Dear Girl Scout Volunteer,
You are receiving this email because you are on a Service Unit team or you attended a Town Hall Meeting to discuss service delivery redesign recently.
If you attended a Town Hall Meeting, I want to thank you for your participation in one of our area Town Hall meetings. I appreciate your time and more importantly your feedback.
By way of a recap, here is a record of participation by meeting location:
Hacienda Meeting: 3 volunteers attended
Resource Center Meeting: 3 volunteers attended
Oro Valley Public Library Meeting: 4 volunteers attended
Vail Meeting: 1 volunteer attended
Cochise County Meeting: 13 volunteers attended
Although the numbers in our gatherings were small, we had much great feedback in a number of areas and we are already moving ahead with several of them this week such as:
- an adult learning calendar like the Pathways Guide
- incentives for learning facilitator
- ‘who do you know’ survey to assist in recruiting non troop volunteers for events and series
- ‘jam sessions’ for age level leader get-togethers
- deeper leadership learning around recognizing strengths in others and building teams
In general, feedback was positive about a change to the Service Unit structure to support busy volunteers no matter their role in Girl Scouts. We learned about what aspects of Service Units are really important to troop leaders (socialization, legacy girl events, learning, support). We also learned that if those needs are met in other ways … in a slightly larger structure for formal gatherings (still geographically based), and just as frequently for informal gatherings (neighborhood based) then we can better meet the needs of all volunteers and troop leaders can gain from the involvement of gathering with non-troop volunteers as well.
While we will be building the new structure together during the work retreat, there are some aspects of the new plan that we already see coming together based on volunteer feedback during the Town Hall Meetings. Here are some of the ideas that we already know that we want use to meet various needs as well as what we think we want to explore.
Socialization:
Informal affinity group gatherings at the neighborhood level on a regular basis (ie- monthly) hikes, scrapbooking, wii fit, geocacheing, bunko etc…
Legacy events (father/daughter dance, leader/daughter tea…):
New volunteer roles to lead the planning on these events (perhaps event planners, series planners, appreciation/recognition planners) but spanning several former SU’s
Learning:
Follow the Leader emails (1x month for a new leaders first year)
New Daisy, Brownie, Junior Troop Basics workshops
Quarterly geographically based mini conferences with lots of workshop choices for volunteers in all pathways
Mentoring:
Level specialists in each geographic area who will coach and facilitate “Jam Sessions” for each level
Next steps for Service Delivery redesign will involve convening the areas we would like to pilot the new structure for 2011-2012 and scheduling of a ‘work’ retreat to come up with new job descriptions and structure. I will be in contact with the pilot areas shortly to discuss how we will move forward. Volunteers in the pilot areas will not have traditional Service Unit meetings monthly… instead will attend the quarterly gatherings we’re tentatively calling “lead the way” workshops, as well as get support from neighborhood based affinity gatherings etc… all areas will have the opportunity to attend the quarterly gatherings at one of four scheduled locations.
Areas not asked to pilot may choose to opt in and try it out. This may be a great option for those areas who are really struggling with the Service Unit structure.
I look forward to working closely with all who are working on this project with us-
Yours in Girl Scouting,
Timalee
