Moving from Membership Dues to Membership Cards
National Operations 13 Comments 
blue book, cei, gsusa, j-low, jenny
Recently GSUSA updated myGS and the system was down for a couple of weeks. But volunteers didn’t notice, because nobody really uses it anyway. There was a big to-do about the upgrades, and they were covered during our recent Town Hall. But after a while, my brain started to wander as it normally does for Zoom meetings so I didn’t catch everything. Once I actually fell asleep during a Zoom Town Hall. Embarrassing. I knew I should have turned off my video.
Anyway, back to myGS. So the system came back online again, which again, no volunteers really noticed because they forgot it was down in the first place. But my IT curiosity got the best of me, and I logged in to see what the big fuss was about. I started clicking around and came across a place where you could print off membership cards for your troop’s girls and leaders (note: I’ve blurred all member ID numbers):
Well this is kinda fancy! So in my mind, I expected that a PDF would open up and the cards would be formatted using a template like Avery #8371 that I could then print off on actual business cards.
But like before, my expectations exceeded reality. I first printed it in Firefox but the margins were all screwed up. So I opened Chrome and tried again:
Underwhelming. There’s a gray line that’s cut off in this picture, but other than that, there are no lines indicating where you should cut out the card. Plus there’s no signature line.
There are two other things missing other than the signature line and cut lines. They’re kinda big. First, “Girl Scouts of the USA” doesn’t appear anywhere. Just a small green dot. Oh wait, that’s a trefoil. Second, J-Low’s name is missing.
Yes, Juliette Gordon Low’s name should be on every certificate of membership. It states as such in the Blue Book. I realize in a fit of fury I previously said I was resigning from the national governance arena, but that doesn’t mean I’m never going to refer to things such as the Blue Book ever again. I may have taken my ball and gone home, but I can still tell you how the game is played.
The GSUSA Constitution/Article VIII/Credentials section says:
4. Charters and other credentials shall be issued for no more than six years. Certificates of membership shall be issued for annual, lifetime, or other applicable periods. All the credentials shall bear the name of Juliette Low.
Here is my friend Jenny’s (the same one) membership card from the 80s:
Here are my lifetime membership cards. Yes, I have two, and I’m about to receive a third one due to me clicking “Request a new lifetime membership card” just to see what would happen expecting that I’d have to fill out something and I could ignore it. Instead, I immediately received a message stating that a new one was on its way. Oops. I didn’t want another card, especially after GSUSA sent me a new one when they re-registered me as a Lifetime Member for some strange reason in 2017.
Notice that J-Low’s name is not on the 2017 version. It’s also not on the more recent LTM card (thanks Maggie!). But her picture is. Does that count? There’s nothing on the back other than the new LTM logo.
Now you could argue that technically it doesn’t say “Certificate of Lifetime Membership” on the 2017 and 2019 (?) versions, so therefore J-Low’s name isn’t necessary, but come on – that’s a total cop-out. I realize the card comes with an OFFICIAL certificate that does have her name on it, but was there some reason GSUSA made the deliberate decision to remove the certification wording from the LTM card?
Regardless, the cards being printed from myGS do state that it’s a certificate of membership, so according to the Blue Book, J-Low’s name should be on them. But when has GSUSA ever paid attention to the Blue Book? If it turns into a problem, they’ll just get the National Council to remove that line in 2023.
Why is J-Low’s name required on certificates of membership in the first place? She agreed to step down as President in exchange for being named as the Founder and her name placed on “all the credentials.” GSUSA, do the right thing and get this fixed. Seriously. And while you’re at it, add the words GIRL SCOUTS too.
Addendum 12/18/20: I submitted a ticket to GSUSA’s version of Customer Care. I forgot to mention that they should add GIRL SCOUTS somewhere though!
Addendum 1/5/21: The ticket was routed to my council who then escalated it back to GSUSA, so they are aware of it now.
Addendum 5/14/21: Well, you know what they say – If You Want Something Done Right… Membership Cards Edition
Addendum 12/7/23: It’s been fixed. Gray lines and all.
🤦🏻♀️
It took me over 3 years to get Life-Time membership card. I made numerous phone calls and finally it came.
Thank you for calling this to my attention. To check into the updated dye stem I needed to re do my password. I will look for the membership cards.
Is there anything we can do to petition this? Or bring it to someone’s attention?
I’m not sure. Sometimes my blog posts will catch their attention if they feel like they’re getting enough bad press, but this may be something they just don’t care about.
love that you have two lifetime membership cards and I can’t even get them to issue me one after multiple cases and emails that have supposedly been resolved and “you will receive your membership card within 6-8 weeks” its been 4 years.
AND a date would be appreciated!!!!!
After nearly what, $40 million in IT improvements, we don’t have a system that will quickly provide the volunteer with “card ready” printable documents (i.e. using an Avery business card like template) with the proper information (aligning with the governance, proper branding, etc.)….??? Were we really expecting anything more from GSUSA? I would love to be supportive and hope to one day get there but now, with the drain on the financials, a system that was never beta tested with real users – both power and occasional – I’m reserving a positive review. The turnover in our C-suite is striking – and telling of a leadership pit that the organization must climb out of to survive. And yes, really, there’s another organization that has easy to use membership cards… it’s really not rocket science.
I’ve wanted membership cards for my troop girls and adults for years, like we used to receive in the 1980s, but that seems to be a thing of the past. I didn’t know Lifetime Membership cards were available and will try to get one for myself and my daughter.
I still can’t find the current membership cards on the My GS. Any ideas where to look?
Log into MyGS and click on My Troop(s) in the left hand menu. Your troop should then show up in the menu. Click on your troop number, and then scroll all the way down to the bottom under everyone’s names and click on “View Troop membership cards.”
Aha, thank you!
I do remember the ID cards in the “70’s” being plastic. My girls were into recycling in a big way and they sent them all to GSUSA with there thoughts. Just wanted to share. Flonnie Harmon