Reply to Reversing the Membership Decline in Girl Scouts

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[quote=Anonymous]The letter posted identifies the reason behind many people's concerns.

[quote]I am one of a handful of CEOs across the country who experienced [b]the decade known as the Core
Business Strategy ("CBS") [/b]started in 2004 and the subsequent fallout with its failure. As I listened to the
faulty research from the "gap teams," faulty data impressions from demographers, and well-meaning
people attempting to re-brand our organization, I was worried. [b]It seems a crisis was being
communicated when there wasn't one. [/b]

In fact, in 2004, the Girl Scouts were experiencing a 25-year high in membership. Despite the real facts, the "gap teams" were suggesting unprecedented and unnecessary changes to six core areas: (1) Girl Program; (2) Pathways of delivery; (3) a new Governance Structure including radical changes to the jurisdictional boundaries of councils, also known as
Realignment; (4) a new Funding Model; (5) an entirely different method to on-board and support Volunteers; (6) and, a new Culture for the organization.

GSUSA also believed that changing all of these categories, at once, without phasing-them-in, was the best way to rip off the band aid and quickly flip the organization into a 21 st Century success. However, [b]the shock to the collective system did more damage than good and the damage has resulted in this organization hemorrhaging membership, both
adults and girls; loss of knowledgeable staff leadership (both locally and nationally)[/b]; disruption to value
of the brand; and, creating a state of total distrust, amongst councils, volunteers and community constituents, towards the national leadership.
[/quote]

Note:  GSUSA completely changed the GS program over the past decade.

[quote]Here is specifically where we went wrong. First, GSUSA needed to "sell" this new organizational model
to 312 councils, CEOs, Board Chairs, members; a monumental task. [b]At that time, CEOs were career-Girl
Scouts, in it for life and had worked their way up in the organization for decades. Their staff and boards
were just as experienced.[/b] At that time, our membership had a voice and decision-making powers, and
exercised them locally at annual meetings and nationally at the National Council Sessions. [b]Sweeping
changes could not just be handed down and demanded upon councils with this kind of experience and
power.[/b] GSUSA was well aware of this and systematically forced out the old, pressured any resistance
and played the "sisterhood" card as often as possible. [b]Offering an irresistible, unaffordable national
retirement package for CEOs and their senior staff helped tremendously and much of the opposition
walked out.[/b][/quote]

Note:   The Old Guard left.  All we have now are (mostly) inexperienced staffers in Council who weren't in many cases, Girl Scouts themselves!

[quote]Reinterpreting the Blue Book of Basic Documents came next. [b]The GSUSA board of directors through
direct wording changes and through assertions of interpretation, announced they were making
decisions that normally would be vetted through the council delegates "in the interest of moving at a
faster pace."[/b] Asking permission of members/councils to raise membership dues or re-organize councils
by one-third was deemed slow and cumbersome to the movement. As a result, GSUSA now hands down
movement-wide decisions and council delegates gather every three years for housekeeping changes to
organizational documents or to keep past board presidents out of the board room. At any rate, it
worked. The Core Business Strategy was "sold" as the saving grace that would propel Girl Scouts into
unparalleled success into the 21 st Century.[/quote]

Note:  The Board of Directors took over.  It is very hard to get them to listen anymore.   More and more grassroots groups of friends of the Girl Scouts are springing up because we want our old organization back!

[quote]Moreover, GSUSA needed to implement the CBS in just a few short years (approximately five years). [b]The
lions-share of the heavily lifting came from councils who needed to merge with a half-dozen of their
neighboring councils (serving much larger geographical areas), attempt to balance budgets and create a
cohesive team of staff peppered across thousands of geographic miles.[/b] This alone took its toll and
[b]council CEOs were averaging less than a year on the job[/b] before throwing in the towel, unloading the
impossible task of managing their "high capacity" council onto another executive just as inexperienced.  This turnover continues today.
[/quote]

Note:  Councils merged, much experience and tradition was lost; employees and volunteers demoralized.

[quote]To add to the confusion, councils had an entirely new program for girls and a new delivery system to
conquer. [b]Every book and badge that girls and volunteers and staff had ever known was gone.[/b] What
replaced the program was something foreign to anyone with Girl Scout experience and history.
[b]Inexperienced council staff attempted to teach disheartened volunteers the Journeys that were quickly
rejected by both the volunteers and the girls. [/b]The supplemental Girl Guides to Girl Scouting weren't
enough to turn things around. Simultaneously, GSUSA concluded that the troop model wasn't fresh and
the [b]membership focus should be on short-term Pathways for member participation.[/b] Councils should
invest in six-week series opportunities or virtual groups of girls doing online Girl Scouts. None of these
were ever fully developed or addressed the issue of how the Cookie Program would be effected by
short-term Girl Scouts.[/quote]

Comment:  The program that we all knew completely changed.  Right after they merged all our councils and got rid of all our most experienced staff and volunteers.

http://gsmembersupportersurvey.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/8/8/20881952/white_paper_2015.pdf[/quote]

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