SALT LAKE CITY — For more than 100 years, the Girl Scouts have been largely known for three core attributes: camping, crafts and cookies.

Changing times and fashion are unlikely to alter the appeal of the Thin Mint, but that may not be as true for other aspects of the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., an organization that some say has spent nearly a decade moving away from its tent-pitching, campfire-building roots to embrace the more modern-day themes of technology and science, media and social issues in order to keep girls interested.

“They did need to transform the organization, and when they decided to focus on leadership opportunities, I said, ‘Hot-diggity, that’s exactly what we need,’ ” said Marty Woelfel of Louisville, who has spent 41 years working with the Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana Council. “But outdoors, as leadership, fell off the map at that point.”

The change left out an important leadership opportunity for the 2.3 million girls who wear the well-known green vests and shiny, gold trefoil pins, said Ms. Woelfel, who was in Salt Lake City for the movement’s international convention. Ms. Woelfel is part of a yearslong grass-roots effort by scouts and their leaders nationwide to persuade the nation’s largest organization for young girls to rethink its priorities.