Girl Scout Council of Monterey Bay

Issue 2, June 2006

Council Jurisdictional Proposal Submitted

CEOs and Board Presidents of Santa Clara County, Monterey Bay, and Tres Condados Councils submitted their proposal to form a new, high capacity council to GSUSA. The proposed California Central Coast Council includes San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties. With the exception of Ventura County, this configuration is the one recommended by the demographers hired to assist GSUSA with the national realignment process.

Ventura County, part of Tres Condados Council, was initially placed within the new Los Angeles jurisdiction. When the Southern California Councils met to discuss the configuration it was determined that Ventura would more closely identify with the California Central Coast Council. At this point, it is not certain what GSUSA and their demographers will determine as the best placement for Ventura County. However, both the Los Angeles and California Central Coast realignment proposals sent to GSUSA contain the recommendation that Ventura County align with the Central Coast Council.

A second open issue is the placement of San Mateo County. San Mateo County has historically been part of the San Francisco Bay Council. San Francisco and its sister councils in the new jurisdictional configuration are protesting the loss of San Mateo County to the Central California Coast Council. GSUSA’s demographers recommended inclusion of San Mateo in the Central California Coast Council for the following reasons:

“Although San Mateo County was once a bedroom community for San Francisco with strong northward ties, this is no longer the case. The socioeconomic and ethnic mix in San Mateo County more closely resembles that of Santa Clara County than that of San Francisco County. San Mateo County now has its own vigorous economy and strong economic ties with Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) to the south. When you cross the line between San Francisco and San Mateo Counties, there is a greater change in the cultural landscape than when you cross the line between San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties--Menlo Park (SM County) and Palo Alto (SC County) are much more similar than San Francisco (SF County) and South San Francisco (SM County). Many San Mateo County residents work in Santa Clara County (as do people living in Monterey and San Benito Counties).

San Mateo County has high total amounts of individual charitable giving, as do San Francisco and Santa Clara Counties. Within the proposed Northern California Coastal Council, San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, and Mendocino counties all have high giving levels. Within the Central California Coastal Council, Santa Clara, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties have high levels of giving. There would better balance in fundraising potential if San Mateo were combined with Santa Clara, Monterey, and San Benito counties.”

We concur with these arguments and we have reinforced the case for retaining San Mateo in communication with GSUSA via email and conference calls. GSUSA has been open to hearing our position. Final decisions on all national proposals will by made by the GSUSA Board of Directors.

Next Steps

Over the summer a national/local team of volunteers, staff, and demographers will develop the proposed final map of council boundaries. The National Board will approve the final map at its meeting the end of August. In September the map of new jurisdictions will be shared with the councils.

Once our jurisdictional boundaries are confirmed, the Boards of Directors of Santa Clara, Monterey Bay and Tres Condados Councils will sign formal agreements to work together and support the realignment process.

Council Realignment Committee

A transition team called the Council Realignment Committee (CRC) will be formed to guide the most critical aspects of the transition. The CRC will be a small group consisting of the current CEOs and Board Presidents as well as a few other experts to round out the team. There will be a number of subcommittees working under the aegis of the CRC.
Some of the subcommittees are governance related and while others are concerned with key operational functions and processes.