Girl Scout group sues organization

Staff report

CARROLLTON

Six members of Trefoil Integrity have filed suit in Carroll County Common Pleas Court on behalf of themselves and other members of the Girl Scouts of North East Ohio against the organization.

Trefoil Integrity is a grass-roots movement looking to make the GSNEO board listen to the membership.

The complaint contends the GSNEO board has acted contrary to its own code of regulations with regard to the election of current board members and in connection with the proposed sale of four Girl Scout camps in Carroll, Summit, Seneca and Lake counties.

Camp Sugarbush in Johnston Township in Trumbull County originally was on the list of camps to be sold, but was taken off the list last year.

The suit requests an injunction barring the sale of camps until this case is heard. An injunction hearing is scheduled for 2 p.m. next Wednesday.

Trefoil Integrity was formed to oppose the sale of Girl Scout camps in the region, said Rachel Oppenheimer, Trefoil member.

According to the Trefoil suit, GSNEO’s code of regulations gives the general assembly of GSNEO the authority to elect the board and other positions and identify the organization’s general direction.

At the recent annual meeting, a majority of the general assembly voted against the sale of the camps, passing a resolution ordering the board to cease and desist with such plans until the board is able to achieve a two-thirds vote of the general assembly approving the camp sales.

The GSNEO board, however, disregarded the resolution, choosing instead to move forward with the sale of the camps, according to Trefoil in its complaint.

The board has proceeded to gather bids for the sale of the camps, and therefore, the plaintiffs also are asking for an injunction preventing the sales until this case is heard. Furthermore, the complaint contends the board improperly prevented the general assembly from electing additional board members as allowed in the code of regulations, according to Trefoil.

The plaintiffs feel the suit is necessary to stop the board and to save the camps, in accordance with the wishes of the majority of the Girl Scout membership in this council.

“We are doing this for the girls, because the majority of the girls want their camps,” said Lynn Richardson, one of the plaintiffs and the organizer of Trefoil Integrity. “But what is even more important than the camps is that these girls want justice.”