One Year Later

From the desk of GSSNE CEO, Dana Borrelli-Murray:

Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

This morning, I had a few precious free moments with my oldest daughter Scout, and we decided to have a musical moment, singing and playing “Seasons of Love” from Rent. It was only once I arrived at work that I remembered today is my one-year anniversary of starting to work for Girl Scouts of Southeastern New England. What an appropriate start to the day!

My journey into this Girl Scout world began as a whirlwind—eye-opening, breathtaking, and radical on every level. And it still feels this way a year later.

During my first year, we started with ourselves—taking stock of our Council culture, creating efficiencies, reducing burden on volunteers, throwing out irrelevant and burdensome rules and policies, reorganizing our departments and goals, and building systems for cross-department collaboration. We literally and figuratively brightened up the way we view our work—have you seen our murals at GSSNE Headquarters? We went on a full staff retreat to refocus our energy on the work we need to do internally to be the strongest, most effective, and joyous team possible in service to our Girl Scouts young and old.

We then focused on rebuilding. Our Membership office, now fully staffed, restructured the way they work with service units. Our Program office, also fully staffed, resituated themselves around retention. We created a new role to support our growing needs around crisis intervention, risk, and compliance. We focused on brand, verbiage, and cadence to improve our Council communications. We rolled out a brand new website! We created a full-time Data Manager role to ensure we were on track, using our mountains of data to help us improve and support more Girl Scouts and volunteers.

And we made investments in our remaining, beloved properties. Some are happening right now: major upgrades to Camp Hoffman like a widened beach, new day units, expanded archery, and new kayak and ax-throwing spaces—this summer is going to be SO fun. At Headquarters, we will continue to build on our visibility and first impressions through a new outdoor classroom and permanent bridging space. Looking longer term, we are currently in the pre-investment phase of a major campaign for Camp Rocky Farm. This site is a gem, and it will be a known center not only for Girl Scouts across our country, but for youth in our own backyard.

And alum! I see you, and hear you. So, we’ve started to develop an engagement strategy that is real and relevant and fun! We are officially launching Troop 1919, our first Alum Troop. And I’m going to be the leader! Sign up and help us build the network.

Like many traditional membership-based organizations, GSSNE has experienced declines over the years. A victim of our own success, our youth have many more opportunities available to them now than during the Movement’s inception. COVID didn’t help anything.

But now, we have an opportunity.

Our job now is to ensure families, schools and community organizations see us as a viable, relevant, engaging, and welcoming organization. We know that the work to make the world better is never done. At GSSNE we are committed to being a force of positive change and are ever-ready to do the work in ensuring that diversity, equity, inclusion, and access are paramount to our mission and our culture. We wholly commit to taking action to grow as an organization so that our members are affirmed as they strive to make our community and world better.

We are not shying away—history has shaped our present and will continue to shape our future. But also “If you always do what you’ve always done you’ll always be where you’ve always been.”

In the Girl Scout world, this means that we can and must focus on “Girl Scout growth” instead of simply “Girl Scout grown”—valuing our rich history while embracing fresh perspectives that come from outside of our Movement.

Over the past year, we’ve positioned ourselves as an engaged community partner in a post-COVID world. Today, youth are experiencing high rates of trauma, stress, and mental health concerns. We are situating Girl Scouts as a health equity solution, a community partner able to meet youth needs through holistic programming—programming that is radically inclusive and trauma-informed that creates strong peer bonds and mentoring relationships along with outdoor experiences and personalized, goal-driven badge-earning opportunities.

We’re doing the work. We’ve provided camperships to youth in foster care. We’ve received grants for mentoring, providing funding for near-peer leaders to start new troops in underserved communities. We are receiving funding from middle and high schools and soon, colleges, to develop scholarship programs. We are riffing on the traditional troop model with troops at Big Brothers Big Sisters, Meeting Street, and soon through Conexion Latina. A new partnership with the Pawtucket School Department will bring up to 200 new Girl Scouts to camp this summer. And our newest initiative, the Girl Scout Leadership Development Course, is now available through the RI Department of Education’s All Course Network, so any high school junior or senior can get high school credit for working at camp this summer.

But this work is so much bigger than Council staff or community partners.

At its foundation, Girl Scouts is a volunteer-based organization. And as a volunteer-based organization, GSSNE is responsible for the recruitment, training, and support of over 2,000 adult volunteers each year. It is imperative for the Movement that our adult volunteers are empowered and engaged and supported every step of the way. I know it hasn’t always been this way, but we are committed to making volunteering with Girl Scouts as streamlined and joyous as possible. So in January, we ripped up the outdated guidelines in an effort to make troop leadership less burdensome.

In my role at Girl Scouts of Southeastern New England, I am shooting for the moon. I am elbowing my way into tables and boardrooms. I want everyone talking about Girl Scouts all the time.

The Movement is designed to help youth discover their personal best and prepare for a positive future, connect with others in a diverse world, take action to solve problems, and improve their communities. I believe that Girl Scouts belong, matter, and make the world a better place.

It's time now to sing out
Though the story never ends
Let's celebrate
Remember a year in the life of friends
Measure your life in
Seasons of love