Impact’19: Dr. Linda Farley
About Dr. Linda Farley
Episode Transcript of: Impact’19: Dr. Linda Farley
Alan
I’m sitting here today with Dr. Linda Farley. She’s the CEO of the Girl Scout organization for the greater Sacramento area. Welcome.
Dr. Linda Farley
Thank you. Thank you.
Alan
So I understand there are some 18,000 Girl Scouts in your jurisdiction.
Dr. Linda Farley
There are about 18,000 And we actually serve 18 counties. So we go as far north as Yuba City and down south into Merced County, Los Banos. So we’re pretty big geographic area, but about 18,000. Girls. Yes.
Alan
There’s a big movement today about girls and leadership and companies. And one of the, the, the advertisements or pieces on your your website, talk about girls that take the risks become the leaders of tomorrow.
Dr. Linda Farley
Yes. Girl Scouts is such a wonderful program. We’ve been around for over 106 years now. And what we’re finding is girls who stay in our Girl Scouting program for at least three years, actually perform better on life outcomes. So you’re gonna find that girl scouts will earn more money, they’ll be higher educated, they will volunteer more in their community, they’ll be engaged more their community, and there’ll be more they’ll they’re more apt to take leadership positions. So our vision is to be the premier leadership development organization for girls. So we really feel like we’re the pipeline for organizations who are needing female leaders.
Alan
The public often associates, Girl Scouts fit the cookie drive. Yes, and which is always wonderful. But what is the age range for the girls that you serve in New York?
Dr. Linda Farley
We serve girls in kindergarten through 12th grade. And you mentioned the cookie program. It isn’t our entrepreneurial program. It’s one of our four pillars we have outdoor is a pillar, we have STEM science, technology, engineering, and math. And as a pillar, we have life skills as a pillar, and then our entrepreneurial program, which is just all about cookie sales. And it really is a program that helps girls with financial literacy. It helps them understand how to run a program, how to manage their money, how to market. So our cookie program is a very serious program for our girls and girls kindergarten through 12th grade participate.
Alan
When we talk about the entrepreneurial side of things with the girls, is it an individual or a troop effort for fundraising question?
Dr. Linda Farley
It’s actually both. We have girls and troops who choose not to sell cookies, they’re busy with other things. But it does tend to be a troop, a group activity, but there are girls who have individual goals. So quite often, the girls set their own goals in terms of how many boxes of cookies they want to sell, and how many they sell, and then they earn individual incentives. So we have girls who actually are on a trip to Hawaii, for our program in Hawaii, because they were our top cookie sellers. So these are pretty serious incentives. We have a group that hike the Grand Canyon, we usually take a group to Disneyland, some of our younger girls, so they work for those incentives, and they’re typically working on their own.
Alan
Dr. Farley, when did you get involved in Girl Scouts?
Dr. Linda Farley
I got involved when I was in kindergarten when I was in first grade, actually, I was a brownie my mom was my troop leader. And I stayed in Girl Scouting through probably eighth grade. And then like many girls, we find that trend still holds today. Dropped out I got involved in student government and cheerleading and other things. I have since been the CEO for six and a half years. here in Sacramento, we have an office in Sacramento, Stockton, and an office in Modesto. But I’ve always been a Girl Scout really my whole life, and actively very actively engaged the last six and a half years.
Alan
In the world that we live in today with technology and change. It seems that our schedules become evermore busy. You mentioned that your mother mentored you into the Girl Scout program. Do you find that a challenges people are balancing they have the mothers continuing to come and work with the girls?
Dr. Linda Farley
We are it’s difficult we have more women in the workplace. And certainly in the 60s When my mom was my troop leader, and a lot more I think opportunities for girls, I am a pre Title Nine woman and so I didn’t have organized soccer or any of the other sports. And so girls have so many more options and therefore the mothers typically mothers that we have some dads who are troop leaders if you’re man enough to be a Girl Scout, we like to say and so we look for alternative ways to serve girls. So we do a lot of partnering with school districts and their after school programs who serve a lot of title one lower income girls who probably wouldn’t have this advantage because their moms are working three jobs to put food on the table. We want those girls to have a Girl Scout experience. So we partner with after school programs. We train those folks to do our program to lead our probe RAM and we are currently in about 75 sites within our council where we have those partnerships. So we do a lot to look at alternative ways to bring the program to girls.
Alan
Let’s review those four pillars. Yeah, once again with the Girl Scouts.
Dr. Linda Farley
Yes. So outdoors, of course is a big pillar for Girl Scouts. Entrepreneurship, which is primarily our cookie program life skills, which is a range of life skill badges for girls. And then of course, science, technology, engineering and math stem, which we support heavily.
Alan
Dr. Farley, how does one get involved with the Girl Scout organization pretty easy.
Dr. Linda Farley
Go to our website, and our website is Girl Scouts, H CC, heart of Central California. So hcc.org and you can register online, everything is done now through a Salesforce platform. So we have a pretty sophisticated method to get involved but everything’s on our website. So it’s the best place to go and find us.
Alan
Dr. Farley, thank you for being with us today. You thanks so much.
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This transcript was generated by software and may not accurately reflect exactly what was said.
Alan Olsen, is the Host of the American Dreams Show and the Managing Partner of GROCO.com. GROCO is a premier family office and tax advisory firm located in the San Francisco Bay area serving clients all over the world.
Alan L. Olsen, CPA, Wikipedia Bio
Linda E. Farley, Ed.D, joined Girl Scouts Heart of Central California (GSHCC) in 2013 as its Chief Executive Officer. A lifelong advocate for youth development, Linda holds a doctorate in leadership from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul. She has dedicated her career to creating opportunities for young people to learn and lead through programs in education, community service and the arts.
Bio Source: girlscoutshcc.org
Alan is managing partner at Greenstein, Rogoff, Olsen & Co., LLP, (GROCO) and is a respected leader in his field. He is also the radio show host to American Dreams. Alan’s CPA firm resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and serves some of the most influential Venture Capitalist in the world. GROCO’s affluent CPA core competency is advising High Net Worth individual clients in tax and financial strategies. Alan is a current member of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (S.I.E.P.R.) SIEPR’s goal is to improve long-term economic policy. Alan has more than 25 years of experience in public accounting and develops innovative financial strategies for business enterprises. Alan also serves on President Kim Clark’s BYU-Idaho Advancement council. (President Clark lead the Harvard Business School programs for 30 years prior to joining BYU-idaho. As a specialist in income tax, Alan frequently lectures and writes articles about tax issues for professional organizations and community groups. He also teaches accounting as a member of the adjunct faculty at Ohlone College.