Girl Scouts of New York and Pennsylvania Comprehensive Research Report

Focus Group Report  

Trefoil Research Group   

Aidan Barrett   Corinne Pavlicko  Prepared for the GSNYPENN Council 

Bin Lian           Jennifer Cornwell   On: October 30, 2014 

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Executive Summary

The purpose of this study was to find and create ways around the main barriers

preventing NYPENN Girl Scout volunteers from frequently using campgrounds

with their troops. Information was gathered from focus groups as well as

secondary research.

Focus group participants identified a number of different issues that limited their

camping trips with their troops. These issues were brought up repeatedly

throughout the discussion and became the main themes for this paper.

Surprisingly, our initial hypothesis regarding safety concerns was never brought

up by the participants.

By listening to the focus group participants, our team was able to identify five

obstacles that result in low camp usage. They are as follows:

• Misunderstandings

• Limited access to resources

• Financial stress

• Trouble keeping the interest of older scouts

• Timing and scheduling issues

It should be noted that these themes are not listed in any particular order. If some

or all of these barriers can be mitigated or completely eliminated, NYPENN

volunteers would be much more willing and capable to take their troops to the

campgrounds.

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Introduction

Girl Scouts is a youth organization for girls in the United States. It aims to

empower girls and to help teach values such as honesty, fairness, courage,

compassion, character, sisterhood, confidence, and citizenship through activities

including camping, community service, learning first aid, and earning badges by

acquiring practical skills. Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways serves nearly 18,000

girls in a 26-county area spanning New York and Pennsylvania. Volunteers work

to provide services and deliver the Girl Scout Leadership Experience to girls. Six

regional Girl Scout Centers are located in Cicero, Horseheads, New Hartford,

Johnson City, and Watertown.

The alumnae of Girl Scouts appeared to be the main volunteering source. The

alumnae have a strong sense of self, according to 2012 Girl Scouts Annual

Report, 63% of the Girl Scouts alumnae consider themselves competent and

capable, compared to 55% of non-alumnae. Secondly, they appear to be more

experienced volunteers and community workers. Of Girl Scouts alumnae who are

mothers, 66% have been mentors/volunteers in their children's youth

organizations, compared to 48% of non-alumnae mothers. In terms of civic

engagement, 77% of Girl Scouts alumnae vote regularly, compared to 63% of

non-alumnae. When it comes to education, of Girl Scouts alumnae, 38% have

obtained college degrees, compared to 28% of non-alumnae. Moreover, Girl

Scouts alumnae report a significantly higher household income ($51,700) than

non-alumnae ($42,200).

As the organization celebrates its centennial milestone, it faces many decisions

regarding its camp properties. Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways, Inc. currently

owns nine camps. The cost to maintain these properties is over a million dollars,

which doesn't include deferred maintenance costs. Research also shows that

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adults volunteer more sporadically based on current cause related topics (short-

term), the Girl Scout model is built on long-term volunteers. 53% of Girl Scout

members are kindergarten through 3rd grade, while studies show that 4th grade is

the sweet spot for camping. This report sets out to identify the obstacles and

challenges Girl Scouts are facing right now. It also provides qualitative evidence

supporting our recommended solutions.

Our desired outcome of this study:

1. Identify the top 5 reasons volunteers and girls are not using our camps

2. Identify ways around those barriers so we can offer opportunities and create a

vibrant marketing plan.

In order to respond to the research needs, we conducted a focus group with

participants made up of experienced troop leaders and volunteers recruited by

Girl Scouts of NYPENN Pathways Inc. The focus group began with a short

questionnaire used to gain basic information (see appendix), followed by a focus

group interview implemented among the same group of volunteers.

October 4th, 2014 - Focus Group

Developing the Focus Group

The questionnaire was given to the participants at the beginning of the

focus group, and it consisted of a number of “yes or no” questions. This

was used to help build the basis for our participant profiles. The

questionnaire was followed by our focus group script. This was used to

guide the discussion within the focus group. Questions used for the script

touched on general lifestyle and volunteering habits before moving into

questions specifically about Girl Scouts. These included travel and training

concerns, camp usage, safety concerns, and thoughts about the Girl

Scouts Organization as a whole, as well as what keeps the volunteers

coming back.

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Focus Group Site Selection

We were in the I-3 center of Newhouse 3 at Syracuse University. This is a

large conference room where we pushed tables together to make it more

comfortable for small group discussion.

Focus Group Participant Selection

The NYPENN council was holding a workshop, which included

participation from Service Unit Leader volunteers. These participants were

all involved with the workshop and were all volunteers within the council.

Each had varying amounts of experience levels within Girl Scouts and as

volunteers.

Focus Group - October 4th, 2014

The focus group took place on October 4th, 2014 at 10AM. There were six

participants and four team members with two moderators and two note

takers, within the focus group room. The discussion lasted about 90

minutes and we used a combination of recorders including an Olympus

recorder and an iPhone. Once the focus group ended, we wrote down the

most prevalent themes. We then used the recording to transcribe the

discussion. We were then able to code the focus group transcription,

supporting the themes with relevant participant statements.

Focus Group Demographics & Participant Profile

Each participant was a service unit leader and a volunteer within the

NYPENN council.

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Participant Profiles

Participant Gender Volunteer Role - # of years

# Of years/age you were a Girl Scout

Has a daughter or relative in Girl Scouts

# Of times used camps in the last year

Enjoys going camping because...

Hour worked per week

1 F Service Unit Manager, Troop Leader, Trainer, Facilitator 18 years

8 yrs Yes 1 The outdoor experience

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2 F Service Unit Co-Manager, Troop Leader 20+ years

Age 7 No 2 Activities with the girls

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3 F Service Unit Manager, Troop Leader 7 years

1st - 10th grade

Yes 1 Getting away, doing new things

40+

4 F Service Unit Manager 9 years

1st - 12th grade

Yes 2 It’s quiet, relaxing, different

40

5 F Service Unit Manager, Troop Leader 9 years

K - 5th grade

Yes 7 The outdoors, quiet, the lake, fires, fresh air

Mom - 24/7

6 F Service Unit Manager, Troop Leader 4 years

2nd - 11th grade

Yes 2 Getting away from the stress of everyday life

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Focus Group Discussion Results

Finding 1 - Misunderstanding of Information

A common theme among the focus group participants was the lack of

consistency in information. Some of the topics that came up throughout the

discussion were debated over due to misunderstandings. It seemed that although

each participant was generally knowledgeable overall, there was some

discussion over the way things were done or should be done. This occurred

within multiple topics and should be considered.

Are you, as volunteers, provided with financial assistance?

The volunteers are not paid and each troop must come up with their own

funding. There is also a registration fee, which came up in the discussion.

“I have people who want to be leaders, but can’t afford the fifteen dollars,”

said one participant. This was met with few responses from only two other

participants. They said there was financial assistance available for

volunteers, however the woman who had originally brought up her

concern had no idea that this was available.

Many respondents were unsure as to whether or not financial assistance

was available and didn’t answer. Although there was financial assistance

available, it seemed that not all of the volunteers knew that it existed or

how to go about getting the financial assistance for volunteers interested

in being leaders. After discovering this within the focus group, we as a

research team looked into this further. Finding the financial form within the

GSNYPENN website did take us some time. It seems that there was a

lack of awareness of the financial assistance forms by participants and

finding the forms within the website could be difficult, particularly if a

volunteer didn’t know they were there to begin with.

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Do you allow the scout’s parents to get involved in troop activities?

The question as to whether or not parent involvement in the troops came

up within the discussion. One participant states that she has been trained

by the GSNYPENN council not to involve the parents and let the girls be

independent. Another participant stated that she only allowed certain

parents to get more involved. An additional participant was heavily

encouraging every parent to get involved.

Overall, it seemed that each participant had a different idea as to whether

or not parents could get involved. As one respondent said, she was

trained to not include parents while another respondent was encouraging

parents to sign up and get involved. They had come to the conclusion that

parental participation needed to align with the volunteer regulations

created by the council, but outside of that it was up to the leader to

decided. On the GSNYPENN website there is a section that is designated

for parental involvement. It seems that although the parents can be

redirected to the website, they will be asking their daughter’s troop leader

how they can get involved. It is up to the troop leader to then convey the

correct information so it is crucial that the information the troop leader

gives is correct.

How did you feel about the training you received?

As a research team, we were interested in what they thought of their

training. “I did that encampment training as a webinar. So I didn't need to

travel for that and that was really nice. But I missed the interaction with

others,” stated one participant. She enjoyed that she didn’t have to travel

to complete the training, however she missed out on the discussion that

occurs within training.

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Each of the participants were very happy with the training they received as

far as being prepared for a multitude of situations. The webinar style of

training was also well received, however many agreed that the inability to

interact with other trainees or an instructor during the actual training was

difficult. One participant stated “I wouldn't have done that... because I

have so many questions for that poor woman.” However, it was agreed

that the training available online was a good way to provide training for

those that maybe can’t or won’t travel.

Finding 2 - Financial Stress

This section of our focus group findings discusses an issue that trickles down into

many of the other obstacles. Financing their troops and finding the funds to give

the girls the best programming is consistently an issue for the volunteers.

Volunteers stated that they would like to do more with their troops in regard to

events and programs, however they struggle to come up with the funding for

certain things.

Do you encounter any obstacles regarding traveling to the camps? Does

your troop get reimbursed for travel and training expenses?

Discussion of finances led the discussion into financing the troop, both as

volunteers and as troops. “We are poor troops,” stated one participant,

“We’ve been constantly asking the parents to help.” In regard to the fifteen

dollar membership fee, one participant stated, “That fifteen dollars is

significant for some families.” This became a repeating theme within the

entire focus group discussion.

All of the focus group participants were concerned with the costs

associated with traveling to the camps because they do not get

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reimbursed for travel and camp training expenses. The Girl Scout cookie

program is a critical source of funding for these troops, but most of the

revenue earned from cookie sales doesn’t go to their troop. From this, the

overarching theme was that there is less incentive to work hard on

fundraising efforts when they know a large portion of the proceeds will not

go toward current programs for girls. The troop leaders are paying for

things out of pocket and reaching out to parents for help, which is another

major obstacle when going camping.

Finding 3 - Limited Access to Resources

As the focus group progressed, a common theme was the volunteer’s access to

numerous resources. Finding the required assistance, accessing some of the

proper training and having access to persons within the council familiar with

using the GSNYPENN facilities were some of the areas where the volunteers felt

limited. One participant stated in regard to council’s knowledge of past

volunteers, “If they provided us with connections, because they’re their contacts,

I don’t know them so I’m not going to say ‘Heyy!’ They can bridge these

connections for us and get us there.”

What type of training do you need for the camps? Is it easy accessible?

According to focus group participants, both First Aid, and CPR certification

are required of at least one Girl Scout volunteer chaperoning a camping

trip, in addition to special camping-related training required by the Girl

Scout council. They also have to complete an online training prior to these

sessions. These required sessions are only offered a few times, at limited

locations, which can be a major obstacle for volunteers. One of the focus

group participants recently took the Simply Successful Camping Training,

and experienced this problem first hand. “They had one offered at Trefoil

and Comstock. I chose Trefoil because it was closer, but I was the only

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one registered. They said they could refund the money or I could go to

Comstock.” Online training sessions are also available, but some

participants didn’t think it matches up to the traditional, face-to-face

training experience. Leaders also stressed that it is difficult to find an

available EMT in their area if they do not have First Aid and CPR

certification. Participants felt as though this was too much to handle, and

brought up Brownie 101; a now defunct program that trained volunteers at

the camp, while the scouts were being supervised by already certified

volunteers. One participant spoke of the programs benefits, as well as its

convenience “The leaders were getting trained, and you didn’t have to be

certified yet, because both the camping and training were going on at the

same time.”

Finding 4 - Scheduling Conflicts and Time Constraints

We also learned that scheduling conflicts and time constraints have posed a

severe challenge to Girl Scouts. In this section, we designed several questions in

order to identify the specific issues that are thwarting the troops. We found that

finding a time that works for the entire troop is very difficult, and policies, like the

two-week waiting period tend to make planning even harder. Lack of help from

the NYPENN council regarding transportation has also been brought up many

times by our research participants. Although it seems that the problems

mentioned differ slightly case by case, they all long for more coordination and

assistance efforts from council.

What is restricting you from scheduling a weekend camping trip?

As the discussion progressed, the troop leaders identified scheduling

conflicts and time constraints as major challenges. Conflicting schedules

has severely limited large troops’ choices of camping locations: “That’s

what is making it harder because now we’re such a large council now, we

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do have a lot of rural areas. Everyone’s got to go to these few camps. This

week it’s closed because of scheduling.” Other troop leaders responded

“When you have an older troop, it’s harder to get them for a weekend.

They tend to want to come in and out. It was convenient when we were at

a closer camp. It’s harder if we have to go further.” Furthermore, as some

of the participants reflected, the two-week window made it harder to

negotiate girl’s conflicting schedules: “My problem has been the two-week

window that is needed. With parents’ schedules, a two-week window is

hard. If my girls say ‘I want to go camping’, I was ready to go. I tried to

schedule and I looked at everyone’s softball, baseball schedules and

whatever is going on. Then I contacted council and they told me that I

couldn’t go to the camp because of the two-week window.”

The two-week window seems like a major restriction for scheduling

weekend camping trips. It sounds like the girls as well as the volunteers

can cope with short notice scheduling changes, but the Council can’t. If the

council was more flexible, or had an easier scheduling process, it could

result in more camping trips. Also, because of the merger, there are more

camps competing to use a smaller number of camps. The merging troops

and closing camps have created more demand and less supply. Because

of the other scheduling conflicts the scouts have, they want a more flexible

camping experience; one that would allow them to come in and out, or

decide much closer to the actual date if they are able to go.

What are the biggest scheduling conflicts?

In this section, we found out SAT and sports related sessions posed a big

challenge in terms of scheduling conflicts especially with the older girls:

“Then, they just won’t participate. Its usually sports or study sessions for

SAT.” Some participants said that even little girls were not as focused on

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Girl Scouts as before: “They tend to want to come in and out. It was

convenient when we were at a closer camp.”

The girls seem to be primarily concerned with SATs or sports, this could

be because these activities are seen as ways to get into college, while Girl

Scouts is seen as a recreational activity. Also, it seems like the excessive

amount of planning that is needed in order to go camping is a turn off in

itself. The lack of spontaneity could take interest away from camping.

What issues do you have regarding transportation to and from the camps?

Participants had multiple concerns related to this issue. Some troops

simply didn’t have enough vehicles to transport the girls: “Getting them

there is our difficult point. That’s left up to the volunteers to figure out or

the parents. Right now, I'm looking at renting a bus. ‘What’s the cost of

that going to be?' ‘Is that going to make it more expensive?' The busy

schedules have made it harder for the girls to travel far for the camps:

“The older they get, the more stuff is going on. We used to go a couple

times a year and we are getting further and further away from our home

camp.” others replied “Also programs are running so close to the school

year, I don't know what about you guys, I don't get a school calendar until

one week before school starts. So I cannot commit to anything.” Moreover,

a troop leader pointed out that long distance to camp base itself forged a

challenge to some girls with car-sickness: “One of the things pointed out is

that we specifically have girls with car-sickness. When, travelling to

Amahami, we had to stop at least twice for them to toss their cookies. That

wasn’t fun for us or them. We wanted to go to some of the other camps,

but we couldn’t. It’s behind the freeway here. I can’t tell you how many

times we had to stop. The one girl had to change her entire outfit and the

seats had to be cleaned.”

There seems like there is not a lot of help from the council regarding

transportation. Getting a group of children to and from a campsite is a task

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in itself, and with no help, it can be daunting for the volunteers. School

schedules were another big issue. Many times, parents and volunteers

don’t know the school schedules ahead of time, so they can’t commit to a

specific weekend to go camping. The lack of long term scheduling

combined with the two-week waiting period make it very hard to reserve a

camp.

Finding 5 - Keeping Older Scouts Interested and Involved

In this section, we set out to learn how other competition has affected the current

market and volunteering situation of Girl Scouts. What's more, we also spoke

about ways to keep older girls involved and interested in Girl Scouts as they

begin to grow out of the age of “camp girl”. As a result, we found out that

“keeping Girl Scouts relevant to teenage and older girls” is among the hottest

topics for all volunteer leaders. Time conflict and content are two major themes in

this discussion; our research participants all have come up with their own

solutions to that, and most of these solutions have had positive effects. However,

they still reached a consensus at the end of the day that they are now in need of

a uniform marketing and branding strategy, with which they will be able to

continue and amplify the popularity of Girl Scouts among girls of all ages.

What are Girl Scout's competitions for volunteers?

The first question we asked was about the competition that Girl Scouts are

facing. We found out that sports became a major competitor:

“Unfortunately, our area is soccer-crazy, and there are soccer games

every weekend and my daughter plays four or three this week. And when

she didn't have this, she has to practice. The younger people have two

practices, maybe three, and then some of them have two or three games

on the Saturday. So right now for me to take them out... for example, my

area now has a fall harvest festival, first of all it's raining, and everybody in

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my area has soccer...” The school calendar seemed to be another

competitor: “We have other things to compete, they are starting out right

now. We have to get to the 4-year-old, I mean if we don't get our feet on

the ground, we are in trouble.” Another participant added, “I'm not

disagreeing, I am just trying to know do we have push-up things in August

or something? Fine let's just meet registration in August 15, let's just do

that before their parents spend money on back-to-school supply and other

activities...”

In conclusion, according to participants, currently there are more and more

competitions for Girl Scouts. Some are out-of-school activities like sports,

and some are “in-school stuff”. With girls having limited time and money

for outdoor activities, Girl Scouts has to compete with school as well as

popular local sports. The majority of our participants express their worries

about Girl Scouts losing potential attendees to other activities. In this light,

they try to win or at least evade this competition whenever possible: some

of them move the registration deadline earlier, while some work hard to

come up with more interesting Girl Scouts events.

Do you think Girl Scouts is relevant/interesting to older girls?

Our participants’ discussion on this topic was very lively, and, their

comments and conclusions were fairly similar. Most of our attendees

agreed that the content of Girl Scouts needs variety. What Girl Scouts

currently offers seems irrelevant and disconnected to older girls: “I think

we’ve got it sold for the younger ones with the Barbie. I don’t think Barbie

will encourage a twelve year old to join but I hope they make some

connections with the older crowd.” “They are teenagers, you know, they

are not girls you know. They don't need to sell cookies. This is another big

problem for them, because their big fund raisers is cookie sales... it's hard

for older girls to sell cookies.” Some participants even took a step deeper

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to express their worries about Girl Scouts as a brand becoming

“normalized” or even with a negative shade: “I guess I’ll play devil’s

advocate here because I’m a younger one and I went up through scouts

and I had the same thing. We had a code name for ourselves YKW, You

know whats. We didn’t want to be associated as Girl Scouts because then

we would be the dorky, nerdy ones. I think what Girls Scouts is doing is

putting the Girl Scout name out there so that it is normalized.”

As mentioned, on this topic, participants expressed their disappointment

about the fact that Girl Scouts has almost “no appeal” to older girls who

could have potentially joined them either as scouts or as volunteers. The

perception of Girl Scouts is based on selling cookies, which is dull and

dated to teenage girls. Worse still, this traditional strategy even generates

bias and misunderstandings about Girl Scouts. When it comes to how to

deal with this dilemma, our participants have offered many opinions; some

think Girl Scouts needs to revamp its marketing and branding strategy.

The participants agreed making Girl Scouts known for a variety of

activities instead of just cookie sales could be very beneficial for the

organization.

What do you do to keep older girls stay in Girl Scouts either as users or volunteers?

Our discussion then went on to the “application and solution” area. Each

participant shared their problems related to keeping older girls involved.

After this, they discussed possible solutions. Some sought to shorten

unnecessary meeting sessions to make their troop activities more

“schedule-friendly” to older girls: “I have made a troop for the older girls

where there are going to be no meetings. Not one. Unless its planning

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meeting for a trip or for fundraising. And the entire purpose of the troop is

to go places once a month.” “My inspiration for that though is that my

daughter is involved with Susquehanna River Raiders. They do something

once a month, and once it gets to be spring they train for their competitive

canoe event, which is the General Clinton Canoe Regatta. I’ve watched

my daughter have a blast in that. I’ve seen the older girls stick with it right

until they graduate.” “If we can keep the girls in by saying no you don’t

have to have a meeting, no I’m not going to stand here and talk at you. My

daughter is so irritated with her leader because she stands there and talks

to them for an hour: talk talk talk.” While other leaders were doing their

best to customize the troop activities to cater to older girls: “Well, the

brand “Girl Scout” is great for younger girls. But as for older girls, they

aren't kinda doing well. We have Friday club for the last two-three years.

Instead of saying Girl Scout.” “The only way we can keep these girls is by

having them do stuff. Have them being active.”

From what we observed and gathered, the participants are already doing

as much as they can to keep Girl Scouts relevant in the minds of the older

girls. The volunteers realized that the programming provided by Girl

Scouts could, at times, be limited. They have done what they can to bring

as much variety to the activities of Girl Scouts as they can: some of them

offer trips to the girls, while others spoke about regarding Girl Scouts

merely as a platform on which these teenage girls can plan their own

activities. Moreover, some troop leaders are employing “stratified strategy”

in which they split younger girls and teenage girls and assign them

different activities.

The second drawback that currently challenges Girl Scouts is the

intimidating meeting sessions. Given that the majority of teenage girls

nowadays have busy schedules, the lengthy meetings have deterred them

from joining. All of our participants state that they are working to simplify

the registration and planning process.

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Conclusion

Throughout the discussion with focus group participants we found there were five

main barriers regarding volunteering and camp usage (in no particular order):

1. Misunderstanding of information

2. Limited access to resources

3. Financial stress

4. Trouble keeping older scouts interested and involved

5. Time and scheduling conflicts

Misunderstanding of Information: A lack of consistency in understanding

information became a common issue within the focus group discussion. Some of

the topics that came up throughout the conversation were debated due to

misunderstanding. It seemed that although each of the participants were

generally knowledgeable overall, there were some discussions over the way

things were done or should be done. This occurred regarding parent involvement

in the troops, whether or not particular services are offered, and multiple other

topics.

Limited Access to Resources: According to focus group participants, First Aid

and CPR certification is required of at least one Girl Scout volunteer chaperoning

a camping trip, in addition to special camping-related training required by the Girl

Scout Council. They also have to complete an online training prior to these

sessions. However, these required sessions are only offered a few times, at

limited locations, which can be a major obstacle for volunteers. Leaders also

stressed that it is difficult to find an available EMT in their area if they do not have

First Aid and CPR certification. Participants felt as though this was too much to

handle, and wish that the council would bring back CITs or provide closer, more

convenient training.

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Financial Stress: All focus group participants were concerned with the costs

associated with traveling to the camps because they do not get reimbursed for

travel or camp training expenses. The Girl Scout cookie program is a critical

funding source for these troops, but most of the revenue earned from cookie

sales does not go to their troop. From this, the overarching theme was that there

is less incentive to work hard on fundraising efforts when they know a large

portion of the proceeds will not go toward current programs for girls. The troop

leaders are paying for things out of pocket and reaching out to parents for help,

which is another major obstacle to go camping.

Trouble Keeping Older Scouts Interested and Involved: We found out that

“keeping Girl Scouts relevant to teenage and older girls” is among the hottest

topics for all volunteer leaders. Time conflict and content are two major themes in

this discussion; our research participants all have come up with their own

solutions to that, and most of these solutions have had positive effects. However,

they still reached a consensus at the end of the day that they are now in need of

a uniform marketing and branding strategy, with which they will be able to

continue and amplify the popularity among girls of all ages.

Time and Scheduling Issues: The two-week window came up as a major

restriction for scheduling weekend camping trips. If the council was more flexible

in terms of short notice of scheduling changes, or had an easier scheduling

process, it could result in more camping trips. Because of the other activities the

scouts are involved in, they would like a more flexible camping experience; one

that would allow them to come in and out, or decide much closer to the actual

date if they are able to participate.

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Recommendations

- Participants in the study faced a major obstacle when searching for the

closest camp training session, First Aid and CPR training, or finding

available EMTs to take on their camping trip. Participants felt as though

this was too much to handle, and wished that the Council would provide

closer, more convenient training.

If the NYPENN Council were to develop encampment programming that

incorporated this training and leadership training each summer, it would

create more camp usage as well as cover required training in a simpler

way. Girl Scouts of NYPENN can send two trainers to the camp to run

separate training sessions at the very beginning of the trip (one for the

girls, and one for the troop leader/committee). Involving both the actual

scouts and the volunteers could help develop leadership and other skills

for each group. Having multiple volunteers from different troops and with

backgrounds at an encampment would allow for them to collaborate on

the best practices they are using and what problems other volunteers are

having.

- Based on what we found through out our research, Girl Scouts of

NYPENN Pathways Inc. is hindered by ineffective alumnae and member

networking. We recommend Girl Scouts establish a volunteer accessible

contact database. This database will be a platform where we can reach

previous volunteers and alumnae for feedback and assistance as well as

participation in future Girl Scouts activities. What's more, according to our

research participants, limited access to resources and financial stress are

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among the top reasons that lead parents and girls to give up Girls Scouts.

This database will store the information of those EMTs or Lifeguards who

are willing to be contacted by troops. A common resource platform for Girl

Scouts NYPENN Pathways Inc. will contribute to solving issues that have

been nagging our troop leaders.

- By creating a monthly newsletter, either via email or physical mail, the

GSNYPENN council could reach out to current members, alums,

volunteers and any others interested in keeping up with what the Girl

Scouts of the NYPENN council are involved with. By sending out a

monthly newsletter, you are keeping Girl Scouts in the front of these

people’s minds. Alums are always potential donors, whether they are

donating financially or donating their time. It’s possible that if they are

aware of the GSNYPENN council’s struggle to keep camps open, they

may be interested in helping support the council outside of the typical,

annual cookie sales or fundraisers.

- Creating a monthly newsletter and contact database would make it

easier for people to donate their time and skills. If an alumnus were a

professional willing to donate her time and skill to either train volunteers or

offer new programming, the Council would be able to integrate them into

programming via a contract system. Creating low-commitment volunteer

positions allows for more community involvement, more potential contacts

and generally more help, which seemed like something a majority of focus

group participants were interested in.

- During the focus group, one of the participants shared one of her best

practices for leading her troop. As she was making the decision to become

a troop leader, she had a team of volunteers that were willing to help if

they had specific, minimal roles. She said, “‘We can do this if we do it

together’. I became a Service Unit manager because I was willing to talk

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and sign papers. Another woman was doing the internal communications

such as Facebook. Another woman was handling recruitment and another

was handling the events. Between us, we covered most of the major

items and the rest of it was already in place. I kind of fell into it with quite a

bit of help.” After she spoke, the other participants were frustrated that

they were in this alone, as they have trouble finding people willing to help.

We recommend that NYPENN offer a more detailed guide to “Building

Your Troop Committee” that outlines various small positions that others

will be more willing to take on. They may include, recruiter, event planner,

financial officer, officer of communications, etc. If troops have this to build

on, they are more likely to sustain troop leaders. This will lead to better

organization of information, funds, resources, etc. which will make it an

easier process for troops to go camping at the Girl Scout camps.

- Lack of funding is at the core of the problem the Girl Scouts face.

Throughout the focus group, the volunteers consistently brought up the

problems they faced because of inadequate finances. A partial solution to

this problem could be to create partnerships with businesses throughout

the NYPENN region. However, instead of simply donating money to Girl

Scouts, these businesses would match their donations with the amount

raised by the troops.

By making matching donations, the companies partnering with Girl Scouts

would be helping financially; more importantly, they would be continuing to

instill the entrepreneurial skills that have been fundamental to Girl Scouts.

Wegmans, Chobani, and Fuccillo Motors are all headquartered in the

NYPENN region, and all have strong community ties and donate to a

variety of charities.

- By partnering with SUNY ESF (Environmental Sciences and Forestry)

the NYPENN Council would be able to cut down significantly on their

training costs. ESF offers a wide variety of majors, which align with the

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nature-related aspects of Girl Scouts. Specifically, the school offers a

minor called Recreation Resource and Protected Area Management. In

order to obtain this minor, students must complete an internship or a

related independent study.

ESF students could work for credit hours, and could help train the

volunteers. Also, because of their area management skills, they could help

familiarize the volunteers with the campgrounds. This would make the

volunteers more comfortable; if the volunteers were comfortable with the

area, they would be more likely to take their troop there.

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APPENDIX