Council Style Guide

Council Style Guide Girl Scouts across the country are working together to speak with one voice! Join the Movement by following specific style guidelines and using the resources below when creating Girl Scout materials. All materials, including patch designs and t-shirt designs, need to be approved by Marketing and Communications Department. Email MarCom@nccoastalpines.org with your requests and artwork design.

Girl Scout Mission, Promise, and Law The Girl Scout Mission Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place.

The Girl Scout Promise On my honor, I will try: To serve God and my country, To help people at all times, And to live by the Girl Scout Law. The Girl Scout Motto Be prepared.

The Girl Scout Law I will do my best to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring, courageous and strong, and responsible for what I say and do, and to respect myself and others, respect authority, use resources wisely, make the world a better place, and be a sister to every Girl Scout.

About Girl Scouts Girl Scouts is the first and largest girl-led organization. Girl Scouts’ founder, Juliette Gordon “Daisy” Low, believed in the power of every girl. She organized the first Girl Scout troop on March 12, 1912, in Savannah, Georgia, and every year since, we’ve made her vision a reality by helping girls discover their strengths, passions, and talents.

The Girl Scout Leadership Experience (GSLE) is a proven framework for building girls of courage, confidence, and character. As part of the GSLE girls: • Discover who they are, what they care about, and what their talents are; • Connect through collaboration with other people, locally and globally; • Take Action to make the world a better place.

The Girl Scout DNA

At Girl Scouts, we know leadership is not defined by who you are or what you want to be, but what you do.

Becoming a strong and successful leader is part of the Girl Scout DNA*. Benefits of being a Girl Scout include: • Successful at conflict resolution; • Setting ambitious goals and thinking about the future; • Advocating for herself and others; • Being solution oriented and entrepreneurial; • Building a strong female network of all ages; • Caring about (and taking action against) social injustices; • Self-identifying as a leader and taking on leadership roles; • Becoming financially literate and self-negotiating; • Embracing new experiences and overcoming failure.

1

Take the Lead Like a Girl Scout

If we want more leaders, we need more Girl Scouts. Together, we’ll show the world: • We’re for every girl; • We prepare girls to empower themselves; • Leadership is practiced as an everyday lifestyle; • We’re a membership with a lifetime value.

Boilerplate: We Are Girl Scouts

Girl Scouts bring their dreams to life and work together to build a better world. Through programs from coast to coast, Girl Scouts of all backgrounds and abilities can be unapologetically themselves as they discover their strengths and rise to meet new challenges—whether they want to climb to the top of a tree or the top of their class, lace up their boots for a hike or advocate for climate justice, or make their first best friends. Backed by trusted adult volunteers, mentors, and millions of alums, Girl Scouts lead the way as they find their voices and make changes that affect the issues most important to them. To join us, volunteer, reconnect, or donate, visit girlscouts.org.

Girl Scout Grade Levels

Girl Scout Daisy (grades K–1) Girl Scout Brownie (grades 2–3) Girl Scout Junior (grades 4–5) Girl Scout Cadette (grades 6–8) Girl Scout Senior (grades 9–10) Girl Scout Ambassador (grades 11–12) *According to the Girl Scout Research Institute.

Abbreviations and Acronyms Use of acronyms should be avoided in all communications, especially external.*

Do not use GSNCCP or GS

While it may feel easier to write GSNCCP or GS, please spell them out. GS-NCCP may be used in certain situations with approval from the council, however, it is mostly used as an internal reference and shouldn’t be used for outside communications. Always spell out Girl Scouts, and don’t use GS. If “Girl Scouts – North Carolina Coastal Pines” is too long, please use Girl Scouts.

Don’t use Title Acronyms like SUM, CEO

Acronyms for positions such as CEO, COO, or CFO should also be spelled out in the first reference, and should only be abbreviated if they are accompanied by a name. For communications with anyone other than volunteers or staff, no other staff or volunteer position should be used as an acronym, including SUM, etc.

2

GSUSA is OK to USE

It is acceptable to use GSUSA in external communications. The first reference should be written as follows: Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA). It should never be written as Girl Scouts of America. Example: • The headquarters for Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) is in New York City.

Addresses

When writing out addresses, spell out Street, Road, and Drive, etc.

Time

Always use a.m. or p.m. Use figures except for noon and midnight. Examples: • The programs run 9:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.

• The programs run 9 a.m. - noon.

*See Exceptions.

Capitalization and Titles Publications

Titles of publications should be capitalized and italicized.* Italics are used for large works, names of vehicles, and movie and television show titles.

Quotation marks are reserved for sections of works, like titles of chapters, magazine articles, poems, and short stories.

Events, Activities, and Programs

Only the exact titles of events, activities, and programs should be capitalized. Examples: • The TechnoQuest event was a success.

• Girl Scout volunteers attended the Annual Meeting.

Capitalize initial letters of:

Seasons

Do not capitalize spring, summer, fall, or winter except when part of a formal title.

• •

Awards, Badges, Patches, and Petals

Always capitalize the full names of Girl Scout awards, badges, patches, petals, etc. Examples: • Girls will earn badges including Computer Expert and Home Scientist.

• The girls earned their Computer Expert badge.

• The girls will earn a fun patch.

Additionally, Girl Scouts’ highest awards should be referred to as Girl Scout Gold Award, Girl Scout Silver Award, and Girl Scout Bronze Award.

• •

Troops and Service/Area Units

• •

Troops and service units should only be capitalized when a number is included. Always use the # in front of a troop number.

Additionally, always use Girl Scout and grade level when describing troops. Examples: • Girl Scout Daisy Troop #123 stayed up later than other troops at the sleepover.

• Did anyone from the service unit call?

• Area Wake 20 does a lot of community service projects.

Campaigns, Taglines, or Special Initiatives

Titles of campaigns, resources, taglines, or special initiatives are capitalized. For instance, always use initial caps for Girl Scout Cookies or the Girl Scout Cookie Program. Additional examples: • The volunteers were eager to use the new Journey books. They plan to pay for their books using proceeds from the Girl Scout Cookie Program.

• The Girl Scout Leadership Journeys were developed based on what girls said they wanted from their Girl Scout experience.

Additionally, certain campaigns like Early Bird Registration, Volunteer Appreciation Month, and Only the exact titles of events, activities, and programs should be capitalized. Examples: Girl Scout Week may be capitalized.

• •

• •

•

any official title that directly precedes a person’s name (Chief Operating Officer Mary Jones, Director of National Meetings Judy Smith) names of projects, activities, events, and initiatives names of trademarked games (Trivial Pursuit) department/team/group/board names when stated in full (GSUSA Communications, Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles Board of Directors, CFO Call Advisory Group) book series (It’s Your World—Change It!) Note: When a colon is used between clauses that are linked but independent, the first word after the colon is not initial-capped, even if what follows the colon is a complete sentence.

Lowercase initial letters of the following: titles that don’t directly precede a person’s name (Laura Johnson, vice president of communications; the vice president, Laura Johnson) in running text; however, in a list format it may be appropriate to cap titles that are more descriptive than official in nature (developmental psychologist Sue Blue) generic, stand-alone references to Girl Scout program, projects, and publications (“the project,” even if it refers to the Girl Scout Bronze Award Project) Girl Scout council (but Girl Scout Council of Tropical Florida)

Headlines and titles: •

•

Prepositions of four letters or less (such as “of” and “with”) are lowercase, unless appearing as either the first or last word in a headline or title, in which case they are capitalized.

The first element of hyphenated compounds is always capitalized; the second element is also capitalized except for articles (“the,” “a,” etc.) and prepositions of four letters or less (examples: Self-Renewal, Not-for-Profit).

*Some publication titles or certain council documents may be bold or called out in other layouts and formats based on readability and use. Use of titles in this way must be approved by the council.

3

Symbols and Punctuation Numbers

Ellipsis

Examples: They had 10 dogs and six cats.

Four four-room houses, 10 three-room houses, and 12 10-room houses.

Except at the beginning of a sentence when every number should be spelled out. Example: Fifty people showed up for training last night.

Exclamation Point: Use sparingly to mark an outcry or following an emphatic comment. (Oh, no!)

Spell out whole numbers below 10, but use figures for 10 and above.

Periods

Use only one space after a period, not two.

Punctuation in Lists

Example: Girls learned goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics during the Girl Scout Cookie Program.

Use numbered lists if items are in a sequence.

1. Mix flour, macadamia chips, and baking powder.

2. Add 2 cups of water.

3. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Use a bulleted list for items that are nonsequential.

Be sure to bring the following: • canteen • hiking boots • matches • poncho Items within a list should be of parallel grammatical structure. Do not mix sentences and phrases within a list. Use periods in bulleted lists only when the items are grammatically complete sentences, or if ambiguity would result. Either: • Drive on the right side of the road.

• Eat only in designated restaurants.

• Sleep at official campsites. or: • driving on the right • eating in designated restaurants • sleeping at official campsites

Quotation Marks

Ampersand

Superscript

In general, do not superscript. Examples: Girls in grade 8, not 8th grade girls.

June 8, 2017 NOT June 8th, 2017.

Telephone Numbers

Use dashes between numbers, and always include the area code.

Example: Call 800-284-4475 to speak to Jane.

Commas

Always insert a comma before the “and” or “or” in a series.

Periods and commas always go within quotation marks. Dashes, semicolons, question marks, and exclamation points go within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence.

Examples: • She said she was “very impressed with their service project.”

• What did she mean when she said she “handled the situation”?

Other Symbols

Write out percent, rather than using % sign. Write out the word “and” rather than using the “&” symbol, unless it’s part of a slogan or title.*

4

Used to indicate missing text or a trailing thought, the ellipsis consists of three consecutive periods.

While our default style guide, The Chicago Manual of Style, states otherwise, GS style does not call for separating the periods with spaces; anyhow, often MS Word defaults to automatically inserting half-spaces between ellipsis periods.

Avoid using ampersands in text, unless referring to trademarks.

Em Dash, En Dash, and Hyphen

Do not use a space before or after dashes and hyphens.

• Use an em dash to set off clauses. (Choose a goal—saving money, for example.) An em dash should also be used before names in source lines, such as the author of a quotation.

• (To make an em dash in Microsoft Word, with NUM LOCK on, hold down CTRL and ALT while pressing the dash key in the number pad.)

• Use an en dash for number spreads and in other cases when the meaning is “to” (ages 12–14; 1997–99; 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.); also when making a compound adjective with a proper noun (Girl Scout–related case study).

• •

(To make an en dash, hold down CTRL while pressing the dash key in the number pad.)

Use a hyphen only in compound words (one-half, mother-in-law) and in end-of-line word division.

Percent

Should be written out in text; the % symbol should be used only in charts/tables and in scientific/statistical text.

Serial Comma

Always insert a comma before the conjunction in a series. (Girls from Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan attended the event. Some girls choose English, others prefer science, and still others like art or music.) *See Exceptions.

Technical Words Website and Online References

Don’t use a dash in the words online, email, or eNews.

Write website, not Web site or Web Site, and write internet, not Internet.

The Girl Scouts — North Carolina Coastal Pines website should be used on all promotional materials as www.nccoastalpines.org. Do not capitalize the website address.

Additionally, when referring to a specific page on the website, capitalize the name. Example: Visit our Donate page on our website to make a gift to the council.

Activities

Activities is capitalized when referring to our online

activity registration system for events, trainings, and conferences.

My GS

My GS should be capitalized, with GS in all caps and there should be a space between the two. This is the only instance in which using The Girl Scouts – North Carolina Coastal Pines GS by itself is approved as it’s part of a technical naming convention for the Movement.

Volunteer Toolkit

The Volunteer Toolkit (VTK) should be written out at first reference and then can be abbreviated by VTK. Example: The new Volunteer Toolkit (VTK) allows troop co-leaders to easily plan meetings and activities.

5

Girl Scout Titles and Specialty Words Girl Scouts

The Girl is first in Girl Scouting. Always use the terms Girl Scouts, Girl Scout, and Girl Scouting.

Girl Scouts should always appear on one line and should never be broken up within a paragraph.

Use the proper terminology when describing Girl Scouts. Example: • Girl Scout Brownies, not Brownies.

• American Red Cross, not Red Cross.

Do not use Scouts or Scouting

Please do not say Scouts or Scouting when referring to Girl Scouts. Always say Girl Scouts or Girl Scouting.

Camps

Always use Girl Scout before the name of the camp such as Girl Scout Camp Mary Atkinson, unless a Girl Scout logo or the name “Girl Scouts” or “Girl Scouts – North Carolina Coastal Pines” is prominent in the same document/communication.

Population Groups

Refer to U.S. Census designations for population groups: Hispanic, African American, Caucasian,

Asian, Native American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander.

Job Titles and Volunteer Roles

Job titles and/or volunteer positions should only be used in initial caps when used before a person’s name. Use all lowercase otherwise.

Examples: • Our chief operating officer met with Membership Director Jane Doe. • The program director spoke with Jane Doe, membership director.

• The service unit manager is going to lead the meeting.

• The award was presented to Troop Co- Leader Jane Doe. • Jane Doe, troop co-leader, runs the meetings.

Exceptions: the sitting U.S. President and the Girl Scout – North Carolina Coastal Pines Board of Directors.

Additionally, when referring to the Girl Scout council, the word “council” should also be lowercase.* Example: • The council is developing a new volunteer training resource. *See Exceptions.

Italics, Boldface, Quote Marks Italicize titles of: • books (The Chicago Manual of Style) • magazines and newspapers (Los Angeles Times, the American Girl) • movies • plays • TV shows and series • podcasts (This American Life) While there aren’t really hard-and-fast rules for boldfacing, keep in mind: • Titles and section heads in a piece of writing are good targets.

• Particular phrasing that you wish to emphasize in a piece can benefit from boldfacing, but remember...

• Less is more. Too much boldface in a piece often has the opposite effect of what’s sought (emphasis), making text appear cluttered and reader eyes tired before they’ve even begun to process your messaging.

6

Use double quotation marks for titles of: • book chapters and sections (“Be Healthy, Be Fit” chapter) • magazine and newspaper articles

• • • • •

poems songs (“Watch Me Shine” Girl Scout anthem) TV series episodes (the “Election Night” episode of The West Wing) podcast episodes (“America’s Concentration Camps?” episode of the Code Switch podcast) public service announcements (Girl Scouts’ “I’m Prepared” PSA)

You might also use double quotation marks to indicate that a word/construction is somehow special, for instance because: • It constitutes a play on words. (The girls used their cookie “dough” to fund the service project.)

• You don’t buy into its meaning. (Women achieved “equality” when they were granted the right to vote in 1920.)

• It’s a clear reference point in your sentence. (See the “earth” entry in the “Words, Terms, Names” section of the guide.)

Use single quotation marks for: • quotes within quotes (“I’m really feeling Girl Scouts’ new anthem, ‘Let Me Shine,’” said the Girl Scout.)

Numbers Spell out numbers one through ten, and use numerals for higher numbers. Exceptions: when used with a unit (4 inches, 2 centimeters; 3 billion people); in a series of three or more numbers, with one or more above nine (8, 9, 18).

• • •

You may use an en dash to mean “to” for continuing numbers (examples: ages 12–14; pgs. 10–12).

Numbers that begin a sentence are always spelled out.

• •

•

•

Specific rules by category: •

•

ages: eight- to nine-year-old girls, six-monthold baby, five-year-old child, five years old, ages 15–18 (use en dash), ages 16 and older, student in first grade, first-grade student, first-grader, 11th grader dates: September 1984; October 1, 1980, (commas before and after the year when the day is included after the month); 2017–18

• • •

fractions: one-half, two and one-half days money: $150 noun plus number: Chapter 1, Activity 1 (not Chapter #1 or Activity #1) page numbers: pages 2–6 (use en dash with date and other number spreads) phone numbers: in print, 212-852-8000 plurals of numbers used as nouns: Add only an s to numbers being used as nouns, whether numerals or spelled out (the 1940s; fours and fives). plural acronyms and abbreviations: Do not use apostrophes: IOUs, CODs, YWCAs. temperature: 300 degrees time: 3:00 a.m. (3:00 AM also acceptable; note that the no-periods rule also applies to small caps); 24hour period weight: 1 1/2- to 2-pound sleeping bag

Hyperlinks Defined as a word, group of words, or image in an electronic document that readers can click on to jump to another document, the hyperlink is a hyper-efficient means of transportation.

A few tips: •

Be direct. Steer clear of outmoded constructions like “click here,” which crowd text with extra, unnecessary words. Instead, insert hyperlinks precisely where indicated by your messaging to streamline copy and avoid link amibuity for those who routinely scan emails without taking in the context surrounding links—as well as for screen reader users. For example, if you’re pointing

•

•

readers to a webinar registration page, link off of “register for the webinar”—direct, clear.

Be choosy. Keep in mind that hyperlinks can serve as a tiresome distraction to readers, particularly when used indiscriminately and abundantly. So link wisely.

Know the drill. 1) Highlight the word(s)/image you wish to link from. 2) At the top of your screen, click Insert and select Hyperlink. 3) Click Web Page, Document, or E-mail Address, depending on the nature of the item you wish to link to. 4) Proceed as instructed, entering or pasting relevant text into the designated fields.

7

Graphics and Branding Colors

Use the three Girl Scout colors – black, white, and green. Other colors from the full color palette can be used on request. When using type or combining colors, reference the guidelines below to ensure proper visibility per ADA guidelines.

Clip Art

Avoid clip art whenever possible. Add a “pop” using approved photography or approved illustrations. Do not “borrow” any licensed or copyrighted art.

Photos

All photos of girls and adult members must have confirmed photo releases. Members can opt-in to have photos used by the council and by designated volunteer roles when they register and/or renew membership through their My GS account. Written confirmation is needed if the photo opt-in cannot be confirmed. The council can also provide photo release forms if needed.

The Trefoil

The Trefoil is the simplest and most potent expression of our brand. It can be used when communicating with both internal and external audiences. The trefoil should not be re-rendered in any way without council permission or in alignment with Movement-wide campaigns. The trefoil should always be a trefoil – not a flower, a leaf, or a snowflake. It should not contain text or photos.

Green and white color combinations are preferred.

Font

Use Palatino Linotype. Girl Scout councils across the country use the GSUSA branded font, Girl Scout,

8

on marketing and promotional materials. This font is used in graphics and templates for volunteers, as well as approved council vendors for marketing, product, and merchandising purposes. Palatino Linotype is the only other acceptable font. As Girl Scout is a Girl Scouts proprietary font, it should only be used for Girl Scout materials and will only be accessible by council staff and select vendors.

Service Mark (or Logo)

Put the Girl Scouts – North Carolina Coastal Pines service mark (logo) at the top left of every document/ communication. Make sure it has at least the same amount of white space around it as the “g”. The logo text should be larger than any other text except the title.

When using the two color logo, it should contrast with the background.

Exceptions Social media and certain digital formats face unique challenges around brevity and text/character limitations.

The exceptions below apply only to council social media channels like Facebook, X, Pinterest, Instagram, the council blog, etc. and do not apply to email communications or newsletters. The exceptions to the rules outlined above include:

Aliases/Usernames

The preferred username for the blog is Girl Scouts – NC Coastal Pines to help with search engine optimization. GS-NCCP may also be used online or in certain council documents for brevity and space.

GSNCCP, GirlScoutsNCCP, and NCCoastalPines may also be used by the council only for social media account creation. These names should not be used by anyone outside council staff and should be approved by the Marketing and Communications Department.

Unless authorized, do not create any social media account on behalf of the organization. Additionally, troops, service unit teams, and other volunteers should refer to the social media guidelines prior to creating an online account.

Account creators should email social@ nccoastalpines.org with the name and link to their social media accounts.

When referring to the council’s X presence, it is appropriate to say @GirlScoutsNCCP. In this use case, the @ symbol should come immediately before the alias without a space in between.

Please maintain the capitalization structure outlined here. These same rules apply to the council’s Instagram account, @GSNCCP.

Organization Name

Though GSNCCP and GirlScoutsNCCP are acceptable for council social media usernames, they should not be used anywhere else. The preferred name is Girl Scouts – North Carolina Coastal Pines; if you face additional character limitations you may also say Girl Scouts – NC Coastal Pines or GS-NCCP, but this should only be used when facing severe text restrictions.

Shortened Links

Use shortened links when possible by copy/pasting a link into one of the free web- based link-shorteners. The preferred link- shorter is Bit.ly: https://bitly.com.

Acronyms and Abbreviations

In common language use, acronyms can and should be used on social media posts to save space. (Common popular acronyms include CEO, COO, CFO, etc.). Even in social media, do not use acronyms that apply to Girl Scout jargon unless communicating with internal staff or volunteers (SUM, etc.).

Use good judgment in deciding when to abbreviate other words, as each will be a case- by-case challenge to balance clarity and brevity. Common sense abbreviations (e.g. changing Director to “Dir.” or “Association” to “Assoc.”) are appropriate in these platforms.

Symbols

For brevity on digital platforms, you may use the “&” symbol when facing text limitations.

However, the “&” symbol should not be used in any print documents or formal communications unless part of a format title.

Titles and Specialty Words

Girl Scout council; council (Remember, it’s only appropriate to capitalize “council” when it’s used as part of a proper name—e.g., Girl Scouts – North Carolina Coastal Pines Council Girl Scout troop; troop (But: Pippa is in Manhattan’s Girl Scout Troop 3484.)

Numbers

Unless necessary to ensure message understanding, do not spell out numbers in social media use. Use numerals.

9