6 November 2008
Girl Scouts National Geographic Diversity
Posted by admin under: Girl Scout Reorganization .
Going through the posted comments from the Girl Scouts National Council Session recently concluded and reflecting on my local connections it seems like there was one major issue that dominated all others: local representation at the national level. Because of the merger of many of the councils across the nation there was a push to eliminate from the Girl Scouts of the USA constitution references to local areas and geographic diversity. When the nominating committee was first proposed it did not include any members west of the Mississippi. Considering that this committee basically selects all the national officers, this seemed like an unreasonable consolidation of power by the east coast over the rest of the country. The committee was revised to include one member from California and one from Oklahoma.
All of this gets into a mountain of legalese and inside baseball. If you’re simply a local volunteer it’s easy to just throw up your hands and say, “Whatever. Just let me know how it turns out”. However, it seems like that’s how many of the recent program changes have come to pass. At the local level we find out that there’s this new thing called Studio 2B. Okay. No big deal. Then we find out the girls are not allowed to earn certain awards unless they’ve earned Studio 2B charms. Hey, what the heck is that about? I thought it was optional. This new program Journeys is coming out with some controversial origins. No big deal. We can give it a swing, but it’s not required for anything. Now rumblings are that it will supplant the old program. All of these program changes come down from the mysterious realm of the national office.
To figure out if what is happening is kosher with the GSUSA Constitution and bylaws you have to know where to find them. Here’s a reference to the “blue book of basic documents” which is essentially all of the controlling authority for Girl Scouts.
My head is spinning. I’m not exceptionally stupid, but I can’t seem to make heads or tails of what is going on, when it is happening, and how that is documented. I guess I’ll have to come back to this later or break it down into digestible chunks. In the meantime, Diana Laulainen-Schein has been following some of this controversy at BellaOnlineand referenced the following youtube videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4ESW4oCKX4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxauDk5EcqQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q03SeASYTlI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnZ02QwnI0s
- Odd Silence on Girl Scout Convention Proposals
- Convention Chat
- GSUSA: Weekly Troop Meeting
- Possible Increase In Girl Scouts Membership Fee
- GL Magazine. Kinda Depressing.
One Comment so far...
Sharon Says:
10 February 2009 at 10:32 am.
Hello,
I just came from Jane Chastain’s log to find this cool place, so I thought I would post a comment and encourage American Heritage Girls. Visit http://www.ahgonline.org to either donate or check us out. I am a Pioneer Leader of soon to be 8 girls and a Coordinator of a Catholic troop of 35 in Ohio. We camp at the Camp Friedlander Boy Scout Reservation each summer and also at Cub World in Loveland, Ohio. We also offer badges in many different areas such as Science and Technology, Family Living, Outdoor Skills, Personal Care and Well Being, Heritage and within in these there are many badges to do. I just finished Emergency Preparedness with required CPR, Self Defense and First Aid along with some other skills. We have a division for girls who are 7th grade and up that has a life of it’s own going camping, skiing, white water rafting, ice skating, zip lining with many other adventures. Troops are composed of girls from K-12 with the older girls taking leadership positions, service positions (camp aides). We are structured similar to the Boy Scouts troops, yet have a wider age range – although we divide in groups to support higher or lower level badge work to meet age criteria. Like Boy Scouts, you may be of any faith to be an American Heritage Girl and your troop may be Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, etc., and they are chartered similar to Boy Scouts by churches and schools. There is no Planned Parenthood, but a Pro- Life Christ centered organization which supports prayer and reverence, complete with Religious Emblems badges that are encouraged. My husband is an Eagle and my co- coordinator, my son is a Boy Scout. We have many dads getting ready to teach the outdoor skills such as hatchet, saw, knife safety, orienteering, and much more. It is a great complimentary program to a current Boy Scout troop for girl siblings. We do Scouting for Food together and also give out service stars for service hours. Girls have the ultimate goal of the Stars and Stripes award, which is the “Eagle” mirror. Check us out! You will be glad you did! http://www.ahgonline.org!
