Girl Power!

What’s cooking at the Girl Scouts of Eastern South Carolina (GSESC) headquarters? In a word – excitement!

In late January, The Daniel Island News visited the North Charleston facility, where staff members were busily preparing for what is arguably their biggest “harvest” of the year. And there was nothing half-baked about their efforts. The final Girl Scout cookie order tallies were flowing in from local troops – and planning was well underway for the February delivery of thousands of colorful boxes of Thin Mints, Samoas, Trefoils and more to eager customers all across the Lowcountry.

“It’s my favorite time of the year!” exclaimed Diane Flanagan, the new chief executive officer of GSESC.

THE FLANAGAN EFFECT

A Daniel Island resident, Flanagan took over the helm for GSESC just over five months ago and brings an enthusiastic presence and contagious positivity to the program, which serves 21 counties, 4,268 girl scouts and more than 2,700 volunteers. She joined the staff after serving as the CEO of the Girl Scouts of the Desert Southwest for nine years. W12hen the opportunity came up to lead GSESC, she jumped at the chance.

“I grew up in South Carolina, “ said Flanagan, a native of Spartanburg. “I raised two boys in Texas who think they are South Carolinians! I always knew I would get back here.”

Flanagan was selected for her current position after a national search. To understand why she was hired, look no further than her impressive resume. She is a mechanical engineer with a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Northwestern. In the early part of her career, Flanagan spent 25 years in the automotive industry, including 15 years at Delphi Automotive Systems serving the El Paso, Mexico City areas.

But as her sons entered their mid 20s, Flanagan began to ponder what she should do with the second half of her life. She had spent a good many years in community service, as president of her local Junior League, supporting school PTAs, and working in other civic service opportunities. So when she saw an advertisement for a new CEO to manage the merger of several Girl Scout councils in west Texas, she decided to apply.

“I thought this is what I should do,” recalled Flanagan, herself a former girl scout. “So I literally put my first resume together in 25 years and went through a three-month search process and they offered me the job!”

During her time with the Girl Scouts of the Desert Southwest, Flanagan managed the consolidation of three former Girl Scout councils into one council, covering 33 counties and 94,000 square miles in west Texas and southern New Mexico. She also reduced overall expenses by 33 percent while increasing services to girls and volunteers. For the last two years of her tenure there, the organization led the nation in membership growth.

Flanagan would remain in the position for nearly 10 years. Last March, she learned of the CEO opening at GSESC, applied, and was offered the job last summer.

Her first day was August 27. In just a few short months in her new Lowcountry post, she has learned so much about what this area has to offer in terms of scouting.

“Scouting on the border of Mexico, which was my (former) territory, it doesn’t have the rich generational history there that it does here,” she said. “That’s been one of the biggest surprises of moving back here. I wear my Girl Scout pin and people come up to me and say ‘Oh my gosh, I was a girl scout, my mother was, my grandmother was,’ that never happened to me on the border…It’s been beautiful to come back here and see this rich history of Girl Scouts.”

Flanagan has spent the last several months going on tours across the council district, talking to volunteers and asking for their feedback on what’s working and what isn’t.

“We’re a people organization and I love people,” she said. “So my whole philosophy here is to really embrace this partnership between our volunteers and our staff, and really explore that…That’s my overarching philosophy – to create this one group where we’re all together in working partnership for the girls.”

LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS

And speaking of the girls – Flanagan lights up when talking about the focus of her efforts. Among her goals is to draw more girls in to the program, at a time when Girl Scout membership is declining nationwide. She believes the downward trend is happening for “a lot of different reasons.”

“A lot of it is the commitment that it takes for a leader to run a troop,” said Flanagan. “I think that’s probably the number one reason we’ve seen the drop.”

Other factors include additional competition for activities and social issues. But Flanagan is confident all can be overcome.

“Here in this council, with our demographics…if we can grow this partnership and get this energy going, we’ve got the generational history, we should be serving at least 10,000 girls in this council. We can do that. It doesn’t happen overnight, but we can do that.”

After all, she said, it’s an easy sell.

“We’re not just cookie sellers,” added Flanagan. “Although there are so many aspects to that. We’re not just crafts and camps. We are a leadership development organization. We have a research institute that does research on outcomes – and the statistics between if you were a girl scout and if were not are astounding.”

For example, as the Girl Scouts of the USA program touts in their “Believe in the power of G.I.R.L.” campaign, girl scouts are innovators and risk-takers and are more likely than non-girl scouts to participate in healthy activities and leadership opportunities, explore the outdoors, be civically engaged, learn financial literacy, and work on STEM projects.

“Those are the outcomes we are focused on,” noted Flanagan, who also pointed out that every female U.S. astronaut, except one, was a girl scout, as well as 80 percent of tech leaders, 70 percent of U.S. senators, and every single female Secretary of State. The program also addresses bullying and healthy body image issues.

“It’s amazing,” she added. “We know that if you’re daughter takes risks and challenges herself, she will do much more in her life and Girl Scouts provides an opportunity for her to do that…Girl Scouts provides that place where a girl has a voice, uses her voice, expresses her voice in a way where she gains the confidence to do that, and continue to do that in her life.”

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

Flanagan’s GSESC family has been incredibly welcoming, she said, much like her new home community on Daniel Island.

“I couldn’t have made a better choice,” she added. “I tell the story that my moving van arrived on a Thursday and I had five of my immediate neighbors come by to say hello. The next night, two of them brought me dinner!...Just that sense of community is amazing. It’s unbelievable.”

And Flanagan is already working to plug into her new home base, offering up her services as a volunteer for this year’s Volvo Car Open. No doubt seeing the grand slam successes of the female athletes on the court will serve up plenty of girl power inspiration.