February 15 2024

A Grant for Camp Mary Elizabeth

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else Kinda Like Me    No Comments    , , , ,

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    , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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    , , ,

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    , , , , , ,

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.

Continue reading

October 31 2023

Happy Founder’s Day!

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else Kinda Like Me    No Comments    , ,

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.

October 1 2023

Activity Plans for the Robotics Badges

Troop Leader Resources    1 Comment    , , , , , , , ,

Some of the most popular posts on my blog are the consolidated Journey plans that I created for the Junior Think Like A _____ series. I believe that there are a lot of leaders who want to access the material, but they don’t want to have to wade through and struggle with Volunteer Toolkit (VTK) in order to find it. So, I decided to do the same with the Robotics badge series for all levels since the booklets that you buy in the store or online don’t offer anything in the way of well… anything, really. Continue reading

September 24 2023

Ours is a Circle of Friendships

The Grand Scheme of Things    3 Comments    , , , ,

Over the summer, one of my recently graduated Ambassadors (Emma) and her mom (Jen) sent me a text stating that someone from Jen’s work had given them some of her family’s Girl Scout memorabilia and insignia from different eras, and they wanted to know if I was interested in any of it. Of course, I emphatically said YES as I always do when I’m offered the chance to look at Girl Scout memorabilia and insignia.

The two of them came over one evening and brought two full bags of badges, patches, and insignia. I poured everything out onto the kitchen table and began to sort through the piles. One sash looked like it came from the 1960s and another one was from the 1980s. I also identified more Junior badges from the 1990s. There were also lots of random patches from legacy councils. While sorting through the patches, I came across three from the Old 96 council, which was the name of one of the three legacy councils that made up my current council and the one that covered the area I live in now. I’m not originally from Old 96 (I grew up in the Northeast Georgia council), but I collect patches from it anyway since I have an affinity for it due to the research I’ve done for Camp WaBak and this council’s history project. Continue reading

September 4 2023

Where to Find National Programming 2023-24

Troop Leader Resources    5 Comments    , , , , , , ,

A few years ago, the River Valleys council published a great matrix of GSUSA’s national programming with information on where to find the various requirements.  As a leader mentor for my service unit, I found it to be a great resource — especially for overwhelmed new leaders. Since we don’t have a traditional badge book anymore, it’s confusing for leaders who come in expecting to be able to find national programming in one place but instead hear about Volunteer Toolkit (VTK), Journey books, and badge pamphlets.  However, River Valleys never updated their resource beyond that year, so I took it upon myself to do it and added a few features. Continue reading

August 23 2023

Updated UNOFFICIAL Memory Books for 2023-24

Troop Leader Resources    11 Comments    , , , , , , , ,

As promised, here are updated versions for 2023-24 of the UNOFFICIAL Memory Books. In case you’re wondering what these are, they are a (sort of) recreation of the Memory Books that GSUSA published a few years ago. The concept was nice, but the execution was a little lacking due to the way our national programming rolls out new content every year. These UNOFFICIAL memory books can be printed onto 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper and placed in a 3 ring binder so that pages can be added (or removed) as the leader or girl sees fit.  You can read more about the concept on the original blog post. Note that these only provide badge requirement summaries. Requirements can be found in the badge booklets or VTK. Continue reading

August 13 2023

The Delegate Formula Proposal Revisited

National Governance    3 Comments    , , , , , , ,

A month has almost passed since the NCS, and I wanted to circle back to the delegate formula proposal that was voted down and review a few points. In case you missed it, I had the honor of serving on the resource team for the Farthest North council who sponsored the proposal. In this post however, I am NOT speaking for Farthest North in ANY capacity but only sharing my own personal thoughts. I’m not rehashing this out of any sort of sour grapes but because I’m a governance nerd, and I like talking about this kind of thing. I hope you other governance nerds out there will enjoy the discussion from my point of view.

Personally, I feel like I did my best within the framework and circumstances that I was handed. It wasn’t the easiest proposal to wrap your mind around. It involved everybody’s favorite subject — math — and it also asked delegates to revisit a decision made by the National Council back in 2008. Some of the delegates weren’t even born then as one pointed out rather bluntly during the NCS. I could read the room before I even got to the NCS, and the voting went the way I thought it would go (Yes: 228 | No: 650 | Votes cast: 878), although I also wouldn’t have been surprised if a motion had been made to send the proposal to a committee (aka the Movement Governance Task Group). Continue reading