Convention Update, Visiting Jenny, and Brick Walls

It’s been an intense few months here on the GSWAC blog due to all of the governance posts I’ve written lately.  Here are a few non-membership dues/National Council/National Board and hopefully fun quick hits:

OK, I lied.   Here is a governance related update.  Contrary to what I posted back in June about G.I.R.L. being a no-go, things have changed and I will be attending as a national delegate alternate!  So while I won’t be voting or attending any of the delegate only events, I will still get to be a part of the National Council Session as a guest and enjoy the weekend activities.  No word if security has been notified yet.  So look for me!  I will be the one in the navy blue and wearing an OFFICIAL scarf!  And yes, I will have my OFFICIAL scarf swaps with me among others – but you’d better bring your best swap in order to get one!  I will only have a limited number on hand because they are very time-consuming to make. 

This past weekend, Jenny (yes, Jenny of I-G-A fame) and I spent the afternoon catching up, laughing, and going through her scrapbooks and pictures from our Troop 20 days.  I took a bunch of stuff home with me much to the relief of Jenny’s husband who was glad to get it out of the house and cancel their appearance on Hoarders.  Jenny had saved permission slips from our trips and newsletters from Mrs. Vickers!  Best of all, we found her very descriptive and hysterical Trip Out West and National Center West diary!  It’s funny how we remembered different things, and how insane it all sounded now that we are mothers and in my case, a Girl Scout leader.  We are incredulous about some of the things that happened and how they would be unheard of or impossible in this day and age.  I still plan on recording more of these NCW memories in this blog along with scanning in Jenny’s documents and pictures.  We can’t believe it’s been 30 years since that adventure!

Sometimes it’s hard to not become cynical after getting so buried under research and analyzing what is wrong and dealing with other delegate issues.  But I just have to spend time with our troop and our Go-Getters, Innovators, Risk-Takers, and Leaders™ to pull me out of that funk.  At the beginning of last year, we had a Cadette transfer into our troop.  She was very shy and soft spoken and tentative about speaking up all year.  This past June, my Cadette co-leader and I traveled to the U.S. National Whitewater Center in Charlotte with our Cadettes and spent the day whitewater rafting, zip lining from 100 feet (that first step is a doozy!), navigating through ropes courses, and mountain biking.  My co-leader and I felt every year of our 40+ ages and then some by the end of the day.  But on the way home, the Cadette I mentioned was cutting up and making all of us laugh by singing the theme song to Hannah Montana very loudly.  Seeing her come out of her shell is what Girl Scouts is all about.  I get asked all of the time why I continue to beat my head against a brick wall dealing with issues above the service unit level and why I spend so time writing about contentious topics on the national level.  I do it for that Cadette and others like her.  And I’ll still continue to do it even if security at this year’s convention throws me through a window ala Axel Foley (STRONG language warning):