GOVERNANCE
Area Associations Will Meet in February
It seems that you like the opportunity to attend Area Association meetings on different nights during the week. A record number of delegates, alternates and non-voting members – more than 200 volunteers and girls – attended the fall meetings. Yes, the National Council Session preparation was particularly interesting, but we want you to come to the spring meetings and encourage members age 14 and above to attend as well. Topics of interest will include a wrap-up of National Council Session info, preliminary info on the council’s long-range planning and resources, and planning info for the Annual Meeting.
Each Area Association meeting will have the same agenda – it will have a board member, National Council Delegate and a staff member there to help answer questions, and it will start at 7 p.m. It’s up to you to choose the meeting that best meets your schedule and your commute. If you can’t get to your regular area’s meeting, choose a different meeting. Here are your options:
Area A - Thurs., Feb. 26 First Baptist Church,
37511 Church Ave., Dade City
Area B - Thurs., Feb. 26 St. Vincent DePaul,
4843 Mile Stretch Dr., Holiday
Area C - Thurs., Feb. 26 St. Paul United
Methodist Church, 1199 Highland Ave. Largo
Area D - Tues., Feb. 24 Pinellas Park Library,
7770 52nd St., Pinellas Park
Area E - Wed., Feb. 25 Tampa Service Center,
5002 W. Lemon St., Tampa
Area F - Mon., Feb. 23 Corpus Christi Catholic
Church, 9715 N. 56th St., Temple
Terrace
Area G - Thurs., Feb. 26 Brandon Christian
Church, 910 Bryan Rd., Brandon
Area H - Tues., Feb. 24 St. Mark’s United
Methodist Church, 1839 NE 8th Rd., Ocala
Area I - Thurs., Feb. 26 Camp Wildwood
Area J - Thurs., Feb. 26 Christ United Methodist
Church, 745 Lake Miriam Dr.,
Lakeland*
Area K - Thurs., Feb. 26 Hope Presbyterian
Church, 2110 Cypress Gardens Blvd.,
Winter Haven
*New location!
2009 Annual Meeting – Start Planning to Attend
The second Annual Meeting of Girl Scouts of West
Central Florida will be on Saturday morning, April 18
at the new Phyllis Marshall Student Life Center at the
University of South Florida.
We’re excited to be one of the first events in the new, recently-opened Marshall Center. The state-of-the-art facility has a huge ballroom, great A/V capabilities and large rooms that will accommodate our pre-meeting forums nicely.
Plan now to carpool to the Annual Meeting. Although there is plenty of parking near the Marshall Center, you will have to pay to park and if you don’t already have a parking pass for USF, you’ll have to stop briefly at the visitor’s center on the way in and get a parking ticket from the machine. But since we’ve been Girl Scouts of West Central Florida, our logistics requirements for the Annual Meeting are B-I-G and there aren’t many venues in our eight counties that can meet our space and technical needs. So we hope you will carpool – it’s the green thing to do anyway – and plan a couple extra minutes and dollars for parking.
The Call to Annual Meeting will be sent to all voting delegates and Area Association chairs around mid-March. We’re working on two changes we hope are useful to you:
- We plan to offer an electronic Call to Annual Meeting for those who prefer to receive their call in an e-mailed PDF file. The e-Call will be transmitted at about the same time as the paper Call to Meeting is mailed. If you’re a voting delegate and are interested in receiving an e-Call, you’ll be able to sign up at the Area Association meetings.
- We plan to send a mini-call to alternate delegates and service unit managers who aren’t already delegates or alternate delegates. It will have basic info – agenda, location, directions, etc., but not all the governance documents. This is something volunteers requested in last year’s feedback and we are delighted to give it a try. Let us know if you find it helpful.
Of course, you don’t have to be a voting delegate, alternate delegate or service unit manager to attend the Annual Meeting. It is open to all registered Girl Scouts age 14 and above, and we hope you will set aside Saturday morning, April 18. Watch for details on the website and in future issues of the GS Express!