After completing an Appreciative Inquiry process in Summer 2021, GSNI developed five Action Teams to drive and support membership growth. Read on to learn more about what the teams are working on next!
The Communications and Brand Awareness Team met in May to discuss the upcoming membership year's strategy. New strategies include a new website designed with volunteer feedback, growing our social media presence, ideas for new podcasts, and working to engage older Girl Scouts and volunteers in grassroots promotion of GSNI.
The Recruitment Processes Team finalized GSNI’s annual recruitment phases:
- Phase 1 – Spring Recruitment: Focused on Daisy Launch and Extended Year Membership from March 1–July 31
- Phase 2 – Fall Recruitment: Focused on New Membership Growth from July 1–December 1.
- Phase 3 - Winter Push Recruitment: Focused on New Membership Growth with Daisies and community recruitment from December 1–March 1.
The team is also working on job roles and expectations for recruitment for the new recruitment year starting on July 1. This will help keep staff and volunteers on the same page for recruitment success in the future.
The Community Engagement Team reviewed a draft of a flow chart that provides steps for both staff and volunteers to connect with, build, and support relationships with our faith communities. The team will continue this work at its June meeting and is focused on making sure there are simple, easy-to-use tools so that connecting with the faith community is a natural part of the everyone’s work and planning process. There are many wonderful partnerships already in place, and we want to nurture and grow these, while also reaching out to new potential partners.
The Older Girl Scout Action Team is making progress! Three (of a planned ten service units) have already hosted a 5th Grade Retention Event with an average of fourteen 5th graders in attendance. Seven more service units will be offering events within the next several weeks. In addition, Zip into Cadettes took place on May 7, 2022, with 50 Girl Scouts in 5th grade participating.
The team also re-sent an invite for Older Girl Scout Troops to opt-in to the new Older Girl Scout Troop Directory. This directory will provide a resource for Older Girl Troop Leaders to connect with each other. The deadline to opt-in was May 15. Once the directory has been completed, a link will be sent to all those who opted in.
The team also connected with the Girl Scouts who responded to the Older Girl Poll inviting them to a meeting/workshop in July to discuss the creation of a new older girl group that will be focusing on learning and sharpening their media skills. After training, they will be provided the opportunity to utilize those skills as they help with GSNI recruitment and retention efforts.
The Hiring for Diversity Team met to review additional changes to job postings to better highlight GSNI’s desire to attract diverse candidates for open staff positions. The team also discussed how to make diversity, equity and inclusion become ingrained in the organization’s culture through onboarding and ongoing training and development opportunities. The team met again at the end of May to draft strategies for the 2022–23 membership year.
If you would like to learn more about the work of any Action Team, share your own feedback or input, or are interested in joining a team, please contact customercare@girlscoutsni.org with the subject line “Action Team” and specify which Action Team you’d like to learn more about!
