A new Blue Book of Basic Documents has been released, and in it is a change to the Bylaws enacted by the National Board at its last meeting. Wait – can the National Board amend the Bylaws without National Council approval? Yes, they can. But not the Constitution. The GSUSA Constitution and the Bylaws are two different documents, and the National Board has authority to amend the Bylaws of its own accord (see Article XVI/Bylaws in the GSUSA Constitution – pg. 13).

So there’s a little addition in the Bylaws/Article II/Officers/President (pg. 14) section in the latest edition. The following text in red was added:

ii. preside at all meetings of the National Council, the National Board, and the Executive Committee, except at such meetings for which the duty of presiding is delegated to the First Vice President, the Second Vice President, the Secretary, the Treasurer, any member-at-large of the National Board of Directors, or, for any session of the National Council, the parliamentarian or any girl delegate in furtherance of the Girl Scout mission to educate girls to be tomorrow’s leaders;

Parliamentarians and girl delegates serving as chairs during a National Council business session? I have an issue with this (surprise!). Continue reading

November 1 2022

Halloween Costume Markdown

Delegate Duties No Comments blue book, delegate, memes, national delegate, OFFICIAL scarf, roberts rules

This costume has been discounted to 50% off! No returns!

October 31 2022

The First Step

Traditional Stuff 2 Comments history, j-low

Since I launched this blog in 2014, I’ve always made it a point to post something on March 12th and October 31st for obvious reasons. Admittedly, sometimes the date sneaks up on me, and I scramble to try to find something at the last minute. I usually look to copies of Leader Magazine or various other books and what not to see if something inspires me. I came across this short blurb in the October 1931 edition of Leader Magazine, and I found it especially apropos, especially lately. Continue reading

October 19 2022

MacKenzie Scott’s $84.5 Million Donation

National Operations 7 Comments councils, gsusa, money

The news broke yesterday about billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott’s $84.5 million donation to Girl Scouts. The money will be divided between GSUSA and 29 councils. One article makes it sound like the councils haven’t been chosen yet, but another one names the Southern Arizona council as a recipient. The article doesn’t state how much each council will receive, but the Southern Arizona council is listed as receiving $1.4 million.

How much does that leave GSUSA? Doing the math, $1.5 million x 29 councils = $43.5 million. I’ve seen reports where some councils received more than $2 million (and even over $4 million), so if you bump that up to $60 million going toward councils, that leaves GSUSA with $24.5 million. Note that this is TOTAL conjecture on my part and don’t quote me. Continue reading

October 18 2022

For Junior Leaders

Troop Leader Resources 5 Comments badges we don't need no stinkin badges, dead horses, girls guides, juniors

If you’re a Junior leader (or soon to be one), then you may be interested in what I came across recently.

It’s something that a lot of people have been wanting for a long time now! I won’t go into further commentary because it would just be rehashing what I’ve written about previously.

October 2 2022

Daisy Petal Plans from VTK

Troop Leader Resources 4 Comments badges we don't need no stinkin badges, daisies, vtk

I’ve served as a mentor to new leaders in our service unit for a few years now, and to get right to the point, the Volunteer Toolkit isn’t for everybody as we all know. It’s a horse that we’ve beaten to death, so I’m not going to go into its shortcomings and why some new leaders don’t use it. But they should have the opportunity to see the activity plans that are available as a programming option, so to help them out, I pulled them down and consolidated all of them into one document:

Daisy Petal Plans

It features the newly revised petal plans. It comes in at a hefty 61 pages, so get your printer in shape if you want a hard copy. I find it crazy that I received a 4 page document of petal ideas when I started as a Daisy leader in 2010, and now we’re at a 61 page scripted meeting plan. Times change, I guess.

If you see anything that needs to be edited, please let me know. Continue reading

September 8 2022

The Three Little Pigs and a Contract

National Operations 2 Comments councils, gsusa, middle tennessee council, money, volunteer systems

Once upon a time, there were three little pigs. Each one built his own house to protect himself from the Big Bad Wolf. The first piggy built his house out of straw. The second piggy built his house out of sticks. The third piggy built a custom house made out of many different materials with no blueprint.

One day, the Big Bad Wolf came to the first piggy’s house built out of straw and said, “Little pig, little pig, let me in!” The first piggy yelled out, “Not by the hairs on my chinny chin chin!” The Big Bad Wolf replied, “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in!” The Big Bad Wolf took a big breath, and the house built out of straw fell apart quickly when he exhaled. The first piggy grabbed what he could and ran to the second piggy’s house, which was built out of sticks. Continue reading

September 6 2022

UNOFFICIAL Memory Books!

Troop Leader Resources 10 Comments ambassadors, badges we don't need no stinkin badges, brownies, cadettes, daisies, gsusa, juniors, seniors, troop stuff

A few years ago, the Greater Iowa council came up with Memory Books for girls (and leaders too, I suppose). I vaguely remember what they looked like, but I thought it was a great idea, especially considering girls don’t have their own handbooks these days due to the way GSUSA has arranged national programming. GSUSA took the idea and ran with it, and soon afterward, published its own version in 2019:

August 21 2022

Two New OFFICIAL Scarves and a Surprise!

Random Things That Don't Fit Anywhere Else Kinda Like Me 2 Comments OFFICIAL scarf

A few months, a couple of OFFICIAL scarves were put on sale on the GSUSA online shop which means they’re being retired. You can count on all OFFICIAL scarves being eventually put out to pasture, so if you see one you like, don’t wait to get it (unless it’s $150 and you want to wait it out for the inevitable mark down). But OFFICIAL scarf retirements mean that new ones will arrive! And arrive they did! Continue reading

August 16 2022

2022-23 National Programming Summaries

Troop Leader Resources 8 Comments ambassadors, badges we don't need no stinkin badges, brownies, cadettes, daisies, juniors, seniors, troop stuff

Addendum 8/6/23: You can find 2023-24’s summaries here.

A while back, I wanted to streamline the Badge Explorer (which has a lot of wasted space for printing) and include all of the awards that aren’t featured. So I put together these summaries of each level, and I update them every year. I’ve made them every year for the past few, and I recently realized I had never published them on my blog!

Updates for 2022-23 include:

Retired financial planning badges removed
New badges added
Global Action & World Thinking Day Awards added
Daisy petals updated

Girl Scout with a Cause

Changes to the Blue Book and NCS Chairs