Wow! I can't believe that it's already been a month since we have come home! I recently made a video recapping all of our favorite events at convention! I will put the link below. Hope you all enjoy!
- Nicole
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l3qFexpVfY
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Saturday, October 18, 2014
What an amazing day today..quick run down of events then I need to crash.
First we were able to take most of our delegation to our favorite pastry shop…the fancy place wasn't open so early on a Saturday. Everyone enjoyed the relaxed vibe and great discussions were heard.
Chloe, Grace and I were able to sit with some of the girls from the GSLI Girl Lead planning team. Found out that these scouts have been meeting for 2 hours a week for over a year…and yes they all have honors classes, extra curricula's, church, jobs, boyfriends and a social life. What was interesting is that GSUSA really didn't give them a template to begin with just a budget to work with…they were responsible for picking the key issues, finding relevant speakers—and inviting them to GSLI not to mention the million and one other decisions that went into this incredible experience for so many scouts and chaperones. Now take into consideration that this planning team was made up of scouts from Utah-and the surrounding states—lots of Skype meetings.
We all were able to sit in and listen to the outdoor journey discussions, followed up by a talk from Connie Lindsey, the National President of GSUSA….and what do you know our sly GS From GSSNE were able to meet Connie later in the day… selfies and swaps.
Rushed to dress up, walked 3 blocks to the Clark Planetarium—very nice buffet dinner and got to see 2 presentations—6 were available to choose from. We went to a Rock laser show…amazing, then to Exploding Universe..which was very good—but we were very very very tired.
By now it is about 9:15pm—we started our day at 7am—walked out of the planetarium and thankfully there were about 10 Pedicabs—yup all 4 of us piled in and were driven back to the convention center. Never have we been so thankful for a ride.
We decided to make a quick appearance at the dance party, kind of see it, see if they are giving any more goodies and call it an early night.
Walking the 1/2 mile from the entrance all the way to the same meeting space we have been in all week…and who do we see in front of us, complete with an entourage—ANNA MARIA CHAVEZ! So excited that I took a picture of her back-just in case we couldn't catch up to her. Picture this, she is all dressed up for the adult dance—looks beautiful by the way—her secretaries surrounding her and no scouts there. Our selfie searching scouts from SSNE walked right up and asked for a picture with her…pulled out our swaps and got one of the CEO of GSUSA's limited swap patches! We talked with her for a few minutes before a gaggle of other scouts surrounded us…so we slipped away.
in their words…"our mission is complete' to listen to them tell the story—you might think they met a true celebrity, I am very impressed that they hold Anna Maria, and all the other GS Famous people that they met this week in such high esteem. Wonderful role models to connect to.
Well thats it for toning, sorry no photos right now—not even sure if I can send this post as WI fi keeps cutting out.
See you all back home very soon.
Melissa
First we were able to take most of our delegation to our favorite pastry shop…the fancy place wasn't open so early on a Saturday. Everyone enjoyed the relaxed vibe and great discussions were heard.
Chloe, Grace and I were able to sit with some of the girls from the GSLI Girl Lead planning team. Found out that these scouts have been meeting for 2 hours a week for over a year…and yes they all have honors classes, extra curricula's, church, jobs, boyfriends and a social life. What was interesting is that GSUSA really didn't give them a template to begin with just a budget to work with…they were responsible for picking the key issues, finding relevant speakers—and inviting them to GSLI not to mention the million and one other decisions that went into this incredible experience for so many scouts and chaperones. Now take into consideration that this planning team was made up of scouts from Utah-and the surrounding states—lots of Skype meetings.
We all were able to sit in and listen to the outdoor journey discussions, followed up by a talk from Connie Lindsey, the National President of GSUSA….and what do you know our sly GS From GSSNE were able to meet Connie later in the day… selfies and swaps.
Rushed to dress up, walked 3 blocks to the Clark Planetarium—very nice buffet dinner and got to see 2 presentations—6 were available to choose from. We went to a Rock laser show…amazing, then to Exploding Universe..which was very good—but we were very very very tired.
By now it is about 9:15pm—we started our day at 7am—walked out of the planetarium and thankfully there were about 10 Pedicabs—yup all 4 of us piled in and were driven back to the convention center. Never have we been so thankful for a ride.
We decided to make a quick appearance at the dance party, kind of see it, see if they are giving any more goodies and call it an early night.
Walking the 1/2 mile from the entrance all the way to the same meeting space we have been in all week…and who do we see in front of us, complete with an entourage—ANNA MARIA CHAVEZ! So excited that I took a picture of her back-just in case we couldn't catch up to her. Picture this, she is all dressed up for the adult dance—looks beautiful by the way—her secretaries surrounding her and no scouts there. Our selfie searching scouts from SSNE walked right up and asked for a picture with her…pulled out our swaps and got one of the CEO of GSUSA's limited swap patches! We talked with her for a few minutes before a gaggle of other scouts surrounded us…so we slipped away.
in their words…"our mission is complete' to listen to them tell the story—you might think they met a true celebrity, I am very impressed that they hold Anna Maria, and all the other GS Famous people that they met this week in such high esteem. Wonderful role models to connect to.
Well thats it for toning, sorry no photos right now—not even sure if I can send this post as WI fi keeps cutting out.
See you all back home very soon.
Melissa
Friday, October 17, 2014
So here is how things went today.
The girl scouts and I were able to meet up with Neil Stamps, Nina Dash and Trisha Borgia and walked to a beautiful restaurant for breakfast. We may not have had a lot of time there, but had some great conversations with the scouts. Truly wonderful to hear these amazing young women form an opinion on issues that matter to them within our council and have the confidence to talk to our CEO and a member of our Board of Directors. These scouts have learned their lessons well, even though I have just gotten to know these scouts I was so very proud of each of them.
We hustled over to the convention center—delegates went directly into their session while GSLI hiked to the far reaches of the building again.
GSLI today was supposed to have a speaker first thing..not sure what happened as the speaker's bio was presented, she was introduced but no speaker appeared. So what do a room full of 600 GSLI scouts and adults do when this happens….we sing of course. A few songs later and clearly the speaker was a no show.
The scouts broke out into issue sessions based on the topic of their project…chaperones went to learn about how to help scouts achieve their goals. A bunch of teamwork skill activities, more speakers and breakout discussions later and it was time for lunch.
Our delegates joined us for lunch and we were able to listen to Candice Kislack—the co founder of Tom's shoes. Very inspirational, lots of ideas of how to incorporate 'social enterprise'
Our afternoon for chaperones was mini workshops about team building, money matters and measuring impact. I'll be quite honest by hour 6 of GSLI Sessions just about every chaperone was a bit glassy eyed, and more than a bit brain dead. Just so much to take in. Dinner brought us together with the GSLI Scouts again with Elizabeth Smart as the guest speaker. Inspiration on finding the strength from within yourself and the love and support of family.
One more session at 7:00pm to discuss project management and the new TRELLO app…yup its free for everyone. Chaperones had time to sit and talk with their Scouts and start creating a formal take action project.
Dashed out around 8pm, quick stop at the hotel to drop our bags, grab our GSSNE jackets and went out…It is a Friday night after all. We decided to head in the opposite direction and found a really cute gelato shop. Had a very nice time with our treat and some time to chat, laugh, compare notes.
Got back to the hotel by 9:30 or so…we all decided to get busy with our technology and try to work on our blog/photos.
'
Tomorrow night we get to go to the planetarium then back to the convention center for a dance party.
Day 3
What a long day! After a nice breakfast out with the GSSNE delegation, we split off in different directions. The delegates went to their council session and the GSLI members went off to our discussion groups. After lots of swapping and working on the selfie game, we went to our different topic groups. I have Gender Equality, Chloe has Teen Violence, and Nicole has Inclusion & Diversity. We each had a speaker specified to our issue and then had speakers who spoke about advocacy, financing, team building, and many others. The speaker schedules were designed to be centered around our Take Action projects. We had a lunch where Candice Kislack spoke, who is from the company Toms. We then got some time in the Hall of Experiences in the afternoon before going back to more speakers. We then had an absolutely inspirational speaker dinner with Elizabeth Smart. Her book was on sale, which I purchased. If you would like to learn more about her story, please visit http://elizabethsmartfoundation.org . We then went to take action project planning and did a lot more swapping. Afterwards, we walked around downtown and found a cute gelatin shop before coming back to the hotel. It was a long day, and I hope tomorrow is full of more fun!
Day 2: Pictures
Sorry I couldn't post yesterday, the hotel wifi was in and out and when I finally got the pictures up the website crashed. So, take two!
photo in the hotel
right outside the convention center!
building life size jenga with our new friends from Mexico!
swapping with Mexico
With a woman who has a coat COVERED in patches of places her troop has been!
a close up of Anna Maria Chauvez leading the GSLI girls to the opening of the Hall of Experiences
our Keynote Speaker, Dr. Tererai Trent, gave a very inspirational speech about dreams and determination.
selfie with California!
selfie with Pennsylvania!
Selfie right before the opening ceremony started
a view of the opening arena - 6000 people attended!
after the opening ceremonies we walked around downtown SLC and found a ballet center, so of course we had to take a picture of it!
Sorry I couldn't post yesterday, the hotel wifi was in and out and when I finally got the pictures up the website crashed. So, take two!
Join the conversation
You can be part of the Convention tomorrow afternoon!
Join in for a livestream of Conversation of Consequence “Leadership in Action: Inspiring Others to Lead” on October 18, from 4:30-6:00 EDT.
Girl Scouts will be discussing with top-notch panelists the changing nature of leadership and how women can lead social change. When it's time, just click here: http://new.livestream.com/Dell/gsleadership
A high-speed internet connection and web browser such as Chrome, Explorer, Firefox and Safari will yield the best viewing.
Join in for a livestream of Conversation of Consequence “Leadership in Action: Inspiring Others to Lead” on October 18, from 4:30-6:00 EDT.
Girl Scouts will be discussing with top-notch panelists the changing nature of leadership and how women can lead social change. When it's time, just click here: http://new.livestream.com/Dell/gsleadership
A high-speed internet connection and web browser such as Chrome, Explorer, Firefox and Safari will yield the best viewing.
Thursday recap
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| Neil Stamps, Nina Dash, Pat Smith, Elsie Foy & Tricia Borgia at registration |
As the adult delegates arrived, registered, and got settled in, Chloe, Grace & Nicole spent time in the Girl Center - with games and activities, swapping, sharing contact info with girls from around the world - including Mexico!
The girls then made it to the opening of the Girl Scout Leadership Institute, with keynote speaker Dr. Terrai Trent. "What an amazing story and journey her life has been. So inspirational. One quote that comes to mind is: 'When you applaud your sister Girl Scouts, it is because she is a mirror of yourself - you applaud the courage, strength, and good in other.'" - Melissa Paquin, Attleboro SUM, and GSLI Chaperone
After dinner, it was time for the opening ceremony of the Convention!
 |
Nicole, Neil Stamps, and Melissa Paquin"Last night blew us all away! The energy in the room was incredible and the speakers, girls, and performances were spectacular!" - Neil Stamps, GSSNE CEO |
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Convention: Day 2
I don't have much time to write about everything that we did today, but here's a few highlights:
- We met some some Girl Guides from Mexico!
- I tradeda few a ton of SWAPS
- Heard from some AMAZING speakers such as Dr. Trent, and Alison Levine
- Met Girl Scouts from every corner of the USA
- Heard some awesome ideas!
- Spent some time in the hall of experiences (we only got 1/4 done in a hour)
- Had LOTS of fun!
Hopefully when the wifi is better, I'll be able to post the vlogs (video blogs) and more pics!
-Nicole
- We met some some Girl Guides from Mexico!
- I traded
- Heard from some AMAZING speakers such as Dr. Trent, and Alison Levine
- Met Girl Scouts from every corner of the USA
- Heard some awesome ideas!
- Spent some time in the hall of experiences (we only got 1/4 done in a hour)
- Had LOTS of fun!
Hopefully when the wifi is better, I'll be able to post the vlogs (video blogs) and more pics!
-Nicole
Adult Delegates have arrived!
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| GSSNE CEO Neil M. Stamps, left, with Bristol/Warren SUM & Voting Delegate, Tricia Borgia on the plane, ready for take-off |
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| Neil & Tricia, with Pat Smith, GSSNE's Younger Girl Program Specialist and Voting Delegate, on right - waiting to the get their bags in Salt Lake City |
Morning fun!
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