Alabama

Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama GSNCA
  • Camp Anderel, Rogersville
  • Camp Tombigbee, Greene County
  • Camp Coleman, Trussville
  • Camp Trico, Guntersville

Decision to close announced May 2012

Vote to re-evaluate closures announced June 2013 after grassroots uprising.

Vote to re-open the camps announced November 2013. Camps to re-open for troop camping starting Jan 2014.
First resident camp held at Camp Coleman since resting in May 2013
http://www.trussvilletribune.com/2014/06/30/first-resident-camp-held-at-camp-coleman-since-resting-in-may-2013/
 The first resident camp since Camp Coleman rested in May 2013 was held last week.

The Miss Fix-It Camp was hosted by the Friends of Camp Coleman at the Trussville camp.

Attendees helped to make repairs to the camp, painting structures, and learning how to use tools and equipment

Girl Scouts also participated in traditional camp activities such as canoeing, hiking and cooking.

GSNCA board of directors passes resolution to open Girl Scouts camps on ‘limited use’
http://www.trussvilletribune.com/2013/11/20/gsnca-board-of-directors-passes-resolution-to-open-girl-scouts-camps-on-limited-use/
The Girls Scouts of North-Central Alabama Board of Directors today unanimously passed a resolution that will allow the closed and rested camps to be used on a “limited use” basis for troop camping beginning Jan. 15, 2014.

The camps will remain open pending the outcome of the re-evaluation and strategic planning process. The camps included are Camp Coleman in Trussville, Camp Anderel in Florence, Camp Tombigbee in west Alabama and Camp Trico in Guntersville.

Scouting resolution
The GSNCA reevaluates its contentious property plan
Weld for Birmingham, Katherine Webb June 12, 2013
http://weldbham.com/blog/2013/06/12/scouting-resolution/
Grassroots members are pleased to see GSNCA extending a welcoming hand to community support for the camps. In a March interview with Weld, Hilary Perry, GSNCA’s director of communications and advocacy, said of volunteer efforts, “it is not just a question of a one-time campaign to fix camp.”

Such a denial of volunteer efforts led many members to raise questions regarding the motivations for divesting of property.

And in the wake of what seemed to be the council’s determination to move forward with the plan, Scouts voted several members on to the board who are advocates for keeping the camps open. With new blood on the board, the three-phase plan began to lose steam.

Trussville's Camp Coleman among four Girl Scouts camps closing
http://www.abc3340.com/story/18318338/four-girl-scouts-camps

For the girls?
Weld for Birmingham, Katherine Webb April 3, 2013
http://weldbham.com/?p=13759
Members of the Girl Scouts mistrust council’s decision to sell Camp Coleman.

One of the six camps in GSNCA territory — an area that serves 15,000 girls in a 36-county region — Camp Coleman is, to many, beloved land. Acquired by the Girl Scouts in 1925, Coleman is also a historic site as the third-longest operating camp in the country, the longest operating camp in Alabama and the state’s first fully integrated camp. Thousands of women spent weekends and summers on the 140-acre Trussville campus, a beautiful stretch of wooded land along the Cahaba River.

In an attempt to preserve the land, Trussville Mayor Gene Melton offered to purchase the camp — admittedly “at a city discount, somewhere in the neighborhood of $4,500 to $5,000 an acre”— to keep the site operating as both community green space and a Girl Scout facility. On March 15, GSNCA rejected Melton’s offer.

Further, a number of community members have offered volunteer services for fundraising and maintenance, expressly for Camp Coleman and the condemned bridge at its entryway. GSNCA also refused those offers, citing liability and professionalism issues.
Speak no evil? Attorney for Girl Scouts suggests Weld better be careful.
Weld for Birmingham, Mark Patterson, March 27, 2013
http://weldbham.com/blog/2013/03/27/speak-no-evil/
What happens when a newspaper starts asking questions that make people uncomfortable? Sometimes, journalists get strongly worded letters from attorneys.
....
"It’s a practice we see more often in repressive regimes than in the US, where asking questions and investigating possible wrongdoing are central to a newspaper’s role in democratic society. There’s nothing wrong in reminding you to be careful, of course, but threatening a newspaper with legal action for simply carrying out its work is chilling, particularly when the threatened lawsuit would likely have little chance of succeeding."....