Girl Scouts - Today?

(This is probably the beginning of a series of posts on Girl Scouts. I work slowly these days.)

A week ago now I went to a parent information and organizational meeting for a Daisy Scout troop. One of the first grade moms at Monkey1's school had responded to the bulletin announcement. A troop was in the works! I think eight moms attended, women I knew to varying degrees due to our daughters all being in first grade this year, the kindergarten class last year, and the preschool "Bunny" class the year before that. Only one mother had never been a Girl Scout.

The meeting hostess, a leader for a troop of now sixth graders at our Catholic school, showed us her daughter's Daisy apron, and Brownie and Junior sashes, talked about some of the things they had done to earn badges, and what we needed to do to start a troop.

With one or two meetings a month, Daisy Scouts would introduce the girls to earning "petals" (patches to attach to their uniform) for different activities. Troops are allowed to take a pass on cookie selling the first year of existence. 

 I came home from the one-hour meeting exhausted. This pregnancy I've been climbing into bed between 6:30 and 7:00 (and shouting directions to get the Monkeys through the pajama, teeth brushing, etc. part of bedtime preparation - which is not very effective - culminating in them climbing into bed with me with books to be read), and this meeting had started at 7:00. 

Soon one of my college friends sent me a series of messages, attaching articles titled: "Planned Parenthood distributes sexually explicit brochures at Girl Scout meeting," "Children Leaving Girl Scouts Due to 'Planned Parenthood' Affiliations," and a website called Speak Now Girl Scouts, set up by two teens, former Girl Scouts.

I had a sleepless night. I had heard about a Girl Scouts- Planned Parenthood connection before, as one of my friends had colorfully put it, "Planned Parenthood has their hands down the pants of the Girls Scouts," and I had looked into it briefly at the time, but it was a bit ago and didn't exactly stay uppermost in my mind.

Was this bad enough to keep my six-year-old out of Girl Scouts? Or do we join, and I become a thorn in the side of National?

Wait - when did I become an activist?

I kept searching and reading.
At lot of uproar centered around a closed door meeting (workgroup/panel participants only, one extraneous observer was shooed out) at the U.N. in 2010. Except the last time I heard about this meeting, I'm pretty sure it was dated 2004 or earlier. But I can't find anything but 2010 now, so I'll leave it at that.

I found the following at the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry:

"In the last several days NFCYM has received inquiries about a meeting at the United Nations with Girl Scouts of the USA and whether or not Girl Scouts of the USA distributed offensive material to girls. Our practice, as an organization, is to investigate such matters by going directly to the source involved. Therefore we contacted GSUSA and they have officially offered the statement below. Please share this with those in your diocese who have voiced any concerns with you. This is a good reminder that at times we can be quick to render judgment without fact, that not all information offered on the Internet is accurate, and that our organizational integrity is at stake when we fail to properly investigate allegations.

Statement from Girl Scouts USA
Earlier this month, Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) was honored to attend and participate in the 54th Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations, where girls were encouraged to take action on global issues concerning women and girls. Our participation in that conference was recently the subject of numerous internet stories and blogs that are factually inaccurate and troubling. Here are the facts of that meeting:
*The Girls Only Workshop was jointly hosted by Girl Scouts of the USA, UNICEF’s Working Group on Girls, Girls Learn International and The Grail. The meeting was only open to the girls and participating sponsors.
*Only seven adults were in the room at the time of the meeting, each representing one of the sponsors of the event. No one from Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute was in the room to report on the event.
*30-35 girls from across the world participated in this event. All teenagers.
*The girls received a copy of the only document they were working on titled (“The Girls’ Statement”). No other documents were given to the girls as part of this event.
*The room in question was also used to host other events over the course of the multi-day conference. Prior to our girls entering the room, we did not “sanitize’ the room to ensure that no trash or other items were left behind. We did request that those not associated with the sponsors to leave the room prior to our session.
*The Girl Scouts of the USA was not contacted by Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) regarding its initial story to discuss the facts of this event. Had they applied these basic journalistic standards, perhaps the true details of this event would have been reported.

Our Mission in Girl Scouting is to build girls of courage, confidence and character–who make the world a better place. We continue to be proud of our girls and look forward to showing the world what our girls can do. We thank everyone for their support of Girl Scouting."

Well now. Are the Girl Scouts pulling the wool over the eyes of the Youth Ministers, or is this an urban legend?