Employee


Outstanding Older Worker for Massachusetts

Barb Tresback represents the best of adult Girl Scouting – as a successful mentor to volunteers, as a professional colleague, and as an accomplished practitioner and teacher of outdoor education. Her adventure in Girl Scouting began when she joined as a girl member of the Gardner (Massachusetts) Council.

In 1962, Gardner became a part of the newly chartered Montachusett Girl Scout Council (now named Girl Scouts of Montachusett Council, Inc.). Barb became the council's first office manager. As her career progressed, she was named to the staff position of Camping Director and later served as a Field Executive. Currently Barb serves as the Membership Manager supporting the eleven communities in central Massachusetts providing support and staff leadership to a over 1,800 Girl Scouts and 650 Adult Girl Scout members.

Barb is retiring after 44 years of professional service in the Montachusett Council. Barb's career has strategically influenced thousands of girls and adults in all of the council's 61 communities in central Massachusetts spanning four decades. Girl membership in the council ranged from 8,500 to almost 13,000 during this time. Barb Tresback has been the inspiration and motivation behind a host of creative and innovative programs that have given girls in central Massachusetts the chance to discover their own potential and self-worth. She has worked diligently to provide support and vision pursuant to the council's governance system and was recently instrumental in updating that system in order to assure more effective representation of volunteers. Over the years, and on numerous occasions, Barb has proudly and capably represented Girl Scouts of Montachusett Council at the Edith Macy Conference Center in New York . She has also participated in numerous regional Girl Scout conferences.

Her unassuming leadership style supports her gift of teaching as she trains and mentors new staff most effectively. This talent has made her a revered teacher as well as a respected leader. Barb exhibits an overwhelming and contagious sense of dedication and commitment to Girl Scouting in central Massachusetts . She has worked many long hours but never measures her work in such units. Rather, she counts the number of lives she has changed and the opportunities she has provided for others. In what spare time she has, she enjoys gardening, which reflects what Barb had spent a lifetime doing – patiently tending her garden of people and helping them to grow.

Barb was honored with the council's Women of Distinction Award in 1999 among women throughout Worcester County . She earned Girl Scouts of the USA 's Thanks Badge II for Continuing Service in 2003. In 2004, Barb was named Experience Works Outstanding Older Worker for Massachusetts and was honored during National Prime Time Awards Program Week in Washington, D.C.

Courage: Barb has always had the courage of her convictions. She has endured significant change, and has had the courage to embrace and move with changes over more than four decades.

Confidence: Barb's confidence is a quiet, unassuming confidence in her own ability to make an enormous difference. Her modesty often masks that confidence, but it's there and she is revered for it.

Character: Clearly she is a very principled person who stands for what she believes in.