Vox Popular | MAY 2012

Photo by Don Perry

Q&A with Angela Woods

A s CEO of Girl Scouts Heart of the South, Angela Woods has a lot to be happy about. Not only has this council had the most product sales increase out of all of the councils nationwide in 2012, but this year marks the 100th anniversary of the national organization, Girl Scouts of the USA. In light of this milestone, Woods says, “We estimate nationally that more than 50 million women in this country have been impacted and participated in Girl Scouts. My appeal would be to get back in touch with us and let us know how Girl Scouts impacted you, and let’s keep connected so we can grow our network of Girl Scout alums.”

RSVP: Were you a Girl Scout?

Yes, and I think I went up through Junior Girl Scouts. My mom was a troop leader, but when she stopped being a troop leader, I stopped being in Girl Scouts. Coming back to lead this organization years later was an interesting path for me in philanthropy.

How did you hear about the CEO job at Girl Scouts Heart of the South?

I got a phone call from a recruiter, and at that time, I was thinking about what was going to be my next step after United Way because I had been in the system at that point for almost 12 years and had done all the jobs I could do. I was really looking for more of a direct service opportunity when I got that phone call from a recruiter, who was talking about the transformation that Girl Scouts was undertaking, which peaked my interest.

When you started at Girl Scouts Heart of the South in January 2010, were there any immediate changes you wanted to make?

[Laughing] Maybe you should ask my staff that. I think not immediately. I think my approach in leadership has always been to try and learn the organization because I’m not doing my job as a leader unless I’m helping others in the organization become leaders as well. Part of how I learn is to observe and figure out what works and what doesn’t work, so I spent really the first six months just talking to people and visiting the large area that we cover. We cover 59 counties, and I’m sure I hit at least 48 of them and talked to volunteers, parents, staff and everybody about what they liked and  didn’t like about Girl Scouts Heart of the South. From there, I kind of had an idea of understanding the cultures, and we cover a lot of different cultures. We cover Western Tennessee and the top half of Mississippi, so we go all the way up to Obion County, which is the Kentucky border, and go all the way down to the Delta, down to Humphreys County, and go all the way over to the Alabama state line into Itawamba. It’s a large area, and it’s urban, suburban and rural all mixed together. There are pockets of wealth, but there are huge pockets of poverty. The way in which we deliver Girl Scouts’ services and the way in which we connect to communities has to be exceptionally localized. We can’t be corporate-centric and spread out—it’s grassroots kind of organization and driven by volunteers. That was a learning curve I had—how you attract people to your mission and retain folks you already have.

Is there anything people in this area would be surprised to know about the history of this council?

I’m sure there are a gazillion things. You know, this council was born of four separate councils, so in 2008, this council came together as a result of a merger, which was kind of precipitated by Girl Scouts of the USA. It was Reelfoot Council, which is Jackson and the whole West Tennessee area; Northwest Mississippi, which is kind of the Delta region; Northeast Mississippi, which stretches from Tupelo all the way to Itawamba; and the Mid-South, which is the greater Memphis area. Each of them had their own distinct history, and each of them had their own distinct personalities. I think what people might be surprised at is how rich and deep the traditions of Girl Scouts still are in many of our smaller, rural counties, particularly in the Delta. If there are not a lot of girl services or youth services, there’s always been Girl Scouts. If you come to more urban or metropolitan areas, people have heard of us, but a lot of people have the idea that Girl Scouts is more of an older kind of thing–it’s not necessarily right in their radar screen.

How many girls are in Girl Scouts Heart of the South?

We serve more than 10,000 girls. We’re looking to move that number up to 12,000 girls. I think nationally the membership has gone down throughout the last several years for a number of reasons. I think in this area it’s especially challenging because of the diversity of economics of the choices that girls now have in terms of time. There was a time when there wasn’t as much to do. Now, there’s a lot of stuff for girls to do. I think because of visibility and access to Girl Scouting, we have spent a lot of time the last couple of years not making Girl Scouts about a building, but about a leadership experience. We now take Girl Scouting out of this building and go into the communities, which I think has made a tremendous difference because people aren’t knocking on our door. We’ve got to find them, and we have to really make an effort to say we really do have some great leadership programming for people to take to their communities and help girls become confident and self-aware. We do that a lot and do it in partnership with existing organizations.

How many troops are in this council?

More than 800, but we also have girls who aren’t in troops. It really depends on how the girl wants to experience it. They’re also working on a virtual Girl Scout experience because that’s how all our girls communicate.

Is there one aspect in particular that you can attribute the success of the organization as a whole to in light of Girl Scouts’ 100th anniversary?

It would be the volunteers. Girl Scouts more than any other organization—well, the Red Cross and the Salvation Army are probably other good examples—has programs that are 100 percent driven by volunteers, and there are so many stories across our region about women and men who have dedicated their time and effort to take on Girl Scouting as their mission. It is amazing what they do on behalf of girls.

Do you know how many volunteers are active in this council?

About 3,500, and we could use double that number. We did our strategic planning exercise at the end of last year during a lot of focus groups, and it was very important to me to not just talk to Girl Scout folks, but to talk to people who knew nothing about Girl Scouts. The number one thing I thought they were going to say was that we need to focus on girl membership, but what our focus groups said was that we need to focus on volunteer support. Without volunteers, we cannot get access to girls, deliver the program or spread the message throughout 59 counties.

Has there been any major change within the organization that has made Girl Scouts more relevant to today’s culture?

I have to say that it’s both an internal and external change. Internally, we experienced in 2011, a year to the date I started, a huge decline in our cookie sales, almost 25 percent. The way Girl Scouts is funded is largely through cookie sales, donations, corporate grants and that sort of thing, but the majority of our funding comes from the annual cookie sales. So, when our numbers were down, and our cookie sales were down 25 percent, we knew at that moment in time that we weren’t going to be able to make the number up. We had to do some significant cost-cutting, staff realignment and we had layoffs. There had been issues and issues and issues, and finally, this particular time in the economy, people didn’t buy cookies and didn’t feel connected to Girl Scouts, and it all kind of came out. After we determined this was going to be a hit for us, we had to figure out the plan going forward. It was either that we were going to do this really well or die a slow death, so I think our staff said that it’s too important for us to do that. Everybody became intimately acquainted with every possible job in here, so there’s not one person who doesn’t know how to do the job of someone else. We re-involved our volunteers in the process. What’s happened in the interim is we went from a 25 percent decrease to record-setting cookie sales this year. We’re 37 percent over last year and are 11 percent above our projected budget. We are number one in the country for product sales increase.

Are the Forever Green Take Action Projects associated with the 100th anniversary?

You know, the part of it that becomes a celebration of the 100th year is what Girl Scouts have kind of been doing all along, which is conservation and protecting the environment. So, what we’ve done on the individual girl and troop level is say “come up with ideas of how you can support your environment.” A lot of our troops are doing 100 things, like community service projects, collecting clothes or helping at the Humane Society. It really depends on what’s needed in their communities, and that’s part of the whole experience—to understand what’s going on in your town and how you as a girl can make decisions to make your community better. This year nationally is the “Year of the Girl,” which I think is cool. The focus is on providing girls with everything they need to become leaders and to minimize the leadership gap that we currently have.

What are some ways you’re hoping to increase the visibility of Girl Scouts?

I think through figuring out what is the best and most strategic way to get our message out there. For us, it was naturally a great opportunity to get our message out because we’re in our 100th year. What better way to kind of celebrate that? We don’t have a huge marketing budget, but we started a marketing committee and connected the committee with our various troops. We’re taking a different approach in having relationships with the media by being proactive about putting more positive stories out there. Also, when you have alumni out there telling stories about how Girl Scouts impacted their lives, it helps.

What are some of the biggest issues that girls involved in Girls Scouts are facing in today’s society, and how is the organization helping them deal with these issues?

I think keeping girls focused on what’s important for their development and not allowing this organization or any other organization to be caught up unnecessarily in the cultural war that’s happening in the political system. It’s very divisive. Girl Scouts I think has been pulled into that some for a variety of reasons. I will tell you though that our responsibility is to keep girls focused on being confident, courageous and making the world a better place. Whether it’s in a church, a mosque or a community center, we want every girl to have access to our leadership programs, have fun and experience new things. Sometimes it can be difficult if the organization gets pulled by things not in our mission. For us, it takes us off mission because at the end of the day all we really care about is what’s best for the girls. Also, people might not know that Girl Scouts has always been an organization that supports girls in whatever faith journey they have.

What has been one of your most rewarding experiences so far with the organization?

I think the most rewarding thing has been seeing members of my staff come into their own. I gave you the example of what happened to us last year, so when we turned the corner this year and were told we had the number one product sales increase in the country, I was glad to see members of my staff, who literally lived here around the clock to make this happen, be proud of what they’d done. It put a pep in their step, and they were able to hold their heads high.