News

During my year at Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa&comma; we have tried to prioritize the health and sustainability of our mission for generations to come&period; I’m reaching out today to our volunteers and families in the area to announce a change to the Fort Dodge Leadership Center&period; Recently&comma; the GSGI property committee reviewed our council-owned and leased properties to determine the right mix to best serve our volunteers and girls and fund mission-critical initiatives&period; It is the recommendation of our property committee and a decision voted on by our Board of Directors&comma; that the GSGI lease on the Fort Dodge office be ended&comma; with our offices in Fort Dodge closing effective Jan&period; 24&comma; 2017&period; At that time&comma; retail and staff support will move to the Fort Dodge cookie cupboard for the duration of the cookie program&comma; ending on the last day of cupboards&period; Fort Dodge cookie cupboards will continue to be an integral way to serve members&period; A summary of these changes can be found on our website&comma; where you can also find information about a live Q&sol;A session we will be hosting on Tuesday&comma; December 13 from noon to 12&colon;30 p&period;m&period;&period; We encourage you to register for the session&period; While Girl Scouts is alive and well in the area&comma; we are not immune to the challenges that many nonprofits fac&period;&period;&period;

Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa will incorporate as many of the videos as we can into one big clip that will be presented to leaders during the Circle of Creativity events, as an effort to share appreciation for the transformational experiences they are providing girls!

You might have heard that ABC Bakers&comma; our cookie program partner&comma; has donated &dollar;10&comma;000 to the Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa as a gesture of thanks for the patience that GSGI volunteers showed while dealing with Snap&plus; technical issues&period; Since that message went out&comma; we’ve received ideas from many of you about how the money could be used&period; While we would love to implement them all&comma; we knew we had to reinvest the dollars back into our volunteers as a thank you for your hard work&period;

After considering the many options before us&comma; we felt it was best to use the &dollar;10&comma;000 to pay annual membership fees for our Troop Product Managers &lpar;TPMs&rpar;&comma; Service Unit Product Chairs &lpar;SUPCs&rpar;&comma; Volunteer Cupboard Managers and some Juliette parents who were listed as the primary contact in Snap&plus;&period; This amounts to nearly 900 adults who will receive a free membership for the 2016&sol;2017 membership year&comma; starting October 1&comma; 2016&period;

Thank you for all of your hard work&excl; We hope that using these dollars this way will help ease some of the frustrations you might have had this year&period; At the end of the day&comma; you are the ones who help girls run their cookie businesses and grow with Girl Scouts&period; We hope this small token helps show our appreciation&period;

How do I know if I am receiving a membership&quest;

Emails were sent on Monday night to the primary contact listed in Sn&period;&period;&period;

Check out our events listing, and pick your favorite overnight from Camp Joy Hollow, Camp Sacajawea or Camp Tanglefoot. Hit “register now” for your favorite session, and the discounted price is active through the end of January. You can use Cookie Dough (earned by participating in the upcoming Cookie Program) to pay the rest of the balance!

Note: You must pay a non-refundable $35 for your session. Discount applies to total camp session cost, not deposit. Discount applies to each session registered, so if a camper goes to two overnight camps, she saves $70! Registrations and deposits must be made by Jan. 31. for discounted price.

We are thrilled to announce that Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa has named Beth Shelton as Chief Executive Officer of our organization!

Beth is an engaging, talented and driven professional who will use her creativity and passion for our mission to lead Girl Scouts into the future. We are excited to welcome her to Girl Scouting.

An emerging leader in the Central Iowa community, Beth has experience with various non-profit organizations, including the American Heart Association and Simpson College. She is a graduate of Simpson and holds an MBA from Drake University.

Beth would also like to share some of her own words with you all:

"I am thrilled to be joining an organization with so much passion for promoting integrity, service and opportunity for all."

Please join us in welcoming Beth Shelton to the Girl Scout sisterhood! In the coming months, look for more information about her "welcome tour," which will take her across the council.

We've listened to your feedback&comma; and are excited to announce a brand new volunteer resource for the 2016 year -- The Bridge is your one-stop volunteer site&comma; where we will be posting several stories per month to help you have the best Girl Scout year ever&excl;&NewLine;

What resources can I find on The Bridge&quest;

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Toward the end of each month&comma; we will post a monthly "checklist" with all of the most timely information and deadlines for your service unit&period; Check out our October Checklist now&excl;

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Throughout the month&comma; we'll post extended articles pointing you to helpful resources&comma; giving extended details for new leaders&comma; and offering ideas for Girl Scout celebrations like Juliette Gordon Low's birthday&period;

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We'll also periodically post general tips like how to set up a troop bank account&comma; or ways to have a great parent meeting&period;

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What does this mean for Volunteer News&quest;

We know that you receive lots of emails&excl; Based on volunteer feedback&comma; we will be phasing out the Volunteer Newsletter over the next few months&comma; and placing helpful content on The Bridge instead&excl; &NewLine;

What if I like receiving email reminders&quest;

The Opportunity Catalog is almost complete&excl; We will be adding all current troops to the catalog on September 1&period; Haven't updated your troop information yet&quest; You can fill out our easy online form&excl;

What is the Opportunity Catalog&quest;&NewLine;The Opportunity Catalog offers easier entry into Girl Scouting and better visibility for parents about how girls can participate by allowing them to search for troops by zip code&period; In addition&comma; troop leaders will receive an instant email notification &lpar;with contact information&rpar; when a new member joins your troop&period; Parents will be able to view how many volunteers are currently supporting a troop&comma; and what opportunities are available for them to get involved&period; &NewLine;

What troop information will be posted&quest;&NewLine;Troop listings include troop number&comma; grade levels&comma; approximate location&comma; meeting day and time&comma; and the number of openings remaining for girls and volunteers&period; A Troop Description is displayed once you click on a troop&period; Each troop description will include general information about Girl Scout troops&comma; but you may add details&comma; such as “This troop loves to camp&excl;” or “These girls are saving for an international trip&period;”

What if a troop is already full or has specific requirements for membership&quest; While we want to offer all girls the opportunity to participate in G&period;&period;&period;

Dear Girl Scouts&comma;&NewLine;&NewLine;I am writing you to announce my retirement from Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa effective August 31&comma; 2015&period;&NewLine;&NewLine;I am so happy I got to work with a dedicated staff&comma; passionate Board of Directors&comma; and Girl Scouts across our council over the last few years&period; I am so proud of the work Girl Scouts are doing in our communities to make the world a better place&period; It’s been my honor to serve the organization&period;&NewLine;&NewLine;I wish all of you the best as you continue our mission to give girls the chance to become strong and successful leaders&period;&NewLine;

We are very grateful for the leadership and service Jamie provided and her tireless efforts to build girl leaders&period; We wish her well in her retirement&period; The Board of Directors is currently working on a search and transition plan for a new chief executive officer&comma; and we will communicate with members once this plan is in place&period; If you have any questions or would like to share your well-wishes with Jamie as she moves on to her next adventure&comma; please email us at info&commat;gsiowa&period;org&comma; or call at 800-342-8389&period; &nb&period;&period;&period;

Have you ever thought about becoming part of our summer camp staff when you graduate in the next few years? Taiylor (left) and Rebeca (right) share why they think you should join them!

Meeting new people!
“I love meeting new people," Taiylor said. "I always tell people at college, ‘Oh my friend from England, my friend from Scotland.’ My friends ask me, ‘How do you know so many people?’ I tell them: I work at Girl Scout camp!"

Making a difference (in others' lives and yours)!
"I love the fact that I get to make a difference in girls’ lives," Rebeca said. "Even when I was a camper, younger girls would look up to you because you were older. I love camp because I’ve become more independent, and I’ve definitely broken out of my shell."

Not sure if being a counselor is for you?
"Even if you don’t think you want to be a camp counselor, I would recommend the LIT and CIT programs," Taiylor said. "It builds your leadership skills, your communication, and so many things you need for life. And it may change your mind about being a camp counselor as well!"

Want to learn more about our Counselor-in-Training and Leader-In-Training camps? We have openings this summer! Visit our Event List for more information.

Service Unit 563, in the New Virginia/St. Charles area, wanted to help Ronald McDonald House in Des Moines in their mission to help the families of children with serious illnesses.

These girls collected four whole containers full of pop can tabs to donate, which Ronald McDonald House sells for scrap metal to raise funds for their organization. Not only that, but they visited the House to deliver the tabs themselves. "We learned all about how the families are helped by the charity through our tab collection efforts - what an amazing place!" said local leader Sarah.

Brownie Troop 00237 can do it all! These awesome girls went for a weekend camping trip at Three Mile Lake this April, but they wanted to do more than just flex their camping skills.

The troop also took on a service project to clean out the fire pits in the campground to help Union County Conservation get ready for the upcoming camping season. April showers certainly don't discourage these Girl Scouts!

Junior Troop 00845 learned about cooperation and teamwork while serving their community this spring!

The girls recently made fleece tie blankets for Project Linus, an organization whose mission is to “provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer 'blanketeers.'”

These amazing "blanketeers" used a portion of their Troop Proceeds from selling Girl Scout Cookies to purchase the fleece, and then spent a troop meeting tying the blankets together.

“Not only did they complete a service project they also learned about cooperation and teamwork while making the blankets,” said troop leader Jenny K.

We’re very proud of Troop 00845 for turning a great Cookie Program into a wonderful service project!

On March 12, Girl Scouts celebrated its 103rd birthday, and Senior Troop 00926 decided to mark the occasion in a unique way. Thursby, Kalina and Alexandra delivered a gift basket to the first baby girl born in their local hospital on March 12.

This gift basket included handmade items from each girl, other gifts, and personal handwritten notes of encouragement for the baby girl for each year until she turns 5. On that big birthday, she'll receive an official invitation to join Girl Scouts!

The girls came up with their idea while working on the “Mission: Sisterhood!” Girl Scout Journey and felt this endeavor would also work well as a Take Action project for that Journey.

“In Mission: Sisterhood!, girls learn of the power of sisterhood amongst women, learn to connect with other women, and learn to increase their feelings of being powerful, capable, and strong as they enhance their skills and develop new ones,” said troop leader Lori R. “Each of the senior girls have been Girl Scouts for over 10 years. They mentor and serve in active leadership roles of younger Girl Scouts each month as well as group overnights, events and other occasions.”

These amazing girls are truly being a sister to every (future) Girl Scout!

Emily, Lauren and Abigail of Troop 00088 know what it means to "Go Gold!" These amazing girls completed projects to address needs in their community, from Abbey's dedication to make books more available a local high school, to Lauren's efforts to help small businesses and new community members, to Emily's event dedicated to promoting safety and positivity online.

The girls were honored in a local Gold Award ceremony in Holstein, with State Representative Jason Schultz attended and presented the girls with their certificates!

"Girl Scouts has provided an opportunity for me to grow as an individual and develop my leadership skills," said Emily. "The strong women I have met through Girl Scouting have become positive role models in my life."

Congratulations girls! We can't wait to see what amazing things you'll do next.