If You Want Something Done Right… Membership Cards Edition

Back in December, I offhandedly wrote about the membership cards found in MyGS and how they don’t print properly.  They also don’t feature the words GIRL SCOUTS anywhere.  Additionally, J-Low’s name should be listed as the Founder per the Blue Book.  That post unexpectedly went viral!  Who knew membership cards would be such a hot topic?

Soon afterward, I submitted a Customer Care ticket to GSUSA detailing the issues.  They routed it to my council who then lobbed it back to GSUSA.  I haven’t received an update about it since then.

Today, someone in our council’s UNOFFICIAL leaders Facebook group stated that she was having problems printing out membership cards and needed help.  I responded that I had notified The Powers That Be about the issue but hadn’t heard anything.  She thanked me and said she had hoped to print them off for her troop’s bridging ceremony later this month but she would just figure something else out. 

I thought well, I’ll just make them myself the way I think they should look and how they should be formatted!  So I pulled up my very old version of Microsoft Word and created a template that can be printed on business cards (Avery 8371) for easy perforation.  Here’s what it looks like (download the file at the bottom, not this graphic):

Leaders can customize them by typing in a girl’s name along with her Member ID.  You can find the Member ID by logging into MyGS and clicking 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.”  This will pull up a list of cards which will have everyone’s Member ID on them.

The second page of the file features the Promise.  You can print this on the back of the cards if you know how to do this on your printer.  It’s up to you.

I noted that membership cards of the past included the National President’s signature, but I figured it might not be so wise to forge Karen Layng’s name on it.  And I would like to stress that this is UNOFFICIAL!  UNOFFICIAL, I tell you!  If I get hit with a C&D, I request a signed hard copy for framing purposes.

Hopefully this file renders properly for you.  I used the Georgia font since supposedly something similar branding-wise is in the works, plus it’s one that is found on the vast majority of computers.  You are free to change the template as you see fit.

Addendum 12/7/23: The cards you can print in VS 2.0 now feature “Girl Scouts of the USA” and Juliette Low as Founder along with gray cut lines. I would advise printing them on cardstock.