GSUSA Claims To See Russia From Alaska
National Governance 9 Comments 
farthest north council, governance, gsusa, membership dues, national board, national convention, national council
Well, there is no Judge Judy Sheindlin in Fairbanks, AK, but there is a Judge Bethany Harbison, and she ruled in favor of GSUSA rather than the Farthest North council on May 1st, 2018:
So what does this mean to the rest of us who live below the 49th parallel? Does this mean the National Board now has the definitive authority to set membership dues? Or can claim all of the National Council’s powers in between National Council sessions? Or can take over the world? Nope. Because this case was heard in Alaskan state court, it only applies to the state of Alaska. If Farthest North had won, membership dues would have been set at $12 in the two Alaskan councils, but they would still be $25 everywhere else. And turnabout is fair play, so GSUSA’s newly found authority in Alaska does not apply to the rest of the 49 states.
Therefore, until proven wrong in federal court, I still stand by my blog posts from last summer where I believe I make the case that the National Board does not have the authority to set membership dues amounts (go here and scroll down to Back to the Future & Membership Dues Revisited), and I also declare that the matter of who sets membership dues has not been settled! I’m sure this declaration will be front page news at The New York Times in tomorrow’s paper! But perhaps it will be solved at the 2020 National Session? 😮
If you’d like to look up the case, go here and enter in case number 4FA-17-01413CI. If I can find a copy of the decision, I’ll post it here. I don’t know if Farthest North will appeal or not.
P.S. If I’m just completely full of it, please let me know and explain why. A lot of this is admittedly out of my realm.
The Entire Saga can be found here:
- Court is Now in Session - March 19, 2018
- GSUSA Claims To See Russia From Alaska - May 7, 2018
- Farthest North vs. GSUSA: The Sequel - April 18, 2019
- Farthest North vs. GSUSA: The Final Battle - September 19, 2019
- Farthest North vs. GSUSA: The Animated GIF Edition - October 10, 2019
- Farthest North vs. GSUSA: It’s Over. For Real This Time. - January 17, 2020
- Stop Being Hypocritical, GSUSA - January 2, 2021
- If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Yank Their Charter - May 4, 2021
- Farthest North vs. GSUSA: It’s Over. Really Really Really. - July 22, 2021
I cannot believe they ruled in favor of GSUSA. I would LOVE to see the decision for that ruling! <:(
I’m curious if the judge gave her interpretation of GSUSA’s rationale for their authority in the Blue Book.
Yes, you ARE full of it! IT being a passion for keeping the member voice relevant in the governance model of this organization. GSUSA May get a bite taken out if it with girls opting for BSA (hopefully we will see lots of dual registered girls) and that external threat though I believe a bigger loss to the organization is happening from within at the highest levels of the National organization and the Council organizations – this internal threat is the overpriced executive staffs and business boards who aren’t listening to or engaging the volunteers. GSUSA is a member centric organization that has pushed the member aside and is being run by staffers looking for ways to capitalize on revenue to keep the doors open.
Stay full of IT… get more people in GSUSA membership educated and ready to rumble to take back the member led program!
Our council is following the staff run model also as they push volunteers to the side. It is discouraging for this long time volunteer. I received a letter this week that staff is taking over yet another volunteer role.
I wonder if this will be appealed.
The judge is treating this as a simple “corporate” decision that their “franchise holders” must abide with. No different than say, McDonald’s, Subway or Best Western. These are corporations. Somewhere the legal definition of the Girl Scouts changed from a membership organization to a corporation, non-profit, but still a corporation.
Not right, not right at all. When did we lose the Girl Scouts?
I did not catch this on first read, but I note that it was GSUSA’s Cross-Motion for Partial Summary Judgment which was granted. Summary Judgment is a procedural decision. Given that it was a Partial Summary Judgment — what issues from the complaint survived?
I don’t know. The only thing I’ve found online is what I copied and pasted from at the beginning. I am probably using many of the wrong terms because I know very little about this area. I uploaded the cases themselves in the previous post if you haven’t seen them yet: http://girlscoutwithacause.dawgtoons.com/2018/03/court-is-now-in-session/
You know, it is a shame that a council had to sue the GSUSA organization to get the attention of the members that the GSUSA board is swiping away the ability for the members via the national council delegate process to have a voice and ability to have a say in where this organization is going. I think what Farthest North has done is courageous and now, they have to drain the escrow account and turn the funds over to GSUSA – which I’m sure as good scouts they’ll do.
Or they’ll appeal and push it further. Regardless – the fact that this has occurred and that GIRL money has been spent by GSUSA to defend the case and beat up on Farthest North, is something we all need to really think about.
I truly believe that if asked during a live session via electronic conferencing (yes that’s possible and allowed) in the interim periods in which the delegates serve, the delegates likely would have agreed to a well thought out dues increase plan to help maintain the solvency of the organization and keep on par with its peers. Given the cost of living and the super low price an annual membership was at $12 then and $25 now is not that big of a stretch for most members to get to.
Raising the dues twice without national council input from $12 to $15 then from $15 to $25 as a board entity only without addressing the impact to the “Life” category and cost is a perfect display of the staff inability to extrapolate impact of one action on the other and a board making decisions in haste and without full thoughtfulness.
It really is time for 20 or so forward thinking councils like Farthest North to come together and propose some major structural changes on the 2020 agenda to reduce the amount of time individuals serve on the board, increase the agility and the impact of the national council (the member voice) on the girl program, and re-steer the good ship GSUSA to back to the girl (member) centric model of inspiring “the rising generation with the highest ideals of character, patriotism, conduct, and attainment.” (That is straight out of the constitutional charter…)
Pretty soon we are going to be wondering where all the girls went (we should be wondering that now and finding out from the non-member why she isn’t a member) and we won’t have to worry about law suits over who has what power because, well, who’s going to be left to pay dues and peddle cookies and go to camp?