This blog post is more dramatic if you read it while playing the Unsolved Mysteries theme song. I guess though EVERYTHING is more dramatic with the Unsolved Mysteries theme song playing as the soundtrack. It’s too bad I don’t have Robert Stack narrating this. He died back in 2003, in case you were wondering.

The Membership Dues Authority Proposal: There Can Be Only One

National Governance, Opinions 7 Comments 2020 NCS, farthest north council, gsg, gsusa, membership dues, national board, national convention, national council, national delegate

The series of Highlander movies features a famous line: “There can be only one.” I’ve personally never seen any of the Highlander movies because I’ve heard they involve heads getting chopped off, and I’m not one for gore. It makes me queasy. But moving on from decapitation – put on your reading glasses, because this is a long one! And it involves discussion about national governance, so go get some coffee, too! You also might need to whip out your copy of the Blue Book of Basic Documents, since I know you all carry one around in your back pocket. You never know when there might be a governance emergency!

At one time in our organization’s history, there was only one that decided how much membership dues should be – and that was the National Council. The National Board would put forth a proposal and a rationale as to why dues should increase, and National Delegates took that back to their council’s membership, discussed it, and then met at the triennial National Council Session (NCS) to debate and vote on it. But that changed in 2012 when the National Board declared it was raising dues from $12 to $15 – and didn’t consult the National Council. The same thing happened in 2016, but instead of $3, it was raised $10. Annual dues are currently $25.

So how did this come about, and why the change from the National Council to the National Board? Continue reading

January 5 2019

Holy National Governance, Batman!

National Governance No Comments 2020 NCS, delegate, governance, gsg, gsusa, membership dues, national board, national convention, national council, national delegate, sylvia acevedo

Happy New Year! 2019 is here – and that means this blog will be five years old in April. We’ve come a long way, baby. I noticed one of the posts from the first month is about my first meeting as a service unit delegate. I knew absolutely nothing about governance at that time – and look at me now! There are two categories dedicated to National Governance and Delegates!

Along these same lines, I received an email from Marty Woelfel from the Kentuckiana council here recently about a new website called Girl Scout Governance that’s dedicated to our Movement’s national governance system. Here’s what she has to say about it:

I wanted to send you information about a new Girl Scout Governance website. I’ve posted links on several Facebook pages, including Girl Scout Convention Chat, Greenblood Gab, and some others–so perhaps you’ve already seen them. If you care to take a look, here is the website: www.girlscoutgovernance.com.

As you will see, we are interested in trying to slowly bend GSUSA back toward more responsiveness to the voice of members. We are very encouraged by a lot that has happened under Sylvia Acevedo, so now seems to be the time to “make permanent” the idea that GSUSA must consult with National Delegates on a regular basis. I was a national delegate twice and a national alternate twice in the period 1999-2011 (counting my full term that began in 2008), and during that entire time, I remember only once that GSUSA contacted national delegates and alternates about anything at all. In my opinion, they are really missing out on “using resources wisely.” You will see at the website that I have other ideas, too, and we are hearing now from others about things like girl representation, membership dues, and so forth.

December 30 2018

Orienteering Ho!

Experiences as a Leader, Troop Leader Resources 3 Comments cadettes, camp wabak, city slickers, journeys, outdoors, stem, troop 20, troop 2562, university of georgia, UNOFFICIAL guides

We’re still plodding along with the Cadette Outdoor Journey. I thought we’d be done by now, but we’re soooooooo close. Just one more step in the Night Owl badge! But even though we went on a backpacking trip this past June (which I will be highlighting in a future post), technically we didn’t cover all of the steps for the Trailblazing badge, which is part of the Outdoor Journey. One of the choices for Step 4 is “practice navigating with a map and compass or GPS unit.” Continue reading

December 25 2018

Merry Christmas from 1942!

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else Kinda Like Me, Traditional Stuff 3 Comments history, holidays

It’s Christmas Day, and I’ve just woken up from a nap and eaten a leftover turkey sandwich. I normally wouldn’t have written a blog post on Christmas, but I noticed something very special in one of my presents and wanted to share it today.

I collect Girl Scout handbooks (imagine that!), and my husband gave me a 1942 handbook as a Christmas gift:

December 10 2018

Encampment Rain, Rain, Go Away

Experiences as a Leader 5 Comments badges we don't need no stinkin badges, brownies, cadettes, camp wabak, encampment, outdoors, patches, service unit, stress, troop 2562, weather

This post took a little bit longer to write than I had anticipated, but I’ve been working on some time consuming projects not to mention running two troop levels! But much earlier in the year I stated I wanted to write more about our troop and our adventures, so here we go.

For the past few years, our service unit held our encampment at Camp Pisgah, which is part of the Peaks to Piedmont council. Our encampments are well attended, so we normally take up the entire camp and that makes it hard to get one scheduled. We hadn’t held one at our home camp called WaBak since 2013, so we tried once again and was able to land a date this past May. We were all very excited to be able to come back “home.”

We didn’t have a theme for this year’s Encampment, so each troop was in charge of planning their own activities. I am usually a procrastinator, but I was so excited that I planned our weekend two months ahead of time! And even included a schedule! Additionally, I put together a list of activities for our service unit that can be done at WaBak. I was PUMPED! Continue reading

November 13 2018

Hear Ye, Hear Ye! 2020 Proposal Info is Here!

National Governance 3 Comments 2020 NCS, blue book, board of directors, councils, governance, gsusa, national board, national convention, national council, national delegate

If you’re new to the topic of national governance in Girl Scouting, you’re probably wondering what the title of this blog post means. Every three years, the Girl Scout Movement holds a meeting called the National Council Session in order to conduct business on a grand scale. The next one will be October 21st through the 25th in Orlando. I don’t know the exact dates of the Session itself within that time range, but we’ll find out closer to the date. Continue reading

October 31 2018

To You, Girl Scouts

The Grand Scheme of Things 1 Comment ann robertson, change lives, history, j-low, making a difference

Daisy with the Silver Fish. This award symbolizes the fish that swims upstream against the current instead of one that allows itself to flow with it.

Happy birthday J-Low and Happy Founder’s Day! This message comes to you thanks to the lovely Ann Robertson who pointed out the History section of GS University via one of her blog posts. Thanks Ann! Unfortunately, it looks like the History portion of this website didn’t get very far, and I hope GS University in general isn’t going away because I think it’s a good start to something. Maybe it can get a new makeover and integrate with whatever mega-system GSUSA is creating right now.

But back to the History section of GS University! There’s not much on it, but there are a few neat entries like this one featuring a letter from J-Low in an The American Girl magazine issue from 1925 which features a nice surprise at the end. Continue reading

October 9 2018

This and That

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else Kinda Like Me 4 Comments ann robertson, backpacking, blue book, governance, hiking, OFFICIAL scarf, surveys, swaps

There’s no overall theme or topic here other than to catch everybody up on some outstanding questions and updates to the blog. And some random and nonsensical thoughts about whatever.

GSWAC (Not a Council) Survey Update

GSWAC (Not a Council) Surveys went into early retirement. No GSUSA pension plan though.

I decided to ditch the GSWAC (Not a Council) Survey series. For them to have any validity, I need at least a thousand respondents at the very minimum. The two largest Facebook groups – one with 29,000 members and the other almost 19,000 – do not allow polls to be posted. In fact, one doesn’t even allow links to blogs! I had to really scrape and beg to get over 800 for the last survey, so I think it’s going to be too hard going forward to get what’s needed in order to make this series worthwhile. I’m bummed, because I thought it had a lot of potential, and I know the answers were used by people in various levels of Girl Scouting. And I had gone to the trouble of making a cool graphic for the series too! Oh well. Continue reading

Girl Scout with a Cause

Mystery Solved