Real-time Info
Councils Around the Country Get Friendlier With the Net

By Lisa Dewey
Illustrations by Diane Allison

Whether you classify yourself as Web-phobic, Web-friendly, or a Web-fanatic, chances are you're online. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, as of March 2005, 65 percent of all adult women use the Internet; 84 percent of women and men ages 18-29 use it.

As a result, the Internet has completely changed how people communicate, get information, and do tasks such as banking, shopping, and job hunting. They do it in real- time — the Net means “now.” The Internet is changing how Girl Scout councils and volunteers interact. Girl Scouts are utilizing this paperless, instant medium in more ways, from offering downloadable forms, to registering for events, to shopping for Girl Scout merchandise, to making charitable contributions; and from providing space for girls to express themselves, to promoting the visibility of Girl Scouts' involvement in research, advocacy and citizenship.

Volunteers and councils know that and are responding to leverage technology so they can better recruit, support and serve Girl Scout members and their communities. And they're learning some pretty valuable lessons along the way.

Help Wanted:
Techno Wizard, Design Guru, Info Expert

Some Girl Scout councils handle the design and building of a website relying upon an in-house staff member who knows the technical and legal aspects of Web construction. More often they turn to varying combinations of internal and external, paid or volunteer, help to get the work done.

For Nancy White, Director of Communications, Girl Scouts of Gateway Council, Jacksonville, Fla., when Girl Scouts of Gateway Council decided to rebuild their site from scratch, she looked externally. "Our website is prime communications real estate. It needs to be relevant and a useful tool—we rely upon it to stay in touch with members and generate interest with potential members. Because of its importance, we wanted three things from a developer: permanence, someone who was going to be around; continuity, someone we could build a relationship with; and accountability, someone who would stick to schedules both in development and updates."

Build it and they will come?
Better Ask First!

One of the key steps Girl Scouts of Santiam Council took before redesigning its website was to solicit input from the target audience: adult volunteers. Last year, Girl Scouts of San Francisco Bay Area made that their first step, too, before doing any redesign or adding new features.

The council used an online survey that was completed by 382 respondents: 61 percent Girl Scout volunteers, 19 percent parents, and 14 percent "other," which included staff, former Girl Scouts, and parents not associated with Girl Scouts. Based on the comments, the council is in the process of redeveloping its website with an anticipated completion date of December 2005.

"The new site will have expanded content to better serve our audience,” said Nikki Van Ausdall, Executive Vice President Marketing and Communications, Girl Scouts of San Francisco Bay Area, “We rely on the great GSUSA sites — STUDIO 2BSM, GirlsGoTech — for girls, and feel our site will best serve the needs of our council adult audience: volunteers, parents and guardians, donors, and local media interests."

Getting feedback doesn’t have to be so formal. Girl Scouts of Northwest Georgia made use of its existing Volunteer Advisory Committee. “We would develop content ideas, and when the Advisory Committee was meeting for something else, we would take a few moments and ask them Web-related questions,” explained Judi Borgo, Director Communications and Volunteer Services, Girl Scouts of Northwest Georgia, “We also received lots of unsolicited comments that the old site wasn’t easy to navigate, so we knew that needed fixing.”

In addition, the council carefully follows the site’s usage statistics: what pages people are looking at and for how long. “Keeping track of usage tells us how we’re doing. We realized we were investing time and energy into pages that people weren’t visiting, so we switched gears to make sure we improved the most popular features first,” explained Judi.

When it comes to designing Web pages for girls, there’s only one way: By Girls, For Girls. That was the Girl Scouts of Central Maryland approach in its launch of a new site that’s part of their council’s STUDIO 2BSM. The council advertised an internship opportunity at a local university, and Sarah Khan, university student and intern with Girl Scouts of Central Maryland, a junior studying graphic design, signed on as an advisor for the girls to help develop and market www.GSTeens.org.

“I think it is important for girls to have a place to call their own on the Web. GSTeens is a place where they can really learn about each other and different aspects of their lives,” Sarah wrote in a recent e-mail. “Learning how to build a website on their own are skills they can take on to develop a hobby or even a profession!”

Keep it Fresh

While it may be tempting to think the hardest part is getting Web pages posted, keeping it current and fresh can also be a challenge.
Girl Scouts of Michigan Trails took that into consideration when building their two sites—one that targets adults and volunteers and one that targets teens—and used a combination of two programming languages: SQL and PHP. Basically SQL and PHP make it possible for someone to make updates to the site content without having to know how to write Web-code. The updates appear nearly instantaneously and are automatically the correct format and font.

"As a result," explained Ryan Hipp, Director of Communications, Girl Scouts of Michigan Trails, “for certain sections of the site, it's very easy for someone with little Web skill to make a new page or update a page on the fly. So if our program directors write a new article or a new event needs to be posted, they can quickly do it themselves without a middleman. Being able to easily keep our site up-to-date reinforces our stance that our programs and message are consistent and current."

Timeliness is just as important on the service unit level. Housekeeping issues include making sure links are working, adding new photos (without girls’ names) or recaps of events, posting new troop pages, and for password-protected sites, updating the next meeting or event time and place, changing contact information, etc.

Marie Lott, 10-year assistant leader and Three Leaves Service Unit Web master in Atlanta, Georgia, knows the value of being able to say, "it's on the website" as their unit serves more than 490 Girl Scouts in 48 troops. "It used to be a lot easier to contact troop members—you could go up to the school, slip meeting reminders in the girls' folders, and you were done. Now we've got multi-school troops—one Daisy Girl Scout troop this year had 13 girls in six different schools. The Web, and tools like e-mail and multiple phone message delivery systems, keep us connected," said Marie. "It’s a whole different way of doing Girl Scouts, but it’s a whole different world today."

Great Opportunities,
Unexpected Returns

When Girl Scouts of Michigan Trails launched its site, www.girlscoutsrock.com, for girls ages 11-17, they capitalized on the adult-girl partnership to make sure the site reflected current visual trends of teen interest and that it would show what a rich variety of experiences Girl Scouts has to offer. What they had not expected was the response they got from young women interested in volunteering. In 2004, 42 volunteers for day camps signed up directly through the website. This past summer, the number swelled to 87.

One of those was Katie Lewis, university student and day camp volunteer, "The website made it very easy to get involved—it's very clear about where to find information about volunteering, and who to talk to do so," she said. "I found that the Girl Scouts is a fantastic way to get young women involved in positive, empowering activities. There is so much that this program offers, I can see I really missed out [not being a Girl Scout] as a kid."

The Web offers unlimited possibilities for strengthening the Girl Scout brand, encouraging volunteerism, and showing the vibrancy of the Girl Scout Program. All in all it's about Girl Scouts connecting—locally and globally. "I give parents our service unit website and the council site and ask them to go through it. As a result, we have better conversations about their girls and Girl Scouts," Nadine Cayasso, seven-year volunteer leader and service team Web master in Jacksonville, Fla., shared. "For girls, the Web gives them a chance to connect with communities outside of Jacksonville—they want to know what our sister Girl Scouts and Girl Guides are doing and exchange ideas. It's a great way for girls to grow."

Adapted from LEADER, Fall 2005. © Girl Scouts of the United States of America.