Teens Sum Up Anger Against Scout Leaders Girl’s Suggestion Executive Board Step Aside Is Roundly Applauded

Two Girl Scouts stole the show at a Thursday meeting dominated by angry mothers when the teenagers blasted Scout officials for canceling a long-awaited summer camp.

They’d just learned Roundup 1996, expected to attract 3,000 girls to Farragut State Park in North Idaho, was canned partly because of an ongoing dispute among Scout leaders. “What crime did the Cadets and Scouts do, other than selling cookies for $3.50 a box?” asked Alicia DeArth, a senior Scout from Mead.

Jessica Larson, a Girl Scout from Bonners Ferry, said she dreads calling her friends to tell them camp is off.

Larson drew the night’s loudest whoops and applause when she added, “If the executive board is not able to give 100 percent, then maybe they should step aside.”

The exchange reminded many that the girls’ interests should take precedence in the growing battle between volunteers and officials of the Girl Scout Inland Empire Council.

“It was a very hard decision,” Council President Judy Frigon told the girls and about 200 volunteers. “It wasn’t made lightly, believe me.”

Local Scout officials voted to cancel the camp after national leaders decided they wouldn’t help pay for it or recommend it to girls around the world.

Peggy Pruett, who came to the meeting from Girl Scout headquarters in New York, said national officials decided sponsoring the camp was too risky “after much, much deliberation.”

A letter from Girl Scouts USA attributed the decision to inadequate insurance, an “overly optimistic” budget and “current conflict and turmoil” in the council.

Thursday night’s meeting in a Washington Water Power auditorium was long and loud. The parliamentarian looked perturbed. The council’s attorney walked out shaking his head. And up to 14 women at a time lined up at two microphones to fire verbal volleys at Girl Scout officials they say are being secretive and mismanaging finances.

The council’s treasurer and accountants took their share of blows, too, as volunteers questioned everything from late financial reports to executive salaries they suspect are too high.

“I think it’s mostly incompetence. We need a good, strong accounting system,” said Julie Taylor, a volunteer in Post Falls.

Curt Fackler, the council’s treasurer, explained a deficit of about $93,000 last year is partly because of a drop in cookie sales.

While executive salaries were not revealed at the meeting, Pruett said Spokane executives make less money than those at most councils of similar size.

The 18-county Inland Empire council covers North Idaho and Eastern Washington.