Fall Town Hall Meetings
Meetings with our volunteers in October gave us an opportunity for some good dialog and discussion, and allowed us to brainstorm on addressing some challenges together. We’ve compiled all the questions and answers so that they can be shared with you in this Q&A format:
What is the process for selecting delegates?
A. A procedure and written position description were submitted to CEO for approval on 11/3/08, and approved by the executive team on 11/12/08. It has been written to include girl representation.
As far as selecting National Council Session delegates, now that the proposal was adopted at the National Council Session, GSWPA will develop our procedures (i.e., who they are, where they are from, how many girls, etc.)
Council delegates receive a copy of the council bylaws.
Q. How can our Town Hall meetings be better attended and more effective?
A. Dates for meetings will be scheduled with more advance notice and promoted in the Fall/Winter issue of S’MORE (mailed in July) with reminders in @aGirl and on the Web site. The delegate mailing will also be sent earlier for next fall’s meeting with additional information on the purpose and agenda items. Additionally, contact with the delegates by membership has been included in the delegate election procedure. Reminders will be on the service area meeting agenda.
Q. How will ALL members receive consistent communications on program ideas, volunteer development opportunities, trips, enrichment workshops, shop sales, council events, etc.?
A. S’MORE magazine will be mailed – one to every registered household twice a year. While it requires extra advance planning on the part of council staff to pull this together, it eliminates bombarding our members with multiple mailings and duplicate information. In between publications of S’MORE, updated information will be provided every-other-month in the @aGirl e-newsletter. To receive your own copy, complete information on the homepage – Join Our Mailing List, however membership managers will also have hard copies available to distribute to volunteers at service area meetings (who do not have computers or Internet access or who do not have a troop committee member signed on to be their “Tech Buddy”. Membership managers can also provide volunteers with Web updates (from our announcements page).
Q. How will members who don’t have Web access get information posted on the GSWPA Web site?
A. Essential information like policies, procedures and forms will be in hard-copy format in the Volunteer Resource Manual. Program, event and adult learning opportunity information will be in S’MORE or @aGirl. Our Web site, however, does have information such as press releases, spotlight stories on Girl Scouts, opportunities to blog with the CEO, flyers, links to other Web sites, Online shop, etc. that couldn’t be put into hard copy format for every member. For that reason, GSWPA is considering having public computers installed at our offices for use by members who do not have computer or Internet access.
Our Web site continues to be a work in progress. This year, we’ll be working on the e-commerce capabilities – that includes a new online shop, interactive forms, online reservations, etc. We have been waiting for the specs from GSUSA on our software program so that the systems that we build will not have to be re-done.
Q. How will Girl Scout volunteers receive copies of the Volunteer Resource Manual that provides information on policies, procedures and forms?
A. New volunteers will receive this during their Introduction to Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania; and existing volunteers will receive this from their membership managers each fall. GSWPA has received many good suggestions on the layout and content for the 2009 manual (including a staff directory, adding an index, incorporating the Campsite Reservation Manual, etc.) and these are already being addressed.
Until we were certain that all volunteers received this information, GSWPA included the emergency phone number on the voice mails of all council staff. Effective November 1, 2008, staff were instructed to begin using their regular voice mail message.
Q. What other council publications are available?
A. Legacy, our donor newsletter is mailed twice a year to anyone who contributes $25 or more annually. The Family Handbook, mailed to all new members, provides an overview of the Girl Scout organization. Both of these pieces are educational in nature and help to strengthen our public relations efforts. Like the Volunteer Resource Manual and S’MORE, they are also available online – even if you’re not a new family member or donor.
Q. If I have computer and Internet access, can I request to receive my information online or via email?
A. In 2009, every member who wishes to help GSWPA “go green” can request not to receive a hard copy of S’MORE, Legacy, the Volunteer Resource Manual or other council special mailings. We are interested in working with our Girl Scouts and volunteers to help reduce waste and our impact on the environment.
Q. How are legacy council’s names being used?
A. Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania is using the names of our counties, our service areas or our school districts when addressing geographic areas of the council. We are avoiding using jargon that was exclusive to any legacy council, and referring to our offices by location (rather than legacy council name).
Q. Will camps, shops or offices be closed?
A. No decisions have been made at this time, however the Pittsburgh office will be relocated in the Spring of 2009. We are also in the process of reviewing where any additional offices may be needed in order to insure a stronger Girl Scout presence in some communities. GSWPA is also planning property advisory committees, and membership managers will be bringing information to service areas in December. There will be opportunities to get girls involved in this process.
Q. What are community partners and what is the status?
A. During the council realignment process, we recognized the need to have a body of influential “friends of Girl Scouting” in areas where we needed particular focus – camps, membership, etc. and adopted a GSUSA recommendation for Community Partners. Girl Scout members and staff are helping to identify individuals who could serve in this role. Some may also be included in our property advisory committees.
Q. How will Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania make the learning opportunities and enrichments for volunteers effective?
A. The volunteer development department and facilitators will be reviewing suggestions made at the Town Hall Meetings (creating rosters of attendees, developing systems for coaching and mentoring, discussing and planning new enrichment opportunities, creating new facilitator packets, reviewing cancellation procedures, designing service team training, and compiling results from evaluations to make necessary changes to learning opportunities). A council-wide facilitator meeting was held on November 15 to begin this important work.
Q. What other procedures are currently being worked on?
A. Staff and volunteer groups are working together on our Gold Award procedures and confirmation procedures. A membership plan will be completed in December to address and will review recommendations made on the council financial assistance procedure, as well as help to identify future council committees in which members can participate.
I hope this gives you a snapshot of what we’re working on; and the changes still yet to come!
2 comments so far
06 Dec 2008, Penny Helmbold said:
As far as the leader trainings and outdoor trainings go, will we at some point be required to take GSWPA’s versions or will we always be ok w/ the ones we took in our legacy councils? I have mixed feelings on this. Leaders are going to bulk about having to retake them as their free time is limited, yet, I think it would be a smart move to do so as we would all have the same trainings and all be on the same page.
As far as the VRM goes, I totally agree that the Campsite Resource Manual should be included in it as well as our bylaws. Everyone has a right to a copy of our bylaws. Our legacy council had that and more in one binder and it was so wonderful to have everything in one place!!! Hopefully this will be the case in the fall of 2009.
Why do we only have Town Hall meetings in the fall? We really need to have them in the spring as well. Our former ones (ASsociation meetings) were a wonderful way to get caught up on what was happening and to voice our opinions on new ideas. It was a way to help connect us and make us feel like we really did have a say in things. I realize that as the council has increased in size tremendously, that the board cannot attend all of the meetings, but the way the one in Edinboro was run this fall worked great. If each meeting had at least one board member to hear from us directly it would work.
Hopefully, after you all have a year under your belt to get adjusted to the new council and it’s issues, you will be able to incorporate the Roundable discussions as well.
10 Dec 2008, Pat Burkart said:
Thank you for your comments.
From what I’m hearing, many volunteers who took the previous age-level trainings are taking advantage of the Leadership Essentials courses. It’s not mandatory, but as more and more leaders begin to use the Journey books, some feel that they want as much information as possible, even though there are corresponding facilitator guides. Best of all, GSUSA is hard at work on some online training to bring more of us up-to-speed on the new resource materials.
Based on comments we received, there will be spring meetings. Many volunteers also wanted a vehicle for adult awards, and so we’re scheduling these now. Stay tuned for dates to be published in @aGirl and in a special mailing.
We’ll try our best to keep you updated as much as possible; and glad that you’re so engaged in helping us move forward.
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