National News

The future of the Girl Scouts
Katherine Webb July 8, 2014
http://weldbham.com/blog/2014/07/08/the-future-of-girl-scouts-birmingham/?fb_action_ids=798278330212555&fb_action_types=og.comment

Nationally, the Girl Scouts have faced criticism for closed-door decisions and questionable motivations. In recent years, as tight-knit, locally controlled councils merged into large, multi-county councils, volunteers say they felt out of touch with the Scouts. Cookie sales increased. Memberships declined. When the timing of the push for camp property sales coincided with organizational pension troubles, red flags arose across troops and garnered national news attention with headlines like “Sales of Campsites Throw Girl Scouts into Turmoil.”

But locally, the turmoil has passed, according to Edwards, who led that grassroots movement in GSNCA before being elected to the board. “We’re very optimistic about what’s going on. … At this year’s annual meeting, we honored 119 volunteers, and while the membership still had questions about property, the mood was very, very positive.” That mood differs greatly from last year, when the grassroots members surprised the council by electing 11 supporters to the board and police ousted media from the grounds of the Gardendale church that housed the meeting.

Edwards credits the rescinding of the property plan and the push for transparency for the shift in local membership. “The camps are open for use for people to go troop camping but not resident camping [which is a fully staffed camp]. Anyone can go to the camps. We don’t provide any services other than water, beds, the basics. We’re finding out that people are enjoying that,” Edwards said.

Why Are Girl Scout Camps Being Closed?
Allesandra Rafferty January 12, 2014
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/12/why-are-girl-scout-camps-being-closed.html

Eagle Island, a 32-acre refuge in Upper Saranac Lake, N.Y., is a National Historic Landmark and one of the finest examples of Great Camp architecture in the Adirondacks. Bequeathed to the Girl Scouts by a wealthy banker in 1937, the camp served girls in the urban enclaves of northern New Jersey for 70 years until it was “rested” and then closed several years ago. Now it’s for sale—at $3.25 million.

And Eagle Island isn’t the only Girl Scout camp on the block.

The Girl Scouts, for whom cookies and camping have long been synonymous, have decided one of them has to go, and it isn’t going to be the addictive cash-cow Thin Mint.  In the past five years or so, Girl Scout councils across the country, backed by the parent organization Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA), have put up for sale more than 200 camps in 30 states—more than a third of Girl Scouts properties with acreage are threatened. The regional councils defend the sales by citing the rising costs of maintenance. And, they say, today’s girls aren’t as interested in camping.

Girl Scouts of America and the Zombie Virus (Blog)
Karen Sheahan July 22, 2013
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/22/1225610/-Girl-Scouts-of-America-and-the-Zombie-Virus-part-1

Unfortunately, there has been a seismic shift in Girl-Scouting. Approximately ten years ago, GSUSA decided to cure a dwindling membership, but not by an increased effort to market thewonderful benefits of unplugging our current generation of kids and sending them to camp.

Instead, they rebranded themselves as “the premier leadership organization for girls.” They de-emphasized camping in favor of events like Spa Day, Lock-down Sleepovers at the Mall, and Indoor Camping.  Cookie sales, instead of being the means to an end and a way to help fund camps, have now become the end in itself with a huge emphasis on “Financial Literacy” and the addition of thirteen new badges that revolve around money management skills. This from an organization that has badly bungled its own finances and is now reeling from a pension funding disaster.

When Nonprofits Go Corporate: Cautionary Tales (Op-Ed)
Peter Gow July 3, 2013
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/independent_schools/2013/07/when_non-profits_go_corporate_cautionary_tales.html

Thirty years later, de-accessioning camps has become a hallmark of the Girl Scout movement nationally. Having apparently invested its pension funds poorly (one wonders in what? buggy whip futures?), the national organization and its local councils--having completed a dizzying spate of mergers--are holding a kind of national fire sale of camps. The issue has been all over the news, and in my household, where five of "our" Girl Scout camps and, for good measure that YWCA camp, and are sold or for sale, we're pretty unhappy. Better organized and perhaps more reflexively litigious than we were thirty years ago, camp-sales opponents have launched any number of lawsuits and have of course set up Facebook pages (example here)and other sites to keep the war drums beating.

The Shocking Bill Your Daughter's Girl-Scout Cookie Money Is Paying
Dan Caplinger June 29, 2013
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/06/29/the-shocking-bill-your-daughters-girl-scout-cookie.aspx

For the Girl Scouts, the pension controversy comes at a time in which the entire organization has gone through major changes in an effort to reinvent and modernize itself in order to reverse falling numbers of participants. For many parents, there's less incentive to work hard on fundraising efforts when they know that an alarmingly large portion of the proceeds from their labors will go not toward current programs for girls but rather toward getting a distant national organization out of its financial bind. To avoid the challenges the GSUSA now faces, other popular nonprofit organizations need to look closely at their employee benefits to keep would-be donors from balking at the prospect of funding pensions rather than supporting the current programs that do so much good.

Dissension and Fiscal Woes Beset the Girl Scouts
David Crary AP June 23, 2013
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/dissension-and-fiscal-woes-beset-girl-scouts-0

"I care so much about this organization, and that's why I hate to see it pulled down," said Suellen Nelles, CEO of a local council based in Fairbanks, Alaska. "We have leadership at the top who are toxic to this organization and need to go."

Forget the IRS; investigate the Girl Scouts!
Sarah Gardner June 24, 2013
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/final-note/forget-irs-investigate-girl-scouts

An Iowa congressman is calling for an inquiry by the House Ways and Means Committee into the finances of the Girl Scouts. Democrat Bruce Braley says he's worried that the longtime organization is selling its famous Samoas and Thin Mints to fund pension plans for employees rather than camping and other traditional Girl Scout activities.

Sales of camp sites throw Girl Scouts into turmoil
Ryan J Foley AP May 27, 2013
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/sales-camp-sites-throw-girl-scouts-turmoil

"We just keep shaking our heads, 'This is just not Girl Scouts'," Kinsey said at her Iowa City home, where she keeps her old Scout memorabilia. "I've started saying there's been a corporate takeover of Girl Scouting and that Girl Scouts are losing their way."

CNN Carol Costello interview with Joni Kinsey
May 29, 2013
View CNN transcript. 

The Evolution of a Story: Girl Scouts
Ruth McCambridge May 29, 2013
http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/policysocial-context/22369-the-evolution-of-a-story-girl-scouts.html 

So for NPQ, this story about divisions in the Girl Scouts does not come out of nowhere. It evolved from a strategy that was to have made an organization more effective and responsive—a strategy to consolidate a federated organization—and in that regard it is one of many such consolidations that have occurred over the past decade. It is also a story about constituent activism and organizational response to constituent activism.

The Girl Scouts Uncharted Territory
Lissette Rodriguez September 21, 2007
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/management/543-the-girl-scouts-uncharted-territory.html

Beginning in late 2004, under the helm of newly hired CEO Kathy Cloninger, the Girl Scouts engaged a team of business consultants to study the organization’s operating environment and to make key recommendations about the structures, policies, and programs that would best serve the organization in the future. Cathy Tisdale, a vice president for council partnerships at Girl Scouts of the USA, sums up the findings. “The scan revealed that . . . the past was not entirely the bridge for the future.” The McKinsey report has a similar conclusion and argues that “while the structure of most federations is sound, their management must be overhauled. Federations can offer significant advantages to their affiliates, but if poorly managed, they suffer from uneven performance among local organizations, costly administrative duplication, and cumbersome national offices that deliver insufficient value.”3

The Girl Scouts suffered from many of these challenges, including the following:

• a stagnating membership base of girls and adult volunteers;
• substantial inconsistencies in programming from one council to the other, even in contiguous areas, due to varying levels of capacity, resources, vision, and leadership;
• substantial inconsistencies in levels of efficiency and effectiveness from one council to another, with redundancies in the management of facilities and the handling of fundraising, volunteers, and other operational matters;
• an outdated volunteer and philanthropic model that pitted councils against one another and barely tapped the organization’s vast alumni network; and
• a brand known for popular cookies and stimulating camping experiences, but not for its impact on the lives of girls and communities.

Girl Scouts: Dissent in Consolidated Council Focuses on Camps
Ruth McCambridge May 28, 2013
http://nonprofitquarterly.org/management/22361-girl-scouts-dissent-in-now-consolidated-councils-focuses-on-camps.html

In some cases, police and security guards were used to ward away unhappy constituents. Last year in Ohio, protesters were kept off council property during a celebration of the closing of Camp Crowell/Hilaka. Opponents are still pursuing a lawsuit on the matter. Lynn Richardson, a pro-camp volunteer, said, “Democracy has been completely squelched. They will hide behind rules and regulations, but they are shutting us down.” CEO Diane Nelson acknowledged having hiring facilitators and bringing in security guards as a safety precaution because of fears of rowdy protests. “It’s not that we were afraid of any of our volunteers. We didn’t know who was going to come,” she said.

Regional Girl Scout Councils Look To Sell Camps used for Troop Camping in Local Communities
NPR May 28, 2013
http://www.npr.org/2013/05/28/186861866/the-last-word-in-business

Plagiarism in Scouting  
Katherine Webb May 7, 2013
http://weldbham.com/blog/2013/05/07/plagiarism-in-scouting/

Members of grassroots Scouting groups in both Iowa and Alabama spotted something unusual in a recent letter to Al.com. The letter, attributed to Cheryl H. Williams, is nearly identical to an op-edpublished in the Quad-City Times on March 19, 2013.

“We have noticed the same language to justify closing of Girl Scout camps in 24 States across the USA,” said Girl Scout member Jane Duax of Davenport, Iowa. “But this one takes the cake!”

Girl Scouts ask Congress for a do-over on pension plan exemption
Hazel Bradford April 29, 2013
http://www.pionline.com/article/20130429/PRINTSUB/304299976/girl-scouts-ask-congress-for-a-do-over-on-pension-plan-exemption 

Pension funding relief is supposed to help defined benefit plan sponsors, but for the Girl Scouts of the USA, it has turned into a case of “be careful what you wish for.”

The 101-year-old organization is now asking Congress to rescind an exemption it fought for in 2010. What seemed like a good idea at the time now is causing the organization's pension funding demands to outstrip those of other non-profit or corporate plans.

Girl Scouts’ Financial and Leadership Woes Threaten 100-Year-Old Group
Holly Hall and Suzanne Perry April 7, 2013
http://philanthropy.com/article/FinancialLeadership-Woes/138335/  

Girl Scouts has been losing young members steadily since 2003, donations have slipped since 2007, many local councils face financial difficulties, and emotions are still raw in the wake of mergers that shrank its 312 local councils into 112.

What’s more, some council officials fear that the entire organization’s finances could be threatened by a deal the national headquarters made to help staff members whose jobs were at risk because of the mergers. By expanding opportunities for workers to get generous early-retirement benefits, it added to the liabilities of the group’s pension plan, which now has a deficit of at least $340-million, according to a lawsuit filed by a local council.

For the Girls? Members of the Girl Scouts mistrust council’s decision to sell Camp Coleman.
Katherine Webb April 3, 2013
http://weldbham.com/blog/2013/04/03/for-the-girls/

Speak No Evil
Nick 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.

Weld recently received a letter from an attorney, one Daniel J. Burnick, who, based on the tone of his letter, is less than pleased because of a story this news organization has been working on. The letter, which will be presented to you in its entirety, arises from the questions Weld Local Editor Katherine Webb has been asking about the decision of the Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama (GSNCA) to close Camp Coleman, a 140-acre camp founded in 1925 in Trussville. GSNCA serves a 36-county region, representing 15,000 girls in 1,100 troops.

Girl Scout Council has turned group into an ordinary girl group (Letter to the Editor)
Jayne Geneva  July 16, 2012
http://www.cleveland.com/sun/all/index.ssf/2012/07/girl_scout_council_has_turned.html?fb_action_ids=10201306859744118&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582

The Girl Scout organization has always presented a fun and unique way for girls to gain leadership skills and learn self-reliance. Other organizations for girls resort to computers, indoor activities and book-type learning. Girl Scouting presents real-life encounters with nature that enables girls to confront new situations they don’t find in other organizations. It is indeed sad the Girl Scout Council of Northeast Ohio, now responsible to 40,000 members, has chosen to become like those girl groups, greatly reducing the thing that set them apart and superior to others — safe camping.

Girl Scouts Seek an Image Makeover
Ellen Byron March 25, 2008
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120641101055361411-r0b8VDyabvii1pWJFJksG__PQGU_20080423.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

The cookies will stay, but the green skirts are history.

The Girl Scouts, seeking to reverse declining troop numbers, is shaking up its image. On Tuesday, the organization is expected to announce the appointment of its first chief marketing officer, a former senior partner and executive group director at WPP Group's Ogilvy & Mather.

Laurel Richie will be in charge of modernizing the image of the Girl Scouts, which is viewed by many as a rigid, old-fashioned organization focused on cookie fund-raisers and campouts. "Girls think of us as outdated," says Kathy Cloninger, chief executive of Girl Scouts of the USA. "They have stereotypes of who we are that are not right."