines and norms, typically around behavior, that the entire group agrees upon and commits to. This is girl-led, so they set the rules. Group Agreement Examples The traditional group agreement It usually involves a big piece of paper, and girls writing, or delegating someone to write, rules they think they should follow. They typically come up with things like be respectful and listening, but also traditions like they always want to do a friendship circle at the end of the meeting, and fun things, like a fun chant to encourage each other. Once you have all the rules they think they need, and you have brought up anything they might have missed, it is time for signing. All girls and leaders should personally sign the big paper to agree to following these guidelines. The “Be specific” group agreement This time, you are going to take your big paper, and on one side your girls will brainstorm just like they did in the first example. After they have a pretty good list, we move to the next side. Here they will come up with examples of what that means. So, if they put respect on the first side, on side two, they think of ways to be respectful. If you think about it, some of these rules that all kids know are abstract concepts, so helping them think about what they look like can help a lot. If your group has a long list, you might talk about the top three and then go more into detail there. On-the-go group agreement All you need is your hand to explain this agreement, perfect for one day or short events as a quick reminder of what we need to focus one. It’s called the five finger contract. Each finger represents something different. Safety, commitment, attitude, listening, and encouragement. View our downloadable example of what to say and how to customize your own agreement. 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