Discussing the Democratic Process at the 2023 NCS

National Governance No Comments 2023 NCS, core business strategy, councils, democratic process, governance, gsg, national board, national council, national delegate, volunteers

This blog post is a continuation of a series that will cover topics of interest for the 2023 National Council Session (NCS). I shared my thoughts about the CEOs on the National Board and Delegate Formula proposals previously, but now it’s time to tackle the discussion topic. And it’s about something that’s near and dear to my heart — the democratic process.

I’ve written about the democratic process ad nauseam over the past few years with multiple blog posts, a 2019 white paper, and even a 2023 NCS proposal (“Ensuring the Importance and Effectiveness of the Democratic Process in the Movement”) for my council. Out of sheer enthusiasm (and a little bit of naivety), I once attempted to give a presentation on the democratic process during one of my council’s Town Halls to show that it could be used as the way to rebuild our council (much to the consternation of our interim CEO at the time). In fact, I’ve written about it so much that when I attempted to write this post, I had a very severe case of writer’s block for quite some time. Continue reading

April 5 2023

Why It’s Critical for the Delegate Formula Proposal to Pass

National Governance 2 Comments 2023 NCS, blue book, councils, democratic process, farthest north council, national board, national council, national delegate

This is going to be the second in an undetermined number of blog posts about some of the 2023 National Council Session (NCS) proposals. Last month, I gave my thoughts on the CEO Representation on the National Board proposal, and next up is the National Delegate Formula sponsored by everybody’s favorite council, Farthest North. If you haven’t read the proposal in its entirety yet, I highly recommend you do so that you know the specifics of the language within the GSUSA Constitution.

Before I begin my spiel, I would like to state for the record that I am a part of the Farthest North NCS resource team. So with this post, I am OFFICIALLY representing Farthest North and its proposal. What I hope to accomplish with this blog post is to go into a little more detail and answer some questions that we didn’t cover with our recorded webinar that you can view on YouTube and the National Delegate webinars. Continue reading

April 2 2023

Volunteer Systems 2.0 Levels Up

National Operations 2 Comments councils, gsusa, volunteer systems

<<At a local council office, a council staffer sits down and logs into Volunteer Systems 2.0.>>

Computer: Hello, council staff person.

Staffer: Who said that?

Computer: It is I, Volunteer Systems 2.0.

Staffer: Excuse me?

Computer: It’s me, VS 2.0, the GSUSA common technology platform. I’m talking to you. Continue reading

March 21 2023

The Middle Tennessee Council Lawsuit Update and Thoughts On It

National Governance, National Operations 3 Comments bonnie b, cei, councils, gsusa, membership dues, middle tennessee council, money, national board, national council, volunteer systems, volunteers, vtk

I’ve been asked from time to time about the status of the Middle Tennessee council case after I wrote my initial post about it (you may want to start there before continuing). I kept up with it but had only been doing so by a cursory glance on this page waiting for a final ruling or something along those lines. But recently, there have been some major developments so I thought I would catch everybody up with what’s going on.

Here’s a brief timeline. I have purposely separated out my personal thoughts on the lawsuit from the timeline and the facts because if you don’t want to read my strong reactions, then you can skip it and determine what you want based on what I’ve presented and the court documents themselves. Continue reading

March 17 2023

Should CEOs Serve on the National Board?

National Governance 8 Comments 2023 NCS, cei, circlearound, councils, democratic process, farthest north council, gsg, gsusa, membership dues, money, national board, national council, national delegate, strongly worded letter, volunteer systems

It’s OFFICIALLY National Council Session (NCS) Season! The Late Alert was released a few weeks ago for the 2023 NCS, and now we know what proposals will be on the agenda. Of course, things could change even up to the day of the NCS, but most likely it’ll stay the way it is. There are a number of proposals that will be featured, but I won’t necessarily be writing about each one in detail. I’ll touch on all of them eventually in some form or fashion though.

For this post, I’m going to cover the one submitted by the Greater Atlanta council that aims to amend the Constitution so that the composition of the National Board would include at least three employed council executives (CEOs). I find this a very interesting proposal on many levels. If you haven’t read through it yet, I highly encourage you to do so before continuing.

March 12 2023

Who Were the Other Seventeen?

Traditional Stuff 5 Comments history, j-low, savannah

Today marks the 111th birthday of Girl Scouts! If you’re a die-hard Girl Scout, you know the story of Juliette Low making the famous phone call on March 12th:

I’ve got something for the girls of Savannah, and all America, and all the world, and we’re going to start it tonight!

And the story goes that local girls were gathered for a tea party and told what they could be doing as Girl Guides (the name Girl Scouts didn’t come into play until 1913). Eighteen girls were signed up that night, but the first name on the list, “Daisy Doots” Gordon, who was also Juliette’s niece, wasn’t in attendance. Continue reading

March 7 2023

I Finally Made It!

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else Kinda Like Me 4 Comments farthest north council

Unless you’re a new reader to GSWAC (Not a Council), you’re probably aware that I have a long history with the Farthest North Council headquartered in Fairbanks, Alaska starting when I first stumbled across their website back in 2015. A few years later, I fell down a very deep rabbit hole while covering their lawsuit versus GSUSA. And then this happened recently: Continue reading

March 1 2023

The Late Alert is Released!

National Governance 3 Comments 2023 NCS, democratic process, governance, national board, national council, national delegate

The Late Alert has been released! What’s the Late Alert you ask? It’s really called the Early Alert, and it’s a document that lists the preliminary proposals that will be included at the 2023 National Council Session. The proposals’ text and rationale and the National Board’s rationale as to whether or not it supports the proposal are included. The Early Alert also states what the discussion topic will be. I’m calling it the Late Alert now because normally an Early Alert is released about 8 months before a NCS, but this one came out with only 4 months to spare. You can find the Late Alert along with a corresponding memo about proposals that weren’t selected here on GirlScoutGovernance.com. Continue reading

February 2 2023

Welcome to Our New Girl Scout Overlord

National Governance, National Operations 5 Comments 2023 NCS, bonnie b, democratic process, gsg, gsusa, national board, sofia chang

I recently started a part time job. I don’t get a devoted break, so I keep my phone in my pocket and check it briefly from time to time just in case I get a call from the school or my husband. Last week, my phone started blowing up. I was right in the middle of something and couldn’t check it. The phone kept going off, and finally I stopped what I was doing because I was afraid something had happened and there was an emergency. Lo and behold, many friends sent me this news: Continue reading

January 12 2023

Volunteer Systems: D’oh!

National Governance, National Operations 5 Comments 2023 NCS, councils, gsusa, money, national board, strongly worded letter, volunteer systems

On the heels of my last blog post, I have an update regarding Volunteer Systems 2.0. I’m not going to rehash the previous post, so if you’re confused as to what I’m referring to and what I’m about to share, then head back to January 1st to be filled in.

Near the end, I wrote:

It was built on the wrong architecture, and it’s filled with shoddy and patchwork coding. So in my opinion, we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. Either ditch the whole thing and look to another solution which will cost even more money, or continue to limp along like we are now and toss money down the drain. Neither one of these decisions is palatable, but one needs to made, and soon.

Little did I know that a couple of days later, my question would be answered via a coincidental statement by GSUSA, and it wasn’t the one I was hoping for. GSUSA basically said what we already knew — that VS 2.0 is made up of many out-of-the-box IT solutions all cobbled together for a custom IT platform. They made an analogy to a car and said that parts from all sorts of different models were hammered together, and well, the car doesn’t run very well overall. Ya think? And when attempts are made to fix things like the engine, it causes problems in other areas. Hmm, where have we read something like this before? Continue reading