Girl Scouts have lost their way

[Anonymous]

This is a really good summary of the problems with GSUSA today. Outdoor programming is being lost; camps are being closed; these new "Journeys" are being brought in and they are expensive, boring, and useless. Girls are dropping left and right and leaders are abandoning ship because they are trying to do these "Leadership Journeys" that the girls HATE (too much like school). Cookie sales, as this author says, ARE becoming the program -- financial literacy + nebulous "leadership" goals. It makes me very sad to see what is happening to an organization that I love.

Also, the reasoning for the camp closures was a mystery. On the local level, we were told it was a financial decision. If you looked at the National mission and goals though, you could see that they had pretty well written out camping as having a place in their new programming. The cookie sales had become the program. Girls were to learn leadership skills through selling boxes and boxes of cookies. But with this new shift, the girls are both funding their local council management and then serving as customers for the Journeys books, badges, programs, and whatever gimmicky sparkly trinkets GSUSA tries to market to them.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/07/22/1225610/-Girl-Scouts-of-America-and-the-Zombie-Virus-part-1#

[Anonymous]

This article is even more damning. GSA is broke. I really hope they make it. It would be a terrible loss. I loved scouting and even got my Silver award.

http://philanthropy.com/article/FinancialLeadership-Woes/138335/

[Anonymous]

Journey program sucks. My DD wants to do the fun stuff the boyscouts do.

[Anonymous]

As a leader, I still believe in the program. I don't have my girls buy the journey books (I don't even buy them -- I find enough info. on line and make up the rest of it myself). I get badge resources on line and go beyond the descriptions they give to make it more fun.

When I gave a survey to my troop in May, the number one thing they wanted to do (just a few weeks after our FIRST camping overnight) was to do MORE OUTDOOR stuff. So, this Sept. we are doing kayaking, archery and a day camp. The old badges are still available (if you search for the). We are earning the Aerospace badge in Aug. and Rocks Rock (geology) in Sept. I tend to lean toward the STEM types of badges b/c they are more hands on and I'm not a touchy-feely person. We are planning to do the Amuse (Gender stereotypes) journey, but I think we might watch "Brave" the Disney movie and then re-write some of the princess stories to have the princesses be more active in their destinies.

The hard thing about doing more outdoor things is that the parents don't really want to be involved or help or even sit outside long enough to have a picnic! I never camped before getting certified -- so it's not like I'm a natural camper. What I find is that most people have plenty of excuses for why they can't step out of their comfort zone and help. Also, as the girls get older, I find that as a leader I have to learn skills so that I can teach something that is useful -- it's no longer about just leading a discussion on "being helpful" and then coloring a picture. I am teaching myself to make jewelry so that we can do that badge (hooray for youtube!). I am learning about satellites and women in space so I can teach that (with videos) for the Aerospace badge... etc. It takes a lot of time.

I find that parents of girls don't really expect to be involved (they just want to drop off and go), whereas parents of boys (I have a cub scout too) sort of expect that they will have to go camping with the pack, and have to be involved with the boy or they don't join cub/boy scouts.

Girl Scouts is still valuable, but nationals and council sometimes get in the way of what is good about it.

[Anonymous]

I hated girl scouts. Hated hated hated it. I was a brownie and jr two years each, only because my mom and older sisters were scouts. I wanted to be a campfire girl because they had better uniforms. Ha. I really have very few good memories of scouts, but thats probably because I had little to no parental support, was fairly shy and have always hated anything remotely related to camping. Oh and I hated all the crap we had to sell....ugly calendars, all those damn cookies and I was lucky to sell 20-30 boxes completely on my own, whereas other girls had dads who took the order form to work and would sell a couple hundred boxes and get the special badge and extra attention. What a crap organization. Good riddance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hated girl scouts. Hated hated hated it. I was a brownie and jr two years each, only because my mom and older sisters were scouts. I wanted to be a campfire girl because they had better uniforms. Ha. I really have very few good memories of scouts, but thats probably because I had little to no parental support, was fairly shy and have always hated anything remotely related to camping. Oh and I hated all the crap we had to sell....ugly calendars, all those damn cookies and I was lucky to sell 20-30 boxes completely on my own, whereas other girls had dads who took the order form to work and would sell a couple hundred boxes and get the special badge and extra attention. What a crap organization. Good riddance.

Well, you have stated the real reasons why you hated scouting above. It really wasn't about the GSA. I'm sorry that you had a bad experience, but just b/c you didn't like it doesn't mean you should condemn it to failure. It has been and is a great organization for so many girls.

[Anonymous]

You're right, PP.if other girls enjoy it, more power to them. I ALWAYS buy several boxes of cookies FWIW.

[Anonymous]

I only stayed in Scouts through Cadet to go camping. The beautiful GS camp I attended was sold off to build condos.

There's no reason the Girls Scouts organization should be going broke. Obviously horrible mis-management.

[Anonymous]

Girl scout hater here...we didn't have any camps of our own, we had to rent from local boy scout camps. This was in the PNW in the 80's. It has just been in very recent years that I realized GS owned any camps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Journey program sucks. My DD wants to do the fun stuff the boyscouts do.

That is kind of how I felt when I was a Brownie. My brother got to go camping and participate in the soap box derby. We Brownies just did macramé.

My kids (both genders) just finished doing a Camp Fire Organization outdoor camp in the Midwest. My girly-girl daughter LOVED it. They fished, did a rock-climbing wall, canoed, and cooked out. My daughter (especially) gained a great deal of confidence from it. Too bad Virginia doesn't have Camp Fire. I like it so much better then GSA.

[Anonymous]

So long as they keep making the thin mints...

[Anonymous]

I started one of my kids in GS last year, and was shocked at how much of the outdoors and practical skill learning activities have been dropped since I was a kid. I also think the organization must be spending a crazy amount on merchandising. I hate the consumerist focus.

However, we do have good troop leaders, and they minimize the excessive caring/sharing/feelings badge activities to do more interesting things.

We'll give it another year, since my girl did have fun and grew more self-confident and independent.

[Anonymous]

All of my daughters ultimately dropped out because they resented that their brother got to go camping all the time in Boy Scouts but their own troops never did anything outdoorsy. Damn shame.

[Anonymous]

In Fairfax they have so many programs through Parktakes for scouts. I'm surprised parents just don't pay a little extra to have their children learn stuff if the leaders don't already have the knowledge themselves and the parents don't want to learn either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a leader, I still believe in the program. I don't have my girls buy the journey books (I don't even buy them -- I find enough info. on line and make up the rest of it myself). I get badge resources on line and go beyond the descriptions they give to make it more fun.

When I gave a survey to my troop in May, the number one thing they wanted to do (just a few weeks after our FIRST camping overnight) was to do MORE OUTDOOR stuff. So, this Sept. we are doing kayaking, archery and a day camp. The old badges are still available (if you search for the). We are earning the Aerospace badge in Aug. and Rocks Rock (geology) in Sept. I tend to lean toward the STEM types of badges b/c they are more hands on and I'm not a touchy-feely person. We are planning to do the Amuse (Gender stereotypes) journey, but I think we might watch "Brave" the Disney movie and then re-write some of the princess stories to have the princesses be more active in their destinies.

The hard thing about doing more outdoor things is that the parents don't really want to be involved or help or even sit outside long enough to have a picnic! I never camped before getting certified -- so it's not like I'm a natural camper. What I find is that most people have plenty of excuses for why they can't step out of their comfort zone and help. Also, as the girls get older, I find that as a leader I have to learn skills so that I can teach something that is useful -- it's no longer about just leading a discussion on "being helpful" and then coloring a picture. I am teaching myself to make jewelry so that we can do that badge (hooray for youtube!). I am learning about satellites and women in space so I can teach that (with videos) for the Aerospace badge... etc. It takes a lot of time.

I find that parents of girls don't really expect to be involved (they just want to drop off and go), whereas parents of boys (I have a cub scout too) sort of expect that they will have to go camping with the pack, and have to be involved with the boy or they don't join cub/boy scouts.

Girl Scouts is still valuable, but nationals and council sometimes get in the way of what is good about it.

Thanks so much for taking the time to share this info. I loved being a scout but didn't realize these challenges have been taking place. My hat's off to you for all you're doing, so that the girls in your troop can continue to have great experiences!