Girl Scout/Brownie Moms

[arielsleepingbeauty]

My DD's troop all brainstormed what they wanted to do with the money. It wasn't anythign that i would have picked, but these girls were 7, 8 and 9 and so they had girly things in mind to do.

YOu could just ask the leader how she came up with this list or ask if she had planned to do any of the GS council events and if not, why?

 

[ptlycloudy]

Well I am a first time co-leader of a Brownie troop and I am learning as I go. Here is what we have done. The girls decided from the beginning that all cookies sales are split evenly among them. They earn council incentives ie. patch, stuffed animal, based on presales. Beyond that we are working on a group goal not an individual goal.

Since I am there to guide them I made suggestions during our brainstorming session on using our money earned as a lesson in money management. Many of the girls receive an allowance and already have rules on how they spend it in place at their homes so one of them actually made the suggestion about dividing the money up. She has to put $2 in savings $1 in charity $2 to spend. This seemed like a good idea to all of the girls. So I came up with using percentages as an easier method. I thought this was a great way to teach a little money management and the girls are happy with it.

We are putting 20% in savings for an undetermined goal.
10% is going to be set aside for an extra Charity activity
The rest will go to build a bear, which for us only one girl has been there before, so it is a treat. It is about 25 miles away.They also voted to earn the try it offered by the zoo or the science center here.

It is for girls and by the girls but my co-leader and I aren't just there to babysit so that is why we thought a money management lesson was a good idea. Now if the girls had been opposed we would have let it go. I actually threw out the build a bear idea , the girls never thought it was possible so it wasn't on their list. They were over the moon with the idea since they had never been. Many of the mom's are just as excited as the girls.

As the girls get older I expect to have less input and just a veto power, but since they are all in the first grade a little guidance and suggestions are helpful and seemed to be welcomed by them.

 

[ReadingMama]

I find this a interesting discussion! I'm happy with my dd brownie leaders, but I don't think the troop has done much around the cookies. I don't think they set goals for cookie sales or talked about how to use the money. I didn't know the girls were suppossed to decide! Last year, we sold cookies early, so the money was used to go to lunch and the Nutcracker. As far as I know, this was the leaders ideas, but everyone loved it. This year we just turned our orders in, so I don't know the money will be used for.

I also don't think the troop has ever done any "council" things - what are these? We have not done any camping (I just thought that started when they were older).
Our school does have a square dance and a mother/daughter dance and a Sept. campfire, but I don't know if those are council related, its just the troops in our elementary school (there are 6 elementary schools in town, so not even the whole town).

Each mom/parent volunteers to help run a meeting/run the cookie sale/ or run the nut sale.

 

[ptlycloudy]

Our council has at least one activity every month that anyone is invited to. You don't have to have a whole troop go only the girls that want to can and they usually involve their families. Some that we have had so far are skating party, Christmas caroling, Cinderella father/daughter ball, Hannah Montana movie, Disney on Ice, Girls go Tech at the science center, plus the sports events, NBA, MLB, Harlem globe trotters where there are discount tickets and activities planned. There is also the Camporee coming up this month.

We post what is coming up for everyone and see who is interested. So far my co-leader an I are the only ones who have attend some of these things. They were alot of fun and we brought the whole family to some. Since we have talked them up a great deal others seem to be slowly coming around to wanting to participate in some weekend things. The council activities all have a cost involved and unless we have a whole troop wanting to go each pays for their own fees.

I must say we have great seats for the upcoming disney ice show for only $16 each.

My troop parents seem hesitant at camping for this year, our first year. We are thinking of going to the camp ground for the day. Doing our camp things ie hiking, cookin, smores etc. then having the girls go home at night. There are some campgrounds within 10 miles from here and everyone seems more receptive to that. If it goes well maybe we can actually camp overnight at the end of summer as a back to school activity.

 

[FSUDisneyGirl]

I was a Daisy and went all the way to a junior in the 5th grade. I don't really remember deciding to spend money on things...just Disney! There was a group of about 10 of us who were in the same troop since we were Daisies, and saved up money to go to Disney! The best memories I have are of budgeting our trip, figuring out how many days we could go to parks (one) and where we would stay (Wilderness cabins) and what we would eat (Mac and Cheese and Hot Dogs at the campfire!). That was so much fun. I think it's a great idea to encourage girls to save, because eventually they will be able to do something very special!

 

[mickeylove2]

My DD is in her 3rd year of GS, and her 1st year as a Brownie...that said, they just started selling cookies and there are only 5 girls, all 1st grade, in her troop and they have already sold over 2000 boxes of cookies! Anyway, they had their discussion about what they wanted to do with their cookie $$ and the ideas were, Busch Gardens for a weekend, WDW, California, a cruise,
Surfing in Maui, a trip to Savannah Georgia, oh yeah we live in MD. Their leader informed all of the parents what the girls wanted to do, becasue it's their $$, their effort and should be their payoff, and I agree. But what she did was tell the girls, "hey, we can go on a cruise, but in order to do that each of you HAS to sell at least 1000 boxes of cookies, and we have to sell 1500 boxes of cookies every weekend during booth sales." Well, they turned in their pre-order cookie order forms and they all talked about how they were doing and they found that none of them have sold over 500 boxes yet, and they had their 1st booth sale last night and at the end of the night they sold about 200 boxes, so they have realized that they PROBABLY won't go on a cruise, so she told them that it was ok, but they had to rethink their suggestions of trips, now they are working on Busch Gardens or WDW...we'll see how well they do tomorrow at their next booth sale! Sorry it's so long, I just wanted to let you know how DDs troop works cookie sales and profit spending!