It’s Complicated and Leader Connections

Last night I realized I have a very dysfunctional relationship with Girl Scouts.  It’s complicated.  Sometimes I’ll get ticked off or feel despondent about how things are going, and I’ll say well screw you Girl Scouts.  I don’t need you.  And then about a minute later, I’ll feel bad and say, oh Girl Scouts, I could never quit you, and I’ll come groveling back.  Forget you GS!  I hate you!  It’s OK GS, I didn’t really mean that…  I guess I’m in it for the long haul.  😉 

Anyway, GSUSA has this whole CEI (Customer Engagement Initiative) thing rolling out across all of the councils right now.  Ours is in the process of starting.  I won’t go into my thoughts on the use of “customer” in this case right now because that’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax, but it looks as if there is a lot of shakeup coming down the pike.  Basically the goal is supposed to be geared toward volunteer-based services.  This isn’t my council, but here’s a blurb from the GS of Southern Nevada council:

That’s why we’re introducing the Customer Engagement Initiative (CEI), an interactive and user-friendly new way to connect with Girl Scouts and support the girls in your life. From a faster and easier joining and renewal process, to improved resources for volunteers, the Customer Engagement Initiative is all about serving you better.

But let’s be honest.  It’s all about numbers and keeping them high.  I can see where they are coming from with this initiative because the current trends are not sustainable.  It’s corporate-minded, which can be OK if you choose the right flavor of corporatism.  If you choose poorly, it will be extremely destructive.  I personally would take a different approach if anybody asked me (and no one has, but that’s OK), but that will be for another blog post down the road.

It looks as if there are a lot of pieces to this CEI puzzle.  Some good, some bad – and some we’ll just have to see how they play out.

But I think there’s one major component to volunteer services that isn’t being acknowledged.  It can only be accomplished on the council level and definitely on the service unit level – but it should be at least recognized by GSUSA.  This might only be missing at my specific council, but I get the sense that it affects others as well.  There really needs to be a support system in place.  A one-on-one, face-to-face relationship based support system.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a whole stack of books and website links at your fingertips – if you don’t have a personal connection with multiple volunteers that are in the same boat as you are, you’re going to feel isolated.  And lost.

Our service unit team really stresses for leaders to come to our monthly leader meetings, because it’s a great way to network.  Mountain Magic, an annual council event just for leaders, is another one.  The sessions about skills and tool sets are helpful, but it’s the friends and ideas you share that make it great.  Training sessions with volunteers can build them too even if you’re learning about something that’s not really related to volunteer services.

I don’t know if this personal relationship is just taken for granted or that it’s a hard one to figure out and therefore, it’s ignored.  But it’s a great stress reliever to be able to vent to other leaders about that parent who replies to your email with a question that’s answered in the email that they replied to.  Or to ask what badges go over well with Brownies.  Or hey, can you believe what this girl said?  People don’t like to admit this, but being a Girl Scouts volunteer is stressful a lot of the time.  One leader who’s been around a while in our service unit always says that Girl Scouts is not just a way to make an impact in a girl’s life, but it also makes one on yours too because of the number of friends you make.  I wasn’t going to say who said it at first, but it’s Samona. Good grief, she is really mentioned a lot in this blog.  😉  But she’s a good example – I probably wouldn’t know her very well if it weren’t for Girl Scouts even though we go to the same church.

Councils don’t even have to take hands-on approach since what works with one service unit doesn’t work with another.  You can’t force relationships.  But I would suggest that they definitely stress it in volunteer trainings if they don’t already.  Putting on a leader weekend is a must.   If there’s one thing that I think would prevent volunteers from dropping out, it’s having that “we’re all in the same boat” comradery.

It is my sincere hope that CEI doesn’t do anything to break up or discourage that local system of support.