Parenting -- Girl (Scout) on a Mission

[fgoodwin]

Parenting -- Girl (Scout) on a Mission

 

 

http://tinyurl.com/2jqkcw

 

By MICHAEL WINERIP

Published: March 23, 2008

UNIONDALE

 

GIRL SCOUT COOKIES! bellowed Ayazhia Lee, 11.

 

THREE-FIFTY A BOX! yelled Katherine Aanensen, 13.

 

Shanna Mena was rushing by at the Roosevelt Field mall in Garden City when the words registered and she came to an abrupt halt. Girl Scout cookies? said Ms. Mena, who works at Macys. Oh my God, Girl Scout cookies.

 

She made a sharp pivot, hurried to the booth and started picking out boxes. I need one of these, she said, grabbing a box of Thin Mints. And you know what, I need these Samoas and I need these Do-si-dos.

 

Ms. Mena loves those cookies, but cookies arent the half of it. Its those Girl Scouts, Ms. Mena said. They just twist your heart.

 

They know it, they know it, and no Girl Scout knows it better than Ayazhia, who sold 1,333 boxes last year for Troop 1077 of Uniondale. This year her goal is 1,500.

 

Im very outgoing, so its very easy to talk to people, Ayazhia explained. I go up to everyone, I take cookies everywhere. Sometimes people say theyre too fattening. We tell them theyre not that big GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!

 

THREE-FIFTY A BOX! Katherine shouted.

 

Ayazhias sales pitch? I just basically say theyre good for you and theyre only on sale once a year and they freeze well, so theres never enough.

 

To be a good salesman, she continued, You have to talk clearly, you have to look them in the eye. It shows respect. That way, they think you dont care about anything else but them GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!

 

THREE-FIFTY A BOX!

 

[excerpted]

[Cheerful Eagle]

hooo boy, cookies.... don't get me started. The best thing I can say is, I did my time this year, we're almost done, and I will NEVER be in charge of it again so help me God.

 

Well, ok I could also say, this is the only thing we do to support council and council camps. Gee, we should utilize them more...

[AnneinMpls]

LOL.

I got this in my inbox today:

"I will not be tr**p c**kie manager again."

 

Suffice to say, there was much more said, and I did not shed any tears

 

I think she wants us to throw her a parade or something. Even though I had to do half her job, and put up with her complaining after she decided to do things her own way regardless of any advice or stated policies.

 

Oh, she had a *cow* because I brought the balloons from the Friday night c**kie shop to the Saturday morning c**kie shop. They weren't *fresh*. Good God in heaven...yes, I am praying.

 

She gave birth to another bovine when my kiddo with aspergers did not make immediate eye contact with her when she came to take down the sale. My kiddo filled in for a family that couldn't come because they were sick. She had worked the booth for 6 hours. The sale had been quiet for the last 30-45 min and she was doing a crossword puzzle and zoning out a bit. Yup, huge behavior issue there. Nevermind I've worked with her own daughter's major behaviors, like hitting and bullying, without having a cow.

 

I am so writing up our own contract for future volunteers. It will include things like - showing respect for girls in the troop, treating other adults with respect, refraining from going on and on about how hard-working ones fine self is, and not *ordering 6 more cases of c**kies when all we needed was a case or two of one kind to finish one last sale* No wait...10!!! TEN more cases!!! unbeleivable. (Did I mention she complained about the troop buying a $3.50 box for samples without consulting her? TEN CASES!!! That's...another...$420 to move by Sunday. Oh yes, let's have a cow over $3.50 but do your own thing when it's $420.

 

I need....I don't know what I need. I need something...

Would you like to buy some c**kies?

Anne in Mpls.

[Sephrina]

Could be worse...I still have cookies in my freezer from a troop that ordered the cookies, but didn't have the sale. I sold 10 or 20 cases for them and they had about as many left.

[SSScout]

Havenja ever wanted to be able to yell "RIBS!! BARBECUE RIBS!!" instead?

 

Think of the possibilities...

[fgoodwin]

My son is helping at an Eagle COH in a couple of weeks; what got my attention was that the two Eagle Scouts plan to serve bar-b-que and have a dance after the COH!

 

Bringing a dance partner won't be a problem for me (unless the wife decides to back out), but it was the bar-b-que that got my attention!

[Cheerful Eagle]

OMG I was abducted by aliens and my evil duplicate agreed to be cookie manager for my troop this year.

 

Never Again.

 

I have NOTHING good to say about girl scout cookies.

 

NOTHING.

 

Next year I WILL NOT do it. I will support my daughter in as much as she wants to do it, but I will also suggest each scout sell a token anount and then we have a garage sale or car wash or something else. ANYTHING else.

 

Seeing scouting reduced to pimping for a cookie manufacturer and council makes me feel nauseous (we only keep 12.5% of the cost per box, even Trails End is better than that, and no-one thinks Boy Scouts = popcorn).

[purpledragon]

ROFLMAO about the cookie comments. Yeah aren't they fun? he he And on top of that the girls HATED the theme this year and were not that motivated by the prizes (yes I said it PRIZES instead of incentives ... oh no the GS police might get me).

 

Just wait until the fall, then you get to sell nuts and candies (or at least that is what we do here).

 

After I found a group to sponsor our troop we are not obligated to play the cookie/nut games any more. We participate until the girls are sick of it and then we stop. We cancelled our last weekend of booths because we sold out and no one wanted to be responsible to sell a whole case. (We cannot return any opened cases in the end of the sales.) The girls did burn out on the sales stuff quickly this year. They simply don't see the connection between selling cookies when they only get 50 cents per box. I can't say that I blame them.

 

We want to have a few money earning events, but we are not allowed. **sigh** My youngest scouts are in 4th grade and here your youngest girl needs to be in 6th grade. That leaves us with the money earning activities. We are still working those out. Any ideas?

 

Anyways, yes the cookie stuff is a huge production, thank god it is over.

 

[Cheerful Eagle]

Well, gee PD, you can too do some other fundraising.

 

Ya, I know council stipulates you have to participate in the fall product and cookie sales, but the key word is "participate".

One case of cookies = participation.

One nut order = participation.

 

There. Participated. Done IT. Now you can get down to some "real" fundraising.

[purpledragon]

Oh yeah, I know about the participation. That i not the issue. If we sell one item for each sale then officially we participated. I have that one down pat.

 

No our trouble is that our ACT has made it a rule that we cannot participate in any running any events as a fund raiser if we have girls that are in grades below 6th grade. This makes it challenging to fundraise.

 

With the further restrictions on not being able to sell anything that benefits another company...well the options are really looking slim now.

 

What fundraisers have you had that have produced real income for the girls?

 

Thanks!

[ScoutNut]

Who / What is an ACT?

 

I understand that councils can make rules that are more strict than those of GSUSA, but to hogtie Troops trying to fundraise?

 

Talk to the CEO of your Council if you have to, to get a definative ruling.

 

BTW, my girls always managed to fund their program with the Cookie Program, in combination with paying Troop Dues or paying as they went. It came down to it being THEIR decision. If THEY decided to sell less cookies, and thereby make less profit for the Troop, then THEY had to pay out-of-pocket for more activities.

 

The only time we did fundraisers other than those designated for council, was for their Silver and Gold projects. Some of those were a bake sale, car wash, and package wrapping at Christmas. We did pretty good at all of them.