digital cookie initiative and badges geared toward cyber etiquette, financial literacy, science, technology, engineering and math learning. please welcome to the podium, anna maria chavez, ceo of the girl scouts usa. afternoon. good and good afternoon, girl scouts. i feel like i'm with family. it is wonderful. first of all, i do want to acknowledge what is heavy on our heart this morning, from our friends and family in orlando. as all of you, i was distressed and overwhelmed seeing the tragedy that played out this weekend. for all of us who understand the importance of inclusion and mercy, i stand before you heart rogan. i want to send my remarks and special thanks to all the first responders who were there on the

scene and to the girl scouts emily's impacted this weekend. thank you for the opportunity to be here. it is my second time at the national press club. thank you for having me back. i guess i did an ok job the first time. i want to thank the organizers of the luncheon. in q4 organizing this amazing lunch. i want to thank my colleagues from the girl scouts of the nation's capital. i know they are in the room. where are you? [applause] ceo, their board president, and their steering committee members. thank you for your hospitality today. and the prestigious members of the national press club here in the room and on camera this morning. tos an amazing opportunity be here with a room full of girl scout leaders.

i sure this leadership mantle with many people. would like the ceos of our local girl scout councils to please stand up. [applause] these are representatives of 112 ceos who are doing an amazing job to continue this movement that has been around for 104 years. i would like to recognize the members of our current and former national board. would you please rise? [applause] and i want to acknowledge a special person in the audience, someone who has worn this title, marty evans, the former national ceo of girl scouts usa. [applause] as my wonderful host said, we are here to celebrate and thing fabulous.

tomorrow, we will take on capitol hill with a troop of capitol hill -- these are women who served in the senate and house you are going to host us to recognize the major achievement that a girl does and earns when it she gets her gold award. anniversary of this important honor and i want to spend a few minutes talking about it. i'm sure many of you in the room have experience this. people, they to say what do you do in girl scouting? do you know at the highest award is an girl scout in, they kind of cause and they go i know it is the eagle scouts for the boy scouts. this is our year to talk about this seminal award because it is the hallmark of a girl scout's leadership journey. it encapsulates what she has done to make an impact on local communities. so we are excited to be in washington dc to mark that 100th

anniversary. when it was established, we knew it was going to be a hallmark were girls and today, less than 5% of all girl scouts turn this award. that are projects making important impacts not only in the local community, but all over the world. theve been able to travel world and talk to girls who have made this great achievement happened in our lives and they are doing incredible things. they are thinking about how we continue to have a sustainable food source in this country. they are talking about how to get boys and girls out of sex trafficking. they are taking on underprivileged communities. they are talking about how do we invest in girls so that they can take on the leadership mantle? and, according to our own research, the power of the award, a report we recently did found gold award recipients

exhibit more positive life outcomes, including a strong sense of self, life satisfaction, leadership, life success, community service, and civic engagement. scouts not only attribute their success in life to this organization that has meant so much to so many of us, they say belonging to girl scouts left a positive imprint on their lives, providing once-in-a-lifetime, immersive experiences they could not have enjoyed anywhere else. this year marks a century of talented girls embracing the opportunity to discover their passions and connect with others to solve community problems and transforming the world in progress. we know that girls don't wait until they are 25 or 30 years old, they do it now, even when they are five years old. [applause] some sort ofhave

connection, even the men in the room who are met enough to be girls else, whether we bought the girl scout cookie or are part of a family with girl scouts, we all have our own personal story. eloi inp in a farm town arizona. it was an amazing place. i thought it was the epicenter of the universe and everything was great happened in my local community. one day my friend came in third grade and said i'm going to be a girl scout. significancew the until i went home and tried to explain to my grandmother what it would mean to me in vanish. i said i'm going to go camping and sleep in a tent. she said why would you do that mark we have a nice bed. i said i would go on and do great things for people. she said you have a grocery store for that. when i told her i would have -- i would help other people in our

clearly, she said absolutely. she knows the power of our brand and that continues to have an impact on all of us. a wholepened up sisterhood not only for me but for the millions of women who had then in girl scouting -- 59 million in the last 104 years. what does that mean for us market means we can count on other women to be there as supporters, as endorsers, as people who care. friends inne of my the sisterhood, the woman who invested in me right out of law school. i didn't know much. all i had was a law degree printed on a piece of paper, but there was a woman who took me site unseen and said i will mentor for -- i will mentor her. i was very young and very diet -- and very naive. i did not know what the law would bring not only for myself, but my community and she took me on and because of her expertise

and being the first woman to serve as the general counsel for the maritime administration, she allowed me the experience to go on and actually create an opportunity for others. work for then and department of justice on a case that went to the supreme court. she is here at the head table because not only does she support me, she continues to support me in my life and is there to say even in tough times, you are going to get rid and when you wear the leadership mantle, is your job to reach back and help others and colin forward with you. thank you. [applause] it is obviously an important experience for all of us in this room, but how do we impress upon others about the important economics of investing in girls in the united states and abroad? anknow what is important for

investment. people always ask what it is. is it important to understand the return on your i always talkt about and ponder over the question of what is the return on ignoring a girl? ignoring that investment? today, only seven cents on a that goes toated girl and women causes. people give more to animal causes today than girl causes. don't get me wrong. . have a brand new puppy he is a wonderful dog but she will not the president of the united states. a girl scout will be. [applause] we need to look at the

economics of investing and not investing in girls. what is the economic impact of a girls behavior when she is making the wrong decisions? what happens when we fail to give that girl a safe place to thrive and to live? what happens when we don't put embracing mentors in her life to understand the need that girls have every day mark they are constantly looking for role models. people say you are worth it even though the data is stacked against you. this is what you can do. this is your power. are the prospects for girls and families who cannot participate in girl scouting when even a $15 annual registration fee is a barrier? what is interesting today is the millions of girls and scroll scouting, was 15% of them are on scholarship. that means we are paying their

annual membership fee, paying for their uniform, paying for them to go to a girl scout camp. but it is amazing how hard it has been to convince people in the united states to invest in girls. but we are not done. we will continue to tell the story about what happens when you do in the in girls and women. at what is happening here today in the capital. servingook at the women in the senate and house, 70% of the women in the senate are girl scout alum. more than 50% of the women in the u.s. house are girls out alum. if you look at almost every single woman sitting in a governorship across the country, they are girl scouts. , that is why i love talking about it because i get it. i've seen the lack of investment in girls and where it ends up happening. it ends up happening in our correctional system, and lost her care, and child protective

services. i would rather invest in a girl and see them blossom than invest in these systems. for girls, what does it mean for them? the average age of my boss is eight years old. and they are pretty clear about what they need in life. when i get to do is i get to talk to future employers. they tell me the huge gap in the andl set a are seeing today they are looking into the future and saying what am i going to do? of these stem jobs but not enough girls and boys in the pipeline. that is where we come in. we have developed the most amazing stem programs in -- in the world. we have been doing it for 100 years. just dealt first with that. our offender -- our founder who is amazing, she had girls doing

welding back in 1916. today, our girls are working on nanotechnology badges, learning to code, understanding the connection between their lives at the local level and how they can have an impact ensuring that science creates solutions for diseases that exist today that unfortunately will continue unless they engage in science and technology. girl scouting,in we are saying relevant. technology, can you bring into girl scouting? we have invested multimillion dollars to upgrade girl scouts in the technology arena. we built the first multi channel e-commerce platform in the history of the united states for girls and they have taken it to the next level. they are selling their cookies. why is that important?

with that revenue, they are taking their projects to a higher platform. for us, that is what is important. i also think it is important to understand what girl scouting does off of technology. we teach girls how to deal with uncomfortable situations, when people are trying to talk them into doing things that they know in their gut they should not be doing. wayrtunately, i have seen too many news articles these days about girls who are hurting themselves, girls who are taking their lives because they cannot stand up to the social pressure of not being enough, not being smart enough, and see how people attack them on social media. but that is where we come in as girl scouts. we create safe environment for girls to learn and build resiliency so that when people

who say nasty things or spread myors, they stand up and say girl scout family believes in me and i will not believe in that rumor. behavior is important to deal with because if we don't deal with those issues at a boys andel, both girls, and we don't teach them to be inclusive and empathetic people, what happens when they become adults to mark for any woman who has been in the work force, need i remind you of situations where you have seen yourself confronted with mean girl opportunities. that is what we are fighting. we are teaching girls that they don't have to be on the dark side of that argument. they can be the light in their community and in that conversation. they can be allies to girls who are being bullied. most recently, i read online

about a girl scout troop in late have a suit, arizona, who did an amazing project at their local starbucks to raise awareness about bullying and to take a stand. that is what we do. for girl scouts and for families, this is important. but now i would like to speak to the parents. not girlour daughters scouts? we are most inclusive organization around girls and we have to understand why parents want things for their daughters. what we have learned is parents are looking for groups that will help build resiliency in their daughters. they want their daughters to take risk so that they understand that when they fail. fail miserably because that is when you learn what you are about. that's when you learn the skills to pick yourself up and go on. listening to parents across the country and the world, we are building those lessons in the girl scout troop model.

and, for women, why do you need to come back home? why do you need to reinvest in this organization that has had such a powerful impact not only in this country but across the globe and mark that is because today, we need a different framework for leadership in this country. watch the news on any given day. does that leadership model resonate with you? personally, i want to see leaders and that and take the hard stance on being inclusive. i won't leaders to stand up and think about the positive opportunities for this great country versus tearing people down. want to see.irls their leadership preferences not top down, it is all together. it is holding solutions roundtable and figuring out and

l.a. gating who is going to take the lead. but it's going to take the adults, not only in this room, but across the country to understand that is the leadership style that resonates with girls. we have to invest in this program because we have been doing it the best for 104 years. what do we need to do next? once the girls get into these positions, we have to support them, like the girls who are womenf major ceos, the running major research universities, the women who have been brave enough to put their name on a ballot. i tend to be say an optimist. full -- a glass half full versus half empty. we have been trying to create a culture of inclusion, a culture

of empathy, possibility thinking, innovation, and creative leadership. what better place to start than in your hometown, in your in anity, by investing girl, by becoming a volunteer, and understanding that anything is possible when you take a little girl's hand and say to her you are worth it. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. now for a few questions.

as you might have guessed, i was not a girl scout, however, i was a boy scout and when you started talking today, you mentioned when you talk about the gold award, people say that is like the eagle scout. how do you change the conversation from making it to the equivalent of any girl scout? ourchavez: that is part of opportunity -- we had talk about it and understand the name has changed. it is inclusive, so there are women who have earned it and we they are sitting out there waiting to come home and i hope people will understand it is a very important award and we will continue to highlight it for girls. >> what percentage of girl scouts would you like to see earned the gold award? ms. chavez: 100%. >> d want it to be harder to get? ms. chavez: having talked to the older girls in our program,

because they don't see it in the top news cycle, they don't realize that this is part of their development path. if more girls understood that if ice a in girl scouts for eight years or 10 years, not only would they achieve the award, but they would get more skills under their belt. is that the found longer they are in the girl scout program, the impact of our program is stronger. girls, especially latino and african-american girls, our program has a higher impact for them than other girls. can you tell me about the girl scouts membership and fundraising trends? get girls to be girl scouts and adults to be leaders? we currently have a list of girls who want to be girl scouts. the latest count is about 30,000 girls. for us, it is getting that adult to volunteer.

we realize it's harder and families have to work two jobs and grandparents raising grandkids. we are trying to make it easier. that's why this technology investment was critical that sheer, to allow everything to be simpler. we are digitizing our volunteer toolkits, so when you are done with your day and when you talk your husband to bed, i can get online and do my volunteer activities. we are reaching more girls that way. question from the audience. i was a girl scout in an area where girl scouting seemed natural. how do you region or city and urban youth? ms. chavez: we have been doing that for a long time. our volunteer model was based on a model where people could stay home without working. clearly, that's not the case anymore. wantderstand that people to become episodic volunteers.

you may know not want to be a true leader but you may want to share your expertise. we are encouraging men and women to volunteer for organizations to reach more girls. because i happen to work in new york city, where we have a girl scout council there, the only all urban girl scout council in the country, there are a lot of girl scouts in urban communities and rural communities. for us, it is meeting their needs now and showing adults that this is a great place to volunteer. >> you set some goals where you want girl scouts to be. how do you measure the impact of the girl scouts? goodhavez: that's a very question. ima data geek, so i will share a few data points. when we turned 100 years old, we did a research study on our alum. million- we have 59

living girl scouts across the world. we found some fascinating things. if this resonate, nod your head. we found our girl scout alum went to get a higher level of educational attainment. they went on to get there degrees and had a great time in school. they volunteer more in their local communities. if we compare our girl scout alum who are mothers, the girl scout moms are volunteering more in their children's school. enough, when we asked questions about are you happy with your life decisions, they say absolutely and have a higher level of satisfaction in their level with ardor ships, staying home and raising kids. when i was here a few years ago talking about this, i shared cash girlthat their

scouts are cynically engaged and they vote, and they vote often it is a great testament to our have been giving these girls an amazing opportunity to get back. >> the girl scouts of america had a great brand recognized internationally. recognize is the cookie. is the cookie and asset or liability? how do you position the girl scouts is a leadership organization? ms. chavez: fast company magazine published a list of the most powerful brands in the world, brands that when people saw it, they immediately resonated with the east those around them brand. the girl scouts is number seven in the world. so i'm very proud -- [applause] addition, i think we have been making headway for we

embrace our cookie program. it's the largest entrepreneurship program for girls in the world. stays ate money that the local level and they reinvest in their local community. they probably fund most of nonprofits in your cities and take and use that to action projects that lead to the bronze, silver, and gold awards. if you look at the last three or four years from the media coverage, you can see we were rated one of the most innovative nonprofits in the world just a couple of years ago. we arentinue to see going to continue to use technology in a way that's not only going to resonate with be an amazing opportunity for individuals, corporations, foundations to be strategic partners with us. we see that more and more. us. recently invested with

visa solve this is the next iteration of girl scouting and that we bring opportunity globally. >> how do you help girl scouts understand to such terrible tragedies? been 10 years has i have been working as an

ms. chavez: kids today realize that they world is consistently shifting around them, homeland security issues at the forefront, unfortunately. i see a great connection for the girls though. we are developing girls who are going to think about inclusion and diversity very differently. they are not going to see it as a negative but a positive. they are the ones that will try to reunite and unite communities and countries around solutions

for many diverse communities versus trying to segregate and a separate people from differences. that is why i sleep well at night because our hands, our lives are in great hands with girls and they will be very vocal and very positive. [applause] we have talked a lot about the girl scouts. let's talk about you for a second. how do you feel about being a minority woman in the professional world and can you tell us about your experiences? ms. chavez: joan saw some of them. i want to you an interesting story because she is here and you will allow me to do this. growing up with girl scouts i thought i could do anything, had a family that invested in me and told me, annamarie you can do anything you want, do not listen to your brothers. [laughter] ms. chavez: i grew up with that mentality if i was nice and a person of faith that i could

contribute, so i get to washington dc and i am gung ho. i have been waiting to be a lawyer since i was 12 years old and so i am ready, and is a set, joan picked me up right out of law school and she said, where do you want to go? i said i wanted to go work for that amazing female counsel at the maritime. they looked at me and said, maritime? you are from the desert. i said i want to go learn with her because she spent a career dealing with these issues on couldl hill and if she survive capitol hill i am sure she will teach me a few things. i went up there and they basically gave me this box that had been in storage, this old case about a crane that had been damaged in egypt by one of our ships, and so i rolled up my sleeves and long story short, i did my homework and before we knew it, joan was getting a

phone call because they were to egyptian diplomats coming to meet with on a chavez --anna chavez. i told her i said but she told me to do. the state department officials came over and we sat there but lawyerto pull out a male to conduct the meeting because the diplomats would not talk to us because we were female lawyers, so this was 1995. i think we have, and long way, but this shows you that there is a lot more to be done. i will tell you that i have seen that progress in my career. i rarely now meet, unfortunately, the situations or people just do not tell me, but i also do not do well on it -- do not dwell on it. it is about what you make from the situation and what you learned from his situation and i have no regrets.

mr. burr: you were the first latina ceo of the girl scouts. what have you done or what you plan to do to expand the scouts into the latino community and is there some sort of resistance because many are unfamiliar with the concept of scouting? ms. chavez: i am only going to speak to a latino backdrop in our movement. my family did not have a cultural affinity to girl scouts. -- was not a born girl scout growing up. when they thought of opportunities to volunteer, girl scouts did not necessarily resonate with them but our brand was so strong that that is what allowed me to engage and they trusted the local girl scout volunteers. i think our opportunity with any community that may have not been connected with us over the generations is not to explain to them -- is to explain to them

what we are in what we have always been. if you look back at our history, some of our first troops in savannah, georgia are made up of diverse communities. some of the first troops are from the local orphanages in savannah. woman leaderswish were from my committee. we have had girl scout groups and texas with latina girls since the 1940's and we desegregated groups long before any federal law told us to. that is in our dna. i think again we have to explain to all communities and immigrant communities in the united states that we are inclusive, a good investment, that your daughter, knees, neighbor will have a positive experience and you are investigate -- investing in the future. mr. burr: the washington post did a story about 5000 boy scouts, members of either a mosque-based troupe or civic organization. troopsrsity important in

to learn from each other? ms. chavez: absolutely. people may not know this, but we have had relationships with all of the faith organizations for many decades and we are in all communities. amazingimagine the group of individuals, local community members that are a part of our organization. faith has always been a part of it. i am wearing my catholic girl because we teach girls about their faith but also allow girls to learn about other people's faith and that is part of our history and our future, shows girls they are empathetic and shows a strength and diversity. mr. burr: archbishop robert

carlson urged cutting ties with the roman catholics and girl scouting saying, they promote ron models that are at conflict with catholic row models. what are the archbishop's statements mean for the girl scouts? ms. chavez: as the ceo of girl scouts of the usa i am nonpartisan and i represent girls of all faith. i happen to be a catholic and happen to teach sunday school, and actually what has been waiting on my mind, the future of ministry. for me, this is about girls, communities, all face. i tell you that we have had -- all faiths. theml to you that we have and catholic schools and it is a strong part of her organization as with girls in other religions. talk to usth us, about a program and what we do and what we do not do and you will see we are teaching girls

about leadership and most of our girls are young girls k through --k-5. mr. burr: this next question comes from my girl scout cookie hook up. thank you, taylor. she said in the d.c. area most troops are committed to based not school-based. do you support school-based troops to reach out to the audience? ms. chavez: i knew how hard it was an selfless texas to go into the schools for many different reasons. a lot of schools are cutting their budget, having to shut down schools after school because of the electricity bills , but it is interesting and we had our troop in the tennessee area just pass a bill in the state legislator which allow them access to all schools in tennessee which is great for girl scouts and boy scouts. i think you will see more

schools seeing girl scouts after school. we currently have girl scouting during the day in schools across the country, i communitiesn where transportation may be an issue. we actually bring staff and volunteers to provide the girl scout program during the day, and it is an amazing opportunity to reach underserved communities in ways we have done for many years. of course, those programs tend to be a little bit more expensive, cigar and back to investing in girls, that is high you can invest in our girls, support a local counsel, donate to them so they can actually go into those communities. i am assuming there is more you can do other than volunteering or buying cookies. what more can you do? ms. chavez: so much more. first of all, we would love men and women to be a part of our organization and because i travel the world i have met a

lot of cookie dads and men that are wearing the t-shirts. it is interesting, going back to girls and research, connecting stem, no longer a niche market, now the future skill set for the country in the world, we did a research study around girls and and wend we --stemp and found 74% of girls love science and math. they start getting messages they are not good at math or, why do you keep raising her hand? when we asked girls in high school, we found it to be 74% again that loved math and science, but stem careers came at the bottom of their list of future careers so there is a disconnect. we found that the largest influencer in becerra's life on whether she will go into --in t

.girl's life the audience members says girls are only required to read about things. is there an effort to be made to revise some of these so that the girls gain an actual skill in activity? ms. chavez: i know there are a lot of girls in audience and i'm pretty sure they can testify that they actually do those activities and earn those skill sets. right? [applause] ms. chavez: i have been out in the field with girls. i have done at repelling off of many walls and done amazing things in the wilderness but i've also been with girls that are doing stem activities that are donating their time to help

local food shelters. the girls are doing many things. it i think is exciting about the girl scouts today is we are allowing them to vote on the badges, and just a couple of years ago, girls did vote on the badges, over 60,000 voted online and it was interesting, they take outdoors for their badges. [applause] ms. chavez: of course, that means different things for daisies as opposed to an older girl scout, but they are also connecting outdoors with stem so catchingt to do geo- outdoors and understanding astronomy. they are learning hard skills and soft skills. mr. burr: we have another question, one of her experiences, the best experience was living with nature, the outdoors part of that. you are also emphasizing career achievement. e two? you merge th

ms. chavez: i have been hanging around a lot of doctors, talking to them about what they are seeing in the medical and science field and specifically the impact on technology on kids today. i have a 14 else on that has a lot of devices he is working on, -- i have a 14-year-old son is a lot of devices he is working on, and talking to the medical community, technology is actually doing things for the brain. it is shortening their attention span for children and adults. when was the last time you are able to put your phone done, right? a greatwe have opportunity to bridge those worlds, understanding technology is here and will continue to be here for the future, but that the outdoors are important and there has to be a balance. everything must be in moderation. i love when i see girls at camp and we are about to get into camp season for girl scouts, that they enjoy it. you mean i have to give you my phone?

but three days later they have forgotten it and they enjoy getting off of the grid, and as an adult that has to do this for work, to be online, to be on , it is and linkedin lot that you have to manage, so imagine being a 10-year-old girl and pressured into being on the systems, so what i love about girl scouting is that we are bridging those worlds and we are allowing them to be a girl as long as they can be a girl. mr. burr: speaking of digital, tell us how successful your digital cookie initiative has been since it was released in 2014, and do you plan to do more in the digital space? ms. chavez: digital cookie came from girls. came up whena that i was sitting with a group of teenage girl scouts in san antonio, texas and we were sitting around the table. i was asking about the program, what did they need more from girl scout in, and i asked them, so, any of you selling cookies next year?

and not one hand went up, including the young woman who had been my top cookie seller the previous year. they said, we want something different. we want a platform. we want the ability to sell to families across boundaries, to get their global citizens. they do not think it geographic, artificial boundaries anymore, and they wanted to think through how they could leverage it into a larger program base for them, so that is what happened. that idea in partnership with several organizations has become the largest platform in the world for girls, and within the first pilot year it was unbelievable. when we launched it in the summer, it is currently 2016 and we launched it in december of 414, and in three days we had billion median prescience -- impressions around the world,

and the reason people were so excited was they knew the power of our cookie program, the significance of investing in girl scouts, but they also saw it as an ability to leverage technology in a brand-new way, and you were able to see this intoorm, the first foray digital programming. what i'm excited about is to see what girls do next. we are taking their ideas and we are replicating it and we are investements.' will keep girl scouts thriving, continuing to focus on the girls and keeping them in the center. mr. burr: talk about what progress you have made to carry out your mission of closing the leadership gap between men and women. ms. chavez: that was an audacious goal. [laughter] ms. chavez: i think it is happening in many different ways. that's same year we launched the

most ambitious fundraising campaign on behalf of girls in the world and we are halfway there to our $1 million. in addition, when we talked about changing the leadership landscape, it was also about bringing men and boys in. it is not about boys against girls, not at all. i am raising a 14-year-old boy would also two little girls and i know what happens when you create equality conversations and you make people from different communities and areas and towns understand each other over sometimes artificial boundaries. me, it is an amazing opportunity to talk about what girls can do in the future, and i think we continue to have opportunities to talk about leadership and seeing the current political landscape and what you are seeing and hearing on the news, our girls are watching. right? they are sending down in front

of the television and listening to it on their iphones and android phones and watching how it plays out, but our research also shows that both boys and girls think it is harder for a woman to be a leader that a man. we have some work to do. mr. burr: someone in the ?udience is very concerned ms. chavez: two explained about girl scouts, our founder was very creative, that she also understood that she had to create the largest organization for girls in the world, not just a domestic program, so from the very beginning we have been part of a global movement of girls across the world. opportunity amazing is connecting with them around the globe so we have different sites and one of them happens to be our chalet with a cabana in .exico and a place in india

unfortunately, i have not been to those places you get that have been focused on visiting girl scouts domestically but you can go online and sign-up to go to any of these amazing locations. they are still alive and well. england, you should go there as well. the new part of a girl scout and you are immediately a part of this global sisterhood and you can go anywhere. i can go to any state in the country, any country in the world and someone will see my pin and say, girl scouts, very cool. note, tell ushat how girl scouts are adjusting to cultural norms, and has her been much expansion internationally within the last decade? ms. chavez: we did see a membership decline over the last 12 years but we have seen an increase in membership overseas. so, i think we can learn something there. what i love about our global girl scouting is we are serving military families, serving

individuals who are serving state department, who are working for american companies abroad and at what i hear constantly about our global girl scout in program is it is connecting them back to something that is important to them, not only a community of american girls abroad but it is also a group of american men and women who are looking for the connection to the united states and they are great ambassadors for us. unfortunately, as we talk about terrorism and issues impacting the world, i were her sitting in my new york office in reading about the paris attacks. you remember this and thinking immediately, we have girl scouts in paris and getting on the phone and trying to make sure everyone is ok, and likely our volunteers and girls were fine but they were in tears for other people who were impacted in paris through these terrorists attacks. i am cognizant that we have an amazing platform for girls and we are doing amazing things, but

my heart goes out for them because they are living in trying times. i hope that they will stay resilient, stay focused on a positive future. mr. burr: tell me how you keep older girls involved as girl scouts. how do you keep them, it is a cool thing when you get past middle school and into high school? ms. chavez: that is a hard one because even my son is like, mom, that is not cool. heried to say words and says, mom, you miss someone completely so do not even try. [laughter] ms. chavez: when things are cool and adults start saying it, it is no longer cool, support of our opportunity is to continue to try to channel girls and what is important to them. we are currently doing research on older girl programming to make sure we stay relevant for girls. i think we need to continue to listen to them, tweak and our programming. i would love for volunteers in the millennial generation to

come back and volunteer. i think it is important for our recent graduates to come back to girl scout and, to start troops, to be mentors because younger girls love it in a think they are cool. mr. burr: what is next? your leadership initiative and the gold award centennial in recent years, what is the next big moment? ms. chavez: first of all, i think we are going to think about what we have done for 104 years because sometimes we just keep going right? i want to thank everybody for the amazing dedication, your energy, your passion. for those of you watching today, thank you for your investment and girl scouting for all over the decades because you have made a difference. you really have. i think you are seeing the fruits of your investment by seeing women putting their names on ballots, seeing them as they stand up for really important issues in this country.

i also love the fact that anywhere i go i can see men and women who are still very focused on ensuring that all kids get a step up in life. you know, the next thing in our iteration of girl scouting is to keep up with the girls, to ensure we are seeking 15 years out and that is on the cusp, and for me eight years into this role, i could not be prouder of the legacy, is not myself but actually the hundreds and thousands of staff, volunteers who have given their lifeblood and sold to this organization to keep it relevant -- soul to disorganization and to keep it relevant. that two girls around the world. mr. burr: i am going to take back the podium for just a minute. before asking final question, i have a few announcements. the national press club is the world's leading organization for

journalists and we fight for free press worldwide. for more information about the club, go to www. press.org. i want to remind you of upcoming programs. on june 20 we will have the federal medication chairman john wheeler. the next day, the interim president will speak your. speak2, tom perez will and on july 14, the head of the national security agency michael rogers will address the club. i would like to present our guests with the traditional mug. [laughter] [applause] i expect cookies in return. [laughter] mr. burr: my last question. you were selected by fortune magazine as the 24th greatest leader in the world. what comes next? know, iez: well, you

have been praying on that actually and i think that again, the world gives us many opportunities. paths.es us many i think i will be called to ministry and i think that the opportunities i have seen, the people i have met have taught me one thing and that is the power of kindness and that i hope that what i have learned, what my family has instilled in me will allow me to take a lesson and have an impact on more people around the globe, and i think be on that list was not important for me but the organization. it shows that the girl scouts is back on the map and that we are doing great things and that we are leaders in many different fields, and i think my grandmother was smiling in heaven because the pope was on the list, too. [laughter] [applause]

mr. burr: thank you. thank you to the national press club staff and all of you be here. we are adjourned. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] announcer: we will be back to the national press club tomorrow when sec chair tom wheeler talks about the future of wireless technology and other telecommunication issues. that is live at 1:00 p.m. on

c-span two. later in the day, the brookings institution hears from veterans affair secretary robert mcdonald. he will talk about changes that are implemented at the ba and ongoing efforts to provide better access to veteran health care. that is live at 2:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. c-span's "washington journal" live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up on monday, in the wake of the orlando mass shooting and the subsequent filibuster by senator chris murphy, a congressional reporter for the washington post talks about the schedule this week in congress, including senate actions on gun control. representative mark meadows, republican from north carolina and chair of the government operations subcommittee talked about last week as he vote to commissioner and the

2016 presidential campaign. cochair of the voting rights caucus on his new efforts to strike down voter id laws in the state and to update the voting rights act in the will talk with the atlantic marilyn thompson about the presidential election fund designed to help canada's fund their campaigns yet $300 million is untouched due to campaign finance laws. be sure to watch "washington journal" monday morning. join the discussion. the senate on monday is set to take votes on forgone amendments and we are joined by todd ruger. this past week, senator murphy from candidate spoke on the senate floor for nearly 15 hours on gun violence. what role did that play in getting senate leaders to schedule the vote on monday? mr. ruger: it got everyone

talking on the hill and there were negotiations all day from both parties on how to proceed, and it may not have stopped anything from happening because the leaders were negotiating anyway, but this forced the issue into the public. a lot of people were talking about it, tweeting about it. it was the ninth longest talking filibuster. what ended up happening is, early in the morning actually after 15 hours, they announced there was a deal to get votes on two democratic backed amendments on gun control. >> gun measures on justice spending, you write about the four procedural votes, two of those are on background checks. minutendment and also a -- and amendment from the center of ohio. tell us about those two? mr. ruger: senator murphy's is a

sweeping amendment. he has been a big proponent of this. this would be closing the gun show loophole which is where people can go to a gun show and y one gone from a seller that is not authorized and there is not a background check and the city terrorists groups have been telling people that is how to get a weapon and they say this needs to be closed. they are advocating for background checks for all purchases. you have the amendment that will go with the same time and that one is about notifying the fbi if somebody who has been the subject of a terrorism investigation in the past five years from buying the purchase -- from purchasing a gun. >> the other amendments deal with those on the fbi watchlist

and they use the term "groundhog" because those measures came up before, didn't day? they? mr. ruger: they came up after san bernardino the left more than a dozen people dead and dianne feinstein from california pushed the amendment and it was defeated. a needed 60 votes and it only got 45, i believe. the democrats of those senator cornyn's because they say it did not stop terrorists from getting weapons, and that only needed 55 votes but was short of what it needed. these are different versions, new versions of amendments, but they will also save lives and that is why people are saying "groundhog day" because there is a lot to indicate these folk totals may change. >> the president going to

orlando to meet with families and victims and the administration weighing in on these measures. you tweeted about this. what does the administration, what problem does the administration find that the two republican measures? mr. ruger: the administration finds the same problem that the democratic lawmakers fine. they do not think it's also the problem or it actually might make it harder to do this kind of legislation in the future that might be affected. up justice department came and said they backed the feinstein a minute because she provided a revised amendment with language about the justice department coming up with a provision to make sure somebody who is trying to buy a gun is notified and may appeal it to the court, they will not be tipped off if the justice

department is doing an ongoing investigation and they need to not blow up that investigation. she has more language and she is gain moreadd this to republicans on her side. >> these amendments come monday afternoon for a 5:30 eastern vote and they all need 60 for the measures to advance. they are part of the commerce-justice, science spending bill. what is the likelihood they will get the needed 60? mr. ruger: there is optimism but there is not really anything that looks to have enough to pull from the otherand one of tn that is that republicans paired up the democratic amendments with their own version of an amendment that says it is a

signal that the republicans are prepared to back the republican version. , as people have said, a groundhog day. host: lastly, as we hear from a plant about senator collins, what are democrats plans if the measures fail? guest: so far, they have said that they are focused on passing these two measures. the spending bill on the floor. but they do have other things they could do after that if they want to push the issue. otherare also a number of amendments that have been filed into this bill related to gun control and so they might be able to push for one of those. host: the legal affairs correspondent, you can follow his reporting on twitter. thank you for the update. c-span,on