October 5 2026

When Girl-Led Meets Governance: The Trouble with Too Much of a Good Thing

National Governance    4 Comments    , , , , , , , ,

Last year, GSUSA entered a partnership with Harvard University to study its national governance structure. Harvard found that Girl Scouts is one of the few remaining national organizations in the United States that actively uses the democratic process in its decision-making and decision-influencing governance model. Harvard commended Girl Scouts for its dedication to the democratic process.

But like anything, the democratic process needs to be actively guarded and consistently valued. I think we’re at risk of it slipping away, but not for the reason you may think. I believe the increasing percentage of teens participating as National Delegates will eventually cause us to alter our current national governance model. I realize some of you are probably balking right now and thinking I’m anti-girl, but don’t jump to conclusions. Hear me out. Continue reading

August 2 2026

A Point of Order Proposal Perplexity

National Governance    10 Comments    , , , , , , ,

Another National Council Session (NCS) is in the books! I attended the 2026 Girl Scout Convention held in Washington D.C. July 20 – 22, 2026, and I intend on writing two different posts – one about the nitty gritty details of governance and the other about my personal experience of the week. So one nerdy and another not so nerdy. If you’re ready for some governance talk, this lengthy blog post about the three proposals, especially the last one, is for you! Let’s get into it!

The NCS started off with an objection to the waiving of the reading of the Standing Rules which resulted in the Standing Rules being read from beginning to end. Then, two motions to amend were made to the Standing Rules. One amendment would have raised the number of speakers from 4 to 12 before the motion Previous Question could be made, and the other one sought to prohibit nut items from the NCS. Neither passed. During the adoption of the agenda, an amendment passed that inserted an hour-long debate period for Proposal 3 while the NCS was in recess. This amendment passed 457 to 434. Continue reading

July 7 2026

Thoughts on the MGAT Report

National Governance, Opinions    No Comments    , , , , , , ,

For the 2023 National Council Session (NCS), a number of councils submitted governance related proposals including one written by yours truly. Inspired by similar action taken by the National Board in 1993, my proposal aimed to create a national task group to study governance on both the council and national level. These specific proposals didn’t make the 2023 NCS agenda, but the National Board took action of its own anyway and appointed a task group called the Movement Governance Advisory Team (MGAT). The MGAT launched in November of 2023 and began work on several charges from the National Board centering around national governance. You can review the entirety of the original charge in the GSUSA press release on GSG.

The MGAT recently released its report. If you’ve followed my blog through the years, you’ll know that I’ve been an enthusiastic advocate for the democratic process in Girl Scouting for quite some time, so I’ve been highly anticipating this. In addition to publishing the report, the National Board Office (NBO) also hosted a webinar for National Delegates in April to review the MGAT’s findings and recommendations. The webinar and report are found on the GSUSA National Delegate website which is only open to current National Delegates and related staff. However, I received a copy of the report due to authoring a related 2023 NCS proposal, and I waited to share my thoughts until enough time had passed for National Delegates to read the report, view the webinar, and share the results with their local memberships. Continue reading

June 7 2026

Higher Awards and Direct Solicitation Debate

National Governance    1 Comment    , , , , , ,

Every three years, the National Council convenes to discuss and vote on business that comes before it at a meeting called the National Council Session (NCS). This year, three proposals are on the agenda. One has to do with licensing cookie products, and I recently wrote about that proposal a few weeks ago. I also covered the one dealing with membership dues. Last, but not least, is a proposal called Girl Scout Highest Awards Solicitation of Contributions sponsored by the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania council. You can read the text of the proposal here on GSG.

To summarize, this proposal would allow girls working on their Bronze, Silver, or Gold Awards to directly solicit donations (monetary or in-kind) with permission from council leadership. Currently, only girls working on their Gold Award are allowed to directly solicit donations. This is a relatively recent development based upon a decision by the National Board in 2018. This particular proposal extends it to Bronze and Silver Awards. Continue reading

May 9 2026

Licensing Deals at the NCS

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Will these become a thing of the past?

Every three years, as a part of its national governance cycle, Girl Scouting hosts the National Council Session (NCS) to discuss and vote on proposals aimed at the betterment of the organization. For 2026, there will be three proposals on the agenda. Interestingly enough, two of them cover topics that get the membership in a lather when you mess with them: membership dues and cookies. I’ve written about the one involving membership dues already. Time for me to tackle the other one.

Specifically, this proposal is about GSUSA’s licensing of its cookie flavors. The Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland council sponsored a proposal (with quite a long title) called Preservation of Girl Scout Leadership Experience Relating to the Entrepreneurship Program. You can read the entire proposal here on GSG. To get to the point, Kansas Heartland wants to suspend any third-party food products using the likeness or branding of Girl Scout cookies during the entirety of fall product and cookie seasons for all councils. In other words, they don’t want Walmart placing Thin Mint PopTarts on the shelves while girls are selling fall product or cookies anywhere in the country. Continue reading

March 29 2026

Membership Dues and Percentage Points

National Governance    3 Comments    , , , , , , ,

Every three years, the National Council of Girl Scouts gathers together and deliberates upon proposals aimed at the betterment of Girl Scouting. This year, the National Council Session will be held July 20 – 22, 2026 in Washington D.C., and there are three proposals on the agenda. One is about everyone’s favorite topic: membership dues.

Yes, membership dues. The topic that never goes away. If you’ve followed my blog for some time, you’ll know that this is something that I’ve been writing about for many years in different iterations. But hey, what’s one more time? Let’s do this. Continue reading