The other day my daughter, who is ten, was wide eyed, carrying an old lap top that I have rigged up for her. She plopped it in front of me and began to cry, “My computer has a virus!” (It didn’t, but the protection software was giving her a message about viruses). She then proceeded to ask me if she could catch a virus from her computer and “how did it get a virus??” (She was appalled when I told her that people actually created viruses!)
With the threat of a pandemic looming, I started thinking about how something passes from one person to another. It seems that every meeting I attend lately, someone is talking about viral marketing. I am pretty sure it is an old idea dressed up in new clothes. When I was a girl, many of my classmates were Girl Scouts. We had fun; it was a part of school and community. Girl Scouts marched in the town parade; they participated in the ceremonies for Memorial Day and helped when there was a paper drive or a food drive at church.
Today the explosion of online communities has replaced some in-the-flesh “real” life for virtual life. But we are all still seeking something similar: the sense of connection with others, a sense of belonging, a place to go (where everybody knows your name?). How do those communities spread? How does someone “catch” the idea? Marketing studies point out that people often try brands because of someone else’s personal testimony. I know that is a great deal of how I end up trying something, particularly something unfamiliar to me.
As a movement, Girl Scouts is a community of people who have an opportunity to spread the word about our experiences. We are working on not leaving that idea up to chance, but focusing on the key messages that we think are important for everyone to share about Girl Scouts.
1) Girls need Girl Scouts – have you thought about how hard it is to be a girl these days? There are a myriad of messages about what it means to be a girl, girls’ bodies are changing earlier and so childhood for girls is getting smaller, role models for girls are still few and far between (in our state, less than 13% of our elected officials are women!)
2) Girl Scouts has been teaching leadership to girls for close to 100 years! Juliette Low’s radical act of 1912 was to bring girls and women out into the community to do activities on their own – at a time before women could vote or own property.
3) The community we are creating by our inclusion; is a great place to raise a girl. Each time a new girl/woman joins Girl Scouts, our community is enriched. As a mom, the Girl Scout community, with its core values of courage, confidence and character, is a great place for my daughters.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Needed: A New Kind of Leadership
In a recent article regarding school achievement McKinsey and Company wrote: “The extent to which a society utilizes its human potential is among the chief determinants of its prosperity.” (April 2009) The article points out that school achievement gaps that exist between the U.S. and the rest of the world and within our own schools, students of color and white students costs us as a nation between 9 and 16 percent of our Gross Domestic Product. Individually, shortfalls in academic achievement result often in lower earnings, poorer health and higher rates of incarceration. In addition, the study points out that there is more of a variance between classrooms than there are between schools or between districts or states.
Graduation rates have been in the news lately as we try to decipher the real number here in Oklahoma. No matter, as a state that ranks in poorer health, with one of the worst incarceration rates and lower worker earnings than many other states, our prosperity has been tied to our ability to utilize our human potential. Sadly for Oklahomans, race, gender and economic status all have played a part in the avenues open to participation and utilization, but it does not have to be our destiny.
Hierarchical leadership and fragmented, narrow thinking is often at the root of our inability to effectively help our young people. America’s Promise points out that most kids don’t get the basics: a caring adult, safe places to live, healthy starts, education for marketable skills and an opportunity to give back. Instead, leadership is often fragmented and silo-ed, says the Forum for Youth Investment. Often educators focus on book/classroom learning, youth serving agencies focus on out of school time and parents just try to keep up with all of the competing activities.
Daniel Goleman, in his groundbreaking book, Emotional Intelligence, pointed out that leadership is best done not from a hierarchical perspective, but from a relationship building approach. Leadership based upon linkages is exactly what the Forum for Youth Investment advocates. Interestingly, last year’s study on leadership and young people by the Girl Scouts of the USA pointed out that young women see leadership from this very perspective, while young men see leadership from the top down approach. Young women expect that as a leader, they will be responsible for connecting others together. This shift in seeing a challenge from its relationships instead of its disconnections is exactly what is needed.
Experiential learning, cooperative education, service learning and self determination are components of education that many argue are missing from our educational system. These “soft skills” are necessary for success in and out of the classroom. This model, which the Girl Scouts calls its theory of change, has been a part of Girl Scouting from its inception more than 97 years.
Graduation rates have been in the news lately as we try to decipher the real number here in Oklahoma. No matter, as a state that ranks in poorer health, with one of the worst incarceration rates and lower worker earnings than many other states, our prosperity has been tied to our ability to utilize our human potential. Sadly for Oklahomans, race, gender and economic status all have played a part in the avenues open to participation and utilization, but it does not have to be our destiny.
Hierarchical leadership and fragmented, narrow thinking is often at the root of our inability to effectively help our young people. America’s Promise points out that most kids don’t get the basics: a caring adult, safe places to live, healthy starts, education for marketable skills and an opportunity to give back. Instead, leadership is often fragmented and silo-ed, says the Forum for Youth Investment. Often educators focus on book/classroom learning, youth serving agencies focus on out of school time and parents just try to keep up with all of the competing activities.
Daniel Goleman, in his groundbreaking book, Emotional Intelligence, pointed out that leadership is best done not from a hierarchical perspective, but from a relationship building approach. Leadership based upon linkages is exactly what the Forum for Youth Investment advocates. Interestingly, last year’s study on leadership and young people by the Girl Scouts of the USA pointed out that young women see leadership from this very perspective, while young men see leadership from the top down approach. Young women expect that as a leader, they will be responsible for connecting others together. This shift in seeing a challenge from its relationships instead of its disconnections is exactly what is needed.
Experiential learning, cooperative education, service learning and self determination are components of education that many argue are missing from our educational system. These “soft skills” are necessary for success in and out of the classroom. This model, which the Girl Scouts calls its theory of change, has been a part of Girl Scouting from its inception more than 97 years.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Work Life Balance
Several times in the last few months, I have had significant conversations with staff members at Girl Scouts struggling with work/life/home balance. Sentiment always runs to how to find time to do it all, not sacrificing anything in our quest to “make the world a better place.” Judith Warner, a NY Times editorial writer in her column not too long ago writes about this achievement oriented woman of today: “I think this is partly why so many grown-up amazing girls with high-earning husbands find themselves having to quit work when they have kids. They simply can’t perform at work and at home at the high level that they demand of themselves.”
Inherent in Warner’s statement is that some women don’t have a choice, either because their spouses don’t make enough to support them all or they are unmarried. That high level demand of ourselves is like a noose around our necks. We want to be all things to all people, but it is emotionally and physically impossible. What’s a woman to do?
For me, I am realizing it has to come back to my own core values. I work at the Girl Scouts because I believe that girls need the support and informed community that the Girl Scout movement is. Courage, confidence and character are important tools for girls to develop in our world today. To me, it is essential for girls to be nurtured in this way. However, I also believe we are the microcosm of the macrocosm. If I am neglecting my children, I can’t be an effective CEO of a Girl Scout council. I can’t advocate for girls on the one hand and neglect my own on the other, it is out of integrity. But finding that balance and achieving it, in all aspects of my life, is a tricky path to negotiate. I am finding it takes vigilance.
Of late, it makes me realize that it is important to build into the Girl Scout community, time for moms/parents/caregivers to interact and support one another. In our busy world, when left to chance, this is the first item that drops out – self nurturance. As they say in the airplane…. “when traveling with a small child, put your oxygen mask on first.”
Inherent in Warner’s statement is that some women don’t have a choice, either because their spouses don’t make enough to support them all or they are unmarried. That high level demand of ourselves is like a noose around our necks. We want to be all things to all people, but it is emotionally and physically impossible. What’s a woman to do?
For me, I am realizing it has to come back to my own core values. I work at the Girl Scouts because I believe that girls need the support and informed community that the Girl Scout movement is. Courage, confidence and character are important tools for girls to develop in our world today. To me, it is essential for girls to be nurtured in this way. However, I also believe we are the microcosm of the macrocosm. If I am neglecting my children, I can’t be an effective CEO of a Girl Scout council. I can’t advocate for girls on the one hand and neglect my own on the other, it is out of integrity. But finding that balance and achieving it, in all aspects of my life, is a tricky path to negotiate. I am finding it takes vigilance.
Of late, it makes me realize that it is important to build into the Girl Scout community, time for moms/parents/caregivers to interact and support one another. In our busy world, when left to chance, this is the first item that drops out – self nurturance. As they say in the airplane…. “when traveling with a small child, put your oxygen mask on first.”
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
To Tell the Truth
When I was a girl my favorite story was the Emperor’s New Clothes. I believed everyone would want to know the truth about the king’s faux pas but alas, that is just not so. We sometimes like our myths and stories we tell one another. Pointing out what is readily available for others to see can upset the apple cart, too.
Eleanor Roosevelt wrote once that: “people grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.” As Girl Scouts, we are about growing character and teaching girls to speak honestly. This is difficult sometimes, even though it seems it should be easy. My oldest daughter felt that her teachers this year were/are out of integrity when they are yelling at students in their classroom. My daughter’s response to that was to be uncooperative and not turn in homework. It created a D as a grade for her in one of her progress reports.
But it was a great lesson. Sometimes we work with or for people we may not like so much. It could be just our personalities or ways of seeing the world, or it could be something more. However, sometimes we have no choices and must learn how to be gracious even when we might not agree with someone. While my daughter resisted the lesson, I think she understood what I was saying and has conformed, learning to put aside what she doesn’t like about her teachers, and do what she needs to do to make the grades she wants to achieve.
Building a healthy community is hard work and requires each of us to step up to hear things we may not like to hear about ourselves or one another. It demands that each of us be present to the ways we behave with each other and the connections we have with one another. By being conscious of the ways we act and react, as well as the feelings it invokes in us and in others, we begin to create the kind of community that feels safe and nurturing for everyone. Sometimes, people may opt out of that effort, because they don’t want to change, others may be willing to try on different behaviors. While it may feel uncomfortable at times, the gift of commitment to one another is great.
Eleanor Roosevelt wrote once that: “people grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.” As Girl Scouts, we are about growing character and teaching girls to speak honestly. This is difficult sometimes, even though it seems it should be easy. My oldest daughter felt that her teachers this year were/are out of integrity when they are yelling at students in their classroom. My daughter’s response to that was to be uncooperative and not turn in homework. It created a D as a grade for her in one of her progress reports.
But it was a great lesson. Sometimes we work with or for people we may not like so much. It could be just our personalities or ways of seeing the world, or it could be something more. However, sometimes we have no choices and must learn how to be gracious even when we might not agree with someone. While my daughter resisted the lesson, I think she understood what I was saying and has conformed, learning to put aside what she doesn’t like about her teachers, and do what she needs to do to make the grades she wants to achieve.
Building a healthy community is hard work and requires each of us to step up to hear things we may not like to hear about ourselves or one another. It demands that each of us be present to the ways we behave with each other and the connections we have with one another. By being conscious of the ways we act and react, as well as the feelings it invokes in us and in others, we begin to create the kind of community that feels safe and nurturing for everyone. Sometimes, people may opt out of that effort, because they don’t want to change, others may be willing to try on different behaviors. While it may feel uncomfortable at times, the gift of commitment to one another is great.
Monday, April 20, 2009
The Care Voice in our World
Changing Our Perspectives
On the Anniversary of the Columbine shootings I read that all the gun control, metal detectors and police presence at schools are not making a difference. Articles on the sad event point out that teaching empathy, anger management and impulse control do have the ability to reduce the amount of these crimes. As a woman who believes strongly in that care* voice, I get that. How unfortunate it is that we still have people even in our state lobbying for college students to carry weapons on campus. Empowering students to share what they know has also had a positive effect. That culture of silence that sometimes accompanies the strong message of conformity (even if it is counter culture), can be stultifying and in some cases, deadly for those who maintain it.
Yesterday at our Gold Award Ceremony for Girl Scouts (a very prestigious and high honor) I mentioned a quote by Admiral Grace Hopper: “It is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.” As a woman in the military, I am sure Admiral Hopper many times had to inject the care perspective into the work she was doing, only later to be rewarded for her unique perspective. How wonderful if we could ground more women and men, girls and boys into that care voice? What kind of world might we create?
*Carol Gilligan’s work points out that we have both a “justice” voice in our world and a “care” voice. Both genders are capable of thinking from either perspective, but we often associate the “care” voice with more things “female” --- nurturing, making sure that everyone is taken care of, inclusion. Justice plays out in rule conformity and the sense of entitlement “I was here first.”
On the Anniversary of the Columbine shootings I read that all the gun control, metal detectors and police presence at schools are not making a difference. Articles on the sad event point out that teaching empathy, anger management and impulse control do have the ability to reduce the amount of these crimes. As a woman who believes strongly in that care* voice, I get that. How unfortunate it is that we still have people even in our state lobbying for college students to carry weapons on campus. Empowering students to share what they know has also had a positive effect. That culture of silence that sometimes accompanies the strong message of conformity (even if it is counter culture), can be stultifying and in some cases, deadly for those who maintain it.
Yesterday at our Gold Award Ceremony for Girl Scouts (a very prestigious and high honor) I mentioned a quote by Admiral Grace Hopper: “It is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.” As a woman in the military, I am sure Admiral Hopper many times had to inject the care perspective into the work she was doing, only later to be rewarded for her unique perspective. How wonderful if we could ground more women and men, girls and boys into that care voice? What kind of world might we create?
*Carol Gilligan’s work points out that we have both a “justice” voice in our world and a “care” voice. Both genders are capable of thinking from either perspective, but we often associate the “care” voice with more things “female” --- nurturing, making sure that everyone is taken care of, inclusion. Justice plays out in rule conformity and the sense of entitlement “I was here first.”
Monday, April 13, 2009
"Is Equality Important?"
Yesterday, we had Easter Brunch at the National Western Heritage Museum, previously called the “Cowboy Hall of Fame.” My daughters, 10 and 11 had been to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. When we walked around at the exhibits after brunch they said, “How come this place is so much bigger than the Cowgirl Hall of Fame?”
These questions have plagued me, “why 79 cents to a dollar?” (women’s earnings vs. men’s earnings); why are only 13% of elected officials women? Why has no U.S. president ever been female and most of the fortune 500 companies run by white men? It’s still United Way time and so I ask similar questions of their volunteers in regards to our allocation as Girl Scouts. Why?
When I was 12 I wanted to be a newspaper carrier. I had been reluctantly babysitting since 10, for my six brothers and sisters. I thought it would be more fun to earn money delivering papers. The rule then was that girls had to be 18. Boys could be twelve. I guess that started something for me.
In high school we didn’t have sports teams until Title IX passed my sophomore year. Our first year teams had no uniforms, we put our numbers on our shirts with tape every game. The boys’ locker room had a whirlpool and showers. The girls’ locker room didn’t have either. We could use the real gym on days that the boys weren’t using it, so we had an early Saturday morning practice (7:30am) so that we could at least have one day in the gym in which the games would be played, I guess so we could at least feel a little like we had a home court advantage.
Is equality important? I see the world through a woman’s eyes, which I believe gives me a different voice – a voice that is wanting more inclusion, eyes that see the people who are missing, the children not fed, the conversations about a problem that define the problem in a way that misses half of the world.
Yesterday, we had Easter Brunch at the National Western Heritage Museum, previously called the “Cowboy Hall of Fame.” My daughters, 10 and 11 had been to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth. When we walked around at the exhibits after brunch they said, “How come this place is so much bigger than the Cowgirl Hall of Fame?”
These questions have plagued me, “why 79 cents to a dollar?” (women’s earnings vs. men’s earnings); why are only 13% of elected officials women? Why has no U.S. president ever been female and most of the fortune 500 companies run by white men? It’s still United Way time and so I ask similar questions of their volunteers in regards to our allocation as Girl Scouts. Why?
When I was 12 I wanted to be a newspaper carrier. I had been reluctantly babysitting since 10, for my six brothers and sisters. I thought it would be more fun to earn money delivering papers. The rule then was that girls had to be 18. Boys could be twelve. I guess that started something for me.
In high school we didn’t have sports teams until Title IX passed my sophomore year. Our first year teams had no uniforms, we put our numbers on our shirts with tape every game. The boys’ locker room had a whirlpool and showers. The girls’ locker room didn’t have either. We could use the real gym on days that the boys weren’t using it, so we had an early Saturday morning practice (7:30am) so that we could at least have one day in the gym in which the games would be played, I guess so we could at least feel a little like we had a home court advantage.
Is equality important? I see the world through a woman’s eyes, which I believe gives me a different voice – a voice that is wanting more inclusion, eyes that see the people who are missing, the children not fed, the conversations about a problem that define the problem in a way that misses half of the world.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
"Volunteers in a High Capacity Council"
Yesterday was a busy day in my world. Spring is a dozen plus United Way applications, all different, all wanting the same or similar information in different ways for our 39 counties in central and western Oklahoma. From the smallest to the largest, each volunteer committee panel takes their jobs very seriously, so each includes an opportunity to meet with members of a review committee all who have a lot of questions and are earnestly trying to understand what we do and what our program is all about. United Way, all 15 different and separate 501c3's with their own boards and own ways of work, make up 6% of the total budget of the Council. We are grateful for our own volunteers who join in the process of meeting with the panel and answering questions. We are grateful for the volunteers willing to spend an afternoon sharing the impact that Girl Scouts has made in their lives to people who make decisions about how money is allocated through United Way.
Since the merger (actually before it), we have been moving at warp speed. Everything needed to happen yesterday. The staff we have assembled is a conscientious bunch, all passionate about the importance of reaching more girls with the quality leadership program of Girl Scouts. We are hard on ourselves, as many successful women are, and sometimes, equally hard on each other. I dream some nights just about wanting to take a day off, but always in the dream something new lands on my desk or on my calendar. As a group, we each see the many opportunities for Girl Scouts to grow and connect to more girls and their families, but time and money are often barriers.
We are so incredibly grateful for our program volunteers. In the new high capacity Council, we are asking the questions of how to help our volunteers feel empowered to help us create this new high capacity council. Women in Oklahoma with even a tiny bit of consciousness, realize it is a man's world here and most of us are just stubborn enough to believe we can change it for ourselves, our daughters, our granddaughters. Oklahoma women have gone on to be strong role models in our country. We're currently looking for ways that volunteers can organize more effectively, is the Service Unit the right way? We are asking ourselves and volunteers: what do volunteers need? We are asking ourselves and volunteers, what creates a healthy community for girls and for ourselves? I've begun, with Susan Bohl, our Chief Operations Officer, some lunches and coffee meetings to ask our volunteers active in Service Units these questions. Let me know if you have some ideas.
Yesterday was a busy day in my world. Spring is a dozen plus United Way applications, all different, all wanting the same or similar information in different ways for our 39 counties in central and western Oklahoma. From the smallest to the largest, each volunteer committee panel takes their jobs very seriously, so each includes an opportunity to meet with members of a review committee all who have a lot of questions and are earnestly trying to understand what we do and what our program is all about. United Way, all 15 different and separate 501c3's with their own boards and own ways of work, make up 6% of the total budget of the Council. We are grateful for our own volunteers who join in the process of meeting with the panel and answering questions. We are grateful for the volunteers willing to spend an afternoon sharing the impact that Girl Scouts has made in their lives to people who make decisions about how money is allocated through United Way.
Since the merger (actually before it), we have been moving at warp speed. Everything needed to happen yesterday. The staff we have assembled is a conscientious bunch, all passionate about the importance of reaching more girls with the quality leadership program of Girl Scouts. We are hard on ourselves, as many successful women are, and sometimes, equally hard on each other. I dream some nights just about wanting to take a day off, but always in the dream something new lands on my desk or on my calendar. As a group, we each see the many opportunities for Girl Scouts to grow and connect to more girls and their families, but time and money are often barriers.
We are so incredibly grateful for our program volunteers. In the new high capacity Council, we are asking the questions of how to help our volunteers feel empowered to help us create this new high capacity council. Women in Oklahoma with even a tiny bit of consciousness, realize it is a man's world here and most of us are just stubborn enough to believe we can change it for ourselves, our daughters, our granddaughters. Oklahoma women have gone on to be strong role models in our country. We're currently looking for ways that volunteers can organize more effectively, is the Service Unit the right way? We are asking ourselves and volunteers: what do volunteers need? We are asking ourselves and volunteers, what creates a healthy community for girls and for ourselves? I've begun, with Susan Bohl, our Chief Operations Officer, some lunches and coffee meetings to ask our volunteers active in Service Units these questions. Let me know if you have some ideas.
Monday, April 6, 2009
It’s been 13 months since the merger of the two Girl Scout Councils in central and western Oklahoma was complete. “Strongly suggested” merger talks began sometime in April of 07 and the two member organizations voted on February 2 of 08 to merge on March 1, 2008.
My daughters were discussing my job in the car one day a couple months ago. The topic of merger came up. “What is a merger, mom?” said my oldest. Before I could answer, Mae, who is 10 said, “it is when two organizations are fighting and then they become one.” I guess I didn’t realize how much they were over hearing, the struggle, the clash really of cultures and ideas.
In the March 26th issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Peter Goldberg, CEO of Families International and the Alliance for Children and Families (two merged organizations), writes that with more challenging economic times, mergers may be on the horizon for more organizations. He points out that: “nonprofit mergers usually arise from a delicate and shifting blend of strategic and opportunistic components. Let’s remember that mergers are art, not science. Mergers need to be grounded in organizational strategy, but, without some appreciation for unanticipated opportunity, one might be left standing at the strategic starting gate for a very long time.”
Appreciating “unanticipated opportunity” was really all we had. While on any given day prior to April of 2007, if pressed, I would probably be able to list some values of merging the Girl Scout councils in Oklahoma – and probably all over the country. However, that wasn’t an idea whose time had arrived in the hearts and minds of many connected with a Girl Scout council here or anywhere else. Like children who didn’t want to go to bed, we dug in our collective heels and then realized we had no choice. Boards, staff and volunteers eventually made the journey.
Right away, it seemed clear that as Goldberg says “Risks are the same in nonprofit mergers as in business, but the rewards are much smaller and less tangible. Executives who lead successful for profit mergers or acquisitions are handsomely rewarded with compensation and stock benefits. Nonprofit executives who lead successful mergers or acquisitions are told ‘nice going.’”
The financial “attagirl’s” for the merged council really haven’t come yet, 13 months and a few days later. The transition from two to one council continues to slog on. As Goldberg points out “Foundations have talked about the value of mergers for a long time without making many grants to support them.” With a small deficit and a good cookie sale this year, we may be able to absorb our shifts sooner rather than later, making up the deficit in two years. We are fortunate to have enough reserves to address the shifts. We’re also grateful for a strong group of supporters in one of the two previous Councils, which have laid the groundwork for our continued success.
The work load is more than anyone anticipated. Because of the economic times and the deficit we didn’t add a lot of staff and we are shifting priorities as we practice a little post merger triage. (The squeaky wheels do get the grease!). We’re learning about each other – volunteers from either of the two legacy Councils who have always done it this way. In the metropolitan area of Oklahoma City, that is not much of a shift, primarily because there was sharing already occurring. For example: a woman who grew up as a girl in Sooner Council and then was a volunteer in Red Lands.
We still have a lot of issues to address, to transform ourselves into a high capacity Council. With a growing staff and a building in Oklahoma City that we grew out of several years ago as only one council, we face the daunting challenge of finding a suitable workspace. We also need to address the fact that we have four resident camp properties which challenge our budget disproportionately to the number of girls who camp. With the Girl Scout promise and the Law (be a sister to every Girl Scout), tucked safely under our arms, we will continue to muddle through, for girls in our state, for ourselves, for each other.
My daughters were discussing my job in the car one day a couple months ago. The topic of merger came up. “What is a merger, mom?” said my oldest. Before I could answer, Mae, who is 10 said, “it is when two organizations are fighting and then they become one.” I guess I didn’t realize how much they were over hearing, the struggle, the clash really of cultures and ideas.
In the March 26th issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Peter Goldberg, CEO of Families International and the Alliance for Children and Families (two merged organizations), writes that with more challenging economic times, mergers may be on the horizon for more organizations. He points out that: “nonprofit mergers usually arise from a delicate and shifting blend of strategic and opportunistic components. Let’s remember that mergers are art, not science. Mergers need to be grounded in organizational strategy, but, without some appreciation for unanticipated opportunity, one might be left standing at the strategic starting gate for a very long time.”
Appreciating “unanticipated opportunity” was really all we had. While on any given day prior to April of 2007, if pressed, I would probably be able to list some values of merging the Girl Scout councils in Oklahoma – and probably all over the country. However, that wasn’t an idea whose time had arrived in the hearts and minds of many connected with a Girl Scout council here or anywhere else. Like children who didn’t want to go to bed, we dug in our collective heels and then realized we had no choice. Boards, staff and volunteers eventually made the journey.
Right away, it seemed clear that as Goldberg says “Risks are the same in nonprofit mergers as in business, but the rewards are much smaller and less tangible. Executives who lead successful for profit mergers or acquisitions are handsomely rewarded with compensation and stock benefits. Nonprofit executives who lead successful mergers or acquisitions are told ‘nice going.’”
The financial “attagirl’s” for the merged council really haven’t come yet, 13 months and a few days later. The transition from two to one council continues to slog on. As Goldberg points out “Foundations have talked about the value of mergers for a long time without making many grants to support them.” With a small deficit and a good cookie sale this year, we may be able to absorb our shifts sooner rather than later, making up the deficit in two years. We are fortunate to have enough reserves to address the shifts. We’re also grateful for a strong group of supporters in one of the two previous Councils, which have laid the groundwork for our continued success.
The work load is more than anyone anticipated. Because of the economic times and the deficit we didn’t add a lot of staff and we are shifting priorities as we practice a little post merger triage. (The squeaky wheels do get the grease!). We’re learning about each other – volunteers from either of the two legacy Councils who have always done it this way. In the metropolitan area of Oklahoma City, that is not much of a shift, primarily because there was sharing already occurring. For example: a woman who grew up as a girl in Sooner Council and then was a volunteer in Red Lands.
We still have a lot of issues to address, to transform ourselves into a high capacity Council. With a growing staff and a building in Oklahoma City that we grew out of several years ago as only one council, we face the daunting challenge of finding a suitable workspace. We also need to address the fact that we have four resident camp properties which challenge our budget disproportionately to the number of girls who camp. With the Girl Scout promise and the Law (be a sister to every Girl Scout), tucked safely under our arms, we will continue to muddle through, for girls in our state, for ourselves, for each other.
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