Today, a trial starts in Scott County to stop the Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois from selling four camps in the state, reports the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Meanwhile, the Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa also intends to sell one of its camps, says the Sioux City Journal. These attempts to sell off long-held properties are not unique to Iowa, although the Eastern Iowa lawsuit may be one of the more prominent such cases in the country.
Much like a school closing, there are two factors at work: Consolidation and declining enrollment. Each Girl Scout council used to operate its own camp. Now that 312 councils nationwide have been turned into 112 (as mentioned in the Daily Beast link) — Iowa went from nine to two — the argument can be made for greater “efficiencies.”
(A numerical aside: As a part of the council consolidation, Girl Scout troops now have five-digit numbers, based on adding digits to the old numbers that could be duplicated across old councils.)
For camps, like the schools, when the numbers and the money aren’t there, difficult choices must be made.