Girl Scout news
March 31, 2008
Katelyn Confer, daughter of Michael and Patricia Confer, Shavertown, was recognized by state Rep. Phyllis Mundy, D-Kingston, with a citation in recognition of her Girl Scout Gold Award achievement, the highest honor a Girl Scout can receive.
Confer is a member of Troop 2654 and previously received the Girl Scout Silver Award, the second highest award in the organization. She is a junior at Dallas High School and is active in various school activities such as SADD, student government, field hockey and Teacher for Tomorrow.
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Less Control, More Change
Only about 10 percent of American girls are involved with Girl Scouts — a number that’s held steady for decades. But the organization plans to start targeting the other 90 percent with their most aggressive public relations strategy to date. This week CEO Cathy Kloninger hired the organization’s first-ever marketing director to revitalize its brand and has charged its in-house Research Institute with studying how girls feel about the organization’s core mission to train future women leaders.
“What we heard from thousands of girls is that they’re really turned off by the command and control top-down type of leadership they see so much around them,” says research director Judy Schoenberg. “They really aspire to a type of leadership that’s about making a difference in the world and social change.”
Please follow the link-lead to the rest of this article:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89126533
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With 2.6 million members, Girl Scouts of the USA is the nation’s largest organization for girls. The group’s executives were pleased that four-fifths of both sexes said that women and men are equally qualified to lead. This was not the case in the mid-1980s, said chief executive Kathy Cloninger.
What concerned Cloninger and others was not only that girls did not desire to be future leaders but also that many feared they would not be capable enough to assume leadership roles. Twenty-one percent of girls said they had most of the qualities of a leader, such as being outgoing, hardworking and responsible.
They also said they lack the ability to command people and, if they tried to do so, they would be laughed at by their peers or seen as bossy and make people mad.
Please follow the link-lead to the rest of this article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/26/AR2008032603036.html
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The Girl Scouts: shaking up its national image.
March 26, 2008
Girl Scouts Seek an Image Makeover
As Organization Faces
A ‘Nonjoiner’ Society
March 25, 2008; Page B5
The cookies will stay, but the green skirts are history.
The Girl Scouts is shaking up its image.
On Tuesday, the organization is expected to announce the appointment of its first chief marketing officer, a former senior partner and executive group director at WPP Group’s Ogilvy & Mather.
Laurel Richie will be in charge of modernizing the image of the Girl Scouts, which is viewed by many as a rigid, old-fashioned organization focused on cookie fund-raisers and campouts. “Girls think of us as outdated,” says Kathy Cloninger, chief executive of Girl Scouts of the USA. “They have stereotypes of who we are that are not right.”
![[advert_girlscouts2]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-BE711_advert_20080324115041.jpg) |
| Girl Scouts of the USA |
| Ads that show the Girl Scouts’ recent efforts to transform their image. |
Appointing a marketing chief is part of a broader, multiyear effort to bring the 96-year-old organization into the 21st century. Over the past three years, the Girl Scouts has streamlined its organizational structure to 109 leadership councils from more than 300, added programs on topics such as managing busy schedules and online bullying to better reflect current issues, and narrowed the age ranges within each troop.
Trying to reinvigorate an old brand is a classic marketing challenge, and remains one of the trickiest feats in the business. On top of that, the Girl Scouts are trying to win over a demographic that is not only notoriously fickle but is also bombarded with marketing pitches: technologically advanced adolescent girls.
“They’re very smart about media consumption, and deft at avoiding any communication that’s not relevant to them,” says Samantha Skey, executive vice president of strategic marketing at Alloy Media + Marketing.
The Girl Scouts was started in 1912 as a way to give girls more opportunities outside the home. It has since focused more on helping girls work together in groups and develop leadership skills. The Girl Scouts has long offered programs on everything from running a business to mountain climbing.
But the big problem for the organization these days is that it is seen by many as sleepy. Though it has held up as an American icon, the group has little name recognition beyond its cookies, its executives say. The group, which has 2.8 million scouts from ages of five to 17, has been losing 1% to 2% of its membership a year for about 10 years.
After conducting a study of itself, the group discovered its main competition for members wasn’t the sports teams or church groups it suspected, but rather what it calls “nonactivities,” says Ms. Cloninger. “Girls start hanging out at the mall, spending time online or just being with their friends, and basically become ‘nonjoiners’ — that’s [what] we were losing the most girls to.”
![[advert_girlscouts]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-BE710_advert_20080324114524.jpg) |
| Girl Scouts of the USA |
Advertising efforts over the past two years also reflect the group’s new direction, including public-service announcements in publications such as Entertainment Weekly and Girls Life that highlight girls’ independence, and the tagline: “It’s a Girl’s Life. Lead it.
“Repositioning the organization “isn’t about us trying to be cool,” says Ms. Richie. “We’ve seen jeans, sneakers and soft drinks try to do that and you just cringe.”
Ms. Richie is hoping to increase the group’s exposure among demographics that have been underrepresented in its troops, particularly Hispanics, Asians and other groups. She says she will also try to do more outreach to mothers, both to drive membership of their daughters and to recruit more volunteer leaders.
As for the cookie box, the former Ogilvy executive says she wants to turn it into more of a marketing tool — some 200 million boxes of Girl Scout cookies are sold each year. “I’m dying to get my hands on it,” says Ms. Richie. The nearly three million scouts who sell them door-to-door also need to become more opportunistic about promoting the organization. “I don’t mean [for them] to be shills, but there’s an opportunity for them to genuinely speak about their Girls Scouts experience,” she says.
Ms. Richie is looking for an agency to add more panache to upcoming Girl Scouts marketing efforts; the group’s current ads were created in-house. Coming marketing campaigns, she says, should balance the tension adolescents feel about being part of a group while maintaining individuality.
At its national convention in October, the Girl Scouts will officially endorse the new uniform for scouts in the fourth grade and older: a sash or vest that displays achievement badges, worn over the scout’s own white shirt and khaki pants or skirt. “That gives them the opportunity for self-expression,” says Ms. Cloninger. Scouts at the Daisy and Brownie levels, usually students from kindergarten through the third grade, will keep their trademark blue and brown uniforms.
Lebanon Service Unit
March 5, 2008
The Countrywide (Lebanon Service Unit) is inviting others to stop by for a showcase of what the Lebanon Valley has to offer – particularly for Girl Scouts and others not formerly affiliated with Lebanon Valley.
This showcase will be at the Lebanon Valley Mall located at the intersection of State Route 422 & 22nd Street in Lebanon, PA.
They will be there three days.
Thursday, March 13 6 – 9 PM
Friday, March 14 6 – 9 PM
Saturday March 15 10 AM – 3 PM
Opening ceremony is at 6:15 PM on the 13th.
Closing ceremony is at 1:00 PM on the 15th.
Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, May 30th
March 3, 2008
Grandparents Raising Grandchildren is a great place for reaching out to every girl everywhere.
Please pass the following on to any party of interest and to the appropriate GS person:
On May 30th, the Northeast Intergenerational Coalition will be hosting our 2nd Annual Grandparents Raising Grandchildren at Genetti’s in Wilkes-Barre:
Bridging the Generation Gap Conference.
Resource Tables will be available in the main ballroom in the rear.
Availability is LIMITED!
Please respond ASAP.
Tables are approx. 8’ in length.
There is only room for 12-14 tables.
Please identify if you need ½ of a table or a whole table.
If you desire to share a table with one or more other groups please identify the groups by name and contact!
Only 2 tables are available with electricity.
Organization name________________________________
Contact name___________________________________
Address_______________________________________
Phone___________________email__________________
Table: Whole _____ Half___________
Groups sharing table?___________________________
Contact_________________________________________
Electricity requested? ___________
Special Requirements?___________________________
Contact Diana with any questions @ momdee@ptd.net , email forms, or send them to:
39 Appian Way, Hazleton PA 18202
Community Advisory Network member Catherine Shafer
March 3, 2008
The following is from The Times Leader, Monday, March 03, regarding The Service for Peace Award. Community Advisory Network member Catherine Shaffer’s firm, cds creative, is being recognized for service to the community.
Service award to be presented to cds creative
WILKES-BARRE: cds creative, inc., Forty Fort, has been chosen as the recipient of the 2008 David Frey Community Service Award for its various community services and its annual create-a-thon, a 24-hour annual blitz of free professional services dedicated to non-profits.
The marketing services provided during the create-a-thon have included items such as fundraising campaign plans, logos, Web sites, posters, print ads and strategic branding plans. The clients of these nonprofit agencies benefit in an exponential manner and provide crucial services to the community.
The Interfaith Resource Center for Peace and Justice presents this award to an individual, or group, whose actions have contributed, either by direct support of the mission of The Peace and Justice Center, or by making a contribution to the community and to the civic or corporate cause of peace and justice.
The award will be presented at the group’s annual award dinner on April 14. Contact the Peace and Justice Center, 570-823-9977, for more information on the Peace and Justice Center’s Annual Award Dinner.
Just one more small example of Girl Scouts doing good work in the community!
