How to Win Friends and Influence People

To get right to the point, I seem to be continuously amazed, shocked and flabbergasted at how seemingly inept the National Board and GSUSA are when it comes to managing public relations with its volunteers.  It is as if they don’t realize that ticking off people that your job depends upon is probably not the best idea.  I really don’t get it.  I’d love to sit down with some of them and just pick their brain to see where on earth they are coming from.  But then I’d probably get escorted out by security, and who wants that?  No one except Da-nice, who said she would love to take a picture of that event and post it all over Facebook.

In case you don’t know what I’m babbling about, here’s the latest from GSUSA (via a newsletter from the Historic Georgia council): 

Membership Dues Increase
To ensure we have the resources to sustain the great work of our Movement in support of all girls, and with significant input from our councils in the field, Girl Scouts’ National Board voted to approve a $10 increase in annual membership dues for the 2017-2018 membership year.

As a youth-serving organization, Girl Scouts must keep pace with the marketplace and examine how it is meeting the needs of its customers. At just over $0.83 more per month, the membership fee increase will support our vision to serve as many girls who want to be Girl Scouts as possible-regardless of their means, neighborhood, or family background-and will enable us to sustain and develop high-quality, meaningful programming and services for our membership.

As Girl Scouts continues in its second century of serving girls, we are committed to connecting today’s girls with the modern world, ensuring we deliver them a unique leadership experience that meets their needs while remaining true to Juliette Gordon Low’s core principles of diversity, accessibility, and innovation. Girl Scouts is the preeminent leadership development organization for girls; a Girl Scout membership is one of the most valuable investments anyone can make in a girl’s life.

The last dues increase was in 2013.  At this time, Girl Scouts has no plans to increase membership dues beyond what has been approved.

Okay – so let’s set aside the arguments about the hardships for income brackets and questions about where the money is going.  Let’s even pretend that everything is hunky-dory and rainbows and sunshine between GSUSA and volunteers.  A Boy Scout leader friend of mine said that $25 is still a great deal (Boy Scout memberships are also $25/yr), and I agreed, but that isn’t the point.  A $10 increase raises some eyebrows for anybody, especially when there’s a history of just inching up a few dollars at a time.  I would like to think the average person’s first reaction would be a double-take and then to ask “Why?”  “This increase is way beyond any kind of inflation based numbers, so where is it coming from?”  “What’s it going to be used for?”  Maybe they have plans to cover these questions in the future, but I don’t really understand why you would announce something like this without softening it with some kind of rationale (whether you believe it or not) and not a generic one.

Then there’s the line, “At this time, Girl Scouts has no plans to increase membership dues beyond what has been approved.”  Was that even necessary?  Well okay, it’s good to know it won’t increase $15 or $50 or $100 or $Eleventy-Billion.  Thanks.  Was this press release meant to go out to everybody?  Who wrote it?  Maybe Historic Georgia made a mistake and published the interoffice one or something.  Somebody please tell me this was the case.

So now – let’s take away the rainbows and sunshine and look at reality.  Again, I am in disbelief at what seems to be either the complete disregard or ignorance of what is going on in Volunteer Land.  It is not pretty.  Coming out with this large increase – now of all times – is almost comedic if it weren’t so puzzling.  So I guess they thought the infamous white paper was just out of left field?  And even though I might have downplayed them in another blog post, did they not see the letters and response and vitriol stemming from the publishing of said white paper?  Are there GSUSA members monitoring various GS Facebook Pages and groups?  If they don’t, then they need to put their PR people on it, stat.  Do they not see the questions that are being asked by volunteers?  Or the complaints that have not gone away even after all of these years?  I mean, even if you completely disagreed with all of this outcry and poo-poo’d it, wouldn’t you at least give it some credence because, like I said before, your job is dependent on these people so maybe you should take note of the way they’re feeling?  I really, really hate criticizing Girl Scouts in general because I am so personally involved with it, and I don’t like to air out our dirty laundry, but Lordy Moses people.

Dear GSUSA and the National Board,

Please read the book How to Win Friends and Influence People and take a few Dale Carnegie courses.  It might be helpful.  Maybe even fire your whole PR department – or perhaps hire one with the extra $10?  Just a suggestion.  

Yours in Scouting,
Amy M. Brown

P.S. I guess this pretty much ruins my chance of being a national delegate, huh? 😉

And the imagined reply:

Dear Amy M. Brown,

Thank you for your letter.  Here is our response:

Just a suggestion.

Yours in Scouting as well,
GSUSA and The National Board

P.S. You will be hearing from our lawyers soon.  They wear the official scarfs too, in case you were wondering. 😉