2023 NCS and Phenom Review

Well, that’s a wrap on the 56th National Council Session (NCS) and Phenom Girl Scout Convention. Where to even begin? There’s a lot to unpack, but I’ll go through it as best as possible. Buckle up!

My favorite part of the convention was finally meeting up with friends that I have made through online networking channels. Some folks I’ve known for years, but this was the first time we’ve ever met in-person. It’s really neat how you instantly click with them. It had also been almost six years since I had seen some other friends at the Convention in Columbus. That’s too long of a wait!

I want to thank those of you I spoke to in Orlando who gave me supportive comments about the work I do in Girl Scouting. It has been like a ride on a rickety wooden roller coaster for the past however many years since I started delving into deeper waters, but hearing from you really does make the journey smoother. It was a great pick-me-up at just the right time. 

Also, I really value the conversations that I had this past week with a wide variety of folks on all levels of Girl Scouting. What was the most evident to me is that even though we’re all coming from different perspectives, everybody cares deeply about Girl Scouting, and we’re all rooting very hard for its success. I think we finally have the right puzzle pieces in hand; it’s just a matter of putting them all together.

NATIONAL COUNCIL SESSION NOTES

Even though the delegate formula proposal didn’t pass, I still truly felt honored by being able to serve as the Farthest North council’s resource team and to be a part of the 2023 NCS. My goal was to represent the council and the proposal as professionally as possible. I had the opportunity to speak at the microphone a few times, and I have to say it’s definitely an exercise in concentration when you can hear your own voice reverb throughout a very large room while you’re trying to answer questions. At some point I plan on writing a follow-up about this proposal’s topic at a later date and go into more detail on my thoughts.

Luckily, our proposal was heard on Day Two of the NCS because I was running on fumes for Day One. My connecting flight on Monday night from Atlanta to Orlando was delayed by almost four hours, and I didn’t get to the hotel until about 3am Tuesday morning leaving me only four hours of sleep because I had to get up early in order to have enough time to shower, eat breakfast & lunch, pick up my registration, make a few phone calls, and have a meeting all before the 1pm Q&A session that I participated in. Oh, and stand in the enormous security line. Twice.

Our National CEO Bonnie B made the mistake of taking a shortcut through our Q&A session to get into the convention room. I seized the moment and got my picture taken with her. Which started a trend and then everybody else in the room wanted a picture too. Sorry Bonnie B!

As I wrote in an earlier blog post, I had MAJOR concerns about girls serving as presiding officers. However, the way they were partnered with a National Board member worked beautifully, and my fears did not come to fruition. I thought they did a fabulous job, especially the Credentials Crew, of course. I’d love to learn that credentials dance.

I am guessing that probably 75 to 80% of speakers at the mics were delegates under 18 years old. I’m sure some of you will disagree with me, but I think that was too many. I would have liked to have heard from different voices and roles within the organization. I think it’s great that we’re lifting up girl voices, but at the same time, we need to remember that the democratic process is dependent on hearing from all sides.

I also believe that delegate education moving forward needs to stress that the goal of going to the microphone is to persuade members to vote a certain way and not to make a grandiose speech. And if someone before you beats you to the punch and states the same point(s) you’re planning on making, leave the line and let someone else have a chance. The presiding officers had to remind delegates multiple times to please not repeat the same points other speakers had already shared.

I wasn’t a big fan of all of the cheering and applauding that went on when the question was called (even though it really WAS time to call the question, especially with the redundancy of speakers). During our proposal, one delegate made what I thought was a very disrespectful comment that really, really rubbed me the wrong way, but for the sake of diplomacy, I’m not going to repeat it. Let’s just say some coaching was definitely in order. But not everybody was like this – a good number of girls had very well thought-out rationales and were able to think on their feet when circumstances changed.

I said previously that I was disappointed when I heard that delegates would be broken out into sixteen separate rooms for the discussion topic because I wouldn’t be able to hear the comments, but I did appreciate that guests were allowed to have our own discussions. I also liked that there was a follow-up report to the discussion topic breakout sessions presented later in the evening.

Before the NCS, I was thrown for a loop when GSUSA announced that NCS attendees couldn’t share voting results, especially since it had gotten back to me that they might wait a few weeks to release anything about it. However, during announcements prior to the NCS, the announcer stated that delegates could “thoughtfully” share results privately. To their credit, GSUSA published a brief overview of the NCS decisions a day after the NCS. After waiting a few days (admittedly for us to get home and catch our breaths), we’ve published a summary including voting counts on GSG (and h/t to J. Kramer!). The voting counts were interesting, because at times, a large portion of National Council members didn’t vote. According to the credentials, there were 901 members of the National Council present Friday morning. The lowest number of votes cast was 788 for a motion to limit debate to one hour during the Promise & Law proposal. So 113 members didn’t vote for that motion. Where were they? And then interestingly enough, the largest amount of votes was also cast (880) during that same proposal block later on.

I could have SWORN that I read in Robert’s Rules at some point that you cannot make amendments in the secondary degree (amendment to an amendment) to bylaw/constitution proposals because you can only have two amendments on the floor at one time, and the proposal itself counts as one of the amendments since it’s acting upon a governing document. Someone from the Chicago council made a Point of Order questioning this, and the Point of Order was not well taken, but no RONR reference was given. I spent probably 10 minutes reading through RONR during the NCS and finally found a reference to secondary degrees to bylaw amendments (57:10), so I must have imagined it. But I really don’t think I did. I will research this further at a later date for my own edification because it’s driving me nuts.

It was announced at the NCS that Janet Garretson would be retiring from her role as National Delegate Engagement Manager. I wish her well and hope she has safe travels during her retirement!

What comes next in 2026? I’m not sure. There’s talk about separating out the NCS from the Event itself and moving it back to October. I actually see both sides of the coin when it comes to this dilemma, but I could write an entire blog post about it (and maybe I will at some point). I also believe the proposal process will be examined in some form or fashion. Good luck to those of you who apply to the Movement Governance Advisory Team!

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to talk to me about the work we do on GSG. It was very encouraging to hear that what we do promotes engagement. I realize governance isn’t the most exciting topic out there, and it’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but it’s very important to our Movement in many ways.

PHENOM NOTES

I have to admit, I don’t have a lot to write about Phenom. I spent a lot of my time networking in the hallways and side rooms, and I took breaks here and there to relax in my room. But the opening ceremony – wow!! I was admittedly a little beaten down and worn out after the NCS, but being in the same room with thousands of singing Girl Scouts was truly inspirational and it lifted my spirits.

I’m glad they ditched the extraneous security measures that they had in place during the NCS for Phenom. I’m not sure if it was because the equipment stopped working, but either way, the security detail during the NCS added a level of stress that wasn’t necessary so I’m glad that issues were recognized and changes made.

After the opening ceremony, I was in the hallway talking to some folks, and in passing, Dianne Belk (yes, I’m name dropping) pointed out that my membership pin was missing. Sure enough, I looked down and it was GONE. I looked back at pictures and surmised that it had fallen off during the opening ceremony in the ballroom. I retraced my steps, and after trying five locked doors, I found one that was open and started meandering around in the bleak hope that I could find it. A crew was putting away chairs, and a Disney cast member asked if he could help me. I told him about my lost pin. He held out a handful of various SWAPs, trinkets, and pins, but my pin wasn’t among them. I kept wandering around, and after about a minute, I unbelievably FOUND IT. Talk about luck!

I gave out almost all of my OFFICIAL scarf SWAPs, but I have a ton of GSG ones left. I had planned on giving out more GSG SWAPs during the NCS, but I spent too much time in security lines to be able to take advantage of the opportunity, plus on Wednesday morning, I was fully focused on prepping for our proposal since it was the first one to be heard that day. Regardless, I still collected quite a haul including tons of SWAPs and leadership patches (and even a CEO coin)!

I attended three volunteer workshops and found all of them informative and helpful to my role as a volunteer. The Citrus council staff member who led the Citizen Scientist Journey workshop (Rose) was great!

Originally, I was supposed to fly out on Saturday afternoon, but I received an invitation to the Gold Award celebration, and after a lot of deliberation, I decided to cancel my flight and book a new one Sunday morning so that I could attend the event. I’m glad I did. I thought it was nicely put together and a very thoughtful tribute to Girl Scouting’s highest award.

Speaking of travel, it seems like the Girl Scout Universe wasn’t very kind to those of us who flew. There were tons of canceled and delayed flights due to typical stormy summer weather. In addition to my flight on the way to Orlando being delayed, also I missed my connecting flight on the way home due to airport traffic congestion. We took off late, circled the Charlotte airport for 30 minutes, and then sat on the runway for another 20 minutes waiting on an open gate. I need to work on my mile time because I had to sprint from Gate A8 to Gate E44 in the Charlotte airport and missed the flight by two minutes. American Airlines gate hosts claimed that traffic control told them not to hold the plane for us. My husband ended up driving to Charlotte to pick me up, and I retrieved my luggage from the GSP airport that afternoon since it was automatically put on a later flight. I then collapsed in bed.

I posted all of my photos and videos on my Facebook profile, so if you want to see all of them, be sure to check them out! If you went to the NCS and/or Phenom and didn’t get to fill out the survey, here’s the link! The deadline to fill it out is July 28th.

I’m excited to see what the future holds for Girl Scouts! I may still be on the rickety wooden roller coaster, but now I know there’s a whole bunch of friends on the ride with me.