Your Turn to Talk, Part IV

 I've never gotten so many comments, and at this point most are sounding alike.  Those published here are not random, they are pretty much those that express some opinion that caught my eye or sounded different than what was said before.  In three previous posts I've only gotten through 400 responses and I don't have time to copy and paste all of the rest of them.  

• I’m fine with a dues increase; everything costs more and honestly $25 (my council does not charge dues) is way below what other activities and sports cost. However, what they propose to do with the extra money is out of touch with what leaders want. We don’t need more marketing, more DEIRJ stuff, or more STEM things like an innovation lab. We keep losing girls to Boy Scouts because of the adventure/outdoor activities they offer and GSUSA should be addressing that. If Girl Scouts can bring more of that back, like bringing back National Center West, they’d bring in more girls who were going to go to Boy Scouts which would mean more revenue. All without spending on more social media ads or paying influencers. I don’t understand why they abandoned so much of what was core to Girl Scouts; my girls clamor to do things like sewing, cooking, camping, survival skills, etc. It’s all things they don’t learn in school and all things that used to be part of Girl Scouts.
  
  
• I’m appalled when I ask new scouts to join our troop and I have to explain how much the GS council fees are.  I’m embarrassed by the GSUSA and council leadership.  If scouting is girl run than GSUSA and the council should be girl and leader run and we shouldn’t need to pay for so much!  They don’t consider our opinions.
  
  
• I would feel better about an increase if I felt GSUSA was doing a better job with what they already get. I don't feel like I get much for my money,  the websites are terrible and information is disorganized. 
  
  
• GSUSA seems to want to go woke and go broke. By broke I mean loose members. They should read the news and see the number of fortune  500 companies that are dropping the types of programs they are suggesting because they do nothing to help the organizations. Focus on the girl lead outdoor fun that made GS the organization it is.  We spend a large amount of the year selling stuff to support the troop. Where is all the money going that doesn’t come to the troop?  I think GSUSA is top heavy with people who aren’t producing for the troops why do they need more to do what they should be doing?  Why do some troops need to sell sell sell and then i- proposal is pay more so we can support other troops. Hello read the economy people are hurting. I’m not against helping people but troops can support themselves by selling cookies just like ours does. 
  
  
• 240% increase is unreasonable and way too big of an increase that my troop is not going to benefit directly from. Troops don’t need overpriced boxes with items they are not going to use. The plans regarding how to allocate the extra proceeds are overly ambitious and wholly unnecessary. These girls work so hard to sell cookies and, in return, they receive merely pennies in profit per box. If the registration fee is to be raised by 240%, they should allow girls and troops to receive a SUBSTANTIALLY higher profit from cookie sales. 
  
  
• I have been a leader for 10 years, and my daughter is the only one remaining in her troop now that they're in high school. These proposals are so frustrating because it does nothing for older girls, which are already the area that needs the most help. Why do you think so many girls drop out in middle school or high school?
  
  
• One of my big hangups is that there is no way to hold GSUSA or the National Board accountable for these incentives if they don't follow through with their promises. They become empty promises if circumstances change like leadership or if membership drops below what was expected and they don't bring in funding like they anticipated. 
  
  
• I’m laughing at your repetition of the word horrible. Also, I believe the whole organization is a racket! I was a scout. I’m glad my girls are scouts. But I am sick to death of feeling like they’re just after money. Our camp is in rotten condition. We DO pay council dues. The cookie rewards are stingy especially when I can see online what other councils offer their girls. My troop pays through the nose trying to buy our girls various badges and things and it does in turn take away from the experiences we are able to offer them. In closing, you are SO spot on, the take action project is a nightmare there’s one lady on our SU Awards board and no matter what you propose she says it’s a service project and not a take action project. When I ask for a list of take action projects we could “adopt” surprise we got crickets. When we try to fix something up at our rotting camp we are denied by the adopt a camp team and the project committee. So we have to look out in the community for a take action project, while the camp languishes in disarray in front of us. The whole system is so top heavy. I wish the councils were more consistent with each other. It’s hard not to feel jealous when we see the camp one council over offering horseback riding and other experiences that are not available to us. In summary I understand the cost of everything has gone up but do I have any faith or confidence that our extra dues money would go anywhere useful, no I do not. Thanks for letting me vent. 
  
  
• More marketing is not needed, everyone has heard of Girl Scouts! The problem is a lack of leaders and volunteers, so make the badge material fun and realistic so that leaders don’t have to reinvent the wheel to make badge work engaging and hands-on. Second problem is the stress of cookie season - make the website work properly, give volunteers plenty of time to get trained, don’t push troops to take on more risk than they can handle, and get rid of the cheap-o trinket rewards that end up in the trash. Raising the dues by a factor of 4 will turn away tons of people especially if they don’t see the value coming back to them, and still have to have their 8-year-olds try to sell $7 cookie packages.
  
  
• I don't think we need new programming but I love the idea of a badge book. Fir me it is just easier to have it printed than to have to rely on digital. In fact I would like to see some of the older badges come back. And more individual topics for CSAs.
  
  
• Local is better.  GSUSA programming options continue to be weak. 
  
  
• Many troops use cookie proceeds to pay renewal fees. Going from a reasonable $275 for 11 scouts to $700 to $1000 would wipe out cookie sale proceeds for many troops. My troop earned $4000 last year and made our council $20,000. If we had to pay $1100 of that $4000 back in dues to the organization that we earned it from, I'd be furious. It seems like a scam and reminds me of company scrip. Most of the things on that chart are being done already. Who is currently writing handbooks and badge requirements? Surely there is a person and a budget. Why is there additional expense involved in that? Who is currently working on older girl experiences and rewards? Surely there is a person for that and they have a budget. I see very few things on that chart that probably do not exist at all at GSUSA. This increase has me suspicious that finances are poor and possibly not well stewarded and they are trying to right the ship and pass the cost on to participants and VOLUNTEERS. I've volunteered with so many organizations over the years and have never been asked to pay a cent for the pleasure of doing so. This organization needs to get leaner and more efficient, not balloon with new initiatives and expenses. 
  
  
• Girls at the bottom of the income ladder will get GS promoted, girls at the top of the ladder will have no problem. Those of us in the middle will suffer and membership will go down. 

• The girls in this program deserve better and should demand better! Girl Scout Journeys need to be overhauled, or done away with. We need more and better badges! Some of the older ones that were retired in the late 90s and 2000 need to come back! If the dues are going to increase then we need better programing!
  
  
• I like what girl scouts is. It would be less intimidating to start a troop with a box of detailed activity guidance, and dei is always good. But increasing dues will decrease membership, especially among older girls because they already have so many other pricey activities to choose from.
  
  
• I have always felt that if GS actually invested in the LEADER EXPERIENCE recruitment would not be a constant need. Most new troops in my area only last a year or two because the leader is overwhelmed, burned out or simply did not want to put that much effort into leading.  Those girls rarely move to another troop and instead are no longer members.  In my Council there are so many different systems leaders are supposed to use to communicate, reserve meeting rooms or camps, register, VTK, register for programs….  Make things simple, provide better support, quit expecting adults to learn all this and start a troop the same week….  And stop expecting us tenured leaders to constantly devote time to training, supporting and basically babysitting new leaders year after year. 
  
  
• I get the rising cost of inflation. Our own council in Texas had to do some serious consolidation which will (and has) impact our scouts. We're a large council, but over half of the scouts use some type of financial assistance already and that's with the membership at $25. Our council doesn't do dues. They also give assistance for uniform pins and insignia. Us volunteers already shell out $25 for our membership, and then $35+ for TCL every 2 years, and $65+ for CPR/first aid ... That's not including anything fun to give other opportunities when camping so archery is another cost. Needing lifeguards if there's any water at a campground, so that's ANOTHER cost to get certification. And then add in the 6-10 hours a month in meeting planning, holding meetings, monthly service unit meetings, fun weekend events, etc. It's a LOT of time and money. Basically, I worry that folks will want to stay but can't. So they will go rogue. Want to camp? Fine, just don't attach the GS name to it. I think there will be a lot of that over the next year or 3...
  
  
• I do not think any more money should be spent on diversity training.  Well I think diversity is a great thing. I don’t want my money going towards it.  I think the experience boxes for daisies are a great idea for first time leaders however I feel like I got through my first year as a daisy without them and I paid for all my materials using the troop dues that I set. I don’t think that all members should have to pay for something that only daisies are doing  If a daisy leader wants to buy them, I feel like they should have the option to purchase them with their own troop funds, but I do not feel like they should be a membership cost   I do not feel like the experience box would do well at the higher level because by that point most of the leaders have figured out how they prefer to run their meetings and use their own materials. In my area, there are not many seniors and ambassadors so I really feel like money would be wasted on boxes for that level.   I already feel like the volunteers do a ton of work for Girl Scouts. My girls work very hard to sell cookies every year and then we end up spending that money on more Girl Scout things, including badges and badge packets.   Regarding the badge requirements  - I feel like you could easily put all of the badge packet requirement PDF online and offer them to troops for free  it’s part of the programming that we signed up for, and we should have access to the badge requirements For free. And I know they are listed in the volunteer tool kit, but it is not the same as having the badge packet. The preplanned meetings are a joke. I just want to see the list of requirements that I need to meet and the options that I can do to meet them. Nobody needs a preplanned meeting script to tell them to walk in and say hello to the girls. Just tell us how to earn the badge.  I personally love paper copies of things so I would love a badge requirement book so I can hold it in my hand, but I can pay for that with my own money.  I feel like the badge requirements should be available for free since we pay to be a part of this program. We should know what the program is.    Regarding the cookie money- We have to pay for the badges once they earn them and they are expensive. So not only does most of our cookie money go towards the council and GSUSA the money that we earned as a troop from cookie sales also goes back to the council and GSUSA. They say that the money goes towards making camp affordable and making programming, but we still have to pay to go to camp. We still have to pay to go to the programming that is provided by our council.  And honestly, most of the programming that is provided by our council is over an hour away so we don’t use it anyway. I feel like my troop contributes a lot of money to Girl Scouts, but I feel like we get nothing back for it.   As for spending money on the digital cookie platform in my area, nobody wants to sell cookies online. Girls want to sell them door-to-door and in person. We hate the online platform and do not have any interest in selling cookies online. The shipping is exorbitant, and it completely removes the in person experience.  I am also a service unit manager in my area and I feel like I do a ton of work for the program, including recruiting for troops, organizing those troops, planning events for my service unit, which are paid for totally by my service unit. I love doing it, but I also feel like a paid employee of Girl Scouts should be doing this work.  Or the service unit manager should be paid for their work. The Girl Scout troops in my area, get a lot out of our programming that is planned by the service unit, but we also pay for all of it by charging for people to come to our events. We get very little support from the Girl Scout organization in financial support. We only get maybe $300 a year in cookie profits but we have over 300 girls in my service unit. It’s very hard to throw an event for one dollar per girl.  So in short, I am not in favor of a dues increase because I do not feel like any of it will go to my troop or my council or my service unit in a beneficial way. I feel like it will all be spent on trying to be woke or trying to diversify the organization or on boxes that should be purchased by the leaders instead
  
  
• . My council is currently building a multi-million dollar STEM center that will largely sit unused, all while we have cabins with significant rodent issues and our tent and adorindak units are in very poor repair. Im going to have a VERY hard time convincing my troop families to stay on with a huge price hike, and our programming will suffer when I can't get parents to register as helpers because it's so much. I can support an increase, but a modest one, not the huge jumps they are asking for. Imo, even going to $45 for girls is too much and will cause harm. 
  
  
• GSUSA needs to stop changing badges so often so that a book is a feasible option. Focus on better CSA programs for retention. Stop taking things from older girls and making it available for all levels. Give the younger girls something to look forward to. I don't see any of the school postings or recruitment currently because my own daughter has graduated. We don't currently need financial aid in our household because we have been able to get lifetime membership either by purchasing as a family or by the troop purchasing. We have used it in the past and would likely need it for this increase if my daughter was still a youth member.
  
  
• I think they need to improve programing first to make girls and their families want to stay. Maybe offer family discounts and leader discounts as well. 
  
  
• A significant raise of the membership fee will lead to a lot of families not being able to afford the program. As for revamping the program, they should take the world to explore, modernize where necessary and not spend a lot of money on it. Better yet, find volunteers with the credentials to write the program and not raise our fees. 
  
  
• I wish they would bring back more if the art badges (drawing, jewelry, etc). You could do so many things, now it's 1 generic badge. They have focused on online/computer badges, but most families do Girl Scouts to not have kids on screens. I really think it is a miss by GSUSA.
  
  
• While I support a price increase, especially if it brings about the changes that they say will happen,  I worry about pricing out some families. I also want to see more support to volunteers. I started a troop 5 years ago and still feel like I am scrambling to figure out meetings. It feels like gs is only worried about recruiting and then leaves leaders to figure it out on their own. Badges in a box would be helpful to get going, but they would also need to address multi level troops, and the size of troops. (I have 6 girls in my troop, I don't want to buy a box for 12 girls) As for badges, stem is great, but steam is better. The a stands for arts, which is what my girls love. 
  
  
• Costs have increased across the board everywhere. While I don’t want to price girls out of Girl Scouts, there does need to be investment into the program and dues are a good way to achieve this. I think it would be helpful for new leaders of young girls to have the monthly support and it will hopefully grow the program. 
  
  
• Money won’t fix the issues. Hiring the right people and improving programming would be more impactful. 
  
  
• It is unfathomable to me that they are actually considering such a massive increase in dues, so suddenly. They will lose memberships if they go this route. Girl Scouts is supposed to be an inclusive organization meant to inspire girls to be leaders, help their community and be a sister to others... not a rich kids club!
  
  
• Our council offers a lot of financial aide, almost every girl in my troop uses it and has their membership cost covered by FA. We live in a low income county so if they want to keep numbers steady and growing it would not be smart to increase membership prices. 
  
  
• Almost all of my troop is on Fa my girls  do not even have vests anymore. They only have their tabs as their parents couldn't  afford them . The 85 dollar jump would be hard for myself to make as well. As we are closer to aging out we are doing less stuff but that rate would  probably  end the troop
  
  
• It's not clear to me what GSUSA provides.  It seems that the activities near my troop are all organized by my local counsel.  I also think that girls should be able to earn membership fees as part of their cookie sales.  The prizes are unnecessary and wasteful. 
  
  
• We have a hard enough time getting other troop adults to volunteer, let alone pay to do so. Girl Scouts is appealing to many in our troop because it is an additional low-cost activity their girls can participate in. I can see how the pricing compares to Cub Scouts but worry we will lose more participants with a sudden great rise in cost for both Scouts and adults. I would appreciate more help for leaders' planning, but the rise in cost would be a big deal for some.
  
  
• I didn’t sign my son up for Boy Scouts in large part due to the high registration fees. I don’t think that my troop will see any benefit from the increase in dues. They are older now and planning for the older girls always takes a back seat to what Girl Scouts does to bring in new younger girls/troops. I can’t see the cost going up while also making troops pay so much for badges, badge requirements, handbooks, etc. EVERYTHING costs extra money in Girl Scouts. 
  
  
• The sheer fact that 40% of the income is spent on salaries and benefits is ridiculous. The money is hardly trickling down to the troops. The problem isn’t going to be solved by asking your base of the pyramid to keep paying more and more to pad the pockets of the tip top. You’ll lose girls. 
  
  
• I understand the thinking that if there were more leader volunteers, there'd be more Girl Scouts and that the org just needs more members to survive. Without more volunteers, they can't make it happen. So these boxes are the key to supporting new leaders who don't know how to run a meeting? But in general, I just don't trust their programming. I've found it bizarrely both above and below age level, as far as appropriateness. Not fun. Too much talking. I put in so much work to plan and prepare for meetings, let alone hikes, camping trips, and other activities, with no support. Which sucks, but I don't know how that would be improved by this fee increase. 
  
  
• I find it totally inappropriate and not in alignment with the values that adapting marking for all girls doesn’t happen until the fee is raised to $100. If we truly want to make Girl Scouts something accessible to everyone, then this shift in marketing should be happening already. Also, spending money to offer experience boxes for free seems like a waste of money, as their isn’t investment to lead to appreciation, it’s not girl led and many leaders adapt programming to fit their girls specific interests. Seems like the additional funding doesn’t actually align with the goals of Girl Scouts, however if it did, I wouldn’t have a problem with raised fees. 
  
  
• I think sending every troop the experience boxes without opting in is wasteful. If the troop doesn’t want to do the activity, those supplies go to waste. Also if the troop is not the right size for the box, there is either waste or need to buy additional supplies. They don’t work for multi-level troops.
  
  
• Besides insurance, I’m not sure what GSUSA actually does for my troop so I can’t fathom paying $85 a year for them to do it. 
  
  
• Badge programming has not impressed me at all. GSUSA needs to focus on that! New badges are not in line with Girl interests and I find many activities are not engaging for girls. Journeys are strange, the titles are often appealing and when I review the material, I’m underwhelmed. Having to do a Junior journey before a Bronze Award feels redundant for a troop that has focused on leadership and progression as we are asked to do. Badge books are too expensive and VTK is not useful, it’s clunky and meeting plans are needlessly wordy. Do you know how many outdoor badges require you to learn Leave No Trace?? We got it the first time!! Programming needs to be in line with what girls like. I would like to see many more outdoor badges and badges that build tangible skills. Instead of a “Craft and Tinker” badge why not a sewing badge (I believe it’s been retired)? Why bother learning about “maker spaces” when we don’t have any “making” skills. A  3D printing badge would be great! When asked to select badges, Girls are drawn to things that are straightforward and/or exciting like horseback riding, climbing, outdoor art, detective, home scientist, bugs, simple meals, first aid, hiker, eco camper. I would like to see an increase in membership dues and would support up to $45 but I would want the extra $20 to go to my council for more professional support for Service Units and troops. I don’t want GSUSA to package what they feel is the optimal GS experience, I want them to focus on volunteer recruitment and support.  GS magic happens in troop meetings and SU events when volunteers lead Girls in meaningful experiences. That’s what needs to be the focus.
  
  
• I'm opposed the increase. I don't think it will actually improve anything. We have more girls wanting to join than parents wanting to lead. Marketing isn't going to help that. The cost of scouts plus buying those stupid badge booklets because the volunteer tool kit site sucks. Put those booklet in one big book or even better put them on the website in PDF and make life easier for the leaders/moms. I see troops dropping because Mom's are having to work and lead and Mom can't do it all anymore and no one wants to step up so it just dissolves. and girls wanting to join but no one to lead. Let's figure out that problem rather than marketing more when you can't even put girls in troops. 
  
  
• A small increase may be justified, but this proposal is ridiculous.
  
  
• It is necessary and appropriate to increase dues. I'd love to see an early bird discount...
  
  
• Increasing the membership for girls by $10 or even $15 will be a hardship for some families but local councils and troops will likely be able to help with financial assistance. Raising it $60 is completely unacceptable and raising the adult volunteer membership from $25 to $45 when we've been told that we should have every adult who is ever going to volunteer at a troop meeting become an adult member actually means most families will see a $80 increase since I am sure we are the only troop that asks all parents/caregivers to volunteer at at least one troop meeting per semester. 
  
  
• $25 has always seemed low to me. But I think a jump to $65 in one year will be sticker shock for most. With $65, the changes need to be observable and Digital Cookie better be amazing. The change would also be better received if it was made clear where that money goes (and does not go). More financial transparency would help with PR. Show how much Girl Scouts costs versus (Boy) Scouts, vs dance team, vs  volleyball. Promote the benefits. On the topic of dues... if we are charging $65, Troop volunteers should only pay a nominal amount. Otherwise, in order to have ratio adults registered, each family is paying at least $130 per year, plus the cost of uniforms. Could volunteers do a voluntary amount? I've seen places that let the purchaser decide, while giving information. Such as, "Your contribution of time and talent drives the success of Girl Scouts. With your registration, please contribute at the dues level you prefer. $x suggested minimum to cover the insurance premiums GS pays for your involvement.  Dues of $xx would also help support financial assistance.  Dues of $xxx would help fund maintenance and improvements to Digital Cookie and the website." Etc.
  
  
• There is already sufficient marketing for GSACPC. What we really need is more leaders before we recruit more girls. Invest in leader recruitment and provide digital copies of the badge books for free. I like to look at the badge books for reference, but they are too prescriptive and assume girls are in a group setting and have access to a deciduous forest; that does not work for Juliette’s, those like me that live in the desert, and any troop that may need to adapt the material for girls with mobility limitations,  learning differences, or anyone else who is not able-bodied. 
  
  
• Something I have seen year after year is Girl Scout Council staff will recruit girls and lead an interest night at the school, and they will have girls sign up and pay dues before a troop leader has been identified. Then we have parents who say “Oh, I paid $25 for my daughter to join Girl Scouts and their troop never met again. I’m not doing that again!” This has been a major issue in my rural area where there aren’t enough leaders. It’s one thing to pay $25, but anything more than that and you’re gonna have angry parents and a bad reputation. 
  
  
• I am a co-leader of a rural troop that uses cookie money to pay dues, buy badges, etc. If the price increases most of our troop will no longer be able to participate in girl scouts. I’ve seen what happens with funding for “poor kids.” If it is anything like public school funding it will go to suburbia and not make it to rural areas.  One thing I love about GS is how affordable it is. We have girls in our troop who have their first ever s'more with us, their first ever campfire, their first ever trip across county lines. It really does open their eyes and minds. Why not prioritize that, GSUSA?
  
  
• Don't turn into the boy scouts.  Fees skyrocketed.  My son is in scouts but I had to drop out as a volunteer because I could not afford fees for both of us.  They are horrible about financial assistance and shame you by bringing it up in front of a committee of members from the troop if you ask for assistance.  GS has been affordable and I have appreciated being able to ask council for financial assistance rather than the leader whose kid goes to same school as mine.
  
  
• My family quit bsa because we could no longer afford it.  We requested financial aid and were told to ask our troop to see if someone would pay for them.  We preferred to quit. Unfortunately, this proposed increase will have a similar effect on girl scouts, especially if aid is limited or unavailable.  
  
  
• Prioritizing Girl Scouts and making the experience better for everyone is a great idea. $25 for membership is unreasonably low. Every activity my kids have participated in has been much higher in cost, but families still prioritize those activities. I do think scholarships should still be an option. A sliding scale might also benefit those in need. I want to see Girl Scouts succeed. 
  
  
• One of the biggest problems is nobody wants to lead. A lot of people want their girls in Girl Scouts but nobody wants to lead. You need to provide a discount for those who do lead. If you increase the fees leaders with girls in scouting get 20% to half off or something like that. Just a thought. 
  
  
• A real challenge is the variability in each troop’s level of activity. We have some local troops that meet weekly, some bi-monthly, some once a month. That is largely driven by availability of the volunteer leaders and the competing activities on girls’ schedules. With a price increase as steep as is proposed, families will expect to see an increased value-add to the programming their daughters are receiving. Ultimately, they will expect more from their volunteer leaders to justify that they’re getting their money’s worth. As girls have gotten older (and their schedules busier), my troop now meets only once a month. I am maxed out with working full time and juggling all my kids’ other activities. I have no more time to give and do not know how I would be able to demonstrate a value-add to support this price increase, especially with such little parent support.  Increasing volunteer fees will result in less parents registering to give their time to the troop (I already have a parent with extra time on her hands who refuses to volunteer with Girl Scouts out of principal because she refuses to pay a fee to donate her time - she otherwise volunteers with an animal rescue, her school’s PTA, and her son’s soccer league because they do not require people to pay to help).  I have thought about quitting as a leader because volunteering with other organizations just seems easier. My husband coached softball. It was a limited season (not year-long commitment of time), the governing organization assigns you a field and takes care of the scheduling (in GS, leaders carry the burden of finding their own meeting space), and they provide all the equipment and a step-by-step plan for each practice (in GS you spend an extraordinary amount of time outside meetings buying supplies & sometimes sending “make-up homework” if girls missed a meeting and want to complete the activity on their own). GS also requires hours and hours of training. Comparatively, my husband had like a 30 minute meeting to prep for coaching softball. Being a GS leader honestly feels like having another part-time job. Further, now that my girls are Cadettes, a substantial number of them are involved in travel sports and dance. The cost of these other activities is now very expensive relative to when they were younger. They continue with Girl Scouts because it is affordable and something they can wrap around their other commitments. They will not return if the costs increase too much because their families are now paying significantly more for other extracurriculars that my girls prioritize over GS. Those other priorities will win (including with my own daughter). Further, much of what the increased fee is suggested to cover will not be seen by or impact existing troops and our families. The plan largely speaks to technology improvements (our cookie mom is the only one who sees the cookie management software - the girl side of that is fine). My families have no interest in paying for recruitment (they do not want to increase our troop size because then I need more parents to help carpool to events & the parents don’t want to help). Kits for beginning troops do not benefit existing troops that would be subsidizing the cost of the materials. The descriptions of what would benefit existing troops, especially for older girls, are too vague for me to trust that value will be realized. And, if that value is not realized, families will take their frustrations out on the volunteer leaders, not on the national organization. 
  
  

Well, now I've gotten through 899 of the responses, which is about half of them.  Thanks to all who participated. 

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