Nationally, Girl Scouts USA has taken on the idea of restructuring, and now it has trickled down to the regional level.

Lawrence Girl Scouts now are part of the Girl Scouts of Northeast Kansas and Northwest Missouri, a partnership of the Kaw Valley, Midland Empire and Mid-Continent Councils.

The merger combines finances, properties and paid staff of the three councils.

“The merger came about with our national office looking at how we could be better,” said Trudie Hall, the board chair and chief volunteer officer for the newly formed group. “We’ve always said ‘every girl, everywhere’ but with the structure we had, there were some gap areas.”

Hall said those holes will be filled in when the council is strengthened through more fund development, more staff to bring services and the ability to recruit more volunteers.

The combination is part of a nationwide effort to cut the number of Girl Scout councils from 312 to 109, which officials said will make the organization more efficient and less costly.

Mindy McDermott, the new council’s incoming chief operating officer, said no staff members will be fired, although several took early-retirement packages. Other staff members will have to relocate or take on new duties.

“We’re actually a little understaffed because of so many retirements,” said McDermott, who was director of public relations for the Mid-Continent Council.

For the girls, ages 5 to 17, the merger is largely invisible, which organizers said is the point.

“We’re hoping that there’s going to be very little change for them, other than improved services,” McDermott said.

Through the merger, Lawrence girls, who were formally members of Kaw Valley Council based in Topeka, will see an increase in the number of camping opportunities. There are now six more camps the girls can attend including equestrian, science and math, high ropes courses or aquatics activities.

“They could have gone to them before, but now it’s going to be their camp,” said Mindy McDermott, chief operating officer for the new council.

Hall is expecting the changes to bring an increase in the number of girls to Lawrence troops.

“The whole idea from a national perspective was to make us more accessible to girls by making it more inviting,” Hall said. “We’ll be looking at rural girls and urban girls.”

The consolidation will affect more than 48,000 girls in 47 counties.