Troops Abroad Go Really Tech
It's About Staying Connected Transcending Space

By Ed Levy
Illustration by Diane Allison

Girl Scouts everywhere use Web-based technologies, but Girl Scouts overseas rely on them. During the Persian Gulf War, for example, companies doing business in Kuwait evacuated dependants of foreign workers, and that meant a few dozen Girl Scouts. But many of their troop mates weren't able to leave, and so, as the mostly American and European girls departed, with their pals remaining behind to face a perilous situation, they quickly arranged weekly chats through a secure Yahoo group. At a specific time every week, whether they were in Europe, the U.S., or the Middle East, the girls began chatting and supporting each other through a tough time. And they're still connecting with each other, years later.

Many technology boons are quieter and less dramatic, but no less important—especially if you're overseas. The Pacific Theater encompasses 14 military installations in the Far East and includes about 2,000 Girl Scouts. A few years ago, girls in Korea who signed up for two resident camps held on Okinawa each year might wait as long as four weeks for the registration packets to arrive by mail. By then places in the camp were often filled. Now, according to Vicki Sue Myers, Director of Membership and Marketing-Training Manager for USA Girl Scouts Overseas (USAGSO) at Camp Zama near Tokyo, online registration gets applications to everyone at the same speed—cyber speed! Vicki uses a system called Online Registration. She, herself, gets trained remotely in how to use it—from London! Besides saving time and human resources, the financial savings from not having to enter data are huge.

When Vicki ran an Overseas Committee Management Team training course in Korea for a multinational group of 12 women, all recruitment was done via e-mail, and the trainees had a website from which they could download course information and assignments. Soon, basic leadership training will go online for remote areas of Korea, saving money that would otherwise go to flying a trainer in to visit families living in far-flung places. And Vicki is now talking with volunteers in Hong Kong, Singapore, Okinawa, Korea, Mainland Japan, Micronesia, and Guam to plan a volunteer training conference in Tokyo in February.

And in Europe USAGSO-North Atlantic is bringing people from across the European Union together for videoconferences with the military. Complete with charts and PowerPoint® slides, these conferences turn what would have been a two- or three-day commitment of travel and time into simple one or two hour meetings on issues critical to serving the Girl Scout daughters of military personnel living overseas.

World Thinking Day Postcards

Girl Scouts around the world are using the Internet to find other girls who want to correspond. While living in Kuwait, Girl Scout leader Katie Cox's Cadette/Senior Girl Scout troop sent out up to 300 postcards every year, building bridges and friendships. To find other girls who wanted to correspond, they used the online "World Thinking Day Postcard Exchange." Also in Kuwait, Katie's troop found an ingenious way to use their high school library computers to participate in a "World Thinking Day" chat held every year with thousands of other girls across the world. They reserved the library's 20 computers for three days, and brought in 100 girls in shifts to chat with thousands of other girls all over the world.
Katie has now brought her techno-savvy ways to Kazakhstan, where she is working with Brownie Girl Scouts who have just started their own website, where one can find permission slips, a calendar of upcoming events, lists of necessary materials for projects, packing lists, adult meeting agendas, and photos.

Bird Watchers Go Global

"Recently," Katie said, "they decided to take the Brownie Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts on a little nature hike along the Ural River." A couple of the adults were avid birdwatchers. The girls wanted to learn so they decided to make bird-watching a major part of the hike. On the Internet, Katie located a Council's Own Try-It called "Birds," from Girl Scouts of Rolling Hills Council, Inc., in New Jersey. She e-mailed them and arranged for her group to earn the Try-It and order the patches from them. Rolling Hills Council staff wanted to hear all about the hike afterwards, so the group's chief birdwatcher sent them his spreadsheet. It all happened with magical speed. Katie found the Try-It on a Friday, heard back from the council on Saturday, the girls hiked on Sunday, and the council had feedback about the hike by the following Wednesday.

The Brownie Girl Scouts in Kazakhstan have just designed their own location patch for Atyrau, Kazakhstan. Katie, at this writing, was about to scan the drawings, contact USAGSO to get the designs approved, e-mail them to an official Girl Scout vendor to have about 500 patches made for girls to trade at summer camps, then mail out in response to requests from around the world.

Last September, when Katie trained 25 leaders in Cairo, the books didn't arrive in time for the course. Left without any STUDIO 2BSM books, she sent an e-mail plea to the WAGGGS list, asking for help. "I asked for leaders to scan and e-mail me a few selected pages from STUDIO 2B publications to use in the training. I had a huge response—probably a dozen leaders in the USA scanned and sent me pages. I had everything within 14 hours and was able to give the course."

Ways Girl Scouts are using the Web to save time, money, and human resources!

• training
• registration
• photos
• surveys
• postcard exchange
• releases
• donations
• chats
• targeted audiences
• updates and corrections
• calendars
• packing lists
• meeting agendas

Sites to Visit
You don't have to sign up for bird-watching along the Urals to find plenty of great ideas (on these websites) about how to use the Internet for your troop.

http://usagskuwait.tripod.com, the Kuwait Girl Scout's website. Check out the wonderful Kuwait Overseas Committee camel patch and pin and see what Troop 26 is up to now, and how they're using their site to let people know about it. While you're there, click on the "weather" link for the temperature —111 degrees last time we checked!

To see the great World Thinking Day postcards girls in Kuwait have been sending out, go to http://kuwaitwtd.tripod.com.

Here's the new, still under construction webpage for Girl Scout Brownie Troop 5, all four of them (plus a few Cub Scouts they meet with) in Kazakhstan — http://usagskz.tripod.com.

For more information about online chats, go to http://trefoil.scoutlink.net/. Hundreds of people can get together at the same time using this site, and it's monitored to ensure that girls can chat safely online.

Find out about trainings and other events in the Pacific Theater at www.westpacificgirlscouts.com

Adapted from LEADER, Fall 2005. © Girl Scouts of the United States of America.