Girl Scout Volunteers Quizzed Girl Scouts Usa Interviewers In Area To Ask About Problems

Girl Scout volunteers who complain the group’s top officials ignore them got their chance to be heard this week.

Nine interviewers from Girl Scouts USA swept the area from North Idaho to Spokane to Pullman - quizzing hundreds of volunteers about problems in the Inland Empire Girl Scout Council.

Meanwhile, local Scout officials forced a popular troop leader to step down, in part for talking about the controversy to news reporters.

Jackie Brown-Fairbanks tried to discredit council leaders and disrupt council operations, while setting a bad example for girls, Executive Director Judy Edlund said in a letter about the dismissal.

Three board members also recently resigned, although Scout officials said it has nothing to do with the council’s ongoing problems.

The Inland Empire council has been mired in controversy for months, with volunteers complaining of everything from financial mismanagement to rising cookie prices and dropping sales.

Some volunteers are thrilled by the help they’re getting from national leaders.

“I’m really pleased,” said Julie Taylor, a Post Falls troop leader. “They’re trying to gather as much information as they can and get to the root of the problem.”

Taylor is on a newly-appointed committee that will receive the results of the volunteer interviews conducted Sunday through Wednesday.

The dismissal of Brown-Fairbanks is one of the complaints sure to surface in interviews, which occurred in seven Washington and North Idaho cities, Taylor said.

“We’re all up in arms,” said Nancy Doll, whose 11-year-old daughter was in the troop led by Brown-Fairbanks.

“We all think it’s ridiculous. I see her as someone sticking up for the girls, not a troublemaker.”

Some girls are threatening to drop out of Girl Scouts, Doll said.

Brown-Fairbanks has been in Girl Scouts for 29 years and a leader for 17 years. She was dismissed from her duties as troop leader of 10- and 11-year-old South Hill girls, as well as supervisor of 17 troops.

She also was removed from supervising a group of Scouts on a trip to Switzerland.

Edlund’s letter said BrownFairbanks was unable to separate her “Girl Scout politics” from her “Girl Scout program responsibilities.

“It was just one step too far,” said Judith Frigon, executive director of the 18-county council.

Brown-Fairbanks declined to comment.

Frigon said recent resignations of three of the board’s 22 members have nothing to do with the controversy. One resigned because of health reasons and two left because of conflicting responsibilities, she said.

, DataTimes