Area Association Structure

Karol Young
Second Vice Chair
(from July 10, 2008 issue of E-Views)

I am Karol Young, a high school art teacher with Orange County Public Schools and a Girl Scout volunteer. I serve as the second vice-chair on the Council’s board of directors. One of my key responsibilities in this position is to serve as a liaison between the board of directors and the Area Associations.

Over the past several years we have encountered a number of challenges with the Area Association structure of governance and our membership has voiced numerous concerns over whether or not this structure is the most efficient and effective form of governance for the Council. Many Area Associations are having problems reaching quorums at their meetings, and many service units within Area Associations are not being adequately represented. As a result of these concerns and others, the board of directors has formed a governance task group with the mission of evaluating the current governance structure as well as other possible governance structures that might work better for Citrus Council. The task group has already met with a governance specialist from GSUSA and will work closely with her on this process.
Over the next several months, the governance task group will gather information from a variety of sources, including:

·  A survey distributed to the Council membership, volunteers and staff;
·  Further discussions with the GSUSA governance specialists;
·  Discussions with other Girl Scout councils to learn about their “best practices” in governance; and
·  Members of the board and governance task group will attend the fall Area Association meetings in order to discuss the process.

After information is gathered, the task group will then make a recommendation to the Council’s board of directors on improving the governance structure for our Council. If the board approves the recommendation, Bylaws amendments will be drafted to effectuate the change in governance structure and these Bylaws revisions will be presented to the delegates for a vote at our Council’s annual meeting in January 2010.

What can you do to help in this process?  If you are a delegate, Association Chair or Vice-Chair, you should attend the annual Council meeting. The goal of the governance task group and the Girl Scouts of Citrus Council board of directors is to select the most efficient and effective form of governance for our Council and we welcome your input in that process.