Merger combines KC operations for 48,000 Girl Scouts

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Organizers have merged three Girl Scout councils in the Kansas City area, combining operations in 47 counties and affecting 48,000 girls.

The yearlong effort, which ended this week, is designed to combine finances, properties and paid staff of Kaw Valley in Topeka, Kan., Midland Empire in St. Joseph and Mid-Continent in Kansas City.

"I think it's gone along well, considering we're combining three separate entities into one," said Carlene Makawski, a volunteer creating an inventory of the different councils' assets.

The combination is part of a nationwide effort to cut the number of Girl Scout councils from 312 to 109, which officials said will make the organization more efficient and less costly.

Mindy McDermott, the new council's incoming chief operating officer, said no staff members will be fired, although several took early-retirement packages. Other staff members will have to relocate or take on new duties.

"We're actually a little understaffed because of so many retirements," said McDermott, who was director of public relations for the Mid-Continent Council.

Among the openings is the council's chief executive officer. McDermott said the group will name an interim CEO in the next few weeks and find a permanent replacement by the end of the year.

Stacey Sisk, a troop leader in St. Joseph, said she believed the consolidation would ultimately help the scouts but hoped the merged organization still allows some programs to remain in the hands of local leaders. She also said the merger could have some short-term problems.

"There's been a lot of cutback and we're going to lose a lot of good people because of it," she said.

Organizers said the merger went much better than a similar one in 1994 that combined the Mid-Continent Council with the much smaller Santa Fe Trail Council and was initially rejected by delegates.

"We definitely learned a lot of things from that," McDermott said. "Communicate and over-communicate: Be transparent."

All three council approved the merger the first time it came up.

For the girls, ages 5 to 17, the merger is largely invisible, which organizers said is the point.

"We're hoping that there's going to be very little change for them, other than improved services," McDermott said.

One change for the scouts is they have a wider range of camps from which to choose with more varied programs.

Abbey Curran, 10, said her troop leader took them to Camp Timberlake in Kansas, which likely wouldn't have happened before the merger. She and other scouts also got to go to camp twice this summer.