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 (shortterm), the Girl Scout model is built on long-term volunteers. 53% of Girl Scout members are kindergarten through 3 grade, while studies show that 4 grade is rd

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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

Volunteer Role - # of years

Has a daughter or relative in Girl Scouts

# Of years/age you were a Girl Scout

# Of times used camps in the last year

Enjoys going camping because...

Hour worked per week

Participant

Gender

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 CoManager, 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

5

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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 12

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 13

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

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