June 3 2021

Middle Tennessee Gets an Offer It Can’t Refuse

Opinions    19 Comments    , , , , , , ,

In early May, the Middle Tennessee council filed a lawsuit because GSUSA is going to pull its charter due to Middle TN’s refusal to adopt a common IT platform called CEI, which is short for Customer Engagement Initiative.  Believe or not, I’m going to write about a lawsuit that does NOT involve Farthest North!  Shocker!  Although, GSUSA is pulling FN’s charter for the same reason, so they are sort of related.  Originally, I wanted to wait and incorporate GSUSA’s response to Middle TN’s case, but it has 60 days to respond after the lawsuit was filed, and I’m impatient and didn’t want to wait that long.  So here we go.

Before you continue reading, I highly suggest that you first read my previous blog post called We’re Spending HOW Much on IT? if you haven’t already, because it will give you some perspective and background on CEI, how much it costs, and what it is.  Continue reading

May 25 2021

We’re Spending HOW Much on IT?

National Operations    6 Comments    , , ,

Recently, I fell down yet another rabbit hole, and believe it or not, I did it attempting to give GSUSA the benefit of the doubt for something I’ve railed about for years now. In a former life, I was an IT professional, so this speaks to me.  I’ve always been extremely critical of GSUSA when it comes to its IT expenses because I’ve always thought they were enormously expensive. GSUSA’s council-wide technology platform is called CEI, which stands for Customer Engagement Initiative. It’s also referred to as Volunteer Systems 2.0, but I’m going to stick with CEI since that’s what is used in later charts. Yes, there will be charts and dollar figures, so go get a cup of coffee now.

What is CEI exactly? In basic terms, it’s an IT system. It was piloted in 2014 and then slowly rolled out to councils in 2015. From a volunteer standpoint, you use it in the form of Volunteer Toolkit, gsLearn, Volunteer Systems (or MyGS), and possibly some other parts, depending on what your council has enabled. There are other backend components that council staff interact with. Its foundation is based on Salesforce, which is a customer relationship management service (among other things). GSUSA requires councils to be on CEI to fulfill their charters, but before “agreeing” to onboard CEI, councils are obligated to sign a technology agreement (aka a contract). One of the terms is that GSUSA can charge councils whatever it wants year to year. Currently, all councils are on CEI, except for two – Middle Tennessee and Farthest North – but more about that in a future post.  Continue reading

May 14 2021

If You Want Something Done Right… Membership Cards Edition

National Operations    3 Comments    , , , , , ,

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.  Continue reading

May 4 2021

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Yank Their Charter

National Governance    20 Comments    , , , ,

I’ll just leave this right here:

Update from National Board and CEO

Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) remains wholeheartedly committed to building girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. GSUSA issues charters to over 100 local Girl Scout councils to bring our powerful mission to life with Girl Scouts throughout the country. The charters and our Girl Scout governing documents in the Blue Book of Basic Documents provide rights and obligations for local councils. While the chartering process is an internal Girl Scout business matter, good governance is the foundation of our organization’s ability to deliver on our mission—helping girls realize their biggest dreams and full potential. As such, GSUSA takes this process very seriously and conducts a thorough annual review of each council’s adherence to its charter obligations.  
Continue reading

April 21 2021

The Four Pillars Revisited

National Operations, Opinions    5 Comments    , , ,

This is a follow-up to my last post about revamping our program.   In it, I wrote:

Our program is based on four pillars – the Outdoors, STEM, Entrepreneurship, and Life Skills.  We should stick with those, but add Art into the mix too.  These five pillars should be the basis of our programming moving forward.

The current Four Pillars

A few days ago, I revisited these pillars.  I realized this whole time that I didn’t have the same definition of “Life Skills” that GSUSA has:  “By partaking in life skills programming, girls enhance the academic skills they learn in school through topics such as civic engagement, healthy living, communication skills, financial literacy, and global citizenship.”

Continue reading

March 25 2021

A Skills-Based Program Reset Button

National Operations, Opinions    9 Comments    , , , ,

“Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.” — Maya Angelou

Unless you’ve been under a rock lately – a really big rock – we’re currently looking for a National CEO. Considering we’ve gone through three National CEOs in the past ten years, it goes without saying that we need to get this next hire right.  The incoming CEO will have a big job on her hands dealing with the fallout from a pandemic and the upheaval it’s brought.  But while it’s certainly an intimidating situation, it’s also a good opportunity to hit the reset button and get back on the right track.  Continue reading

February 10 2021

Here and There and Everywhere

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else Kinda Like Me    3 Comments    , , , , , , , , ,

Here comes a hodge podge of updates regarding previous posts and random observations and such that I wanted to share.  I’ll jump right into it!

Lifetime Membership Card Update

Even after almost 7 years of writing, I still cannot correctly predict which posts here on GSWAC (Not a Council) will go viral and which ones won’t.  The one I wrote almost flippantly about membership cards back in December completely blew up much to my surprise.  I guess membership cards are a hot topic!

Speaking of that, after I accidentally requested a new Lifetime Membership card, I received a notification from GSUSA Customer Care about a month after the fact stating that I’d get my new card in 6 to 8 weeks.  A friend of mine in another council requested a new LTM card the same way, but instead of receiving a message from GSUSA, her request was forwarded to her council who instructed her to print one out.  Hmm.  Continue reading