Submitted by: Girl Scouts of Central Texas
Status: Submitted to councils
Statement of Topic, Question, or Issue: GSUSA’s current requirement ties adult membership to a single council, which limits the volunteering by adults who live in different councils at different times of the year and/or who live near the borders between councils and are willing to volunteer in multiple councils.
Reasons: Most councils are always looking for adult volunteers. The recent change to allow adults (and girls) to belong to multiple troops within a council reduced the obstacles adults had to navigate to serve in different roles across different troops and service units within the council.
A similar obstacle exists between councils because adult membership must be tied to a single council. While young adult members are likely the largest category of volunteers this affects, it also affects older adults and adults who live near the boundaries between councils.
Girl Scouts encourages our graduating Ambassadors to become lifetime Girl Scouts and councils want to draw on these young women to become volunteers. Frequently, these young women transition to adult membership, but start the next phase of their lives outside of their “home” council boundaries. These young women can be fairly transient – attending college in one location, have a multi-month internship or co-op in second location, and return home to a third location in the summers. All these locations may, and often are, in different councils. To participate year-round, these young women would need to transfer their membership at least twice a year, if not more often.
These young women, who have grown up in Girl Scouts, have a history of volunteering, but are not likely to continually move their membership from council to council multiple times a year. We often lose these young women from high school graduation until they become parents or guardians of girls who are Girl Scouts. A system that would allow adults to have a more fluid membership across councils so that adults could be active in multiple councils would give councils access to a larger group of volunteers.
But, this phenomenon is not limited to just young women. Adults, with or without K-12 Girl Scouts, may live in one council, but work in another. Or, adults find that volunteer opportunities that are dear to their heart, or are geographically closer to them in a neighboring council. These adults may not even realize that they are attempting to volunteer outside of their “home” council. These adults also face barriers to registering and being recognized as a volunteer outside of their “home” council.
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I would love for this to be a reality. It would do a lot to ease some requirements for volunteering at large GS events like Convention!
I live in one council, my granddaughters live in another council just 45 minutes away. This would be perfect in this situation. I have relatives in various states. If I visit them, the ability to volunteer with them would be great.