A Big Welcome – But Wait, There’s More….
Opinions 4 Comments 
2020 NCS, comics, democratic process, gsusa, judith batty, membership dues, national board, national council, sylvia acevedo, volunteers
In case you didn’t hear the surprising news, Sylvia Acevedo is stepping down as National CEO for GSUSA as of this Friday, August 15th. Judith Batty, a current National Board member, will be taking over as interim CEO. I won’t go into her background and history as you can do that by reading this press release from GSUSA.
Ms. Batty sounds like she’s got great experience to take over during this tumultuous time for our organization between COVID’s devastating effects and the virtual National Council Session this fall featuring a battle over control of membership dues among other things.
However, there was one thing about the press release that jumped out at me. Before I discuss it, I just want to point out that it’s not directly attributed to Ms. Batty, nor am I insinuating that it is, so please don’t feel that I’m attacking her personally. I think it’s coming from GSUSA leadership. Anyway, here’s the quote:
In the coming months, Ms. Batty will embark on a listening tour with staff and council leadership, where she will hear directly from the field about how to advance the mission of the organization to build girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place.
In case you’re wondering, “council leadership” is referring to council CEOs and board chairs. But hey, we forgot somebody! How about including the membership? Girls and volunteers? We’re part of the Movement too, ya know – in case anybody forgot.
This more than just jumped out at me. It was like waving a red flag. Why? Because this sounded oh-so-familiar after studying and writing about Proposals 2 through 4 for the 2020 National Council Session in October. Those three proposals are the ones concerning the authority over membership dues. Yes, I’m going there again, but I’m not specifically talking about dues themselves this time. Instead, I’m talking about the attitude going into the NCS.
As I pointed out in my blog post, GSUSA and the National Board have claimed since the 2017 NCS that they were going to be dedicated to including National Delegates (representing the membership) in the national picture. But when it came to authority over membership dues, delegates were left out in the cold. Again. Instead, council CEOs and board chairs were consulted and polled at a conference this past November because apparently, in the eyes of GSUSA and the National Board, they define “the Movement.” No offense to council CEOs and board chairs, but they don’t represent the membership. The National Council does. It seems like we’ve forgotten this since 2008, much to the detriment of our organization. Based on the way they went about gathering feedback and how the proposal rationale is written in the Workbook, it looks to me like the National Board and GSUSA consider the National Council nothing more than rubberstampers. That pesky GSUSA Constitution keeps getting in the way, and sigh, I guess we’ll have to ask the National Council to amend it. What a pain.
Here’s a suggestion. How about in addition to consulting with council leadership, we also get the National Council’s take by setting aside a discussion period during the NCS just for this topic. We couldn’t ask for better timing. I realize this will add to the length of the NCS, but I don’t know of anything else that could be more important at this time.
Maybe I’m being a little harsh, and maybe they were planning on doing this anyway. But the fact that we weren’t even brought up initially makes me think the membership is a second thought. How about somebody proving me wrong?
100% agreed. And several of us caught that language and wrote about listening to the volunteers/members on the LinkedIn post. Ms. Batty acknowledged a number of them.
That’s good to hear!
Wow, The Membership, all of those very, very busy worker bees, who DO the work, who KNOW the girls, who DO count, the bees who constitute The Movement! May we please be a part of “Our” Movement??????
Yes, Welcome Ms. Batty!
Amy, I do not think there is any proving you wrong on this post and I do not think it harsh. In fact, this post is centered in Service, Honesty, Courage, and Respect – all those Girl Scout values we circle around in adult life. 🙂
I do find it discouraging that GIRLS and VOLUNTEER STAFF were not included as front and center in the LISTENING TOUR and that her statement on the GSUSA Blog press release https://blog.girlscouts.org/2020/08/judith-batty-named-interim-ceo-of-girl.html was centered on the success of the organization and not the core reason for the organization – the GIRLS.
IF Ms. Batty truly has intentions to include the paying members of the organization on this LISTENING TOUR to salvage the PROGRAM FOR THE GIRLS, the text of the press release would have read:
“In the coming months, Ms. Batty will embark on a listening tour with the GIRLS and the VOLUNTEER staff (paying adult members) that are the essence of this organization where she will hear directly from the members. Ms. Batty will strive to create authentic two-way communication between leadership and the GIRLS and VOLUNTEERS that is fully transparent and leads to better programming and resources available to the GIRLS and VOLUNTEERS at no additional cost in the overall effort to advance the mission of the organization to build girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place.”
“YES INDEED!!” was Ms. Batty’s response to this comment: “I do hope that your noted listening tour will include meetings with GIRLS and members and not only be with Council Staff and leadership.”
Let us roll with accountability here and I expect all members to receive an invitation to be heard. Before the National Council Session takes place. BEFORE any major decisions are made without MEMBER knowledge.
Let us ask the GS C-Suite and Board the hard questions – I want to LISTEN to the answers to:
Why is the National Board and trying to make the members second class citizens at this year’s National Council Session? Did the GIRLS and the VOLUNTEERS who are paying members agree to give authority to “just the national board”?
Why was ONE GS MEDIA LLC created on August 28, 2019, in secret, ten months before announcing CircleAround™? Perhaps CircleAround would have more followers and a bigger audience two months after launch if the MEMBERSHIP of the parent organization knew anything about it BEFORE the launch. Where was the exciting build-up about the revenue-producing media spin-off? Better yet, were Girl Scout alumnae ages 25-54 ASKED what we want or need GSUSA to provide in a revenue-producing media spin-off? I was not – were any of you? I envision the same fate as Studio 2B….
Why are we changing leadership now – with less than a week’s notice and no real reason for the removal of Ms. Acevedo? In a time where organizations are struggling to survive, transparency is key. We do not need members and staff to be wasting the little time we have with conjecture and rumors.
I do not like feeling that GSUSA has another VTK-like dark cloud coming our way.