Changes to the 2013-14 Cookie Program

As many of you know, the Girl Scout cookie program is very important to our council. For many years, we have received our cookie products through ABC Bakers. In fall 2011, the 22 member Product Sales Committee comprised of volunteers from all areas of the council, voted to evaluate the cookie baker serving Girl Scouts of Central Texas. The purpose was to ensure the best product, price and service was available to our girls, volunteers and supporters.

Both ABC and Little Brownie Bakers (the two official GSUSA-approved cookie vendors) were invited to give a presentation to the Product Sales Committee, volunteers and key staff. We provided the bakers with the criteria in which they would be evaluated. This criteria included program and marketing materials, growth strategies, technology product offering, supply chain and warehousing support, and customer service. After the presentation and much research and deliberation by our committee, they reached a final decision.

Beginning in the 2013-2014 program year, the official cookie baker for Girl Scouts of Central Texas will be Little Brownie Baker. We will begin an official roll-out to our membership later in the year at the annual Service Team Conference and we will schedule information sessions as well. We wanted to take this opportunity to bring this upcoming change to your attention.

While we may be saying goodbye to Lemonades, Thanks-A-Lots and Mango Cremes, we will be welcoming Dulce de Leches, Thank U Berry Munches and the ever popular Savannah Smiles! We are very excited to be working with the great folks at Little Brownie Bakers and are thrilled about the future of the Cookie Program with them as our partner.

For additional questions or comments, contact the Product Sales Department.

To all of our fellow Girl Scouts,

We continue to reach out to volunteers and Girl Scout families affected by the recent fires in our council area. Because the needs are immediate, we are asking that donations listed on be dropped off at the Kodosky Program Center in Austin. These needs include but aren’t limited to bottled water, Gatorade, protein bars, diapers, baby wipes, and pet food. Please consult the KVUE website for a complete list. We ask that our volunteers continue to consult our website, Facebook and Twitter for regular updates. We intend to ask Service Unit Directors for information on Girl Scout families affected by the fires and will respond appropriately based on their individual needs.


Please continue to keep displaced families in your thoughts and prayers.

Etta Moore
CEO, GSCTX

Becoming a Brand Ambassador

At the 2009 Service Team Conference, GSCTX asked volunteers to take the position of Public Relations Coordinators. The position entailed sending in press releases and pictures to local media along with keeping an eye on Girl Scouts in the news. For this year, we have adjusted the responsibilities to better align with your needs and time constraints as a busy volunteer.

We still ask you to keep us updated on what your girls are doing in their troops or even outside of the troop because no one knows them better than you do. In order for the council to remain aware of the happenings in your troops, we would like for you to become our Brand Ambassadors. This position simply relies on you submitting your stories, photos, events, etc. to us so we can do the work for you and get your message out to the community in an effective manner. When you see your stories or the stories of other troops in the news, please still send them into the council. We also ask that you remain aware of how our new brand is being implemented in your troops. The volunteer page of our website offers a Powerpoint presentation on the new brand so you can be aware of how to correctly use the materials.

If you have any questions on this change or would like to submit stories of your troop to be featured on GSCTX sites and in local media, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you for all that you do for girls,

-Kristine Rheinboldt

Meet Kristine!

For the past six or seven months, this blog has been run by me, Cheryl. Last month however we had a changing of the guard at GSCTX. I transitioned into our Resource Development Department and the Communications Department had the good fortune of hiring Kristine Rheinboldt as the Online Community Specialist.

Before accepting her current role, Kristine was our Public Relations Intern. She wrote newspaper announcements for Gold Award recipients, collected content for eNews and a variety of other tasks to help the public learn more about Girl Scouts and to help our members be more connected to each other and the council.

Next week Kristine will officially take over the Grow Together blog. Please make her feel welcome by sharing your questions, comments and ideas about Girl Scouting. She's bursting with thoughts about making this blog and all of our web-based communications the best it can be and I'm willing to bet, she'd love to feature YOU.

Welcome to the Grow Together blog Kristine!


-Cheryl Black

P.S. Even though I won't be blogging too often any more doesn't mean we can't hang out! Come visit me at Service Team Conference next month or at one of the two Austin-area special event fundraisers, S'more Soiree and Women of Distinction!

New Biz Hours for GSCTX

Beginning May 3, GSCTX will have new business hours. They are as follows

Program Center Hours for all centers

Closed Saturday through Monday

Tuesday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Shop Hours

Kodosky Program Center Shop:
Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
*Closed last Saturday of each month

Bluebonnet, El Camino & Heart of Texas Program Center Shops:
Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Bryan Program Center Shop:
Tuesday & Thursday, 4:30 to 6:30p.m.
Saturday, 10a.m. to 3p.m.
*Closed last Saturday of each month

Killeen Program Center Shop:
Tuesday & Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

These new hours allow our council to lower the overhead expenses for five of our facilities and better enable us to provide the best outcomes-based leadership opportunities to 21,000 Girl Scouts in Central Texas.

Please come visit us at the program centers during our new business hours. We have many resources, such as program kits and registration forms, available in the program centers to make your Girl Scout experience the best it can be. We look forward to seeing you soon!

-Etta Moore

Kids & Cell Phones

A recent New York Times article reports that in 2005, 11.9% of children ages 6-11 had their own cell phone. By 2009 that jumped to 20%. When you narrow the age range to 10 and 11 year olds, more than a third of children have a cell phone.

With 21.8% of girls 6-11 owning cell phones, they hold a small majority lead over the only 18.3% of boys with cell phones. However that gender gap is significantly smaller, almost 50% smaller, than it was in 2005.

Read the full article here.

This got us thinking: what are the trends in Central Texas?

Does your child have a cell phone? How does having or not having a cell phone affect your child and family on a daily basis? What age is appropriate to give a child a cell phone at? What are the determining factors for your family? Children with drivers licenses? Entering high school? Lack of landline home phone? What other considerations, rules or results have you found from your decision?

We're curious. Tell us what you think.

-Cheryl Black

Volunteer Essentials

Rolling out the new Volunteer Essentials document has been an interesting process with so many people collaborating to make it something that is useful and accessible for every member! Volunteer Services, Membership, Programs, Product Sales and Registration have all had a hand in the content of this unique resource. The Communications Department has been instrumental in getting it posted to the Web site as a PDF, then as searchable text on the Web site itself. But most importantly the feedback from the volunteers that have seen it and will be using it has been invaluable. They gave us editing tips. They gave us content feedback; they have tweaked a good document and made it better.

“Volunteer Essentials is a resource for volunteers serving in any pathway, and can also be used for volunteers who do not work directly with girls. It offers information about Girl Scouts as a movement and a tradition, asks volunteers to assess their skills and competencies, discusses the GSLE and journeys, highlights other program offerings, shares information about healthy development in girls, instructs volunteers in how to keep girls safe, gives information on taking trips and hosting events, and tells volunteers how to help girls manage group finances, including details on Girl Scout Cookie sales.” -Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA)

In an effort to make Girl Scouting consistent across the country and serve all the girls and volunteers, GSUSA created Volunteer Essentials. They noticed that many councils had created their own "operating manuals" (ours was called Directions). They varied from council to council and covered many different topics so that if you moved form Texas to Washington or even just New York to New Jersey, you weren’t necessarily getting the same information or training. GSUSA decided that in order to be consistent they needed a nationally consistent module that would address the main points and still be somewhat customizable. There are, after all, differences geographically and culturally that may have to be addressed.

The finished product accomplishes just that! It is succinct without being to brief it is thorough without belaboring the point! I am pleased with it and I hope to see it serve as a resource that every volunteer will refer to often and use as needed!

Check out Volunteer Essentials now.

-Heather Givens

A Promise & A Sign

I've been a Girl Scout for a long time and in a variety of capacities. No matter my age or type of involvement though, camp has always been my favorite part of Girl Scouting. And one of my favorite camp activities is not one you necessarily expect to find at camp. It's not horseback riding, not swimming and not eating s'mores.

It's sign language.

I first discovered American Sign Language at Girl Scout camp and the first thing I could sign beyond the alphabet was the Girl Scout Promise. Since learning the Promise brought so much joy, interest and pride to my childhood camp experience, I want to share it with all Girl Scouts.

Click here to open a PDF with step-by-step instructions for signing the Girl Scout Promise. A big thank you to Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas for having this PDF readily available on their Web site!

Now in no particular order, here are some reasons I think its cool to sign the Girl Scout Promise.

• It allows Girl Scouts to share the backbone of Girl Scouting with more of their Girl Scout sisters.
• It can be a great addition to any of your Girl Scout ceremonies or activities.
• It is a relatively quick introduction to American Sign Language.
• A slightly longer reason - American Sign Language can be a good second language option for students who struggle with foreign language or reading. My family discovered this firsthand when a very bright high school counselor suggested it for my brother. Once in the class, he excelled.

Learning this fun and useful language can build girls' confidence and empower them to try even more new things. I hope you find signing the Girl Scout Promise to be as exciting as I found it to be.

-Cheryl Black

P.S. Mastered the alphabet and the Promise and ready to move on? Try teaching yourself the signs to a favorite song! I once learned "Yellow Submarine" and when The Lion King was all the rage, I learned "Can you feel the love tonight."

10 Status Updates to Support Girl Scouting

You're already tweeting and Facebooking just about every day. Why not use one of those updates to support girl leadership and Girl Scouting? Here's 10 status updates (or tweets) you can use to support GSCTX.

1. I love being a (insert "troop leader", "Girl Scout mom" or other relevant description)! Time for you to join too - http://www.gsctx.org/?nd=join.
2. I'm a fan of GSCTX on Facebook! Are you? http://www.facebook.com/gsctx
3. I just made a difference in a girl's life by donating to Girl Scouts. http://www.gsctx.org/?nd=donate_summary
4. Learn the three keys to leadership - http://www.gsctx.org/?nd=gsle
5. Nobody knows cookies like Girl Scouts. http://www.gsctx.org/?nd=fall_products_and_cookie_programs
6. Follow Friday (#ff) @GSCTXcouncil
7. Its always s'more fun at Girl Scout Camp. http://www.gsctx.org/?nd=girl_scout_camps
8. My Girl Scout just earned the (insert patch name)! I'm so proud! http://www.gsctx.org/?nd=patch_programs
9. The best thing about Girl Scouts is (your most favorite Girl Scout thing ever).
10. Courage, confidence and character - its what Girl Scouts is really all about. http://www.gsctx.org/?nd=mission_promise_and_law.

And here's my next tweet/status update - I'm a professional Girl Scout and I love it!

Happy tweeting/status updating!

-Cheryl Black

Welcome to GSCTX's Blog!

Welcome, reader, to GSCTX’s very first blog entry! We’re thrilled to launch this blog as we begin our 2009-2010 program year.

The goal of this blog is to share information about purposefully developing girl leaders who have the courage, confidence and character required to make the world a better place. From insights into the creation of GSCTX programs to conversations about the challenges girls face, this blog is the go-to place for anyone committed to the next generation of women leaders.

Ask questions, suggest topics, share your experiences, forward an entry to a friend or just read it when you have a moment. No matter how you engage, your participation will ensure a stronger, more capable generation of girls.

So tell us, what needs to be discussed? What topics have to be explored, dissected and resolved for girls in the 21st century to succeed? This is your blog; we just secured the url.

-Cheryl Lowe