It's All About the Girls...Not the Adults

It's not all about you ... Recently, my husband and I were having a nice Saturday lunch out.   I got up to get something, and when I returned, he was chuckling.   When I asked him what he was laughing about,   he said the couple near him was having an argument.   She had offered him part of her food; he took it and proceeded to consume a great deal of her meal.   She was so taken aback that she lost her temper and said, loud enough for everyone to hear, "It's not all about you; it isn't always about you."  

Since then, it has been a joke between us. When someone does something insensitive or unconsciously one of us says, "It's not all about you," which always brings a laugh.   When I first moved to Alabama, I had a board member say, "oh it is so wonderful what Girl Scouts does for women," meaning the volunteers.   I asked her if that, the volunteers, is what she thought Girl Scouts was about. Yes was her response.   Since then, there has been a philosophical shift in the organization -- that it is about the GIRLS, not the leaders.   That doesn't sound like a huge difference to most of you, but it is a difference nonetheless.   

On occasion, I do meet volunteers who seem to believe the Girl Scout experience is all about them.   I've had a running battle with staff members who say, "She isn't like that with the girls."   My response is always that, I believe if a volunteer behaves that way with me, she behaves that way with the girls.  We value our volunteers, and girls would not have the Girl Scout Leadership Experience if it weren't for the generosity of the 3,500 adults of this council.   But what we do is "all about the GIRLS."   It is our future and something we should remember at all times.