Full of Sound and Fury
National Governance, Opinions 6 Comments 
comics, delegate, farthest north council, gsusa, i walk it back, j-low, soapbox, strongly worded letter
It seems the white paper that Suellen Nelles, CEO of the Farthest North Girl Scout Council, wrote back in the fall is making the rounds again. [sarcasm]I’m sure she’s thrilled about the attention.[/sarcasm] There’s a lot of anger and frustration out there in Leader Land, and coupled with cookie season (which makes everybody’s heads explode), it makes for a very bitter brew. Double, double, toil and trouble.
I read and post on the Facebook Page GSUSA, Are You Listening? from time to time when the mood strikes. The most recent topic that has everybody up in arms is talk that membership fees are increasing. Let me preface by stating that I am in no way making fun or mocking anybody nor am I saying that this frustration shouldn’t be vented. I realize that many people’s hands are tied. That said, I’ve found some of this anger toward GSUSA misplaced. In this case, according to one commenter, national delegates voted to turn the decision to raise membership dues over to GSUSA in 2008. (see addendum at the end)
I guess the older I get, the more irritated I get by people who complain and grumble about issues – but when they finally get in a position to do something about it, they shrug their shoulders or don’t speak up for various reasons – too tired, too busy, too scared, don’t know where to start, intimidated, etc. I’ve been one of those people at various times during my life. After reading comment after comment about cookies and CEI and membership increases on GSUSA, Are You Listening? for a few days, I finally had to get on my soapbox. Here is a modified version of what I wrote regarding the membership increase and the delegate decision in 2008:
Instead of carping at GSUSA, we should be directing a lot of this ire at ourselves. I’m not saying that we still shouldn’t voice our opinion to GSUSA because we should, but we should also consider what really happened in this case and who allowed it to happen. We did. The membership. We had the power to control this and gave it away. Does this sound like I’m throwing the 2008 national delegates under the bus? Maybe, maybe not. I wasn’t there and didn’t hear the whole story. (see addendum below) But perhaps this will be a learning experience for delegates in the future – and the following applies to local council delegates as well. I’m suggesting this energy be directed at making sure delegates are well-versed and knowledgeable about the system and how it works. Just shipping off uninformed people to whatever convention location every three years obviously does no good, and frankly, it’s not an excuse to put all the blame on GSUSA. Instead of wringing our hands and saying, “Woe is us,” figure out what to do on whatever level it is – council or national – and then actually DO IT. Yes, GSUSA as a whole should be answerable to its volunteers and members, but guess what – we need to do some of the heavy lifting as well. Just sitting on our hands assuming GSUSA will do the right thing or waiting for someone else to do it obviously ain’t cuttin’ it. Is it a lot of work and does it involve putting yourself in uncomfortable situations? Yep. Educating yourself on boring subjects? Yep. Is it worth it? In my opinion, it is. Did you know that even J-Low had to fight for a lot of things in her own organization that she thought were wrong or going in the wrong direction? Yep, she did.
Like I said before, this applies to local councils as well. Everybody gets all up in arms and writes strongly worded letters and petitions and then fumes when the letter is ignored or tossed in a pile. Well, I hate to tell you, but strongly worded letters don’t do much in most situations except make you feel better for a short period of time. If you REALLY want to change things, then put in the time and educate yourself. How do non-profits work? What do boards do? Who has what power? What’s a 990? Otherwise you’re just spinning your wheels. Here’s an example. Are you a delegate? Read your bylaws. And then figure out what the heck they say. Voting on a bylaw amendment but confused about what it means? Do some research instead of waiting on someone to tell you. Put some thought about possible future scenarios and what the consequences could entail. Have the opinion that it’s your fault if you vote on something because someone misled you (or you misunderstood) and you didn’t put in the time to figure out what it meant on your own. This is the kind of stuff I’m referring to.
You know what? I think in a lot of cases, boards and councils WANT an educated and engaged delegate body. You might laugh, but I do believe it’s true. Well, maybe not. Just kidding. Not really. 😉 But I’m sure it’s frustrating for them to make a decision on what they think is best and give it over to the delegates who in turn vote on it in their sleep – only to grouse about it later.
Again, am I saying that you should stop complaining or writing letters? No, I’m not. But there’s a certain point where you have to put your money where your mouth is. This is probably where I should write Take Action but that would be kind of cheesy. 😉 Oh, I’ll write it anyway because I am cheesy. TAKE ACTION.
And now while stepping off my soapbox and hopefully not breaking my ankle while doing so, I am posting the obligatory YouTube clip (NSFW due to language):
So who wants to build a DEATHMOBILE!?!?!? And drive it to Columbus in 2017! But swap out Emil Faber’s head with J-Low’s.
Addendum 1/7/18: The National Council did not vote in 2008 or at any point to give the National Board authority to modify membership dues amounts. Mea culpa 2008 Nat’l Council, but there’s a LOT of misunderstanding and recollection issues going around. Please see my series of posts about this topic:
- Back to the Future: About 2008 and Membership Dues - June 17, 2017
- The Lifetime Membership Dues Amendment Contradiction - July 6, 2017
- But What If There’s an Emergency? - July 10, 2017
- Lifetime vs. Annual Membership Dues Rebuttal - September 18, 2017
- List of Nat’l Council Session Proposals and Actions Since 2008 - August 7, 2017
Yay! I totally agree with you.
We all need to learn how our council and National governance works. It is up to us! Don’t know how Girl Scout governance works? Study about it. Read about who does what. Check out our GSUSA materials like the Blue Book of Basic Documents. How does Governance work? How do Delegates vote? What is Parliamentary Procedure and how does it work too?
How can YOU apply to be a Delegate and have your voice heard?
We have the duty to do this, and if we are not chosen as Delegates, we need to find out who our delegates are and talk to them to let them know how we feel. Heck, we can all try to actually ATTEND the 2017 National Council Session too! We can actually find out what is being voted on. We can even work together to put forward our OWN Take Action Proposals!
We can contact our councils and come up with Proposals and Action Plans too. The Outdoor Girl Scout Project is working on getting ideas for our 2017 National Council Session right now.
And here is what one of our members reminds us… “The GSUSA Preamble to the Constitution has a section titled RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE MOVEMENT AND THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS The ultimate responsibility for the Girl Scout Movement rests with its members. We govern by an efficient and effective democratic process that demonstrates our leadership in a fast-changing world.’
This is an action call. The GS Movement is membership driven and volunteer powered.”
It’s time to Take Action. Councils got the Outdoors on the docket for an official Conversation last time. Now we can do a LOT more. Come join the conversation! It’s important. And Juliette Low would agree. 🙂
https://www.facebook.com/groups/outdoor.journey/
I happen to be a member of a Council that for four years has been in turmoil. There’s not enough room to detail all that has happened, but suffice it to say that our efforts to take back control of our Council from the GSUSA drones, interim CEOs and yes-people have been thwarted at every turn.
Four years ago, when our new CEO began implementing the GSUSA mandates, there was a revolt. We elected our Board and thought we had an opportunity to control its course, only to find that Board holdovers, bean-counters and spreadsheet worshipers, like the Republicans have done in Congress, have stopped every effort we have made.
We stopped the sale of our local camp, but after 5 interim CEOs, the most recent of whom was imposed by GSUSA, it has now been “rested”, with the chances it will be sold looming. Oh sure, our new CEO says that isn’t the case, but the circumstances are so similar to the previous ones that I do not trust what she or our Board President says. It makes me wonder if there is some hidden requirement for prevaricators at GSUSA.
GSUSA has ignored most of the membership’s objections to the current course, blithely blundering about in the china-shop as they and their woefully incompetent CEO continue to dismantle Girl Scouting as an effective organization.
They have seized the reins of governance, “adjusting” the By-Laws so that nothing can be done without their prior approval and concurrence. By also controlling the selection of Council CEOS, the chances of another Suellen Neves or someone like her are decreased to almost nothing, thus packing the CEO ranks with a series of drones cast in the GSUSA mold.
If we want to change things, we have to get it on the National Convention Agenda, which has to be passed by Councils, most of which are “guided” by GSUSA’s clones. Who do you think you’re fooling when you talk about taking action to change it?
I note that little or no response, except the attempt to have it removed, has been heard from the publishing of the White Paper. which is their common tactic, since they can just pretend it doesn’t exist and point fingers at anyone who questions them as “hurting the girls.” They ignored our pleas for help four years ago, then were angry when we elected our own slate of Board members.
GSUSA doesn’t want change, because they have good thing going and they would have to admit that the whole last 10 years was big fiasco.. Power is never given up voluntarily. You have to TAKE it. The question is, do we have enough good people who will do the things necessary to make that happn?
Thank you for your response. I am glad to hear from someone in your council as I have heard about it through the grapevine. Some people are taken aback by any kind of angry and threatening response by a council or GSUSA, but I can see why – their careers and retirement are at stake. Sure, they don’t want to admit they’ve made a mistake – because there goes their whole career down the tubes. I think volunteers forget the seriousness of this sometimes because we are coming at it from a different viewpoint. I’m not saying it’s right, and it’s sure not the way I would run things. Why on earth you piss off the people that your job is dependent upon is beyond me.
Many of the things I see and people I encounter are identical to the last large company I worked for. It was a horrible, negative, draining, frustrating, political, spiteful place to work, but I learned a lot from it. I have the scars and thick skin to prove it.
Frankly, I don’t expect anything to come out the white paper, and I’m sure Suellen Neves won’t be invited to any parties anytime soon. It may have even crushed her career. But the fact that one – just ONE – person of any relevance spoke up was enough to give people hope. At least it did for me.
Before anyone thinks that I’m some naive rah-rah sunshine coming out the ass kind of person, I actually have a very pessimistic view of what’s going to happen. I don’t know that I’ll ever write it down. It’s like watching a train wreck, but unfortunately we’re on the train. At the very least, maybe some of us can slow down the train just enough so that when the crash happens, it doesn’t completely disintegrate from the fireball and there are some pieces left to pick up and put back together.
PS LOVE LOVE the Deathmobile idea!! (Just watched it…)
I enjoy reading everyone’s points of views. I understand that you are calling members to step up and take action, that they (we) were the ones that “gave away” that responsiblity, but honestly, here’s where I think some of the problem lies…
I’m a married, working mom of 2. My kids are both in Scouts (Girl & Cub). They are also in sports. I am a Service Unit Manager, a troop leader of 18 Cadettes, and volunteer in my son’s den as much as I can. And let’s not forget the homework, school activities too. I already feel pretty stretched thin.
I want a voice, I would love to be more involved, but I honestly just don’t have time to brush up on Council or National policy. I could take paid vacation and try to attend a National Convention, but that’s a real hardship on my family, and I’m lucky because my parents are pretty local and my husband is willing to share the carpool duty (most of the time).
I live in a rural area, we barely get Council support. Everything is near Washington DC. For my girls to attend a “local” event, usually on a school night, we’d have to at least drive 1.5 hrs to get there. As the SUM, they want me to attend “local” area meetings to network with other SUMs… and those meetings are 45min-1 hr away from home. They used to have a call in option, but have taken it away to promote netoworking. I told them it’s hard for me to want to attend a meeting when the other 362 days of the year, they don’t give a shit about us (excuse my language).
I don’t know the answer but I do know that they – the local office, Council, etc, keep asking me to do more and more and more. It’s exhausting. I joke and say “just add a zero to my salary” but there are days I question how I can keep up. I worry that my girls, my daughter, will suffer bc if I don’t step up, who will?
Hi Bridget – thanks for your comments. You should definitely voice your concerns to your service unit delegate. That’s what they are there for. I should have been clearer in my blog post. It is directed at people who volunteer to be SU delegates and national delegates. I wanted to point out that if you have someone representing you as a delegate on whatever level, they need to take it somewhat seriously if either they or their SU/council volunteers have issues (like yours). They’re telling you that hey, I’ll take on the responsibility to voice these concerns.
I have a real problem when someone is a delegate and doesn’t even take the time to read through the documents that council sends out ahead of time, much less do any precursory work. If you don’t have the time or feel comfortable doing it, then don’t sign up for the job. So your service unit won’t have any delegates? Well, IMO that says a lot more that for whatever reason (leaders stretched thin, stressed, discouraged, tired, etc) they can’t fill the spots than it is for someone to take it out of some kind of obligation and then just sit there and rubber stamp whatever comes their way. And then to come back and complain about what council is doing or not doing? It is very hypocritical for us to rake our boards over the coals for just checking in and not taking their role as a board member seriously and/or use it as a resume booster when we’re guilty of doing the same thing.
I hope everybody doesn’t feel like I’m tooting my own horn because that is not the point of my post or comments. I just feel like this is an issue that many volunteers are overlooking much to our own detriment.
Warning – I am about to throw my council’s delegate body under the bus. Hey, what can I say? I will criticize my council AND board AND delegate body. I’m an equal opportunity criticizer. 😉 Last November we had a bylaw amendment come up for a vote. I felt like it was critical enough to pause and give it some serious thought. So I sent an email out to the delegate body to hopefully bring it to the attention of others because I knew that some delegates wouldn’t read any of the documents. Sure enough, a few delegates came up to me beforehand and said that they wouldn’t have even read it if they hadn’t gotten my email. Some didn’t even know there was going to be a vote. Even though I knew that was the case, it was still frustrating and disappointing.
I know everybody is busy, overworked, and very frustrated. I am too. What I am saying is don’t make a commitment that you can’t follow through on, because all we’re doing is shooting ourselves in the foot.