CORE BUSINESS STRATEGY In June 2004, under the coaching of Willie Pietersen, author of Reinventing Strategy, GSUSA began developing a core business strategy to transform the Girl Scout Movement from good to great. Six strategic priorities were selected to focus the transformation. For each priority, a “Gap Team” (so termed in their work to identify the missing gaps) designed ways to get us from our present state to our desired future. The strategic priorities are: - PROGRAM
- BRAND
- VOLUNTEERISM
- FUNDING
- CULTURE
- GOVERNANCE AND ORGAINZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Exciting and insightful work has been accomplished by each of the Gap Teams. Their work includes a lot of feedback from girls through focus groups, research and additional input. Their objective is to create a girl-centric, innovative, agile, aligned and accountable organization that will take us from good to great. PROGRAM
This Gap Team has been defining desired outcomes and creating a program model for personal growth and leadership development, by age level, for girls ages 5-17. They are exploring pathways to deliver Girl Scout program to a diverse population. They have been taking the new program model (Girls Discover, Girls Lead, Girls Take Action) to councils around the country for input and feedback. They will be spending much of the fall of 2005 refining the new program model and conducting focus groups with girls nationwide. BRAND
The Gap Team’s job is to transform the Girl Scout image with a compelling, contemporary brand. With the assistance of an outside agency, they are gearing up to re-launch the Girl Scout brand in a nationwide campaign. The Team is working to create an integrated network of Marketing and Communications Girl Scout council professionals, a Brand/Advocacy workbook, and a Brand Dashboard. Supporting these key principles is a Voice for Girls platform and a new policy process. - The Voice for Girls platform articulates Girl Scouting’s core values and beliefs and demonstrates a commitment to build girls of confidence, courage and character, who make the world a better place.
- The new, inclusive policy process for selecting public policy issues will shape our agenda on Capitol Hill and allow us to speak with one unified Movement-voice when advocating for girls and Girl Scouting.
VOLUNTEERISM
This Gap Team is designing a flexible, enriched volunteerism structure that includes: structural redesign; competencies for volunteer positions; recruitment strategy; screening and placement; re-engineering learning opportunities; and reward and recognitions. Twenty volunteer focus groups were completed around the country, focusing on strategies and issues related to recruiting, training and retaining volunteers. An email address, volunteerismgapteam@girlscouts.org, lets volunteers and staff easily give input to the Team. In addition the Team is developing competencies for volunteer positions, using (with the Program Gap Team) a ”Theory of Change” process that maps out how volunteers reach specified outcomes with girls, to give girls the best experience possible. FUNDING
The Gap Team’s main goal is to significantly increase contributed income to fund the Girl Scout Movement. The Team is working to develop a national case for support. They’ve hired an outside firm to develop a national Girl Scout alumnae initiative that will build a reliable donor base for every council, and they are working on developing materials and courses that create a culture of successful fundraising in Girl Scouting. CULTURE
This Gap Team is building tools for councils (electronic, conference calls, brochures) that will help create a culture that supports the core business strategy. The Team will author a Culture/Values Booklet for the Movement. There also will be regional coaching to support councils as they reorganize. GOVERNANCE AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
The work on creating a more nimble and effective governance model will begin after the National Convention. The Open Space session and a Strategy Café at the National Convention will focus on governance. The Team’s future work on governance will be informed by recommendations from these sessions. Governance models will be tested at future regional meetings. The Gap Team on organizational structure is comprised of three national board members, four council CEOs and four national staff members. Based on research about the nonprofit sector, a study on our own structure and efficiency by Grant Thornton, LLP (Criteria for Successful Councils), council performance and demographic trends, this Team recommends a complete reorganization of councils using a high-capacity based model. Their working definition of a high-capacity council is one that has “the funding, the connections and the scale to achieve our Mission, now and in the future, and to use the Movement’s resources efficiently.” Although the specific criteria for a high-capacity council have not been approved, the Team has recommended that the criteria be developed using these guiding principles: - Provide contiguous coverage across the nation
- Incorporate entire media markets
- Incorporate a diverse population
- Align with established transportation patterns and state boundaries where possible
- Provide a funding base to support a minimum $2.5M budget
- Have specified management roles for the staffing structure
- Serve a specified number/potential of girls
- Facilitate optimal utilization of property for outdoor programming
- Yield economies of scale
- Anticipate population growth patterns
- Unite areas that have a regional identification
- Respect natural geographic barriers
- A large enough jurisdiction that councils do not rival one another for funding and other resources
Our major focus during the months and years ahead will be to continue to provide girls with a high quality Girl Scout experience. This process is not about saving money, but rather, redirecting money to eliminate overlap and get the money to make the biggest impact/best practices on girl program delivery. While changes are ongoing, our focus remains on the delivery of a quality Girl Scout program.
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