Some national delegates are automatically delegates because of positions or offices they hold or have held at the national level. These include members of the National Board, the National Board Development Committee, and past presidents of GSUSA, and all of these can be called ex officio delegates.* USA Girl Scouts Overseas chooses delegates as specified in their governing documents.
Councils choose their national delegates as specified in their council bylaws; in many councils, there is an application process followed by election or approval by the membership at a council’s annual meeting. Regardless of the process used by a council, our national constitution requires that all national delegates be citizens of the United states who are members of the Girl Scout Movement and 14 years of age or older.
The composition of a council’s delegation varies widely among councils, partially because of differences in the total size of the council’s delegation. National delegates from councils may be girl members 14 years of age or older, operational volunteers, governance volunteers, or executive staff. Per the GSUSA Constitution, the number of executive staff may not exceed the number of volunteers in a council’s delegation. In some councils, some national delegate positions may also be ex officio delegates. For example, some council bylaws state that the board chair and/or the CEO are automatically delegates. Many councils, especially those with a large enough delegation, make a point to include girl members and operational volunteers in their delegations
*Ex officio is a parliamentary term that means “by virtue of the office.” A common misunderstanding is that ex officio members are not allowed to vote; that is true only if the governing documents such as constitution or bylaws state that the ex officio member has no vote. Per our national constitution, all national delegates, whether ex officio or elected, have full speaking and voting rights as members of the National Council.
Source: GSUSA Constitution/Article IV/Section 3 and Section 6
Related FAQ:
A council’s determined number of National Delegates is based on the number of girls it has registered as of September 30th the year before the regular session of the National Council. Each council gets a minimum of three national delegates: two delegates and then one additional delegate for up to every 3,500 girls after the first 3,500 girls.
USA Girl Scouts Overseas uses the same formula as councils.
However, the 3,500 number can be changed to make sure the total number of National Council members does not exceed 1,500. GSUSA therefore notifies councils of the total number of delegates the council is allowed.
Source: Constitution/ARTICLE IV/THE NATIONAL COUNCIL/Membership.