Annual Meeting

Today I attended the annual meeting for the Girl Scouts of Maine.  I go almost every year and have served as the delegate from SinCA (my region of Girl Scouts) for most of the years I have gone.  I enjoy the meeting each year and it is never as boring as it might sound to some. 

The day starts early (for me) since the gathering generally starts around 9AM and the meeting is held in Waterville.  I have attended meetings at other locations, but it has been at the Waterville Elks Club for the past few years.  Waterville works nicely because Girl Scout volunteers, board members and staff from all over the state attend the meeting and they try to hold it in a central location (Geographically that would be Milo, but Waterville is just SO much more central in reality.)  The elks club has a nice huge room to accommodate the large turn-out, it works, so they stick with it.    

Every year, a centrally located service unit (region of Girl Scouts) hosts the event.   This year’s meeting was hosted by the Chickadee Service Unit and they did a nice job.   The hosting unit is charged with decorating, having SWAPS (hand-made trinkets) and doing the opening and closing flag ceremonies.    The tables were all adorned with centerpieces consisting of flowers made from spray painted bottle caps on dowels…  they were cute and everyone attending had one to take home.  They also did a very nice flag ceremony and just about every adult in the room held their breath as the girls walked the flags past two chandeliers -  without incident.

The actually meeting part of the annual meeting is generally brief and painless.  The biggest duty of a delegate is to vote in new board members and give the final vote on any amendments to the policies.  It is the policy for the nomination committee to present a single slate of officers and new board members for the delegates to approve.  It seems kind of pointless, but it does make sense.  If we had to select from candidates there would have to be way more prep time, time for delegates to study their choices  etc.  as it is, the nomination committee seeks out interest and qualified candidates, researches them and decides who should be on the board.  The delegate vote is simply a formality at this point.  The amendments can be different, discussion is possible, though it is generally past the point of really requiring further discussion.  As with the vote most years, everything passed unanimously. 

Each year at the annual meeting the graduating seniors in attendance are recognized and the bridge to adult ceremony is performed.  They were 27 graduating seniors there and about 90 this year state wide.  It seems like a high number, I hope it means girls are staying in scouts longer.  Adult recognitions were next -  they give numerals and awards for those celebrating more than 25 years, in 5 year increments.  Then they also award a handful of outstanding volunteers.  They did a nice job this year presenting awards without putting the audience to sleep.  Some years it goes a bit long,  this year we were actually ahead of schedule. 

Things were running so far ahead of schedule they moved several things up on the agenda and we still had to socialize for 25 minutes while they finished preparing for lunch. Dessert was actually served while waited.  Cake.  Yumm.    Lunch was served buffet style.  Garden salad, bow tie pasta salad, green beans, tiny baby carrots, pasta primavera, fried chicken and rolls all lined four different buffet lines so nobody had to wait too long.  We were sent up by table and things ran very smoothly.   It was all delicious. 

Things wrapped up rather quickly after lunch. A beautiful poem about Girl Scouting in 1956 was read and the election results were announced.  Overall it was a very pleasant meeting.  I bought a few things at the travel Girl Scout shop (including another tote bad)  and we all received a six pack of commemorative 100 year Girl Scout glass Coke bottles to take home.  More Collectibles!  -  just what I need…  J

I look forward to attending next year’s meeting.  These kind of things help renew my energy towards making Girl Scouts stronger in our area. 

Until next time ...  write on!