In about a year, Emporia’s Girl Scout Council of the Flint Hills will be merged into a new super-council covering most of Kansas.
The Flint Hills council released details of the plan today. The new council would take in the whole state except for northeastern Kansas, merging six councils and part of a seventh to do so.
“For most girls and their parents, it will make very little difference to them,” said Lynn Smith, chief executive officer of the Council of the Flint Hills. “They’ll be able to camp, be in a troop and do all the other normal things. They should see very little change.”
Once complete, the new council will also include the Sunflower and Tumbleweed councils in western Kansas; the Central Kansas and Wheatbelt councils in the middle third of the state; and the Golden Plains Council and part of the Bluestem council, both in southeast Kansas.
Nationwide, 310 Girl Scout councils are being pared down to 109. Smith said economics played a large role in the decision. Many smaller councils, she said, had difficulty coming up with the money for good programs.
“Fortunately, those of us in the Flint Hills know we’ve been able to make good use of our money and stretch donor dollars rather far,” Smith said. “But nationally, there have been some difficulties.”