Kaper Charts are boards with the 'jobs' scouts need to do to have a successful meeting. The main idea for the chart if to have a spot for every job, and some way for the girls to pick a job. As scouts come into the meetings, or show up for camping trips, they are assigned or can pick jobs on the chart.
For troops with more scouts than job, you may want to assign girls to set "patrols" (smaller groups), then assign a patrol of girls to do the jobs at each meeting. Patrols are also useful if you need to do activities in different stations. For multi-level troops, it works well to have the different levels split between the patrols with the older girls helping out the younger girls with the jobs.
Kaper Chart Jobs[]
Troop Meeting Jobs[]
The main thing is to get all of the regular jobs listed on the chart. These might include:
- Flag bearer
- Flag caller
- Color guards (the number of color guards can vary, depending on your troop size)
- Pledge of Allegiance leader
- Girl Scout Promise leader
- Friendship Squeeze starter
Older girls may also have jobs such as:
- Facilitator
- Secretary
- Program leader
As one trainer put is "Cleanup is everyone's job." So it may be best to leave cleanup jobs off the chart, but call the girls together whenever you need a mess cleaned up.
Camping Jobs[]
You may want a separate kaper chart for camping trips and other special activities. These may vary somewhat depending on what the activities are.
For camping, jobs might include:
- Opening Flag Ceremony (each day)
- Meal Table Set up (for each meal)
- Meal Preparation and Cooking (for each meal)
- Meal Clean up and Dishwashing (for each meal)
- Campfire Set up
- Campfire Clean up and Restocking Wood
- Closing Flag Ceremony (each day)
- Latrine Cleaning
- Shelter Cleaning
For these, you may want to assign a Patrol to each duty, rather than individual girls. For younger scouts, you may also need to assign an adult supervisor for the major tasks.
+++++ On one recent one-night camping trip for our multi-level group, we split up the meal jobs by level. The Daisies took the easier meal (dinner with pizza, since people were arriving late) and were mainly in charge of cleanup and s'mores; the Brownies were in charge of breakfast; and the Juniors covered lunch.
Kaper Chart Boards[]
If you search on the Internet, you'll find a multitude of different kaper charts and chart styles. Different styles may work better with younger/older girls.
We've tried a couple different kaper charts. Some work better for younger girls. We started off with flowers with names on them on popsicle sticks -- the girls put their sticks in "job" pockets on a poster board to choose jobs. This worked OK for Daisies, but we went to something more permanent the second year.
Currently, we have a laminated hard board with the jobs on it and a velcro sticker (the rough side) in each job spot. The girls made Kaper Kids using the Girl Scout paper doll friends instructions on the Making Friends website. I printed these out on cardstock, they cut out the uniform, hairstyle, etc. that they want and paste it together (NOTE: make sure they put their names on the front of each kaper kid!). Then I laminate them (see How to Laminate with an Iron) then cut them apart and put the soft side of the velcro dot on the back. To keep track of which jobs each girl had any particular night, we gathered some used conference badges (the kind that clip on), and put a piece of paper in them to match the jobs. These stick to the job board. So when the girls come in, they check if their patrol is doing the jobs, get their kaper kid, choose and job, take the job badge and put it on their uniform, then put their kaper kid on the job board. It sounds a lot more complicated now that I write it all out, but they've gotten into the routine, so it goes fairly smoothly.
Job Tracker[]
To make sure everyone does every job, you may want to keep a separate tracker of who has done which job (a simple table with the jobs listed across the top and the girls listed down the side, so they check off which jobs they have already done). That way everyone gets a turn at the all of the jobs.