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Female CEOs Mentor Girl Scouts At Camp CEO

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clevernamehere
06/30/09

In reply to Female CEOs Mentor Girl Scouts At Camp CEO
It always makes me sad when we have Girl Scouting posts and people bitch about how terrible their troop leaders were.

But all of those terrible experiences seem to be in Brownies/Juniors when there isn't that much you can do with kids that age. You're not going to teach a 6 year old how to do car maintenance or expect an 8 year old to learn about networking from a CEO.

The cool stuff is mostly for the older girls (once cadets/seniors, now ambassadors I think). They mail everyone a booklet of fairly low cost trips that do stuff like meet with CEOs or go snowshoeing in Alaska. This stuff was around in the 90s and probably earlier.
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Liz11685
06/30/09

In reply to Female CEOs Mentor Girl Scouts At Camp CEO
I did a similar, much smaller and less focused on CEO-being program when I was a teen in Girl Scouts. It was a great confidence builder to have what in our program was essentially a job at 14 and to be running a business and working with adults that weren't our troop leaders or teachers. (We filled large cookie orders placed through phone and the mail)

I think Girl Scouts provides many opportunities to girls that are priceless. For me, the aforementioned program I did, numerous leadership conferences that featured prominent women, and the ability to travel that our fundraising provided me totally changed my life. I then returned the favor by becoming an assistant leader.

It really is so much more than merit badges and cookies.
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Little Green Frog (Wise Latina)
06/30/09

In reply to Female CEOs Mentor Girl Scouts At Camp CEO
Where do I sign up my daughter?????
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clevernamehere
06/30/09

@Little Green Frog: This is probably one of the summer programs for ambassadors (6th grade and up). Once you get into that age range, they send you a booklet every year about these trips. It used to be called Wider Ops but the name might have changed.
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SarahMC
06/30/09

In reply to Female CEOs Mentor Girl Scouts At Camp CEO
The Girl Scouts aren't homophobic or religiously oriented like the Boy Scouts, are they? If I had a girl I'd like to get her involved in an empowering organization that opened a lot of doors for her, but not if it's just the girls' version of the Boy Scouts.
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LaComtesse
06/30/09

@SarahMC: I'm doing this!: No relation to the Boy Scouts. You can be as gay or as atheistic as you please.
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SomeAuthorGirl
06/30/09

@SarahMC: I'm doing this!: I was a Girl Scout all my life. I can't speak for the organization at large, but in my experience absolutely not.

Then again, I am a racially-mixed woman from a family with odd religious ideas, so I could be biased.
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richcreamerybutter
06/30/09

@SarahMC: I'm doing this!: I don't know for sure, but everything I've read recently seems to indicate they're more open to change and advancement than the Boy Scouts. Even when I was a member in the '80s, any prayer was limited to pre-meal grace.
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LaComtesse
06/30/09

@richcreamerybutter: And even the God bits (as can be found in the Girl Scout Pledge "On my honor I will try to serve God and my country and to help other people at all times and to live by the Girl Scout law.") is optional. You can leave it out if you want.
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Liz11685
06/30/09

@SarahMC: I'm doing this!: Girl Scouts have no policies of being a discriminatory organization and have nothing really at all to do with Boy Scouts (I mean, they were connected long ago in history and sometimes on the local level there are dances and mixed projects and things, but I digress)
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Chamalla,barren crone
06/30/09

@SarahMC: I'm doing this!: Girl Scouts have come a long way. I ran a troop when I taught and was tickled at how genuinely empowering the experience was. I'm in Indiana, where this camp is located. Incidentally, the GS campground also hosts a science and technology training center. The girls in my troop earned badges in math and electronics. Everyone is welcome, and individuality is encouraged.

I've always been pretty critical of my state, but our Girl Scouts rock.
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morninggloria
06/30/09

In reply to Female CEOs Mentor Girl Scouts At Camp CEO
I hope that the girls at Camp CEO are taught that first they must attend Camp College, and then probably Camp Business School, and then Camp Soul Crushing Ass Kissing Cubicle Monkey, and then Camp Promotion Denial For Some Jerk, and then Camp Vice President of Marketing For Fifteen Years Until You Threaten To Sue.
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Trulymadlyme
06/30/09

@morninggloria: Exactly. If someone had told me the bumps in the road (and the lumps you take) in getting to the top, I wouldn't have believed it. One of these days I'm going to write a book called What to Expect When You're Being Sexually Harassed or Discriminated Against.
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greengrey
06/30/09

@morninggloria: Dude, I had sooo much fun at Camp Soul Crushing Ass Kissing Cubicle Monkey!! We got into a prank war with Camp Nepotism (bastards won).
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morninggloria
06/30/09

@greengrey (raidersofthelostSTAR): If it had been a Disney movie from the 1990's, the hardscrabble campers of Camp SCAKCM would have won.
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LaComtesse
06/30/09

@morninggloria: And if all the articles are to believed, Camp Recession with its Stripping and Sex Work activity badges will be quite popular, as will Camp Go to Grad School.
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EdnasEdibles
06/30/09

@morninggloria: Yeah, I'm in such a pessmisistic mood lately from work that I feel like kids should instead go to Camp Just Paying the Bills where they find out about awesome careers in such fields as Professional Associations, Loan Processing, Call Center Management, etc. You know, the jobs that we all end up with but no 7 year old in the universe dreams of getting.

The brochure can say "Come to Camp Paying the Bills. There's just one CEO and 100 shitty jobs answering to to the CEO. You're more likely to get a shitty job . . . find out what you're suited for."
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greengrey
06/30/09

@morninggloria: LIFE ISN'T A DISNEY MOVIE!!

I found that out the hard way. :sigh: Camp Nepotism always wins...
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LaComtesse
06/30/09

@greengrey (raidersofthelostSTAR): Well, you could always go to Camp Mrs.: they have mixers with Camp Nepotism, so you could get in on that action. Of course, you'll just have to accept the fact that the girls over at Camp Call Girl frequently swim across the lake after the counselors are asleep.
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morninggloria
06/30/09

@greengrey (raidersofthelostSTAR): Camp Giving Up On Your Dreams In Your Twenties.
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PreposterousHypothesis
06/30/09

@morninggloria: Personally, I attend Camp Soul Crushing Corporate Job on a daily basis.
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LaComtesse
06/30/09

In reply to Female CEOs Mentor Girl Scouts At Camp CEO
Hooray for the GSA! The organization is great as a whole but it really comes down to your leader. MY leaders kinda sucked. They were fine enough ladies, but, I'm sorry, I JUST DON'T LIKE CRAFTS. My mom's troop (she was my sister's leader) did camp, African dancing, learned storytelling, cooking, first aid, AND did the occasional craft. The GSA really enables women to empower young girls.

And their cookies are AMAZING.
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Liz11685
06/30/09

@LaComtesse: It is GSUSA. And it is a great thing for girls.
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NewsBunny
06/30/09

@LaComtesse: My mother was our troop leader, and all that woman did was crafts. I made enough popsicle stick jewelery boxes to fill the White House.

If it's not safe for me to come out, I retract this statement.
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brinkswomanship
06/30/09

In reply to Female CEOs Mentor Girl Scouts At Camp CEO
That sounds incredibly cool, but I imagine it actually varies a lot from mentor to mentor. Awesome opportunity though! I have a vague worry that it might just turn out to be white rich people looking out for white rich people's kids, but that's because I know nothing else about it. What kind of demographic is the typical Girl Scout in the US? I don't have a feel for it.
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blueberrypancake
06/30/09

@brinkswomanship: I have to say though, I came from a "well to do" background, but I know I still would have benefited from a mentorship like this. My parents really pushed me to excel, but a lot of my peers' parents didn't because they assumed their girls would marry rich men and be mommies. So I think all girls, regardless of socio-economic status, can benefit from this.
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brinkswomanship
06/30/09

@blueberrypancake: Oh definitely, I'm not saying that children from well-off families SHOULDN'T be mentored at all! Just that I was hoping people from all sorts of demographics would benefit, not just the one.

@richcreamerybutter: Thanks, good to know!
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Liz11685
06/30/09

@brinkswomanship: Girl Scouts is present in all socio-economic classes, and they make an effort to provide scholarships to girls for these great programs who might otherwise not be able to afford it (I was one of these girls growing up).
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BeckySharper
06/30/09

In reply to Female CEOs Mentor Girl Scouts At Camp CEO
This seriously beats the shit out of what I did as a Girl Scout (cutesy after-school activities and shilling cookies).
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Fridge Hussy : Is finally heading back to uni!
06/30/09

@BeckySharper: Seriously. In Girl Guides, all we did was sings songs, go bushwalking, and hold sausage sizzles. I never got to be a CEO's manatee!
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BeckySharper
06/30/09

@Fridge Hussy : Is finally heading back to uni!: Are you an Aussie? Sausage sizzle sounds like fun...and maybe like a porn movie.

@blueberrypancake: Yeah, I give them a lot of credit for being relevant and career-oriented. I think they do a lot more public service now too--it's not just "serving God, my country, and mankind" anymore.
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SarahMC
06/30/09

In reply to Female CEOs Mentor Girl Scouts At Camp CEO
Wow, this is so much cooler than that stupid "beauty camp for girl" I was reading about recently.
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