Well, the vote has been taken and National Delegates have overwhelmingly voted for Proposal 2 to pass as written.  I have to accept this because I say that I believe in the democratic process, and I must believe that delegates voted thinking this was the best thing for our Movement.  But at the same time, I grieve because I also believe the democratic process is dead in Girl Scouting, and in fact, died a few years ago.  When I saw how many voted against extending the 45 minute limit on proposal debate during the Standing Rules adoption, I knew what was coming and that proved to me that delegates were not there to use the democratic process.  They had already made their minds up as to how they were going to vote.  And that’s not how it’s supposed to work.

I wrote a white paper about the democratic process in November of 2019 stating that it could fix all of our issues with our Movement.  Earlier that year, I wrote a blog post called Death Spiral: Governance Edition that became the basis of my white paper.  I did not state it as such, but it was about my personal observations as a delegate and National Delegate in my council.  What saddened me most after I published it is how much feedback and response I got from others around the country who told me they experienced or were experiencing the same thing.  Most of them had given up or had already left Girl Scouts. I knew then that the democratic process had already died.  But I wrote the white paper anyway later that year out of sheer principle knowing full well nothing would come out of it.  I sent it to a National Board member who had contacted me out of the blue previously, and he said thank you and supposedly forwarded it to Sylvia.  I’m sure it went straight to the trash can at that point.  Continue reading