No Crumbs Left Behind: The IT Support Keeping Girl Scouts on Track

What advice would you give to other nonprofit organizations looking to improve their technology infrastructure? I would say listen to the experts, invest wisely, and make sure your team is trained. Welcome to Unraveling IT, Expert Tech Talks. I'm Stephany Alarcon, the director of client experience at Corsica Technologies. And today, I'm joined by Sharon Pohly, CEO of Girl Scouts of Northern Indiana-Michiana. We'll be discussing how technology supports their mission, the challenges they've come with our help, and the incredible work they're doing to empower young girls through leadership and personal development. Plus, we'll talk about how the community can get involved and support their impact. So let's dive in. Let's go. Alright. Can you give us a quick overview of the Girl Scouts of Northern Indiana-Michiana, and what you do for the community? Certainly. We are about building girls of courage confidence and character that make the world a better place. And our Girl Scout council is one of a hundred and ten across the nation. We serve about five thousand girls and volunteers across Northern Indiana and two counties in Southwest Michigan. What are some key programs and initiatives you offer to help kids develop leadership and life skills? Our Girl Scout leadership experience has four pillars. The first is STEM, science, technology, engineering, and math, our outdoor program, which includes our camping programs, our life skills where girls learn to do things like sew on buttons and also our iconic cookie program, which teaches girls entrepreneurial skills. Sharon, would you be willing to share with us a little bit more as to who you are, your background, and how you came to lead the Girl Scouts of Northern Indiana-Michiana. I'd be happy to. Actually, this is my second career. My first career was in information technology. I was a project manager and an account manager for an IT services services company. And so I worked with clients to help meet their IT needs. I needed to take some time out of the workforce for a family illness. And when it came time to go back to work, I really didn't want to go back to IT. It just didn't seem to fit right. So I started thinking about the not for profit world. I was a Girl Scout. I was a first class Girl Scout, which is now called the Gold Award Girl Scout. And I saw some opportunities for CEOs in Girl Scout councils. And I looked at my skill set. I looked looked at the skill set that, the councils were looking for. And I said, well, I really have the skill set. I just need to be able to explain to someone how you can move from being an IT program manager into being a CEO for a Girl Scout council in one leap. And, I was able to do that. That was almost fifteen years ago, here in Fort Wayne. I've been here ever since. Wow. Thank you so much. How has the Girl Scouts evolved to meet the needs of today's youth? Over time, we really focus on meeting girls where they are. So we have badges that we're continually evolving. For example, in our STEM badges, we've had close to a hundred and twenty different badges that you can earn in STEM. We also work with girls to, give them an opportunity to get to the outdoors. So some of the basics so that they can unplug. So girls get an opportunity to be out in the outdoors without a cell phone. We haven't lost a girl yet due to digital deprivation. So we try and, one, meet with them when they are and, two, to provide them some opportunities that maybe they wouldn't take for themselves. Absolutely. What are some of your biggest challenges in running an organization of this scale? Well, as a not for profit, we always have a resource constraint, and we always have a resource constraint, and we always have to worry about where the resources are going to come from to help us to meet the needs of girls and really making sure that we can meet the needs of all the girls who want to be girl scouts. So how does technology play a role in supporting your mission and operations? We've begun to use technology for a lot of things. We, used to do paper membership forms, and we don't anymore. Our registration forms are all online. As well as if girls sign up for events, that's all online too. So we lose a lot less paper, and our data integrities is far better using the online forms. How has Corsica Technologies helped improve efficiency, security, or operations for your team? One of the big things that I appreciate about Corsica is they are kind of our eyes to cybersecurity because the Internet is a bit of a wild, wild west. We use Corsica to guide us to make sure that we are educated on cybersecurity. Our staff is educated on cybersecurity. We know a scam when we see it. We know phishing when we see it. And, it just keeps us overall a lot more secure for both our staff and our members. What do you see as your biggest technology priorities in the next few years? Well, continuing to understand cybersecurity and and to minimize risk in that space is is really important. And the other thing I've been thinking about a lot is how AI can help us, help us to be better at serving girls, help us to be more efficient in our operations. So that's something that I think we'll be learning about and and employing over the next few years. What advice would you give to other nonprofit organizations looking to improve their technology infrastructure? I would say listen to the experts, invest wisely, and make sure your team is trained. So what has been one of the most rewarding aspects of leading this organization? Really seeing the girls grow. Since I've been here, going on fifteen years, there are girls that have, gone all the way through the program during my time. So started as our Daisies, our youngest girls, and graduated high school as ambassadors. And to see how they've grown and what they're doing in the world is is really rewarding for me. That's that's probably the biggest reward. Are there any exciting upcoming projects or goals for the Girl Scouts of Northern Indiana-Michiana? We are working together with the five other councils that serve girls in Indiana to bring Girl Scouting to girls we have not traditionally served, in underserved communities. And so we have been working together to establish what what ways are best to bring our program, to the communities. And in doing that, we've had to listen to the communities that we want to serve. And that has been new and exciting and different and a a lesson that we learned recently that maybe we should have learned a long time ago. What's one thing you wish people knew more about Girl Scouts? I really wish that, families realized the lifelong impact that girls Girl Scouts have. I'm still Facebook friends with girls from my Girl Scout troops from many, many years ago. One of them is a daughter of one of my leaders who was very thrilled to find out what I what, turns my career had taken and and, that she'd had an impact. So it's it's friendships and it's also skills. Sometimes girls try something in girl scouting they wouldn't even have been exposed to because it's not something their families or caregivers are familiar with, and they discover a lifelong passion. And so it it really isn't just a a program or a troop. It's a a lifetime of skills and friendships. So, Sharon, you've mentioned some of the challenges that you've had with working with rural and underserved communities. What are some challenges that you see there, and how can you overcome them? Well, there's the first challenge I I mentioned was understanding what the communities need. So, with, for example, rural schools, families will bring their kids to school in the morning and then pick them up once. They won't come back for a meeting. So we need to make sure that the girl scouts is available to girls right after after school. We've also made some use of Zoom, for girls that are more, geographically apart, and we actually deliver some of our programs via Zoom so that our girls can, be in different places and and yet get girl scouts in the same way at the same time. I love that. Finding technology to bring girl scouts together. Yes. Absolutely. Sharon, would you be willing to share any sort of, large scale challenges that the organization of the Girl Scouts has had to overcome in the technology space? Well, one of the things that that I think about is with so many natural disasters, they impact Girl Scout councils and and the girls and the families. And so, having to feel comfortable that we have a business continuity plan if something like that should happen to us, and feeling comfortable that, partnering with Corsica, that we have a plan in place. And if something happened and this building was no longer here, that we could continue to work and serve our girls. Absolutely. Where can people go to learn more or to get involved with supporting their local Girl Scout Scouts chapter? You certainly can call our office if you'd be interested in volunteering. We're always looking for troop leaders and other, adults to volunteer. Or if you want your daughter involved in Girl Scouts, you can call our office, or you can go to our website. Sharon, I'd like to say thank you so much for taking the time to speak to Corsica this morning. It is great to have the Girl Scouts as a partner here, and to be able to work with you all so you can fulfill your mission. My pleasure, and thank you for your partnership. Thank you. Now you gotta go see the cookies. Sharon, I can be the CEO of Girl Scouts. Yeah. Train me now. Let's go. Let's go. You know, when you look at it, it it was a lot of project management and organization and good business skills that, you know, the the the staff has the passion. Right? You know? And just bringing those skills to the staff so that the passion gets focused. Yes. You know? So so, yes, you could be CEO. Oh, thank you. Can you please add that to the