Proficiency Badges. After a Girl Scout has attained to First Class there are still other worlds to conquer as the badges she has earned on the way are only a few of the many kinds still to be worked toward. There are at present no less than forty-six kinds of subjects in which a Scout may achieve, and more are being added daily. Just to mention a few: a Girl Scout may be an Astronomer, a Bee keeper, a Dairy-maid, or a Dancer, an Electrician, a Geologist, a Horsewoman, an Interpreter, a Motorist or a Musician, a Scribe, a Swimmer or accomplished in Thrift. Each subject has its own badge and when earned this is sewn into the uniform.
Council. There may also be, and this is desirable, a Council composed of women and men representing all the best interests of the community: parents, schools, religious denominations of all sorts, business, producers, women's clubs, and other social and philanthropic organizations. The Council acts as the link between the Girl Scouts and the community. It has the same relation to the separate Troops that the school board has to the schools, that is; it guides and decides upon policies and standards, interprets the Scouts to the community and the community to the Scouts. It does not do the executive or teaching work—that belongs to the Captains, Lieutenants and Patrol Leaders.
Another of the functions of the Council is to interest public spirited women and men, particularly artists and scientists in Girl Scout work and get them to act as referees in awarding Merit Badges for proficiency in the many lines encouraged for Girl Scouts.
But the community's resources of wisdom are not only in the schools and museums, and laboratories and studios—these are mostly to be found only in large cities. It is a poor place that does not have one or more wise old persons—a farmer learned in nature ways, a retired sailor stocked with sea lore, or a mother of men who knows life as perhaps no one else can. The wise council will know where to find these natural teachers and see that the children go to their schools.
Another prime function of the Council is the raising of funds and to make available such other material equipment as camp sites, meeting places for the Troops, etc. The Captain should turn to the Council for help in arranging and directing rallies, dances, fairs, pageants and other devices for entertainment or securing money.
National Organization. The central governing body of the Girl Scouts is the National Council made up of elected delegates from all local groups. The National Council works through an Executive Board, which conducts National Headquarters in New York. The National Director is in charge of Headquarters and has direct administrative responsibility for the work of the whole organization with the general divisions of Field, Business, Publication and Education.
"Be Prepared"
Officers, National Headquarters Girl Scouts, Inc.
Honorary President
Mrs. Woodrow Wilson
President
Mrs. Juliette Low
First Vice-President
Mrs. Arthur O. Choate
Second Vice-President
Mrs. Herbert Hoover
Treasurer
Dunlevy Milbank
Chairman, Executive Board
Mrs. V. Everit Macy
Director
Mrs. Jane Deeter Rippin
Executive Board
Mrs. Selden Bacon
Mrs. Nicholas F. Brady
Miss Ellen M. Cassatt
Mrs. Arthur O. Choate
Mr. Francis P. Dodge
Miss Emma R. Hall
Mrs. Juliette Low
Mrs. V. Everit Macy
Mrs. Snowden Marshall
Mrs. Robert G. Mead
Mr. Dunlevy Milbank
Miss Llewellyn Parsons
Mrs. Harold I. Pratt
Mrs. Theodore H. Price
Mrs. W. N. Rothschild
Dr. James E. Russell
Mrs. George W. Stevens
Mrs. James J. Storrow
Mrs. Percy Williams