Girl Scouts to sell centers in Cape Girardeau, Dexter

DEXTER, Mo. -- One of the oldest and largest not-for-profit youth organizations in the region has decided to put its newest service center in the Bootheel on the real estate market.

The Daily Dunklin Democrat reported the Girl Scouts of the Missouri Heartland volunteer board of directors decided on Saturday to consolidate operations and to place its Dexter and Cape Girardeau service centers up for sale. Girl Scout offices in the eastern half of the council will then be based in a new facility in the Cape Girardeau area.

"We are looking to consolidate our operations on the eastern side of the council," said Anne Soots, chief operating officer for the council. Soots is based in the council office in Springfield, Mo. "We are looking to be able to pool our resources to find a location that better accommodates our staffing needs and decreases our overhead. This allows us to use more of our resources toward supporting our Girl Scout leadership experience for girls."

According to Soots, the operations of the Dexter and Cape Girardeau offices will be combined. The council website currently lists eight staff members based in Cape Girardeau, one staff member who splits her time between the Dexter and Cape Girardeau offices, and another eight staff members in the Dexter service center.

"We are not making any changes in our staff pattern," Soots said in a telephone interview on Tuesday afternoon. "We'll be looking at staffing over the coming months but right now we are not planning any changes."

Soots said the timeline for the changes to take place has not been finalized, and that a number of factors will go into the moves. She stressed, however, that all actions will be made with the girl members in mind and with an eye on strengthening the program for girls and mindful of being good stewards of council resources.

A statement was posted on the GSMH website Tuesday morning reports the Dexter and Cape Girardeau properties would, however, be placed on the real estate market in the next month. The board-approved proposal from the Property Committee also includes selling the Joplin Service Center and then leasing an office in Joplin that will house staff, a retail shop and allow members to drop off paperwork. Joplin is about 70 miles from Springfield. The Springfield facility is the base of operations for the regional Girl Scout organization.

"These decisions were not made lightly. The committee worked on this for 14 months, and both the property committee members and the members of the board of directors understand the emotional aspects of these decisions. Volunteers, parents and girls will continue to have the full support of council services with programs, trainings, assigned membership staff, and council-sponsored programs in these areas," according to the website statement.

The service center in Dexter is clearly visible to those traveling on U.S. 60 and was built as the headquarters of the former Cotton Boll Council. Cotton Boll was established in 1958 and served the Bootheel. Construction for the center began in December 2002 and the official opening was held May 2, 2004. The service center was built on an acre of land adjacent to U.S. 60 given to the Cotton Boll Council by the Dexter Memorial Hospital Foundation. The council also received a grant from the Missouri Economic Development Board for $128,000 for the facility and donors were able to receive tax credits for eligible donations through the state Neighborhood Assistance Program (NAP). The center has just over 5,000 square feet and includes offices, a shop for Girl Scout supplies and uniforms, storage space and a large community meeting room with a kitchenette.

Girl Scouts of the Missouri Heartland is the council formed in 2008 with the merger of Cotton Boll Council and four other Missouri councils -- Otahki (Cape Girardeau), Heart of Missouri (Jefferson City), Ozark Area (Joplin), and Dogwood Trails (Springfield). The regional council covers 68 counties, including a handful of counties in Oklahoma and Kansas. The council reaches from the Springfield and the surrounding southwest Missouri councils and the border counties in Oklahoma and Kansas, north to include Rolla, Jefferson City, Columbia, dipping down to Perry County and then following the Mississippi River south to Steele and the Arkansas line.

The merger of the five Missouri councils was part of a national move within girl scouting. In 2006, the National Board of Directors for Girl Scouts of the USA approved a plan to reorganize the jurisdictions of the then-314 Girl Scout councils nationwide into 109 Girl Scout councils.