KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — It’s Girl Scout versus Girl Scout in federal court as the Kalamazoo-based local organization has filed a suit against the national headquarters.
It’s not thin mints that are at stake, but hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Heart of Michigan Girl Scouts say the national organization is not just trying to coerce more than $700,000 from the local branch, it is acting against the very law of the Girl Scouts itself: honesty and fairness, respect for others and the wise use of resources.
The Heart of Michigan Girls Scouts began more than 100 years ago and now includes some 24,000 girls in 34 counties including the cities of Benton Harbor, Saginaw, Ann Arbor and Lansing.
In 2008, the Girl Scouts underwent restructuring nationwide and in Michigan where administrative functions were consolidated in order to save money and keep the Girl Scouts solvent.
Not long after, the national organization announced changes in its pension plan that the lawsuit claims was done without the approval of the local branches.
That change, according to the suit, meant that a large number of people not previously covered by the plan were included in a way that benefited the national headquarters in New York City but resulted large costs increases for the locals.
“We really want to pay for our own employees, but we don’t necessarily want to pay for those non-Girl Scout Heart of Michigan employees,” said Jan Barker, CEO Girl Scouts Heart of Michigan. “Our board and the leadership team at Girl Scouts Heart of Michigan made the decision to take legal action because we weren’t able to get answers to our questions for numerous years.”
The Michigan organization refused to go along with the new plan and stopped paying in until June of 2015.