The 2026 NCS Alert is Out!

Hear ye, hear ye! The (Early) Alert is out! For us governance nerds, it’s Christmas morning, and it’s time to unwrap all of the presents. For those of you who want to cut to the chase and not wade through my thoughts to get to the file, here you go:

But for those of you brave enough to put up with my ramblings, continue reading.

I’m not going to discuss the selected proposals at this time, but instead, I’m going to review what was presented in the Alert document. Stay tuned for my take on the proposals later in the year!

I felt like this year’s version of the Alert is more of a complete and explanatory document compared to previous years. At the very least, everyone should read the concise executive summary. This Alert assimilates an educational component by including detailed explanations about various topics dealing with national governance including the new proposal process (now called the NCS Agenda Influencing Process) and the work of the Movement Governance Advisory Team (MGAT).* Additionally, the duties of the National Council Session Advisory Team (NCSAT) are also featured. References to the GSUSA Constitution are scattered throughout as a way to educate members about the authority granted by our governing documents which is always a plus in my book.

There will be three proposals on the NCS agenda, and all three are council-sponsored. MGAT did not recommend any Constitutional changes after completing its work, and the National Board/GSUSA did not offer any additional proposals either. The three proposals are:

1. Girl Scout Highest Awards Solicitation of Contributions, submitted by Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania
2. Membership Dues and Procedures for Registration, submitted by Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana
3. Preservation of Girl Scout Leadership Experience Relating to the Entrepreneurship Program, submitted by Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland

Additionally, there will be two discussion topics:

1. Amplify Impact: Building Connection with Our Communities
2. Revolutionize Engagement: Girl Scouts Her Way

Per the GSUSA Constitution, council-sponsored proposals that receive endorsements from 15% of all councils are automatically placed on the agenda, unless the proposal involves a Constitutional amendment. If that’s the case, then the National Board reserves the sole authority to decide whether it makes the cut or not. For those proposals that don’t reach the 15% threshold, the National Board (with the help of the NCSAT) makes a decision about their placement on the agenda. In the Alert, the National Board states that it wished for NCS proposals and discussion topics to revolve around the three pillars of Vision 2030, which is the name of our national strategy. The three pillars are Revolutionize Engagement, Amplify Impact, and Secure Tomorrow.

Two proposals that reached the 15% threshold (Establishment of a National Pilot Program for Daisy Sprouts and Task Group to Research Equity in Distribution of GSUSA Gold Award Scholarships and to Look into Other Types of Scholarships That Could Be Available to Girl Scouts) were acted upon by the National Board outside of the NCS, so the two councils withdrew their proposals from NCS agenda consideration.

In the past, a separate memo about proposals and discussion topics that were not added to the agenda was issued to council CEOs and board chairs, but this year, this information was incorporated into the Alert which I believe makes for a more complete delivery.

The text of each of the three proposals that will be on the National Council Session (NCS) agenda are included in the Alert along with the sponsoring council’s rationale, thoughts from the NCSAT, and the National Board’s opinion.

As a side note, I chuckled when I came across this in the Alert on pg. 10: “For future triennia, councils are strongly encouraged to fully utilize the ‘open comment and collaboration’ as well as ‘refining final drafts’ periods, as these steps provide the opportunity to get feedback on proposals as well as gather additional information which may better shape the proposal’s language in the final submission.” In other words, MANY proposals this past year were not written very well, and they needed lots of proofing and editing. Get it together, councils. GSUSA just said it a lot nicer than I did last summer.

I highly recommend everyone read the Alert in full for more detailed information for what I’ve presented above, and like I shared earlier, I’ll publish my take on the three proposals closer to the NCS! I’ll soon update GirlScoutGovernance.com with the Alert and the proposals, so be sure to bookmark GSG for more on national governance!

* Off topic (kinda), but I noted the fourth recommendation of the MGAT in the Alert on pg. 7:

4. Support for Councils in Optimizing Core Governance Practices

Recognizing that local councils have a critical role in Girl Scouts’ interdependent governance model (Movement and local councils together), and that strong governance supports and collectively accelerates our Movement strategy, the team developed a fourth recommendation to support council governance. The team identified core governance practices, aligned to our shared council charters: Movement mindset, leadership partnership, and representation and accountability. To support these practices, the team recommended providing councils with a variety of tools and proven practices, which they may implement or adapt based on local needs and resources. The ability to tailor processes to support local circumstances is a strength of our federated model, which offers many examples of good practices to be shared.

If you’ve followed me, you’ll know that I’ve been very outspoken about how I believe the work we’ve been doing lately in national governance has the potential to be all for naught if we don’t shore up local council governance first. It’s nice to see this acknowledged and highlighted, and I hope that council leadership takes note and understands the importance of implementing the democratic process within their local councils. And I’d like to give a nod to parliamentary procedure as the vehicle to do just that!