Right before my seventh birthday, my family moved from Tampa, Florida to Athens, Georgia. I remember my parents telling me about our new house in a subdivision called Cedar Creek and how much bigger the new house would be compared to our current one, but it didn’t make much sense to me. I remember pulling up to the house in the van for the first time after the very long drive from Florida, stepping out in amazement, and then promptly puking in the yard due to car sickness. Continue reading

Summer of 2024 Patch Programs

Troop Leader Resources No Comments patches, volunteers

As SUM for my new SU, I recently put together a list of patch programs that girls can earn over the summer and thought I’d share it here too. If you’d like to download this list as a PDF, you can find it here. You don’t need a Dropbox account to download it. Just click on the X for the pop-up box and then click on the download icon next to the Share button. If you have one to share, feel free to add it below! Continue reading

May 7 2024

My Adventure with the Adventurers!

Experiences as a Leader, Hikes & Outdoors 6 Comments gsusa, mrs. vickers, OFFICIAL scarf, outdoors, swaps, trailblazers, volunteers

If you’ve followed me for a couple of years, you’ll know about my journey with getting a Trailblazer troop/program underway. To give you a brief recount of this story, in the summer of 2019, GSUSA relaunched the Trailblazer and Mariner programs to much fanfare among those of us who were hoping our national organization would invest more in the outdoors. A guidebook and a Trailblazer membership pin were released at the time, but since then, there’s been no further acknowledgement from GSUSA about the program. With all of the turnover and turmoil that’s happened at GSUSA since 2019, I have to wonder if the folks up in NYC even realize that it’s still out there? But really, it doesn’t matter, because volunteers took the idea and ran with it – and I’m one of those folks. Continue reading

April 19 2024

10 Years of GSWAC (Not a Council)!

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else Kinda Like Me 5 Comments 2017 NCS, 2020 NCS, 2023 NCS, blue book, camp mary elizabeth, camp wabak, democratic process, farthest north council, friends of camp wabak, governance

When I first started as a leader back in the fall of 2010, I told others about the crazy adventures I had as a Girl Scout growing up. At one point, someone suggested I write these stories down and perhaps they could be in the form of a blog. I gave the idea some thought, and eventually I took the time in April of 2014 to set up a WordPress site on my web account. I would love to give you an inspiring explanation of why I picked the name “Girl Scout with a Cause,” but honestly, I don’t remember why I chose it.

Initially, I wrote about very random subjects that suited my mood at the time, but as I started getting more involved in Girl Scouts, I became curious about why things were the way they were. Meaning, why was everybody so up in arms and why was our organization so out of sorts? I participated in Facebook conversations with folks all over the country and began to piece together the upheaval that Girl Scouts went through right before I started my volunteer journey. And in October of 2015, there was a big online hullabaloo due to a white paper that Suellen Nelles, CEO of the Farthest North council at the time, published and sent to the National Board. I read the paper and became even more curious about the thought process of what was known as the “Core Business Strategy.” To try to make sense of it from the viewpoint of a volunteer, I wrote a summary of the white paper with my thoughts on it. I published it and went about my day. Later that evening, a volunteer in my service unit stopped me at church and said that my blog post was going viral on Facebook. When I got home, I couldn’t believe the response it was getting. Continue reading

March 2 2024

Toxic Leadership

Opinions 4 Comments board of directors, core business strategy, councils, delegate, governance, gsusa, volunteers

I haven’t written much lately for a variety of reasons. For one, it’s been a busy few months for me with a handful of big projects that are just starting to get off the ground. For another, some of my focus has changed, and I’m not as plugged in and engaged as I used to be. I also think I’ve said my piece when it comes to where things stand with the state of Girl Scouts, so there’s no use rehashing it. However, there is one topic that I’ve wanted to write about for quite some time, but I wasn’t sure where to start or how to discuss it. And that subject is toxic leadership. Continue reading

February 15 2024

A Grant for Camp Mary Elizabeth

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else Kinda Like Me No Comments camp mary elizabeth, camps, money, tina, wildflowers

Back in 2016, I researched the history of Camp Mary Elizabeth (CME) in the GSSC-MM council and wrote a series of blog posts about it. CME is located on 56 acres in the middle of Spartanburg, SC’s urban sprawl and was originally dedicated in 1947 as a memorial to Dr. W.S. Zimmerman’s mother, Elizabeth Simpson Zimmerman, and her daughter, Mary Zimmerman Ward (Dr. Zimmerman’s sister). As an entry in this series, I wrote about CME’s wildflowers. Most of CME’s wildflowers are found along a trail that runs throughout the camp while partially following Holston Creek which splits the camp. There are a few very rare varieties found at CME including the federally-threatened Dwarf-flowered Heartleaf and Oconee Bells. Both of these wildflowers are only found in a few areas within the Upstate of South Carolina and Western North Carolina. Continue reading

December 26 2023

My More Honest Thoughts About Governance in 2023

National Governance 7 Comments 2017 NCS, 2023 NCS, blue book, delegate, democratic process, governance, gsg, gsusa, national board, national council, national delegate, roberts rules, volunteers

I haven’t written much of anything with substance lately, but I had an epiphany and had to get this out there. Recently, there have been announcements about the Movement Governance Advisory Team (MGAT) and National Council Session (NCS) Advisory Team, and I have been dealing with a lot of wildly swinging emotions about governance in general. Normal people have wildly swinging emotions about run of the mill stuff, but not me. No, I have them about governance in Girl Scouting. Man, I’m weird. Anyway, I didn’t apply for either one of the committees for a variety of reasons that I won’t share here, but there was something else that I couldn’t put my finger on that’s been bugging me lately. Finally I realized that I have not been true to myself these past few months. After the NCS, I wrote what I thought was a positive spin on where we stood with national governance. However, I left out some of my full and complete thoughts because I’ve been getting pressure to scale back my writing because it’s supposedly being viewed as too heavy-handed by some folks. Well, I tried that. But sitting on my thoughts isn’t being true to myself, and I’ve always said that if I ever got to the point that I was being fake or kowtowing that I would shut down the blog. I actually considered it recently because I do feel like I’ve run the gamut on a lot of topics. I also want to give the new leadership a chance to fix things but I know it’ll take some time to turn it around. So we’ll see where I go from here. Continue reading

December 7 2023

A Follow Up to My Membership Cards Posts

National Governance, National Operations 2 Comments blue book, gsusa, j-low, volunteer systems

Back in December of 2020, I noticed that the membership cards printed from Volunteer Systems 2.0 did not feature Juliette Low’s name as Founder as all credentials should according to the GSUSA Constitution in Article VIII/Credentials, Section 4:

4. Charters and other credentials shall be issued for no more than six years. Certificates of membership shall be issued for annual, lifetime, or other applicable periods. All the credentials shall bear the name of Juliette Low.

I reported the issue to GSUSA’s Customer Care and never heard back. Continue reading

November 7 2023

Activity Plans for the Mechanical Engineering Badge Series

Troop Leader Resources 2 Comments badges we don't need no stinkin badges, brownies, daisies, gsusa, juniors, stem, vtk

A few years ago, GSUSA released a series of mechanical engineering badges for Daisies, Brownies, and Juniors. The booklet/pamphlet that’s sold online and in the stores is a waste of money because it provides no instructions on how to earn the badges. There is a short blurb on the front of the booklet/pamphlet that reads:

This Mechanical Engineering badge booklet for girls provides the badge requirements, information, and fun facts about engineering for all three (LEVEL) mechanical engineering badges. It does not include all the information needed to complete the badges. Volunteers may access full meeting plans—including detailed activity instructions—on the Volunteer Toolkit (VTK) or by contacting their local council.

October 31 2023

Happy Founder’s Day!

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else Kinda Like Me No Comments 2026 NCS, gsg, j-low

Happy Founder’s Day!

I always make an effort to publish something on both March 12 and October 31 for obvious reasons. Today’s is just a quick hitter with some news that you most likely are already aware of if you stay “in the know” with Girl Scout news.

In 2025, our own Juliette Gordon Low is going to appear on a quarter as a part of the American Women Quarters Program! I wonder what Daisy would have said if she were told that she was going to appear on our national currency? She’d no doubt have some sort of funny quip.

Last Friday, GSUSA announced that the next National Council Session and National Convention will be held in Washington D.C. July 20-25, 2026. It’ll be another hot one it seems! I’ve been to D.C. twice – once with my troop when I was 10 or 11 in 1984 and the other time as a chaperone on my oldest daughter’s 5th grade trip in 2016. I got food poisoning when I was with my troop, and the 2016 trip was such a nightmare that I asked for a refund or at least part of my money back! Assuming I go, maybe the third trip will be the charm.

Speaking of governance, GSUSA recently announced that the Movement Governance Action Team has been created. You can read all about it on GirlScoutGovernance.com. Good luck to those on the team! I’ll be very interested to see what comes out of this.