1. S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications
Focus Group Report:
Why are Volunteers not utilizing
the camps provided by Girl Scouts
of NYPENN Pathways?
Jonathan Papazides, Max DeVesty
Onjoli Martelly, Kaylin Miranda
Fall 2014, ADV 612 - Account Planning and Research
The Deep End
October 30, 2014
girl scouts
of nypenn pathways
Research Group

2. Table of Contents
Executive Summary - 1
Introduction - 1
Methodology and Participant Profile - 2
Instrument Development - 2
Site Selection - 2
Participant Selection - 2
Focus Groups -3
Demographics - 3
Focus Group Results - 3
Transportation - 3
Paperwork - 4
Time - 5
Marketing/Promotion - 6
Healthy, Modern Alternatives - 7
Men in Girl Scouts - 8
Women Volunteer for Girls’ Benefit - 9
Conclusion - 10
Recommendations - 10
Paperwork - 11
Greater Advertising/Promotion - 11
Sponsorship - 11
Social Media Safety - 13
Corporate Social Network - 13
Carpooling - 13
References - 15
Appendix - 17

3. Executive Summary
The NYPENN Pathways Council of the Girl Scouts of the USA spans 24 counties of New
York State and 2 in Pennsylvania. The council has a membership of roughly 17,500 girls in grades
K-12. The council owns 9 camps, which are costing them over $1 million in maintenance and
operational costs while only generating approximately $30,000 in revenue. It became apparent to
the council that they needed to re-evaluate the camps and to get more use out of the ones they
were going to move forward with. To do this, they needed to make more volunteers aware of Girl
Scouts of NYPENN Pathways and ultimately, get them to participate in their program and in their
camps. On September 15, 2014 Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways, contracted the S.I. Newhouse
School of Public Communications Master’s of Advertising students at Syracuse University as
consultants to aid in an investigation of the Girl Scout’s recent decline in camp visitation, primarily
by volunteers. During this meeting, Girl Scout’s NYPENN Pathways CEO (Pamela Hyland) and CMO
(Diane Stancato) gave a detailed overview of the company’s recent struggles in attracting girls and
volunteers to their campsites, stating that usage has continued to decline annually.
Questions regarding volunteers’ interest in the Girl Scouts were posed during an October 4th, 2014
focus group between the Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways in conjunction with the S.I. Newhouse
School of Public Communications Advertising Master’s program at Syracuse University.
Seven Girl Scout Service Unit Managers from the NYPENN Pathways region attended the focus
group. The following report gathers information to help Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways
understand the reasons why there has been a significant decline in Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways
volunteers recently. We found various factors that influenced volunteerism within the organization
and issues surrounding the camps including: time constraints, lack of sufficient resources, tedious
paperwork processes, lack of communication within the organization, and modernizing the Girl
Scouts image.
Introduction
The Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways currently owns nine camp properties. The cost to
maintain these properties is over one million dollars and this does not include deferred maintenance
costs. Currently four of the nine properties are up for sale. The Board of Directors has voted that
money generated from the sale will be invested into the remaining camps. A master plan is in
the development process for Camp Comstock in Ithaca, New York. Based off that master plan,
recommendations for the three other camps will be included. According to the brief, research has
shown that adults volunteer more sporadically based on current cause related topics (short-term).
The Girl Scouts model is built on long term volunteers. With everything taken into consideration,
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4. the usage of Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways camps has been declining annually and they are now
struggling to fill their camps. Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways now needs to identify and overcome
the barriers that prevent volunteers from utilizing their camp properties.
The focus group discussion was designed to gather information from the participants to achieve the
following outcomes:
1. To understand the reason behind volunteering for the Girl Scouts.
2. To identify the reasons why there is a lack of volunteering within the Girl Scouts
organization.
3. To identify ways around those barriers so Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways can offer
opportunities and create a marketing plan.
Methodology and Participant Profile
Instrument Development
The focus group script and questions were designed to gain an understanding of the
previously mentioned outcomes. The focus group script flowed in a way for the participants to
engage in guided discussion based on their own volunteering experiences and what potential
barriers to volunteering they may have faced. The focus group script also took into account
the needs of the the Girl Scouts to discover insights about the lack of volunteerism within the
organization and the camps. The topics covered: factors that inhibit volunteering, their experience,
and potential solutions.
Site Selection
Girl Scout meetings are usually held at the Girl Scout offices in downtown Syracuse, however
this meeting was held at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications to accommodate
for the various focus group meetings being conducted that day and a Girl Scouts training seminar
happening later that afternoon in the same building. As a result of this, the Larry Kramer War Room
on the Syracuse University campus was chosen as the venue for the focus group. The site allowed
for all seven of the women as well as the four moderators and facilitators to be seated comfortably
around a table to allow for ease of conversation.
Participant Selection
The seven focus group participants are currently Service Unit Managers with the Girl Scouts of
NYPENN Pathways. The women were invited by the Girl Scouts organization to attend their service
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5. meeting and the focus group was added as a piece of the day-long meeting. The seven focus group
participants were chosen by Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways Chief Executive Officer, Pamela
Hyland, and Chief Operating Officer, Dianne Stancato.
Focus Group
The focus group discussion was held at 10:00 AM on Saturday October 4th, 2014. The entire
discussion took 1 hour, 14 minutes, and 13 seconds to complete and was recorded using a Apple
iPad and iPhone devices. The moderator was Max DeVesty, co-moderator was Kaylin Miranda,
facilitator Jonathan Papazides, and co-facilitator Onjoli Martelly.
Demographics
Seven participants took part in the focus group:
• All seven participants were women.
• All were Service Unit Managers within the Girl Scout’s organization.
• Four were between the ages of 50-70 years old, three were between 30-50 years old.
• One had two children ages 10 and younger, two had children between the ages of 10-18,
and four had children that were older than 18.
• All participants were from New York state.
• All participants were caucasian.
Focus Group Results
Transportation
Many of the respondents expressed frustration with getting sufficient transportation to get the girls
to and from campsites. Girl Scouts does not provide easy ways to transport troops to activities and it
puts a demand on troop leaders and parents to try and coordinate getting girls to places they need
to be. Maggie explained the transportation challenge:
“Which brings up the thing about transportation too because the cost is one thing… if that
one girl is living with her grandmother do they have the means to get from Ogdensberg to
Trefoil or Ogdensberg to Ahmahami to get the girl there because if you’re taking them to
summer camp, that’s an hour away you’re talking two hours round trip, then you have to turn
around and do it again. For me, a working parent, that was an obstacle even for me because I
had to take a half a day off from work to pick up my daughter from camp on Friday.”
Paula offered ideas for improving the transportation challenges and providing opportunities for
getting more girls to attend camps:
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6. “If there was a provided council activity for a certain camp to have a day camp and then they
would provide a bus, then we could advertise it through everybody in the units and the troops
to go ahead and say, “ hey, got this great opportunity to go to this camp for this one day and
they’re providing transportation. Sometimes you have to individually transport and it’s hard. If
a troop can go ahead and get a couple vans together then it’s easier”
Participants felt that the Girl Scouts could do a better job at offering ways to get troops and
volunteers to their events and activities. Many parents that have girls in the Girl Scout program are
also working parents and do not have the time and means to take their children to the camps, but
are willing to drop them off at a convenient location.
Paperwork
The large and tedious amount of paperwork involved in the Girl Scouts was another issue that
was prevalent among the participants. Jackie opined:
“Girl Scouts is paperwork heavy and it scares some people away. There’s a parent permission
form for anytime we go on a trip. There’s parent permission form to participate in the fall
product sale. Another one to participate in the cookie sale and people have a low, a low
threshold for paperwork”
All respondents agreed that parents and troop leaders are frustrated by filling out paperwork for
every activity and not knowing who actually reads the papers. Again, Jackie said this:
“Sometimes when you fill out paperwork you wonder like who is even looking at this? I filled
it all out and I approached the one counselor that was going to be in her area about some
just, you know, just to give her a heads up. I said well, I went and signed the paperwork and
she goes, “Oh the paperwork. We never see the paperwork.” So the person that is directly
with the girls that you wanted to bring something to their attention about your child they’re
not seeing.”
Carla added that there was only one person for sure who actually sees the paperwork:
“The only person who sees that is the nurse. She sees definitely the shot form and all that
other stuff she has to go through all of that so I’m wondering if its the nurse that gets all of
that information not the directors themselves”
All participants agreed that making efforts to reduce or combine paperwork, move more of it online,
and having the troop leader or other administrator handle most of the administrative process would
be beneficial. Paula supported this by saying:
“It is easier to do it as a troop because you’re under a troop name already you’ve got those
girls from last year. You just choose check mark and send in a check or give them a card
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7. number and that makes it so much easier to register. “
Jen also agreed by finding a way to consolidate the paperwork would make it much more feasible to
complete:
“Think about it, it’s 10 pages you have to fill out for camp, at least. Think about how many
girls are on campus that week. You have what? 100 kids? That’s a 1,000 pages you have to
look through. If we could figure out how to combine it and get it down to 4 pages ...”
Lastly, Jackie thinks the process would run a lot smoother if it was just a single person who had to
take care of the paperwork and that there was no novelty to it:
“I just would like it if the troop leader did it all... Girl Scouts thinks that each parent wants that
privilege of creating a username and password and registering their own daughter.”
Time
Time was identified by the focus group participants as a major barrier. People today feel
increasing pressures and demands for their time. Time is becoming a precious commodity and
people are saying they just don’t have enough hours in a day or week to do all the things they must/
want to do. Carla supported this claim, saying:
“They’re so busy. I mean high school and college, you’ve got a job, you’ve got school, you’ve
got…you know, payments to make for car.”
The participants talked about how this not only encompasses how long it takes to get to these
different camps, but the amount of planning that goes into actually volunteering with the Girl Scouts.
Once again, Carla explained:
“There’s some things that are spur of the moment because the kids kind of force you into that
direction and sometimes there’s things you plan weeks in advance. Sometimes months.
Planning things for your whole service unit and can be 150 kids trying to figure out who is
going to be where, that’s months of planning. We’re having a Leaders and Daughters
overnight weekend at camp at the end of January. This was the week I did the reservation and
I waited too long because the #1 place we wanted was no longer available.”
The participants did think that this was something that potential volunteers could overcome. They
stressed how important it is to multi-task and as simple as it sounds, just find the time. Jen finished
off by saying:
“You can make the time, you have the time. You have the time to go home and sit in front
of the TV and watch the news for an hour every night. You have time for Girl Scouts and its
not just the hour that you spend with your girls it’s a week of planning. It’s sitting down and
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8. looking at journey book for 4 hours and figuring out how you’re going to have these girls
understand why this is important and how they’re going to carry it on with them in their lives
going forward, but its time. I mean if you can make time…think about how long you’re in the
car every single day. Think about. I mean its just multi tasking, and time is literally the
biggest…it is not on our side, ever, regardless of what you’re in.”
Participants felt that time was a barrier for new volunteers to not want to volunteer with the Girl
Scouts. Not just from a standpoint of how long it takes to drive to and from the camp, but the
amount of time that goes into planning the trips. The focus group participants also felt that it is
something that can be overcome and the onus is on the volunteer to find ways to make time in their
daily schedule.
Marketing/Promotion
The lack of marketing and promotion was identified as a barrier for the volunteers. While the
volunteers that participated in the focus group were extremely excited to be in their position, they
thought more could be done from a promotion and marketing standpoint. They did not think the
company knew how to get the word out to potential volunteers, specifically on college campuses.
Jen explained:
“We need to do a better idea of selling the idea of camp to girls and what’s their choice
because they have a choice of what interests them. Our biggest problem is that we have no
idea how to get the word to you, and we have leaders that work on the Syracuse University
campus and they don’t even know. I mean, its really difficult, so we don’t know how to get the
word out to you that we want you, we want you for the six or nine months that you’re here, we
want the girls to have that experience of almost like having a big sister. A big sister who’s
there for you and wants to learn from you just as much as you want to learn from her. We
don’t know how to get the word out.”
The participants in the focus group identified that there was a perception of Girl Scouts not being
“cool,” particularly when girls reached high school. Pat said:
“Some of leaders that I’ve talked to that are closer in age to having recently graduated have
said that when they were Girl Scouts they would never never tell anybody that they were girl
scouts because it just wasn’t cool to be a Girl Scout. I don’t know how we change that, right?
Um, but there still seems to be this… kinda stigma I guess at that age level that it’s not cool to
be a Girl Scout.”
Additionally, the opportunity to meet new girls and not wanting to take a week and go away to
Girl Scouts anymore was a barrier because they wanted to spend the summer with her friends and
hanging out with them at their camps. Maggie supported this claim, saying:
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9. “I know my daughter’s interest in attending Girl Scout camp for a week dwindled once she
got into high school. What kept her going to that point was the social aspect, she wanted to
go meet new girls and she was very different than many of the other girls in my troop who
didn’t want to go unless they had a buddy to go with, she was like “No, I’m going regardless
because I just want to meet new people”, so that’s what kept her going. But then as she got
into high school, the social aspect actually kept her more grounded in community so she
didn’t want to go to take a week and go away to camp anymore, she wanted to spend the
summer with her friends and hanging out with them at their camps, and the coolness factor.”
The focus group participants did think there was a unique opportunity here for the Girl Scouts to
focus on how joining the Girl Scouts, as a volunteer, can help put them on the right path to life, such
as helping them get into colleges and to build their resume and experience portfolio. Carla said:
“A lot of its community service factor because a lot of them can use it on their itinerary for
their jobs and use it for their college applications, you know about their participation and
things that they’ve done through Girl Scouts. It’s just like Boy Scouts, they do the same thing,
the merit badges and all the things they’ve worked and then they get their Eagle Scout
Award. If you get a Gold Award that’s part of the prominence for your Girl Scouts experience
to help continue you on to where you wanna go. That’s the benefit for the girls that are in it,
there’s so many girls out there that don’t have that opportunity.”
The focus group participants felt that they was an opportunity for promoting and marketing the
Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways that was not being properly utilized. They identified that girls not
knowing about the camp is a significant barrier, but there is a unique opportunity for girls to join and
volunteer to develop skills that will serve them better in the future in whatever they go onto do.
Healthy, Modern Alternatives for Activities
Within the focus group there was a recurring theme that resonated through multiple topics
of discussion. Notably, the first topic was the question over attempting to balance or to completely
throw away the use of technology at Girl Scout camps or events. Carla stated:
“Going to camp for a week without their phone or whatever being able to contact, be on
Facebook. There’s some girls that don’t want to do that. But, I think there’s girls who want
both now though? There are girls who want to be in the woods and like to camp but they
don’t want to be unplugged from everything else that is going on.”
The question further was pressed into whether or not it would be disruptive or beneficial to both the
girls and the troop leaders. This was drawn out further when accompanied by the idea that there are
no longer Girl Scout trips or events that interest the girls like they used to be.
Girls nowadays still like hiking and swimming and fishing, but there are more interesting things that
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10. can be done for these girls that encompass these pastimes and activities. These activities however
are very few and far between in terms of their speed of creation. Betty emphasized this by saying:
“Yeah, so I don’t think that there’s, there’s not a whole lot of opportunities that maybe our younger,
in a progression of younger girls, for a day experience at camp that might help them decide that,
“Oh, going to overnight camp isn’t so scary.”
Multiple focus group volunteers expressed these opinions and thoughts throughout the discussion of
these topics and this overall theme.
Men In the Girl Scouts
Another theme that was frequently represented in the discussion was the fact that starting
out, or continuously throughout the years, camping is difficult with a bunch of girls. Jackie had this to
say:
“And there’s still some women that doubt their abilities as being a leader. Being able to….be
a troop leader…coordinate things for you know, some of the young girls. They just…still
they’re…..they don’t have that alpha dog charging in their head …”
Starting fires, pitching tents, cooking food, these are all examples of things that these women said
they have issues with at first. With men in their group, they found that they frequently brought things
like these to the table. Carla stated:
“I think the father/daughter is just as important. I’d like to see more dad’s involved. I just
would, I think that’s a great thing.”
Also, they found that as a volunteer troop leader, that leading was a difficult but rewarding task when
alone. When it comes to assistance from others and to leading, there was a big concern over the
volunteers’ personal effectiveness in making sure the girl scouts were not only safe but enjoyed what
they were doing. Carla also had this to say:
“We had a man and we went to the unit encampment and he tented and the girls were in the
lodge at Amahami and that’s where we usually hold our unit events, was there, because we
use the kitchen that’s in there yeah but he tented away so he taught them how to make ropes
so that was something that they had never known before and he had that ability. And bringing
him into that, it’s a little more difficult because it’s a male person with all of the girls and you
have to let everyone know that there is going to be a male there. But you know uhm,
specifically they have the skills that they can teach the girls in many, many ways and uhm
that’s an important part of it, that’s the first time, the first time, out of the whole time that all of
my girls have been, both of my girls have been through girl scouts because he actually said
“yeah I’ll come” you know?”
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11. The inclusion of men and of assistance in leadership was a very helpful idea that was driven home by
this theme.
Women volunteer for girls’ benefit
Another theme that consistently arose during the focus group was volunteer’s desires to
provide girls with beneficial opportunities. When asked how they managed time to volunteer at the
camps, women initially described multitasking and setting priorities as best practices. For instance,
Jen said:
“Multitasking, when you don’t have the time you find a way…You just don’t sleep that’s all,
Your kids are a priorities kind of thing, you know, how you set your priorities based on how
you are going to spend your time”
However, following these statements, volunteers began to elaborate on the actual reasons they
made time for Girl Scouts. It was here that volunteers expressed their desires be role models for
young girls. For instance Jen stated:
“I mean I just want to be the best role model that I can for my kids, and that includes the six
others that are not mine by blood relation. But you just want to give them the chance of being
a girl, being an awesome girl-superwoman, whatever you want to be in life, I mean anything.”
This sentiment was further expressed when Maggie said:
“I guess she (her former girl scout leader) was always a role model for me, and some of the
things that she taught me that she probably didn’t even know just stuck with me, and I think it
was formed then for me. Somehow, someway, girl scouts would be a part of my adult life
and when I had my daughter I was doing cub scouts and church stuff and all this other stuff,
and so the first year of this I held back and said, you know, I want my daughter to become a
part of this. So I decided for her to become a leader and it just kind of took off from there. But
it is priorities; it’s wanting to give back.”
In addition to wanting to be role models, volunteers also listed their desire to provide girls with
developmental opportunities as reasons they made time for girl scouts. This was evident when one
volunteer gave an account of how her girl scouting experience helped her develop leadership skills.
She stated:
“For me, the Girl Scout troop was an escape and it gave me a chance to camp, my family
didn’t camp. So for me that’s how I got my outdoor experience, that’s how I got my love of
camping and a lot of leadership skills. It was my escape, from my house, and to be able to go
out and have fun. I want to give that to my daughter, certainly that is a priority but that’s also
always been a drive for me to be able to create something great for the girls in the
community, whether they have a great home or whether it’s an escape, I want every girl to
have that opportunity and so, I don’t know, we just find the time to do it.”
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12. This theme of respondents volunteering to help girls was also manifested later in the focus group
when we asked respondents to describe the moment they knew they loved volunteering. Most
volunteers described moments as instances where girls accomplished something or expressed joy in
the Girl Scouts Program. For example Carla said:
“When you go back and you look at it, with our last team to camp out we had, the pictures
were up on our private Facebook page, and then you could look at the “ah ha” moments.
You could see the girls participating, you could see the younger girls being helped by the
older girls. You could see it working. At the time you’re not sure because you’re thinking,
“Oh my god, we have to get this done, we have to get that done, this is next, that’s next, you
know you’re in the regular program so you gotta keep it going.”
This was further expressed when another Jen stated:
“It’s the improvement from year to year. We had a super, super shy girl last year. I’m pretty
sure she didn’t speak more than two words. She engaged herself, but she wouldn’t talk and
when she talked she whispered (whispered). You couldn’t hear her (whispered). I’m like
Mantrip “ I can’t hear you.” At our last meeting she literally busted out laughing when I said
something that apparently was funny, no one else laughed. She laughed hysterically and I was
like “huh!” “ Who are you?” I’m like wait “where did you come from?” She’s like, “ I really
like Girl Scouts” I mean it is…its all the little moments, its never anything that’s super-
massive.”
From this statement we discover that the volunteers were most happy when they realized they were
helping young girls accomplish things and achieve happiness. This sentiment coincides with our
earlier examples of volunteers just wanting to volunteer for the benefit of children.
Conclusion
Our focus group script (see appendix), predicted and identified potential barriers, which
included transportation, time, marketing/promotion, perception of Girl Scouts not being “cool,”
paperwork, and potential volunteers having other options. The focus group provided great insight
into potential themes that we did not consider such as camping difficulties, lack of men in the Girl
Scouts, the purpose of volunteering, and communication within the company. It was important for us
to interact with the volunteers so we could understand why they were not able to fully engage as Girl
Scouts of NYPENN Pathways volunteers.
Recommendations
Current Girl Scout volunteers have made it clear that this organization is worth spending
their time and effort to be a part of. The Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways has provided great
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13. opportunities for thousands of girls to learn valuable skills. There are however a few changes that
were uncovered by the focus group and suggestions that could be considered by the Girl Scouts of
NYPENN Pathways.
Paperwork
Paperwork could be reduced to a few forms for all activities. An overall health form, a form for
selling, etc., instead of numerous forms for each separate activity. Similarly, troop leaders could be
responsible for signing a troop up for an activity instead of each separate family unit signing up their
own child.
Greater Advertising and Promotional Efforts
Given that Service Unit Leaders are struggling to promote camps and volunteer
opportunities, we suggest Girl Scout’s NYPENN Pathways turn to its greatest marketing tool: the
cookie box. Girls Scout cookies is an enormous brand that reaches millions of homes around US;
thus, making them a optimal way to deliver an advertising message. Therefore, we suggest adding
an advertisement on the back of each box that promotes volunteer opportunities and campsite
visitation. The beauty of this idea is that Girl Scouts would obtain free advertising through this
initiative, and thus save money.
Sponsorship
As mentioned in the introduction, the Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways currently owns nine
camp properties. The properties are maintained at extremely high costs, but they only generate
$30,000 in revenue. In 2013, out of the 2.3 million girls who are registered Girl Scouts in the United
States, about 670,000 scouts attended camps or participated in outdoor activities (Dobner, J. 2014).
Outdoor pursuits are still an integral part of the Girl Scout image, however girls have reported
wanting more opportunities “revolving around social issues, professional opportunities for women,
and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) curriculum” (2014).
To keep up with the desires of the girls and keep with the tradition of outdoor activities,
we propose that the Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways gain corporate sponsorship for the current
camp properties and turn the camps into “single interest” camps. This would provide large sums of
money to keep up the camps and also provide new facilities and generate great interest. Corporate
sponsors such as GE, AT&T or Lockheed Martin all have large philanthropic arms of their companies
that seek to provide grants to deserving causes. GE, AT&T, and Lockheed Martin all provide
grants to programs that want to teach STEM curriculum to children. Lockheed Martin and GE are
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14. particularly interested in seeing STEM advancement in girls and women. GE has a program called
GE Girls that has been sponsoring small STEM day camp experiences at various universities across
the U.S. with recent camps being held at the University of Connecticut and the University of Notre
Dame. GE has been known to give grants to advance education including a five-year, $15 million
grant in 2007 and a four-year $8.6 million grant in 2012 to the Erie School District (School District of
Erie, Pennsylvania, 2012) and a five-year $18 million grant to the New York public school system in
2008 (Gunther, 2008). Lockheed Martin also has expressed direct interest in girls’ mentorship and
works currently with Girls Inc. to connect Lockheed Martin volunteers with high school aged girls to
mentor them in pursuing STEM related careers (lockheedmartin, 2014).
AT&T is similar to GE and Lockheed Martin in providing grants for STEM curriculum. Currently
they have a STEM Pathways camp at the University of Texas Arlington (uta.edu) and have given over
$87 million to support STEM initiatives (att.com). AT&T is also already a current partner with the Girl
Scouts on a national level.
The Coca-Cola Foundation would be a good option to host a leadership or entrepreneurship
camp. The Coca-Cola Foundation has three main areas of focus for their corporate giving, with one
of those areas being “economic empowerment and entrepreneurship” (coca-colacompany.com). The
Coca-Cola Foundation has donated more than $143 million worldwide and is committed to investing
1% of the prior year’s operating income annually.
In order to meet with the monetary constraints and upkeep of the properties the sponsors will
most likely have to be larger companies instead of local. Local companies like Wegmans are great
sponsors for sending troops to camp, but not for sponsoring an entire camp because they do not
have the infrastructure to meet that demand. Larger companies have the means to support a camp
and many of them may be interested if the proposition is brought to them. Girl Scouts is one of the
oldest and most well established programs for girls in the United States let alone the world and
because of the reputation, it is likely that this organization would gain an audience with large Fortune
500 Companies to present this type of partnership. Furthermore, companies like AT&T, Dell, Dove,
Nestlé USA, Motorola, MetLife, and Mattel are already sponsors of the Girl Scouts on the national
level, so it is possible to work with the philanthropic arms of these companies to ask for camp
sponsorship as well.
Doing a partnered camp does not mean that the camps would no longer be used for
traditional camping activities like hiking, canoeing, or swimming. Instead, these would be integrated
as activities in the larger theme of the camp. The camps would be restructured into sessions of the
leadership or STEM curriculum with other sessions allotted for outdoor pursuits. This idea will allow
for better infrastructure in the camps and integration of new interests with the traditional outdoor
pastimes that Girl Scouts was built on.
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15. 13
Social Media Safety
The concept of incorporating men into leadership positions and technology and social
media into camping environments is daunting. The reliance on males can be increased with the
incorporation of both male and female volunteers of the college-age demographic. This would not
only allow for the girls to be able to associate with the volunteers more easily but would allow for
them to learn values and principles that are beneficial to growing up. This of course is where the
technology is tied in, the college age volunteers teach the Girl Scouts how to properly use social
media and the technology we use frequently. We recommend implementing a “Girl Scouts Social
Media Safety” course. This would be a constructive workshop that could orbit around a hiking or
canoeing trip allowing Girl Scouts to be taught how to properly use different social media platforms,
such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and helping them figure out what is appropriate to post
and when it is appropriate to post it. For instance, they can be shown how to post pictures of the
scenery during their trip or possibly a picture of everyone having fun at the top of the mountain that
the troop just climbed.
Corporate Social Network
One of the issues Girl Scouts faces is its lack of communication with former members. Former
members are the greatest asset to the Girl Scouts dwindling volunteer population, but with no follow
up after completing the program, the organization is missing out on it’s greatest potential for gaining
volunteers. A proposed idea would be to create a corporate social network that current and former
girl scouts can join. This would be an open forum for Girl Scout news, volunteer opportunities,
mentorship, and networking opportunities within the Girl Scout community. The network could be
open to current scouts ages 14 and up as well as all former girl scouts. A corporate social network
would be better than using Facebook or LinkedIn because the news is filtered completely for Girl
Scouts and you have more control over your message than using a current social media site. It also
allows the organization to manage the user data and have access to contact information that is
unavailable or more expensive when using Facebook.
Carpooling
The participants of the focus group noted how they are responsible to pay for everything and
that how much planning goes into just a weekend trip. We recommend to save money and to take
some pressure off the volunteers they could arrange a van/bus to take them to and from the camps.
Additionally, parents would not have to drive their girls to and from the camp when they need to
drop them off and pick them up. The parents could drop them off at a central location (i.e. school

16. or a church) and the bus/van would pick them up and drop them off in that same location when
they are ready to return. This would allow the girls and volunteers to drive up together, save money
on gas, and get to know one another and generate a rapport before they get to the camp. There
could be a section on the website that is devoted to carpooling where you can see volunteers and
Girl Scout members that live nearby, as well as girls who are in your troop and invite them to join a
carpool group. People could then browse the different carpools and join whichever one they see
fit. Then a carpool schedule for that weekend will be generated and can be emailed to everyone in
the group. There could also be an option to receive text notifications which would allow the website
to send a text to all the parents/kids, should you need to change the pick-up location, say from
outdoors to a safer location in bad weather. The website will also have the option of keeping track
of driving history to see who drove last and to where. This is something that has the potential to be
made into a mobile app, where parents can track where on the road the bus/van is and receive a text
when the girls and volunteers have safely reached the camp.
14

17. References

18. 16
References
ATT.com (n.d.) Technology. Retrieved from: http://www.att.com/gen/corporate-citizen
ship?pid=17922
Dobner, J. (2014). Girl Scouts Debate Their Place in a Changing World. New York Times. Retrieved
from: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/us/girl-scouts-debate-their-place-in-a-changing-
world.html?_r=1
GE (2014). GE Foundation. Retrieved from: http://www.gefoundation.com
Gunther, M. (2008). How GE Gives Away Its Money. Fortune. Retrieved from: http://archive.fortune.
com/2008/06/30/news/companies/ge_philanthropy.fortune/index.htm
Lockheed Martin (2014). In The Community. Retrieved from: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/
who-we-are/community.html
School District of Erie, Pennsylvania (2012). GE Foundation Commits $8.6 million Grant to Help Erie
Students, Teachers Achieve Higher Education Standards. The Erie School District News Page.
Retrieved from: http://esd.eriesd.org/ecsd/news.php?message=35

19. Appendix

20. Girl Scouts NYPENN Volunteer Focus Group Script
October 4, 2014
Objective: What are the obstacles and barriers as to why volunteers are not using the Girl Scouts
camps and what can be done to increase the usage of the camps?
Opening Statement:
“Good afternoon everyone! We would like to thank each of you for agreeing to participate in our focus
group. We are Graduate students from Syracuse University and we’re here to find out more about the
volunteer experience in the Girl Scouts and subsequently why more volunteers and girls are not using the
camps. My name is ______ and I will be moderating today and ________ will be taking notes. I want to
stress that your participation today is completely voluntary; you may withdraw at any time, for any reason.
Your opinions are extremely important to us, and we want you to feel free to tell us exactly what you think
– and we hope, that your ideas will create discussion among all of us.
First, we want to talk to you about a general overview of the camps, what activities you led, your
experience there, etc. We would also like to know what makes you keep coming back to volunteer with
the Girl Scouts and the reasons as to why more volunteers are not using the camps and how that could be
fixed.
Let’s start with us telling you a little more about ourselves. You will have a chance to ask us any questions
you want, and then we’ll get started!
[Brief Introduction: name, where we’re from, where we went to school, whether we had sisters who
participated in Girl Scouts, Field questions]
Begin
1. Alright, so why don’t we start by doing a quick round of introductions about everyone here in the group.
What are your names? How long have you volunteered with the Girl Scouts?
a. Get an idea if they are mentioning that they have done this awhile. Gear conversation
appropriately.
b. Probe: What camps have they been to? Take me through a typical day of what a weekend is
like? What activities did you lead with the Girl Scouts? Role at the camp? c. Do you volunteer
with any other organizations, churches, etc.? How frequently?
2. So, I’m gathering that a lot of you have volunteering with the Girl Scouts for years. With all the
obligations you face in your day­to­day life, how do you find time and why do you keep coming back year
after year?
a. Make a list of the reasons they come up with.
b. Probe: Lifestyle questions. Do they have a job? Do they have kids? Are their daughters in the
Girl Scouts? If so, why Girl Scouts as opposed to other activities? How much training was
involved? What do you want to get out of volunteering with the Girl Scouts?

21. c. How do you feel about funding the trips yourself/raising money to fund them?
3. Great answers. Thanks for sharing. All that being said, there has been a decrease in volunteers within
the Girl Scouts, what are some obstacles or reasons as to why you think this is?
a. Make another column for reasons they believe are reasons that other volunteers are not using
the camps.
b. What do you think are some of the obstacles that the Girl Scouts are facing in terms a lack of
active volunteers?
4. Ok, so we have made our list here of some broad topics, take a look at the things we wrote down and
tell me more about them. You can pick one or a couple and talk about them or you can tell me more
generally why you like them.
a. If the discussion goes too broad, prompt with specific questions within the different types of
barriers they identified and move the discussion that way.
b. Time: Do they have kids? How many? How much time do they spend preparing meals? Do
their kids have a lot of weekend obligations that may prevent them from spending weekend
camping trips? How far in advance do troop leaders have to book camps?
i. Probe: How can we fix that?
c. Camps: What amenities are available at the camp? What is the layout? What activities (in and
outside of the camps) do you think the girls really enjoy? That you enjoy? How many girls typically
participate? Are there policies that they some of the volunteers don’t agree with?
i. Probe: Is there anything that can be done to the infrastructure of the camps or
programs that are offered that would be attractive to volunteers?
d. Safety: How safe do you feel at the camps? What safety concerns do you think a new
volunteer might have? What is the technology policy as far as using cell phones?
i. Probe: Do you think safety is an issue as to why volunteers are not participating and
how can we fix this?
e. Location: How far away are the camps? Are they accessible? Parking? How far (round­trip)
do you think most volunteers are willing to travel to these camps? Is gas reimbursed? Are there
car­pooling options?
i. Probe: Would any of these help bring more volunteers into the Girl Scouts program?
This is a great, you all have given us some real wonderful feedback moving forward. Is there anything else
anyone wants to say before we begin to wrap this up? It can be about anything we have talked about so
far.
Closing Statement:
Alright, well thank you so much for agreeing to participate today! Your input is really important. Our main
interest during this discussion was to find out more about the types of barriers. We also wanted to find a
little more about how your volunteering experiences and why you keep coming back. We appreciate your
time and letting us speak to you today. Before you leave we would like to ask if you have any questions

22. about what we talked about or any questions in general you would like us to answer. [Wait for questions,
answer them]. Alright, we are done. Thank you again for your time and enjoy the rest of your day!”

23. Girl Scouts Focus Group Transcription
Full recording time – 1:14:13
Introduction – see script
0:00 – 8:00 min.
Jackie: I’m Jackie Reagan I’m from Ogdensburg NY, about 2 hours north. Camp Trefoil is only about an
hour from Ogdensburg and my oldest daughter went there for like 8 years, 8 summers in a row, and loved
every minute of it. My younger daughter only went maybe 4 summers but I sent them for different
reasons and they both got different qualities out of camp. So I would really like to see how we can
encourage other girls to go and know that it’s available to them.
Maggie: Maggie Jones. I’m service unit manager for Lakeview, which is the Central Square district just
a little bit north of here, about a half an hour. I went to camp as a kid, lots of summers and loved it. My
daughter has been to camp several times, we’ve been together I’ve visited every camp so I am excited to
be just part of it because I’d love to get our girls there.
Jen: Jen Ross, I am originally from Vermont, I moved here about two years ago. I was in Girl Scouts for
a year when I was a kid and couldn’t tell you anything except for we went sledding down someone’s
backyard. I never went camping. I do have a 9 yr old, and a 3 yr old who really wants to be in Girl Scouts.
Unfortunately she is not old enough yet and I can’t take on another troop right now, Halleluiah. My 9 yr
old, since we moved here, has been in Girl Scouts. I have been a troop leader, she has gone to camp both
years that we have been here and convinced 4 of her troop­mates to go this year. I think they are
fabulous; we have been to a few mother­daughter events and I really and to figure out how we can make
the different experience of camping available to everybody because I think it is just amazing.
Susan: Susan White, I’m up in red creek NY, that's up near Fair Haven. This is my 3rd
year as a troop
leader and this year I’ve started with co­service unit managing with … So I am kind of new to the
administrative aspects of girl scout camping but uhm, when I was a kid I was a girl scout from 2nd
grade
all the way up through 12th
grade. And one of the things that kept me in girl scouts was camping. From 7th
grade through 12th
grade we used to spend a week every summer going backpacking in the Adirondack
mountains with our troop and we just loved it. We’d sleep in the lean­tos and tents and move camp every
couple of days and that was something we loved about camp. We go camping as a troop but none of my
troop members have actually been to a summer camp and we need to figure out how to better encourage
that and see how we can get more of them involved in that.
Carla: I’m Carla Sissylinens and I am the service unit manager for Norwich. I have a 12 yr old who has
been a Girl Scout since Daisies and has been to camp pretty much every year. I did a lot of camping when
I was a child both with my family and with girl scouts and I agree that we need to get the kids out into the
camps because once they get there they don't want to leave.

24. Paula: I’m Paula Shabalan I am from Rome, New york. I am a co service leader with Checky
Furloughdomy she’s in Amahami today. THEY SEPARATED US, we do a lot of work together; she’s
my ying and I’m her yang kind of thing. I was never a girl scout and my dream was for my girls to be in
the girl scout program, so I started them at daisy on. I have a 24 year old who is a lifetime member, now
she’s not active but I think eventually, professionally she is a graphic artist so I think that she’ll be able to
bring that over to the girl scouts. I have another girl that graduated just this last year from high school, she
is starting college now. She is not as interested in girl scouting, she did the camping experience and she did
everything, but there’s so many other things for her right now. Enveloped in other things so I’m thinking
eventually they'll be leaders. They have been in scouts since daisy’s and they went to camp, they went to
day camp, they went to all the camps. They went to Glengera, my older one is a counselor at Amahani,
not Amahami, Yahowano. And so there is camping experiences there and they're not from this area, were
from the Midwest. And so the friends and others they've gotten to know through schools here and through
girl scouts has developmentally helped them so much more. One is very outgoing and one not as much and
they just, the girl scout experience with camping and stuff was just extraordinary. There’s uh benefits and
other ways as a counselor that was very hard for her one year that she was at Yaiowano, so I’d like to
address that a little bit too.
Betty Smithy: My name is Betty Smithy, I am service unit manager in the Tayoga center Nichols school
district which is down between Oswego and Waverly, south of here about an hour and 45 minutes. I was
a girl scout as a girl and went to girl scout camp in the summer for a week or two, I think we went for two
weeks back then. I worked at a girl scout camp through my college years. Our daughter is 35 now she’d
been in girl scouting since she was in 2nd
grade and I began with her, there weren’t Daisy’s then I don't
think. And uhm I directed Yaiowano for a couple of summers awhile ago. I do outdoor camping training
for the “simply successful overnights” and the “simply successful camping training’ in the counsel. It was
at the end of the summer I took a troop of little girls camping and I hadn’t done that in a long time, I’ve
mostly been doing camping with adults for the last 10 or 15 years ( laughing). So that was fun and we
went to camp hoover.
First Question:
Max: So one of the things I would like to ask you guys first is, so obviously you’ve all been a part of this
whether it be yourselves or you have kids or both and all of that other stuff. How about we talk a little bit
about how it is that you guys find time to do this. Obviously we are all busy being parents and so on. So
how is it that you time­manage yourselves to make sure that you can do these things?
Martha: Multitasking, when you don't have the time you find a way.
Susan: Yeah, yeah, I have no other answer than that. Somehow you just keep finding it.
Jackie: You just don’t sleep that's all, Your kids are a priorities kind of thing, you know, how you set your
priorities based on how you are going to spend your time. Family and work and extra stuff like girl scouts
or church or whatever else you do.

25. Jen: I do girl scouts because it’s an hour and a half a week that I get one on one time with my 9 year old.
Ask how many parents that get one on one time with their specific child especially if they have more than
1 and they will tell you never. And honestly I didn't think about it until this year. I was like wow I literally
get no time, especially with a 3 yr old that you’re trying to potty train and all of the things that come with a
child that's not as independent as a 9 yr old. So to be able to have and meet once a week, to be able to
have that hour and a half every single week where granted it’s not necessarily just 1 on 1 because we
have seven girls in our troop, but its her and I bonding over something that she really, really, really wants to
do. She had choices here and she chose girl scouts so I think I’m doing something right.
Martha: Its so important for our daughters to see us working and doing this stuff because when they get
older they are going to know that that’s what it’s like. How are they going to know about it if they don't
see it. And that's the power behind where we put the time out for and that's why. I mean its not just our
daughters obviously, all their friends and the other girls in the troop, some that have never been exposed to
our organization or a group or feeling like sisters and doing things together.
Jen: I have to have that this year, I think that generations coming up, I mean females back when we were
little I feel like maybe could be friends without the jealousy and with out all of the … everything else that's
going on. I think that in this day and age it's a completely different generation so to be able to show our
girls that they can have girl friends and not have to deal with the stereotypes that come along with it, I
think that that gives them everything.
Maggie: For me the drive to start was driven by my girl scout leader, the leader I had from 7th
through 9th
grade, my cadet leader. She didn't have kids and she was a retired … (gesture at another member at the
table, laughing ensues)
Betty: It’s fun when you retire because you get to choose.
Maggie: Yeah, but she had been through it with her own kids but then stayed in and she actually got
awarded a lifetime membership by girl scouts because of her dedication and volunteer work. I guess she
was always a role model for me and some of the things that she taught me that she probably didn't even
know just stuck with me and I I think it was formed then for me. Somehow, someway girl scouts would be
a part of my adult life and when I had my daughter I was doing cub scouts and church stuff and all this
other stuff and so the first year of these I held back and said, you know, I want my daughter to become a
part of this, so I decided for her to become a leader and it just kind of took off from there. But it is
priorities, it’s wanting to give back what I had like my mom. My dad worked all the time my mother was
disabled. She really couldn't do a lot with me at all beyond just kind of taking care of the house and
whatnot. For me, the girl scout troop was an escape and it gave me a chance to camp, my family didn't
camp. So for me that's how I got my outdoor experience, that's how I got my love of camping and a lot of
leadership skills. It was my escape, from my house, and to be able to go out and have fun. I want to give
that to my daughter, certainly that is a priority but that's also always been a drive for me to be able to
create something great for the girls in the community, whether they have a great home or whether it’s an
escape, I want every girl to have that opportunity and so, I don't know, we just find the time to do it.

26. Max: Excellent, and more on that, more in the specifics, more or less, uhm, obviously you guys plan for
this kind of stuff. How much further in advance do you plan, generally, to make, even from the smallest of
day camping trips to the week stuff that you might be doing or anything in between? What kind of stuff do
you guys do for planning?
Carla: It really depends on what were doing,
Carla: There’s some things that are spur of the moment because the kids kind of force you into that
direction and sometimes there’s things you plan weeks in advance. Sometimes months.
Carla: Planning things for your whole service unit and can be 150 kids trying to figure out who is going to
be where, that's months of planning.
We’re having a leaders and daughters uhm, overnight weekend at camp the end of Jan. this was the
week I did the reservation. And I waited too long because the #1 place we wanted was no longer
available.
Maggie: I would say that for our troop, if we are planning something at, the encampment is different we
already have that planned for May. She is right that you have to plan that a year to a year and a half in
advance because you need the whole camp and the whole weekend for an encampment. So yeah, for that
a year to a year and a half. If we are planning a weekend trip and its something that just kind of happens
like last year we spent a weekend at amahami doing a journey weekend, that we planned maybe a month
or two in advance and you know we just had to take, plan a weekend from what was available at camp.
But we do things outside of the camps too, she mentioned backpacking in the Adirondacks, we do that,
that’s a yearly event that doesn't use the girl scout camps and but that we have to plan a year in advance.
So the longer more complex the camping trip the more time it takes to plan it.
Jen: And you have to remember it’s girl led so youre involving 6, 7, 8 fifteen year olds and they’re helping
you plan it so you have to, try adults planning who have 6 million ideas and then throw in 9 12 however
many 6, 7, 8, 10 year olds into the mix and I mean it takes cuz you want them to feel that this is their
experience and they are in control when really we are the background that honestly holds it together but
you have to make them feel that they are the ones that are doing it. So imagine the times that, I don't know
if any of you have children but (joke and laughter, random talk laughing)
Carla: And it can be daunting for new people, if you haven’t been involved before because a lot of the
camps we go to don’t have equipment so we have to bring all of the equipment. You have to bring all of
your food you have to bring all of your cooking ware, and plates, and cups, and utensils, and sleeping bags,
everything right?
Max: That's perfect too because I was going to ask what do you guys think was the most difficult thing,
yeah, about trying to plan these trips. What’s like the hardest part?

27. Maggie: And I know I don't take my girls, I had been camping with girl scouts as a girl and then my
family sends, before my son, we started taking him camping in tents when he was 4 months old so I have
a lot of camp experience but when it came to being responsible for 12, 9 and 10 year olds in a tent, by
myself, without my husband that was a whole another thing. I didn't have and I hate to say it because
were suppose to be strong women, but uhm, I didn't have the guy factor and my husband was the one who
tied all the knots and towed the trailer, and set the tarps up to make sure our tent stayed dry and got the
campfire going. And those are all the things I could do but they were things I never had to do and that was
a huge stumbling block for me, I had to get over my own fear of “well Thor does it all, and you can do it”
so it took me until the girls were in fifth grade we finally tent camped when they were in fifth and sixth
grade, the year, that was our big end­of­year shebang, that year.
Carla: I agree, camping with your husband is a lot different than camping with girl scouts.
Carla: WE had a man and we went to the unit encampment and he tented and the girls were in the lodge
at Amahami and that's where we usually hold our unit events, was there, because we use the kitchen
that’s in there yeah but he tented away so he taught them how to make ropes so that was something that
they had never known before and he had that ability. And bringing him into that, it’s a little more difficult
because it's a male person with all of the girls and you have to let everyone know that there is going to be
a male there. But you know uhm, specifically they have the skills that they can teach the girls in many,
many ways and uhm that's an important part of it, that's the first time, the first time, out of the whole time
that all of my girls have been, both of my girls have been through girl scouts because he actually said
“yeah I’ll come” you know? I registered him for 5 days it was the last week of September! (everyone
laughed)
Jen: Hey if it’s $3 a day its totally worth it.
Carla: It was totally worth it because they learned something new, something they’ve never done before
and they loved it. They did, they loved it, we didn't have as many girls because at the beginning of the
year, we didn't have as many at encampment, girls at the beginning of the year.
Carla: I agree, That’s why I haven’t done much camping with my girls because uhm the facilities at the
camps are great but you need someone with that background to hook up the fire that you don't know
because I wasn’t a girl scout.
I think the biggest challenge for my troop is the girls being available. The girls are 12 yrs old they are
involved in everything and if I can find a weekend that works for both my schedule and the majority of
their schedules is very difficult. Half my troops in marching band and in the fall and the spring are taken up
by marching band competitions so if we camp its in the winter where its really cold and snowing.
I know they have other troop camping and that's really beneficial for troops who don't have that type of
help.

28. Alright that's actually excellent because were going to be segueing into something else for this. What I
want to ask you guys about is what do each of you think is the biggest obstacle for someone to try and
convince themselves to volunteer to do something like this?
Max: What do you think is the biggest obstacle. You know for someone trying to get themselves. Or for
some trying to convince themselves to volunteer to do something like this. Obviously you guys have been
around doing this a while and stuff like that. So maybe even offering a perspective on trying to convince
other people to do it yourselves but lets start with what do you guys think is the hardest thing maybe if you
were totally new at this yourselves would be the hardest thing to get you to volunteer and do stuff like this.
Jen: Time
Group: Time
Jen: We just had a recruitment meeting on Monday. I’m exhausted. So we just had a recruitment event
on Monday night. I’m very brand new, two months as service unit manager and only in girl scouts
Syracuse for two years. I took on the service commitment managerial position because we faced no
service commitment. Which means 100 girls not having a safe feeling. Like they were going to be ok as a
service unit we were going to chung on and be fine. Um, its time. I mean I had to convince people
Monday night, You can make the time, you have the time. You have the time to go home and sit in front of
the TV and watch the news for an hour every night. You have time for Girl Scouts and its not just the
hour that you spend with your girls it’s a week of planning. It's sitting down and looking at journey book for
4 hours and figuring out how you're going to have these girls understand why this is important and how
they’re going to carry it on with them in their lives going forward, but its time. I mean if you can make
time…think about how long you're in the car every single day. Think about. I mean its just multi tasking,
and time is literally the biggest…it is not on our side, ever, regardless of what your in.
Paula: I think the other thing is people have to be asked. I mean people are willing to volunteer if you ask
them, but if you're not going up to your parents or your not going up to people in the community saying I
need help, “can you do this”, whatever this happens to be. You know, you can’t do it all yourself.
Group: Right
Paula: You have to delegate. You have to ask for help.
Group: Yup
Paula: And it’s much easier to get people to help you if you ask in person than on the phone. Face to face
its hard to say no.
Jackie: And there’s still some women that doubt their abilities as being a leader. Being able to….be a
troop leader…coordinate things for you know, some of the young girls. They just…still they’re…..they
don't have that alpha dog charging in their head, “and I can do it”.

29.
Betty: Uh Uh co­leader, as a troop assistant. Somebody that if if I weren’t there would be able to do
something to keep the girls in program, and things like that just for..
Group: It's not just a week off. Right, right.
Group: (Lauging)
Betty: But that way we we back up each other and the planning stages is so much better. I mean for
those with a confidence factor. Which is maybe because I wasn't a girl scout the whole time. Um, that
was my biggest prominent important thing in order to keep the troop moving and keep things going.
Because that that helped me a lot when you got somebody else that you can bounce things off with
Jen: Well its not just the girls that are making friends.
Group: Um hmm
Jen: I’ve gained life long friends that I will never… in two years, its its amazing. Its kinda cool actually.
Max: Actually you guys brought up something really cool. Um. What. Where was that “a­ha” moment for
you where you were like, “ Oh like I’ve got this, like I’ve nailed the leadership position”.
Group: (Laughing loud) There’s been so many moments, have you had that yet?
Maggie: The thing about being a leader, um with the girl scouts is your growing from age to age with
them. So um you know my daughter I started out with her when she was six and now she’s 15, and I
merged from my own troop to another troop, its multi age so we have…it was cadet seniors ambassadors
now they've grown again so its all seniors and ambassadors, but every time your girl ages, you start all
over again, like you have to learn a new level, new journeys, new um, they they grow and change on you
so you have to learn to step back and and as as they grow from 7 to 15 and now they’re are a constant
reminder.
Group: (laughing) We got this, we can do this.
Maggie: We actually cleaned up apple feast in Brewerton last weekend and they stopped, they told me to
stop picking up garbage and get out of their way, so it's a constant learning process. I don't know.
Group: (Laughing)
Jen: I haven’t had an ah ha moment.
Group: (Laughing)

30. Jen: I just feel like eh, you have…its something you just have to do. For whatever whatever goal you've
set in life. I mean I just want to be the best role model that I can for my kids, and that includes the six
others that are not mine by blood relation. But you just want to give them the chance of being a girl, being
an awesome girl­superwoman, whatever you want to be in life, I mean anything. You don't have to be a
girly girl, if you want to go camp all the time I’m definitely down with that. But you’re providing them with
that safe adult that is willing to take that journey with them. So I don't know if I've had an ah ha moment,
but I just know that I, I feel that its my way of giving back.
Betty: You do something and its over with or you're in the process and you think “oh this is going well,
this is not going well­if its going well, yea what made it go well?” Um if it didn't go so well, what might I
do different next time, that kind of thing. So I think its eh a bunch of ah ha moments, little ones maybe.
Not… I don't know…
Jen: Like you wake up one morning and think “ Oh my God”, that's why I did this.
Group: (Laughing)
Pat: It's really cool when you see the kids over summer vacation though…if your not meeting as a troop.
You see them at the grocery store or whatever. “ When are we starting girl scouts?....When are we
starting girl scouts?”
Group: (Laughing)
Jen: I had that moment this summer. The girl was like, “that's my girl scout’s leader.
Group: (Laughing)
Jen: I was like whoa! That's was a big…
Group: (Laughing)
Jen: I’m thinking, “I never looked at it like that, but thank you that’s me, hi!” And her best friend then
joined, I’m like ah boy ok”
Carla: When you’re in the moment too, when you’re doing an activity you don’t see it necessarily
because your mind is going so… busy…uh… how can we keep them busy doing this, maybe we need
relaxation time between these two things. You know you’re constantly (), especially a bigger event. And
um, when you go back and you look at it, with our last team to camp out we had…the pictures were up on
our private Facebook page, and then you could look at the ah ha moments­you could see the girls
participating, you could see the younger girls being helped by the older girls. You could see it working. At
the time you're not sure because you're thinking, “ oh my God we have to get this done, we have to get
that done, this is next that’s next, you know you're in the regular program so you gotta keep it going.

31. Jen: It's the improvement from year to year. We had a super, super shy girl last year. I’m pretty sure she
didn't speak more than two words. She engaged herself, but she wouldn't talk and when she talked she
whispered (whispered). You couldn’t hear her (whispered).
Group: (Laughing)
Jen: I’m like Mantrip “ I can't hear you”. Um… and at our last meeting she literally busted out laughing
when I said something that apparently was funny, no one else laughed. She laughed hysterically and I was
like “huh!” “ Who are you?” I’m like wait “where did you come from?” She’s like, “ I really like girls
scouts” I mean it is…its all the little moments, its never anything that’s super massive. Its not like the
titanic that just smacked you in the face like “hey that’s why you do it” its all the small memories that you
get to take away as a leader or service unit manager. So you know if you’re having these girls are walking
away with something pretty special too.
Kaylin: So just curious um, what are some of the reasons why you think young volunteers like volunteer
with girl scouts, or what are reasons that prevent them from volunteering like, so like, teenagers in high
school or college?
Carla: Careers. They’re working for their career. Like once they get that career…that's what I’m hoping
is happening with my old on…my middle daughter is that when she gets to the point that where she wants
to do a service project or do some type of work for the community I can suggest girl scouts to her because
she knows what it is, she knows what its been in the past. Um, and the other one in high school, well, gosh
they're so busy. I mean high school and college, you've got a job, you've got school, you've got…you
know, payments to make for car. And you guys all know that.
Group: (Laughing)
Carla: There is…there’s a time factor there. Now…if they’re not doing anything they’re just staying at a
college…ok… there might be an opportunity there, if their living at a college participating in college things
and they’re saying, “ I can do something else too for the community you know that would be an option
because they've been introduced to it as girls. That they can take part in that. You know that's great for
service you know for college obviously for the itinerary or for um their portfolios and stuff so um that's
what I think gets in the way because there is so much more going on.
Maggie: And I wonder too about finding a fit for them because we just graduated our first three which
was very hard. Um but because we have a multi age troop that goes back from…so we have nine to
twelfth graders now, like where we are like the girls that just graduated know that they can find us certain
places, like they can find us at apple fest last weekend and there are certain things that our troop does
regularly year to year that those girls know that they can come back and find us…and one of the girls she
just started college so she’s still trying to find her way but she came back and she said I don't even have a
life without you guys so that told me that its important to her. Um but, what I think what what is different
is most troops are just one one great level so when a troop reaches, so if you get that far…which which
we want all girls to get to their senior year of high school and then say ya know you're gonna go to lifetime

32. membership. Um but um most troops are just ninth graders or just tenth graders or just eleventh graders so
there’s not that opportunity to go back so once they graduate they don't have a girl scouts home anymore,
there’s no… you know what I mean? Like there might not be…
Carla: They have a group of girls that they have…the chances for them to have a reunion and be
together and feel like a group again is hard because everybody has got all that factors into play.
Maggie: Which is what we still have. Like they they know that we’re still existing because of the way
our troop just fell into formation I mean we didn't do it on purpose but its been great. So they still have this
home this girl scouts home that they can come back and visit and..
Carla: I have a friend for forty years and she still with her old girls scouts…after after being a girl scout
for forty years and they get together and have reunions.
Betty: That closeness is what we hope our girls to have.
Group: Yea!
Pat: Do you guys do a lot of things as a service unit where there is the multiple levels?
Maggie: Uh um, are service unit um, I just took that over with my co­manager in June because or service
unit manager that was…as got vey business got very busy and it wasn't a very active service unit and
most of what was being done with the service unit was being done by my troop, um because my girls were
older and they could plan events and there wasn't anything organized and formed so were just getting it
reorganized and going again um we’ve been off to a great start but were just kinda getting the energy
back and letting the leaders out there know that they have support and that um that we are that we can be
an active service unit, that we can be organized, that we can do that so were hoping , and we're...getting
there. But were just… you know its only been since like May or June, they haven’t really started pulling
that back yet.
Carla: We’ve had an established unit me and Sue for quite a while. And we do almost monthly activities.
Maggie: Yea that's our goal!
Carla: To go a head and have them do something, participate with other girl scouts because some of the
troops are fairly small. You know, and that way they come in with a larger group of girls and be able to
participate in activities…like that, and that that really helps a lot.
Pat: Because that might help some of the older girls who are ya know in the teens and college years find
a way to get back in and help with some of the younger troops.
Maggie: Because of the experience my troop has had though it does make me really… and actually my
co­service unit manager, I don't know how many of you know him but he’s he’s a guy, so he’s a leader,

33. he’s the actual leader of my daughter’s troop I joined with his troop about three years ago…um, and its
been marvelous because he has skills you know that we were just talking about, guys have skills that girls
don't have or women don't have so its been nice. Um but one of the things we talked about I how do we
create the formation of a Boy Scout troop within the girls scout organization. Because its been successful
with our troop you know when the girls get up top high school level they are very busy we have twenty
five girls in our troop because we have multi age girls… um and what happens is this high schooler might
be able to come on this trip and this high schooler might be able to come on this trip, if we only had twelfth
graders we would only have two to three girls in our troop, and this year we’d only have two and as tenth
graders we’d have one. So, and then we have more ninth graders but you know what I mean? So we’ve
we’ve been trying to problem solve like “ok, how do we keep what we’ve had going in our service unit
with our girls going downward in the service unit, do we offer the opportunity to have um more events
where… you have more of the older groups meeting together because the numbers diminish as they get
into high school. So that's kinda what crossed our mind is how do you take that service unit structure and
and get more of those older girls together to have the power… to do it, when they are so busy, because
two or three girls can't do what twenty five can.
Jen: I think the biggest thing is getting the word out there. How many college kids know that there’s a
huge girl scouts right here just in this area? How many friends, female friends do you know that there’s a
Girl Scout troop that would love to have them volunteer? And our biggest problem is we don't know how
to get the word to you because we have to go through so many different levels of communications in
hopes that our word is going to get there. Do we flyer? Do we come down here and flyer every
telephone…how do we get the word out. So I think its, if you weren’t in girl scouts you have absolutely no
idea of this fantastic…group of…girls and women even exists. How do we? How? How do we let you
know? That, I think that's our biggest problem coming as a service unit, we have no idea how to get the
word to you, and we have leaders that work on the SU campus and they don't even know. I mean, its
really difficult, so we don't know how to get the word out to you that we want you, we want you for the
six or nine months that you're here, we want the girls to have that experience of almost like having a big
sister, not necessarily the mother hen, but the big sister who’s there for you and wants to learn from you
just as much as you want to learn from her. We don't know how to get the word out.
Kaylin: Um, I also wanted to add um, what, so the high schoolers that do come to the camps now, what
what do they like about the camps? What what keeps bringing them back um is it…
Pat: The high schoolers?
Kaylin: Yea the high schoolers. Is it volunteering? Or um…is it the community service factor? Or just,
what have they expressed to you?
Carla: A lot of its community service factor because um a lot of them can use it on their itinerary for their
jobs and use it for their college applications, you know about their participation and things that they've done
through girl scouting. It's just like boy scouting they do the same thing, the merit badges and all the things
they've worked and then they get their Eagle Scout award, if you get a gold award that's part of the

34. prominence for your girl scouting experience to help continue you on to where you wanna go. And that's
the benefit for the girls that are in it, there’s so many girls out there that don't have that opportunity.
Pat: And I think girls do find it fun. It may not be the cool thing still. Right? But they do have fun…
Group: We can make it the cool thing again.
Pat: I know I know, it’s been along time since you know I’ve been at that age of being the girl scout.
Jen: I thought you were going to say since you were cool.
Group: (Laughing)
Pat: But um, but some of leaders that I’ve talked to, you know that are closer in age to you know having
recently graduated. Um, you know, they said that they were girl scouts but they would never never tell
anybody that they were girl scouts because it just wasn’t cool to be a girl scout. So, um, I don't know how
we change that, right? Um, but there still seems to be this… kinda stigma I guess at that age level that it’s
not cool to be a girl scout.
Maggie: Are you asking specifically like what keeps our girls interested in coming to the camps as high
schoolers? Or were you just...
Kaylin: High school and volunteering. So both…yea.
Maggie: Yea because I know my daughter’s interest in attending girl scout camp for a week dwindled
once she got into high school. Um…what kept her going to that point was the social thing, like she wanted
to go meet new girls and she was very different than many of the other girls in my troop who didn't want
to go unless they had a buddy to go with, Dakota was like “No, I’m going regardless because I just want
to meet new people”, so that's what kept her going. But then as she got into highschool, um, the social
thing actually kept her more grounded in community so she didn't want to go to take a week and go away
to camp anymore, she wanted to spend the summer with her friends and hanging out with them at their
camps, or… um, and the coolness factor
Carla: Well once they get to that age though that's always starting CIS training, isn’t it CIS training?
Maggie: Yea, um, she actually. Yea. They. The. She went to…the last one she went to was Comstock,
and they actually…she wasn't quite old enough but what loved that they did that year is the people­the
leaders and the girls­took Dakota under her wing and they had her actually get a taste of what it was like
to actually get a taste of what it was actually like to be an instructor at camp. So even though she was
there as an attendee, they said, “ you know what were going to give you some leadership responsibilities
and see how you like it.” She walked away from that week loving it, like she was all about wanting to go
back and being a camp counselor.

35. Carla: That's the key, that's the difference.
Maggie: Yea, but I couldn't keep the fire going, until the next summer. I tried like everything to get her to
camp this summer, to do the camp training and the counselor training and I couldn't get her to go.
Carla: I offered it to my younger daughter, they had the letter that went out they were looking for
trainers…not trainers…counselors. And she said nope. And she was participating in camp she was little,
but when she was doing it with me and she was helping the younger kids it just wasn't her thing. And you
know, I think every girl is different when it comes to that. Some like working with the idea of teaching girls
new things, little girls new things. She did it through other sources, but not necessarily through the girl
scouting experience.
Maggie: So I wonder along your idea about inviting, like like if you take my daughter, like I said, I couldn't
keep the fire going and it was mom saying “hey Dakota why don't you do this”, but if someone from
counsel had called her or someone from that camp, or one of the one of the teenagers even better, you
know, one of the teenagers who had gone through training called her saying, “Hey Dakota you did a great
job last year training, we’d really love to see you do this training”, holy cow she probably would have been
there in a heart beat.
Max: Yea to hit on that, do you guys think it would be a good idea to maybe have kinda like junior trainees
or something like that? Follow around the leader­target the kids that remain and keep going.
Betty: That that opportunity exists in current material doesn’t it? Leader in training?
Carla: CIT does but I don't know about…
Betty: I think there’s a leading in training there too… for older girls.
Group: There’s a leader in training
Pat: In each level, like juniors cadets and seniors, have like an age badge. Right. And I’m not sure that in
service units we promote it that much.
Paula: But I think we need a video. I think we need a video of …that shows the highlights the best
aspects of the camps so you could see the differences between what you might do at Trefoil­ropes course,
how the swimming area, the boating is different. And then I know…I don't know the name, but one camp
used to offer horse’s. I don't know if that’s still… and just just so girls could see you know the main
highlights and maybe a few clips of like counselors speaking about you know, what what happened that
summer or like, just so. Because kids are so visual now, they’re so on the spot with you know being
plugged in to Facebook and different… you know it…
Carla: To see about the opportunity that is really cool and to take the time for it and see if its something
that you really want to do.

36.
Jackie: And camp needs to be talked about the whole year. Not just in Spring when the booklet comes
out. If we want to make it a priority for the girls to even consider it we need to bring it into the fall when
troops get started, somehow either let girls speak about who did go to the camp that previous summer and
either at service unit activities make it a highlight or just so it stirs little girls thinking “I didn’t go last
summer, maybe I could go this summer” so that when the cookie sale rolls around if they earn cookie
dough. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that when they sell cookies, part of their reward system is they
can earn cookie dough money and they can use that as part of their payment towards camp so they don’t
have to pay cash for the entire cost.
Carla: I think one of the biggest issues with camp is that it’s very expensive. [Group agrees] There’s just
a lot of girls that can’t afford it.
Maggie: When I was a girl, my cookie money went towards camp and when I started doing leadership
with my daughter, I was shocked. I’m like there’s no money that is allotted for my daughter towards camp
because we didn’t have money growing up and that’s how I got to camp. I got to camp with cookie dough
money.
Betty: I think the amount of financial assistance that the council has to offer girls that need camperships
maybe isn’t as significant as it could be to help some of those kids that really want to go to camp but can’t
get there.
Paula: They’re afraid to apply or they don’t know what’s available. I don’t want my friends knowing that
I needed a scholarship so I’m not going to apply.
Betty: I also understand that the amount has kind of decreased and that is probably something that has
happened since the merger because different councils brought different philosophies of ways to help girls
with needing financial help.
Jen: How many years did the triple the cookie dough? So we’ve been in 2 years. The first year she got
the $15 cookie dough, it tripled to $45 which was fabulous. That totally helped because at that point my
boyfriend was not working so 4 people on 1 income and a child that really really wanted to go to camp. I
would have done anything … and she went! This year she got the $15 and to my surprise was not tripled.
I mean, I tried to ask that at whatever kickoff meeting we had and there was no … someone asked, but
they didn’t provide an answer. There was no answer.
Carla: I know that they changed it so you had to sell 500 boxes of of cookies and you got half a week for
free or something. But you had to sell 500 boxes of cookies.
Betty: See everything is connected to something you’ve got to do. You know if you have kids that live out
in rural, in the middle of nowhere, it’s hard to sell 500 boxes of cookies cause where do you have a cookie
booth?

37. Carla: We have to drive an hour and a half for our cookie booth because Red Creek and Fairhaven is
closed for the winter. So we had to drive an hour and a half to do cookie booths.
Betty: It’s a big issue. I think we had a little girl right along and couldn’t go this summer.
Jackie: You do want to show the girls that if they work hard, things are possible, opportunities that are
there and for us in our area sometimes their own family is a barrier. Like if, filling out a financial aid form
for camp and I wish almost there was a way as a troop leader I could do that and make it. There’s a
couple girls in my troop ­ one girl her mom was deceased due to cancer a year ago and another girl her
mom was killed and she lives with her grandmother. I don’t even think there’s a father so the grandmother
is overwhelmed with responsibility. Sometimes I want to make things happen for them because paperwork
gets lost at home and you know, their family definitely wants them to be in girl scouting because its an
opportunity for a small group format and just to go on different little trips and things and it’s definitely
things that they are not seeing at home.
Maggie: Which brings up the thing about transportation too because the cost is one thing. Definite barrier
but the transportation life if that one girl is living with her grandmother do they have the means to get from
Ogdensberg to Trefoil or Ogdensberg to Ahmahami to get the girl there because if you’re taking them to
summer camp it’s, as a parent you’re taking them or you’re taking them and dropping them off but you
know for a camp that’s an hour away you’re talking two hours round trip on friday or something. Sunday
and then you have to turn around and do it again on Friday. And for me, a working parent, that was an
obstacle even for me because I had to take a half a day off from work to pick up my daughter from camp
on Friday.
Max: Yeah, that was something that I actually really wanted to hit on. We noticed that obviously some of
the camps have something’s whereas others don’t. What do you guys think are some of the best things
that the camps have to offer and then moving forward and some of the things they might be lacking? So,
let’s start with the best.
Carla: I think one of the best things is that most of the properties … I’m not familiar with Trefoil but the
others have a variety of different accommodation styles. I’m not sure if that’s the right word but you can
stay in a lodge that has bathrooms and a kitchen. You can stay in cabins that are inside, maybe have some
bathrooms around. And then you can stay in a tent and use a latrine. Or you can pitch tents. So I think
there’s a progression in the amount of facilities, or the type of facilities. There’s a place that little girls are
comfortable with and then even the older girls like to come back to the shower available kind of thing.
[group laughs]
Max: Very quickly, is the varying degree of amenities something you guys like or …
Jen: I think it’s a plus. Absolutely.
Carla: As the girls get older they develop abilities to go and do the other things and the girls just this year.
They’re 6th, 7th grade and they want to go “tent camping,” they don’t want to stay in the lodge or a cabin.