January 23 2022

Tough Cookies Revisited

National Governance, National Operations, Opinions    5 Comments    , , , , , , , , ,

Back in 2015, I became curious about what on earth happened to Girl Scouting because when I started as a leader in 2010, I felt like I had walked onto a battlefield. Compared to what I had grown up with as a Girl Scout, the programming and “feel” of the organization seemed foreign to me. I decided to do a deep dive and began to research the Core Business Strategy (CBS) which, in 2004, prompted the transformation of Girl Scouting. Someone pointed me toward Kathy Cloninger’s book Tough Cookies to see where it all started. Cloninger was the National CEO from November 2003 to November 2011 and is unofficially known as who kicked all this off. Well, there’s more to the story.

In September of 2016, I wrote a blog post that questioned the justification of the CBS based on the claim that membership numbers were declining. The post went viral, but after researching it a little more after the fact, I realized I hadn’t dug down far enough. I always meant to go back and revisit it, but I never did — until recently. And well, because I have that type of Sheldon personality, I took it to the extreme, and instead of a blog post, I wrote a 40 page paper. It’s about the background and history of the CBS, its legacy, and my thoughts on all of it. If you had told me in school that I would have written a white paper and a thesis on Girl Scouting for the fun of it, I wouldn’t have believed you for one second. Continue reading

January 14 2022

It’s Gonna Be Meme

Cookie Memes    No Comments    ,

This past summer, I hurt my foot and had to wear a boot for about a month and a half.  Boots are the equivalent of a dog’s Cone of Shame for humans.  But nothing was going on.  No National Council Sessions or Farthest North council lawsuits to write about… what was I to do?  Well, I could have taken up a productive hobby, but no, I decided to check out the music of *NSYNC because I am a big Justin Timberlake fan. But I didn’t become one until his 20/20 tour in 2014, so I didn’t follow him during his rise to fame.  A fellow JT fan friend told me one time that she was originally an *NSYNC fan, and I scoffed because she would have been in her late 20s – early 30s when they were popular. I was in my mid to late 20s during *NSYNC’s heyday, and I didn’t pay them much attention since I assumed they were the stereotypical boy band.  I figured since I had the time, I’d check out JT’s early roots.

So I spent the summer watching *NSYNC concerts late at night. I may or may not have purchased their albums. I call it “The Summer of *NSYNC.” Continue reading

January 2 2022

Volunteer Survey About Pre-2012 Changes

National Operations    No Comments   

I’m in the process of writing a look back at the overhaul of the Girl Scout national program which was a part of something called the Core Business Strategy, and I would like to get the perspective of volunteers.

This survey is aimed toward those who were volunteers during the time period of approximately 2006-2011.  It’s completely optional, but if you choose to share it, your contact information will NOT be used NOR will any quotes be used.  If you could also send this survey to others (even if they’re no longer current volunteering with GS), it would be greatly appreciated. The more voices, the better.  If a question doesn’t apply to you, then leave it blank.

Link to survey:  https://forms.gle/cvkCbobHsFFdssR9A

This series of blog posts (which will probably end up as a white paper) is turning out to be an enormous project, so don’t be concerned if I don’t post anything for a while.  If you’ve got any questions about the survey or whatever, just post them below or shoot me an email at amy@dawgtoons.com!