Registration and Membership Fee Increase 2017

Registration

On Tuesday, April 4, the Girl Scout Spring Renewal period opens for Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts members. Spring Renewal is managed through Volunteer Systems (the My GS link in the navigation bar of gsema.org) and runs from Tuesday, April 4 through Tuesday, June 13.  Service units, troops and girl members who renew during this period are eligible for awesome incentives!   The PDF overview of incentives can be found here.

Membership Fee Increase

To ensure Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts is able to continue to provide exceptional girl programming and outstanding volunteer support, we will increase our service council fee by just $5, beginning with spring renewal for the 2017-2018 Girl Scout membership year. The council service fee will be $15 per girl membership. There is no service fee for adult members. As always, financial assistance is available for any girl whose family demonstrates need.  This increase will go into effect concurrently with a membership fee increase announced by Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) last year. GSUSA announced a National Board-approved increase in the girl and adult membership fee from $15 to $25 effective for the 2017-2018 membership year.  Every dollar of the membership fee goes directly to Girl Scouts of the USA to cover the cost of fundamental services supporting the Girl Scout Movement. This includes, but is not limited to, accident insurance for members participating in approved Girl Scout activities; the implementation of new technologies to improve the Girl Scout experience for girls, volunteers, and parents; program development, research, resources, training, services to councils, and promotion of the Girl Scout brand.  Therefore, with these increases in place, the new annual cost for Girl Scout membership in eastern Massachusetts will be $40 per girl, and $25 per adult member. Girl membership continues to be an excellent value, and represents only 5% of the actual annual expense we invest in each Girl Scout in eastern Massachusetts. Please note that Lifetime Members do not need to renew their membership, but during Spring Renewal they will need to renew their volunteer role(s).