Girl Scout Cookie Rant (JAWM)

[G5052]

Thanks for letting me rant. If I didn't do it here I'd end up doing it at tonight's umpteenth cookie booth and that would be bad.

 

I'd be furious too. I feel sorry for the parents at the booths.

 

I tried to get some yesterday, and there was only one group at one grocery store. They had just a handful of varieties left, and said that the entire area is nearly sold out!

Edited March 20, 2016 by G5052

[Anne in CA]

Oh, that would make me so mad. You are entitled to your rant.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I hate selling stuff.

 

One year the drama lady had to change venues for the show and the new place was more expensive.  So she asked us to sell Mary Kay stuff.  Uhhhh  I didn't bite.  Just charge me more for the show.  She thought it would be great because you know everyone wears make up.  Well let me see.  All the people in my life are males and none of them are into makeup.  I don't wear makeup.  So not much of a sell there.

 

 

[katilac]

Would they know that YOU were the one who bought the cookies and wrote them a check?

 

I never understood these fundraisers.

 

 

That would be crazy expensive if the leader ordered 'hundreds of boxes' for each girl. Even 100 boxes would be $400, which would be way more than I'd be willing to donate to my kid's Girl Scout troop. 

 

I'll add my own personal vent: I hate it when the sales pitch is if they sell enough they go to camp for free! You know what I do when my kids go to camp? I write a check. It used to make me crazy to get a personal request from relatives to buy crap so their kids could go to camp for free or reduced price, when I had kids the same age who they knew very well were also going to camp, just not scout camp. No, I'm not helping to pay for your kids' camp! 

 

I'm not against fundraisers completely, we do some for Student Council. My main rules are no begging, no overpriced sales, and the kids have to be able to do most of the work. No begging means no begging buckets at the traffic light. No overpriced sales means nothing like scout cookies or popcorn, lol. We did sell regular candy bars for $1 once, buying bulk, and the usual price at the store was .69 or .79 at the time. 

 

Kids doing most of the work generally translates into a car wash or a bake sale. We charge low prices at the car wash because they aren't highly skilled, and they still do pretty well money-wise and have fun. Likewise the bake sale, it's very short term (one day baking, one day selling), and people can choose to bake something (super cheap choice) or buy something (convenient choice). The kids run the booth. We use a location that doesn't allow for soliciting, they have to walk up to us, but I would not let them call out to people anyway. 

[Scarlett]

I hate selling Girl Scout cookies. Hate it. With a passion. Everyone we know either already has a Girl Scout or doesn't eat sugar. I begged and pleaded to be allowed to make a donation to the troop instead of selling, but no, not allowed. Now the cookie mom is freaking out at me because dd and I didn't sell enough. We helped out multiple times at the troop cookie booth, but people around here are pretty health-conscious, and unsurprisingly most people don't want to pay $4 for a small package of mediocre cookies that utilize slave-harvested chocolate.

 

This woman ordered literally hundreds of boxes of cookies per girl, completely ignored everyone's estimates on how many we thought we could sell, and now is in an absolute rage that we couldn't sell them all. Gee, you think? I only told her half a dozen times beforehand that we couldn't. Now she's trying to tell me that our family will be financially responsible for the cookies that didn't get sold. Yeah, I don't think so.

 

Thanks for letting me rant. If I didn't do it here I'd end up doing it at tonight's umpteenth cookie booth and that would be bad.

 

 

I despise fund raisers of all kinds.  

 

 

When dss14 comes here with something to sell I just get nuts.  I have had to tell myself 'this is a thing dh does to attempt to bond with his son that he sees twice a month'....but I've told dss14 I'd rather give him the money outright than pay money for the crap they have for sale.  

[SKL]

Ugh.  Our scout organization allows a buy-out.  So far I haven't needed to go that route, as I buy the stuff for gifts.  But yeah, fundraising pretty much sucks.

[Xahm]

My husband is in the national guard, so we've been given Boy Scout popcorn donated to the troops. Too much was donated to send it all overseas, so pallets of it were left at the armory. Gross stuff, except the choc covered pretzels which were okay. When dh was in Iraq he had 50 or so boxes of girl scout cookies donated to him and he couldn't give them all away no matter how he tried. All that to say, lots of people hate these things but want to support the scouts, so they send overpriced junk to soldiers.

[Joyofsixreboot]

As a GS mom for the past 16 years, your problem isn't the cookies it's the leader. I have never insisted any family sell cookies if they don't choose to.

[SparklyUnicorn]

I always wonder how much they make on each box compared with what the manufacturer makes.  So regarding needing to sell 100 boxes for $400 worth I don't see why it would have to be a $400 buy out because they aren't actually getting all $400 for 100 boxes.

 

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

From here:

 

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/03/girl-scout-cookie-prices-jumping-to-5-here.html

 

"Goldstein's council is raising the price to $5 per box from $4, the first hike in at least eight years. With the increase, the council's troops will now receive an average of 90 cents per box of cookies, up from an average of 62 cents per box."

 

So if you gave them $100 instead of selling 100 boxes of cookies, they'd be getting even more money!  I'd rather give them $100 than sell 100 boxes of cookies!!

[Alessandra]

That would be crazy expensive if the leader ordered 'hundreds of boxes' for each girl. Even 100 boxes would be $400, which would be way more than I'd be willing to donate to my kid's Girl Scout troop.

 

I'll add my own personal vent: I hate it when the sales pitch is if they sell enough they go to camp for free! You know what I do when my kids go to camp? I write a check. It used to make me crazy to get a personal request from relatives to buy crap so their kids could go to camp for free or reduced price, when I had kids the same age who they knew very well were also going to camp, just not scout camp. No, I'm not helping to pay for your kids' camp!

 

I'm not against fundraisers completely, we do some for Student Council. My main rules are no begging, no overpriced sales, and the kids have to be able to do most of the work. No begging means no begging buckets at the traffic light. No overpriced sales means nothing like scout cookies or popcorn, lol. We did sell regular candy bars for $1 once, buying bulk, and the usual price at the store was .69 or .79 at the time.

 

Kids doing most of the work generally translates into a car wash or a bake sale. We charge low prices at the car wash because they aren't highly skilled, and they still do pretty well money-wise and have fun. Likewise the bake sale, it's very short term (one day baking, one day selling), and people can choose to bake something (super cheap choice) or buy something (convenient choice). The kids run the booth. We use a location that doesn't allow for soliciting, they have to walk up to us, but I would not let them call out to people anyway.

A friend of ours brought a box of BIG candy bars to a meeting. $1. I was happy to give my kids $ to buy some, even though we don't normally have candy around.

 

A few years ago, unknown kids knocked on my door selling overpriced candy bars. School trip to Europe. No sale.

Edited March 21, 2016 by Alessandra

[Danestress]

(Hugs)

 

That sounds beyond frustrating!

 

I do not understand the GS cookie love that supposedly is out there. I agree that they're expensive and blah...do people really love them like we're led to believe?

I love the thin mints. I am not a huge cookie eater, but I like those.

 

I hated every boys out popcorn out there. Crush are just awful. But my kids sold some. It was mostly all because people could buy them to be shipped to the troops over seas. No one really eats packages popcorn.

[Sdel]

Well, we got kicked out of GS over those dang cookies.  Sorry, I'm not derailing a trip that had been planned for over 6 months to make the "mandatory" cookie meeting, and if you feel something is so dang important that I need to know about it, leave a voicemail or send a text so I know to make it a priority call back.

 

We've never looked back.

 

Stefanie

 

[Loowit]

I hate fundraisers like that.  Right now we are in the midst of candy bar and meatstick sales with our boy scout troop.  It is a pain.  They pumped up the boys about selling and winning prizes and my guys took more than I wanted them to take.  I wish we had just done the buy out, it is only $30 for our troop.  Our council has added yet another fundraiser, camp cards, to sell after candy and meatstick sales are over.  I am not going to do it.  I am putting my foot down, my boys are not selling.  We will help with the troop garage sale or any other one day fundraisers like car washes but I am not doing any more go out and sell candy/popcorn/whatever door to door or in front of a store.

[Haiku]

I don't allow my kids to participate in fundraisers. My dh and I participate in a fundraiser for the youth hockey organization that consists of selling 50/50 raffle tickets at the NHL game. I don't mind that because we get into the game for free, and we don't have to bug people to buy tickets. They queue up to do so. I tell any organization that my kids want to join that if they require fundraisers and don't have a buyout, we will not be joining.

 

We sold Girl Scout cookies once. Once.

[Alice]

I actually like Girl Scout cookies.  :unsure: But I hate fundraising so I support your vent. 

 

I hated the Cub Scout popcorn, but we were lucky and in a pretty low key pack that didn't require you to do any. Our Boy Scout troop does Christmas wreaths and trees. I like that as a fundraiser because they are actually priced fairly reasonably compared to other places around here, people want them anyway and it's done as a group sales and no individual sales. They set up at the church that sponsors the troop over about 2-3 weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's a big Catholic church so lots of masses and people can buy as they leave or not. They almost always sell out and then they are done. 

[gardenmom5]

I hate selling stuff.

 

One year the drama lady had to change venues for the show and the new place was more expensive.  So she asked us to sell Mary Kay stuff.  Uhhhh  I didn't bite.  Just charge me more for the show.  She thought it would be great because you know everyone wears make up.  Well let me see.  All the people in my life are males and none of them are into makeup.  I don't wear makeup.  So not much of a sell there.

I don't wear make-up. 

[Mergath]

Thanks for the support everyone! I just got back from the cookie booth. I'm really sick of trying to look cheerful, lol. :P 

 

So to clarify, our troop leader and our cookie mom are two different people. I love our troop leader. The cookie mom is the crazy one. ;) I never signed for any cookies- the cookie mom just decided how many cookies each girl was supposed to sell and told us, "Your responsibility is x number of cookies." (I can't remember the exact number, but it was in the hundreds. I refused to even pick up our complete share because I figured up how much space they'd take up and I could never have stored that many.) The cookie mom had messaged me today just before we left and said something about how we could bring the rest of the cookies to the cookie booth, but we wouldn't be allowed to actually sell ours at the booth and could only help sell other people's cookies (???) and whatever cookies dd did sell, she wouldn't get credit for them (as a punishment?)  I don't know. She wasn't making much sense.

 

So when I got to the booth, it was only me and the troop leader and our kids. She basically told me to sell our cookies, of course dd will get credit, and next year we are getting a new cookie mom and doing things WAY differently. So that was a relief.

 

We still have a bunch left, but we made a dent in them. The troop leader said that after tonight she thinks we've covered the cost of the cookies, so we won't have a negative balance and can take our time with the rest if we need to, and no, I won't have to pay for unsold cookies out of my own pocket. That was a huge relief. I also asked her if we could just return some, and she said that, from what she was told, only troops who have huge orders are allowed to return any cookies. (I thought ours was huge- I can't imagine how many you have to order to be able to return some.)

 

This whole thing is just nuts though. Such a complicated ridiculous mess. Never, ever again. 4-H here we come.

[ksr5377]

Haven't read all the replies, but I totally agree with you.  I was in Girl Scouts for 2-3 years when I was younger and did not enjoy selling cookies.  Therefore, we do 4-H!  While our club does do fundraising, it's by running a food booth at a local auction twice a year.  People want the food, we don't have to push it on anyone.  So easy.

[skimomma]

I'm confused about this.  Don't the girls get orders first then the troop orders that many cookies?  I was a GS and that was how we did it.  Dd is not in GS but we order cookies from anyone that knocks on our door selling them and it is all orders first, cookies and cash later.  

[Mergath]

I'm confused about this. Don't the girls get orders first then the troop orders that many cookies? I was a GS and that was how we did it. Dd is not in GS but we order cookies from anyone that knocks on our door selling them and it is all orders first, cookies and cash later.

That's how it's supposed to work. Our cookie mom just ordered a bazillion cookies right off the bat.

[felicity]

I'm confused about this.  Don't the girls get orders first then the troop orders that many cookies?  I was a GS and that was how we did it.  Dd is not in GS but we order cookies from anyone that knocks on our door selling them and it is all orders first, cookies and cash later.  

 

It depends on the Council. We don't do preorders, just get the cookies and go around selling them. It's great in some ways--people are way more willing to buy something they can see right there and we don't have to worry about people "forgetting" and then not wanting to pay. But we do have to estimate how many cookies we can sell and if we are get too many we can't return them. We can transfer them to another troop that needs cookies though.

 

I only care about cookies to the extent that they help our troop, but if it becomes the point of our troop, even for a few months, we're done.

[katilac]

I love the thin mints. I am not a huge cookie eater, but I like those.

 

 

I like thin mints and used to buy them, but then I discovered Keebler Grasshoppers. They are just like Thin Mints, except chocolate-ier, and better, and much cheaper. 

 

 

I'm confused about this.  Don't the girls get orders first then the troop orders that many cookies?  I was a GS and that was how we did it.  Dd is not in GS but we order cookies from anyone that knocks on our door selling them and it is all orders first, cookies and cash later.  

 

They take orders around here, but also order extra. If you can get a cookie booth, like selling in front of Walmart or Home Depot, you can sell tons more than by just taking orders. 

[Reefgazer]

I'm sitting here eating a big ole canister of Cub Scout Caramel Peanut popcorn right now!  Can't stop shoving it in my face.  Best popcorn evah!  But there are 2 kinds of Cub Scout popcorn - the kind in the plastic packages (yuck!) and the canister type (Yum!).

I love the thin mints. I am not a huge cookie eater, but I like those.

I hated every boys out popcorn out there. Crush are just awful. But my kids sold some. It was mostly all because people could buy them to be shipped to the troops over seas. No one really eats packages popcorn.

 

[Reefgazer]

I was cookie mom one year for DD's troop and the cookie coordinator (or whatever she's called) demanded all troop cookie moms in her region appear at a designated time and place to pick up the initial load of cookies.  I would be working at that time and she insisted I show up to the cookie pickup point rather than work.  I told her no (and laughed kind of derisively, I admit) and I thought we were going to come to have all-out war before another mom offered to pick up the cookies for me.  Cookie moms, the ones who like it, are whack jobs.   They treat it like a flippin' career or something....

Well, we got kicked out of GS over those dang cookies.  Sorry, I'm not derailing a trip that had been planned for over 6 months to make the "mandatory" cookie meeting, and if you feel something is so dang important that I need to know about it, leave a voicemail or send a text so I know to make it a priority call back.

 

We've never looked back.

 

Stefanie

 

Edited March 21, 2016 by reefgazer

[Arcadia]

I was a Girl Guide in Asia and we rarely have fundraisers and no cookies to sell. The Boy Scouts have job week annually.

 

I have a kid who run away from mint flavored stuff and like marshmallows as marshmallows (roasted or otherwise) not in contact with other food. My entire family is hyper picky about cookies. We are picky even about danish butter cookies :)

 

ETA:

We saw less booths outside Safeway this year. Business wasn't good at the booths though. The private school nearby sold chocolate bars as fundraisers and the public high school sold See's Candies.

Edited March 21, 2016 by Arcadia

[MistyMountain]

I would not like it if it was like that. My dd's troop did really well at booth sales and ran out of cookies. All we did was sell at dh's work, church and at booth sales. People in our area are not as health conscious I guess. We do not know a lot of people so we just do booth sales. I would feel the same way if I were in your position. That stinks that they got mad at you for it. Cubscout popcorn sales will be like that for us. I do not know people who will spend that kind of money on popcorn and I do not think they would do well at booths either.

Edited March 21, 2016 by MistyMountain

[Joyofsixreboot]

First...vent away. Your cookie mom sounds like a loon.

Different councils have different rules. In ours, once the troop takes the cookies we are responsible for paying the council for them whether we sell them or not. You can't just give the troop what they would have made on the cookies. That is why we are careful not to over do. I'm not sure if that is why your cookie mom is panicking or not. Our council gives our girls a pathetic $.30-$.40/$4 box. We don't stress or push selling. Of course, we don't take big trips or spend much.

[Bluegoat]

I like the minst cookies.

 

In the last few years I've noticed the girls here are selling them a different way - I suspect in part because fewer people have cash at home and as far as I know no one lokes going door to door.

 

Instead, they fill up a car trunk and set up in a place with a fair bit of traffic and room to pull over, with a sign or flag.  People who want cookies and have cash pull over and buy them.  Usually they seem to stay for a morning or afternoon, I suppose so people have time to come back if they want to get money.

 

 

[Sandragood1]

I'm a Girl Scout leader. I have never pushed sales of any sort. Our Cookie Mom is the same.

 

However, in our Council you will not be approved for other fundraising activities if you haven't participated in both the Fall Candy Sale and the Cookie Sale. That stinks, but no one says you have to sell a ton.

 

Now that my troop is working on Gold Award projects and pondering a big senior trip, I have encouraged everyone to at least buy/sell something in each sale so we can do other fundraisers for the expensive things.

[Danestress]

I'm sitting here eating a big ole canister of Cub Scout Caramel Peanut popcorn right now! Can't stop shoving it in my face. Best popcorn evah! But there are 2 kinds of Cub Scout popcorn - the kind in the plastic packages (yuck!) and the canister type (Yum!).

Well I am glad you are enjoying that! Carmel salt sounds better than most - it's been a few years, so maybe they didn't have that when my boys sold. I tried the canister pop corn, sweet ones, savory ones, and I just wasn't impressed. But Carmel, popcorn and salt are all hard to dislike.

[wintermom]

Hey, at least the US cookies come in many varieties. In Canada there are only 2 kinds, each sold at separate times of the year. So you flog one kind at a time.  And they're $5 a box. Weirdly, they seem to sell like hotcakes. I could never understand it.

Edited March 21, 2016 by wintermom

[chiguirre]

We've always had good luck with our booths and rarely have many extra boxes (and they're invariably "the healthy ones"). Our troop does have to preorder to stock the booths because you need cookies in hand for immediate delivery. I've done this for 6 years and we've never had any issues with buying too many. If we do have some leftovers we serve them as snacks at a meeting or two and we're done. The younger girls are always super excited to sell cookies at the booths. It makes them feel responsible and like they're doing a grown-up job.

 

I know a lot of people resent the cut that council takes from the cookie sales but as my troop has gotten older, I've started to appreciate council more. They run the camps! They offer older girl programs that need more expertise than I can bring to badge work! They maintain a fleet of sun fish for their sailing program and a herd of horses for riding camps! They have lots of training options so you can manage to get it done. They offer lots of opportunities to older scouts that would be impossible for the average troop to manage on its own.

 

I'm sorry your cookie mom is a nut, Mergath. That sucks the joy out of cookie sales.

Edited March 21, 2016 by chiguirre

[Valley Girl]

I was cookie mom one year for DD's troop and the cookie coordinator (or whatever she's called) demanded all troop cookie moms in her region appear at a designated time and place to pick up the initial load of cookies.  I would be working at that time and she insisted I show up to the cookie pickup point rather than work.  I told her no (and laughed kind of derisively, I admit) and I thought we were going to come to have all-out war before another mom offered to pick up the cookies for me.  Cookie moms, the ones who like it, are whack jobs.   They treat it like a flippin' career or something....

 

If anything truly deserved derisive laughter, that had to have been it! Skip out on your paying job to pick up some stupid cookies? Not happening.

[Library Momma]

I was a cookie mom and no one ever has to sell cookies if they don't want to.  When our girls were Daisies we felt they were too young to sell cookies so the entire troop didn't participate.  As they got older certain girls didn't want to sell cookies and that was ok too.  They just didn't get cookie credits or had to pay more for certain activities that the cookie money would cover.  

 

As for extra cookies, you just return them to the cookie cupboard.  I don't understand the problem? 

[Runningmom80]

Uh, that sounds totally ridiculous!

 

I'll be sure to figure out which troop isn't cookie crazy before signing DD up.  We have a lot of troops around so our market is saturated as well.

[NorthwestMom]

I was a cookie mom and no one ever has to sell cookies if they don't want to.  When our girls were Daisies we felt they were too young to sell cookies so the entire troop didn't participate.  As they got older certain girls didn't want to sell cookies and that was ok too.  They just didn't get cookie credits or had to pay more for certain activities that the cookie money would cover.  

 

As for extra cookies, you just return them to the cookie cupboard.  I don't understand the problem? 

 

That's not always possible in some councils. The rules vary a lot from place to place.

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

Hey, at least the US cookies come in many varieties. In Canada there are only 2 kinds, each sold at separate times of the year. So you flog one kind at a time.  And they're $5 a box. Weirdly, they seem to sell like hotcakes. I could never understand it.

 

awww well that is boring.

 

I do like the cookies, but I'm a little sad they don't even get a dollar per box.  I knew they didn't get it all, but that's so low.  I suppose it has become a tradition, but seems to me they could make more money doing other things.

[KungFuPanda]

Cookie Mom MESSED UP and is trying to pass that responsibility on to you. That's ridiculous. Did she order cookies based upon your past sales or did she just make up a number? I led scouts for 7 years. Nobody was pressured to sell and the season was very short. Generally, the girls set their own sales goals and leaders reality-checked this number with parents before ordering anything. If a girl was opposed to selling for any reason, we found another way to help . . . usually sorting the orders. Camping is just not THAT expensive. It's supposed to be a learning experience for the kids that supports fun things for them to do. If your budget is low, just day camp instead and bring a bag lunch. The kids just want to have fun with their friends.

[felicity]

awww well that is boring.

 

I do like the cookies, but I'm a little sad they don't even get a dollar per box.  I knew they didn't get it all, but that's so low.  I suppose it has become a tradition, but seems to me they could make more money doing other things.

 

In our Council the troop gets between 75 cents and $1 per box. A percentage goes to the baker, obviously. A small amount goes for the incentives (all of the little junky things up to a 3D printer for us). Our Service Unit--all of the troops in a city or small area, and our Councils get a percentage as well. So even if the troop itself isn't getting more than $1, the girls and leaders are getting more than a dollar of programming. Like was said above, we have camps put on by the Council, we have training, we have community things set up by the Council and Service Units. I do appreciate those--some councils are better than others and from what I can tell, mine is one of the better ones. But the girls do benefit from those, if they choose to take advantage.

 

That's not to say everything in cookies is always perfect--there are crazy cookie moms, people don't turn money in, cookies don't sell, or the money gets stolen. I have many stories from my Cookie Mom this year and how much harder she made picking stuff up and turning money in. But I also have seen shy girls get the confidence to ask people if they'd buy cookies when the year before they could barely open their mouths.

[SquirrellyMama]

We do 4 H. Fundraising is still required if your kid wants to show stuff in the fair.

But- our fundraiser is cheese & you only need to sell one block. I stock up for the holidays, as its delivered before Thanksgiving.

 

I wonder if this varies by county or state? We've never had to do fundraising to show at the fair.  Is that to show at county fair or state fair?

 

Kelly

 

[SquirrellyMama]

Last year my niece's troop's cookie mom stole their cookie money :(

 

And, nothing happened to her, except she isn't in that group anymore.

 

Kelly

[FaithManor]

Man, why don't they sell toothbrushes or something?

This is a great idea! Some of our local dentists have cut out the freebies, and it's easy to forget that the deadline has expired to replace your toothbrush.

 

Something practical.

 

At any rate, I've always eschewed GS cookies because the very, very low profit for the girls.

 

One of our great fundraisers for 4-H was setting up tables in the guest services area of an outlet center. The participants offered gift wrapping for a donation, parents donated the gift wrap. The kids did well, and people were happy to not have all of that holiday wrapping to do when they got home. The profit was good because the mom organizers had used a little program money to go the day after Christmas the previous year and get bows and gift wrap at 75% off. They hand picked kids they knew would do a nice, neat job. I think it worked because people really felt like they were getting something equitable for their donation whereas the price of the cookies for the size and amount is not so great not to mention the general public has figured out that the girls do not get much per box.

[FaithManor]

I wonder if this varies by county or state? We've never had to do fundraising to show at the fair.  Is that to show at county fair or state fair?

 

Kelly

 

We have no required fundraisers here for showing at the county fair, and no entrance fees either. Some clubs do fundraisers if they have updates to their barns or exhibit areas they would like to make that the county fair board does not want to pay for, but otherwise everyone pays their own expenses for being there. The fair board does a pretty good job of maintaining most of the buildings for us.

[SparklyUnicorn]

In our Council the troop gets between 75 cents and $1 per box. A percentage goes to the baker, obviously. A small amount goes for the incentives (all of the little junky things up to a 3D printer for us). Our Service Unit--all of the troops in a city or small area, and our Councils get a percentage as well. So even if the troop itself isn't getting more than $1, the girls and leaders are getting more than a dollar of programming. Like was said above, we have camps put on by the Council, we have training, we have community things set up by the Council and Service Units. I do appreciate those--some councils are better than others and from what I can tell, mine is one of the better ones. But the girls do benefit from those, if they choose to take advantage.

 

That's not to say everything in cookies is always perfect--there are crazy cookie moms, people don't turn money in, cookies don't sell, or the money gets stolen. I have many stories from my Cookie Mom this year and how much harder she made picking stuff up and turning money in. But I also have seen shy girls get the confidence to ask people if they'd buy cookies when the year before they could barely open their mouths.

 

Oh ok.  Well that is a little better!

 

Although I wonder how they'd do just asking for donations.  If they split it (half to the troop and half the greater organization) they have the potential to make so much more and nobody is feeling robbed blind by cookies.  I'd hand them $5 and know they'd get a lot more than if I bought one box of cookies. 

 

Interestingly, even 4H sells cookies.  I bet a lot of people don't know that.  That is totally on a voluntary basis though. 

[SparklyUnicorn]

Do they still sell calendars?  When I was in girl scouts we sold calendars too.

 

 

[SquirrellyMama]

We have no required fundraisers here for showing at the county fair, and no entrance fees either. Some clubs do fundraisers if they have updates to their barns or exhibit areas they would like to make that the county fair board does not want to pay for, but otherwise everyone pays their own expenses for being there. The fair board does a pretty good job of maintaining most of the buildings for us.

 

We do have entrance fees, but they are $1/project. The late entry fees are $6/project. We get our stuff in on time, at the last minute, but on time :)

 

Kelly

 

[Mergath]

That's not always possible in some councils. The rules vary a lot from place to place.

 

 

Yeah, the troop mom told me last night that for our council, you have to order some insanely huge number of cookies to be able to return any at the end. I can't imagine how high it must be, because we had a huge amount to begin with.

 

Cookie Mom MESSED UP and is trying to pass that responsibility on to you. That's ridiculous. Did she order cookies based upon your past sales or did she just make up a number? I led scouts for 7 years. Nobody was pressured to sell and the season was very short. Generally, the girls set their own sales goals and leaders reality-checked this number with parents before ordering anything. If a girl was opposed to selling for any reason, we found another way to help . . . usually sorting the orders. Camping is just not THAT expensive. It's supposed to be a learning experience for the kids that supports fun things for them to do. If your budget is low, just day camp instead and bring a bag lunch. The kids just want to have fun with their friends.

 

We each turned in an estimate for how many cookies we thought we could sell, which she proceeded to completely ignore. I have no idea where she got her numbers from. Maybe she gets some kind of incentive for her daughter if our troop sells above a certain number of cookies, so she picked that? 

 

Last year my niece's troop's cookie mom stole their cookie money :(

 

And, nothing happened to her, except she isn't in that group anymore.

 

Kelly

 

We had a mom do that last year- she ordered and sold a ton of cookies, then kept the money and she and her daughter just disappeared. Of course the troop had to pay for it. I don't understand why no one contacted the police- theft is theft. It wasn't her money, it was the troop's.

[Mergath]

Do they still sell calendars?  When I was in girl scouts we sold calendars too.

 

Apparently some troops sell random stuff in the fall. I've never seen the order forms, so I can't tell you exactly what. Our troop leader drew the line there, because if you're selling stuff in the fall and cookies in the spring, literally the entire year becomes about the girls selling stuff. 

[FaithManor]

Has anyone seen the GS cookie episode of Everybody Loves Raymond?

 

This discussion is reminding me of that.

Edited March 21, 2016 by FaithManor