Girl scout cookie complaint

[TiggerPiglet]

Our troops' proceeds are determined by how much you sell. OUr boxes cost $3.50 a box; 1 - 74 boxes gets you .65 cents, 75 - 99 boxes gets you .72 cents and 100 or more gets you .80 cents (that's per package).
As far as patches, in my DD's first troop she had to sell 100 boxes in order to get a patch. Fortunately my DH works in a big office and we were able to meet that goal. We moved a year ago and with this new troop you can get a patch at 30 packages, which I think is a little more practical for most people. They would like us to sell 60 boxes each, unfortunately this time around there are two other people in my DH's office who are selling cookies now. So, we'll have to wait and see if we can meet the goal.
I know my DD should be doing most of the selling, but she's only 8 and I don't feel comfortable going around knocking on people's doors. She does call family members and friends on her own to sell the cookies. So, she is a somewhat involved in selling

 

[CajunDixie]

GSL mentioned girl recognitions. Those are the prizes each girl can pick from based on how many boxes she sells. That's how the girl who sells more is rewarded,

That makes more sense then if they are getting prizes. In the cub pack boys picked prizes in the fall and in the spring the money earned specifically went toward daycamp and resident camp. But once they move up to the Troop there is no longer any prizes.

I think the only time the Troop has rewarded a boy was 2 years ago when we did Scouting for Food and we gave the boy that brought in the most donated items (for the food pantry) $10 for his unit account.

 

[mcnuss]

My neighbor's daughter was doing a "pre-sale" sale in order to earn a badge.

I was my DD's troop's cookie mom for 3 years - I retired this year. It's a thankless job, and the GS council does not make it any easier bc NOTHING is automated. Those ladies have never heard of a computer. When I suggested that the order form be available on line, they looked at me like I had grown a couple of extra heads. I finally did my order form up in Excel and made it easier on myself. But I had to hand-copy it all onto their forms in quadruplicate. Yeesh. The cookie mom who told the troop not to sell more than 20 boxes each is really selling the troop out...they need those funds for activities!

Anyway, I had to weigh in on the statement above, bc here where I live, this is absolutely forbidden, illegal, you name it, you get thrown out of Scouting for it. You are not allowed to sell before the official cookie date. We had an incident once where a troop leader encouraged this, and she got the boot. Maybe it's not the same everywhere...I hope for her sake.

Our cookies are $4 per box this year. We have no pressure to sell (DD is a Jr. GS now). We usually sell around 50 boxes. I still have cookies from last year in the freezer - thank you Dr. Atkins! The girls get a badge if they sell 40 boxes, if I remember correctly, and there was only 1 girl in all 3 years who sold less than that.

 

[Lewski709]

I would buy for 2.50 a box. 4.00 a box, a bit steep.

The Lemon Drops are yummy and I have heard about the Pinata's but don't know what they are. The Samoa's or Carmel Delights are delightful.

As for the popcorn being stale.....complain!!

I agree with CajunDixie, jut don't post about complaining about ANYTHING over on the Resort Board or you will get seriously flamed and several people will throw things at you (if they could). You would be considered a whiny, cry baby, who wants something for nothing, who tries to get one over on someone else and who complained because life is not fair and you didn't get the priveleges someone else got. Sorry....bitter, NO....just still laughing about some of the crazy responses from a professional, well written, Disney email question (they considered a complaint). Ok, ok, enough rambling.

 

[kidzmom3]

The Girl Scouts do allow a "pre-sale" now. But it is supposed to be for family members that you only see over the holidays. The pre sale is from middle December until the official cookie selling date.

 

[Girls Scout Leader]

In our council, they forbid the sale of cookies before Nov 1st becasue of United Way... they are a big contributor to Girl Scouts and that is thier fundraising time and have respectfully requested we do not fundraise at the same time. This is why my trrop cannot raise money from Aug. 1 - Dec 14. First all the United way chapters forbid it til cookie time, then council forbids it till cookie sale is over (Dec 14) So no fundraising durring Labor day, Halloween Thanksgiving or Christmas. I will not get started on this any more because I get very very upset. So after our WDW trip I will be quiting anyway. 10 years is enough.

 

[Rock'n Robin]

Our cookies are $3 a box and have been for a few years now. OUr new cookies here are Lemon Coolers and Double Dutch (choc. choc. chip). We dropped "ole oles" and "aloha chips".
Our troop gets 45 cents a box of that. If the troop sells an AVERAGE of 125 a girl, it goes up to 50 cents a box. Last year DD's troop sold 109 a girl--that's pretty good, but not good enough it seems. According to the newsletter I got, it cost 89 cents a box to fund the sale--buy cookies, promotion and sales material. $2.11 is "benefits to girls"--cookie recognition ("cookie dough" which we've hardly ever used), financial assistance for scouts and troops in need, maintainence for our local camps, training for volunteers and leaders, newsletters, underwritten council events "and much much more!"
One note--I do sell at work, and DD#2 can't really help because she is in school while I teach in another district. She takes care of calling or visiting all the relatives/family friends and canvassing our street (there are other GS in our subdivision so I limit her to just our street to be fair). I usually kick butt selling at work, but this year sales are DOWN. I mean a lot! We are only at 150 boxes, and last year we sold 280! Usually my students are lining up to buy cookies! (these are HS kids with their own $$). Plus some of my regular staff member cookie buyers are on that darn Atkins diet and declined. The only thing is, DD#2 really brought up that troop average and this year we won't be making up for the 2 or 3 that don't sell their "goal" of 50 boxes. The girls are working for $$ for a special activity related to our local minor league baseball team.
Robin M.

 

[CarolA]

Another reason I do not support FOS (Friends of Scouting). I see where they spend quite a bit of money on a fancy office yet go to our resident camp and see dirty visitor restrooms, junkfood served for breakfast the last morning, latrines with doors that do not properly lock...... They need to get their priorities in line.

I have to say that would bother me. Our council has put a HUGE priority on the camps. Assuming the sale is successful I think we will raise one million for camp improvments from cookies. We just remodeled one of the older camps and BOY is it nice. My Brownies go there in March and I think they will LOVE it! (It meets their main requirement-flush toliets LOL!)

Just a note, like the prices dates are set by the council. We did pre-sale in December last year YUCK! This year we started 1/1 and end order taking 1/16. Orders are due 1/19, cookies are delivered 2/7 and booths are right after that. Also, we give every girl that sells 1 box of cookies a patch. (There are special patches and prizes for more cookies sold! Also, if anyone in the troop sells one box that is donated to a charity all the girls get a patch)

What I am doing now for a trip is stating that all girls have to agree to attend at least 80% of the fund raisers or they just don't go. That way if someone gets a dud fund raiser that requied twice as much work as the easy one they don't really get peanalized. (This is a special trip patrol and they will only sell cookies at booths for special events everything else will be with their regular patrol.)

 

[clh2]

Originally posted by mcnuss
I was my DD's troop's cookie mom for 3 years - I retired this year. It's a thankless job, and the GS council does not make it any easier bc NOTHING is automated. Those ladies have never heard of a computer. When I suggested that the order form be available on line, they looked at me like I had grown a couple of extra heads. I finally did my order form up in Excel and made it easier on myself. But I had to hand-copy it all onto their forms in quadruplicate. Yeesh. The cookie mom who told the troop not to sell more than 20 boxes each is really selling the troop out...they need those funds for activities!

I am also a former 3-year cookie mom. I am now the GS Leader for my daughter's troop. The only way I would volunteer to be the lead would be if someone else up-front was cookie-mom. The computer thing irritates me to no end. Girl Scouts, is so gosh darn backwards it scares me. I made an excel worksheet that calculated everything that needed to be calculated on the 5 different forms (or how many ever it was.) And then, yes, the information needs to be hand written on the quadruplicate forms. Every year, I commented on this in the Cookie Mom eval. Nothing has every been done to change this, nor do I ever see it happening.

Think how much money Girl Scouts could save...if they didn't have to print out multiple forms, in duplicate and triplicate, with the NCR paper, with perforations on the forms. Plus, think how much easier it would be to collate all the troop cookie information.

The Milaukee Council, which I am not part of, delivers the cookies to the cookie mom's house if the troop order is >1500 boxes. In our council, the cookie mom is responsible to transport all the cookies to their respective house. And, it really is hard to get extra help...but I guess that should be another thread. But, I might also add, maybe the cookie mom who suggested a 20 box limit is really saying "I need help with getting the cookies home, and I would love help sorting the orders."

 

[NC Belle]

Hi, I don't have kids yet-but I was a Girl Scout back in the '80s. My dear sis and I would give person who pre-order cookies a nice short thank you note. Those people were bought the following times and were generous. My mom was a cookie mom and had one bedroom filled with boxes that year. My sis and I were top sellers in our troops. I remember the last time that I sold any was about $2.50/2.75. That was probably twenty years ago. I think that the skills from selling in front of stores and door to door helped me when I did retail. I think it is great that girls are still are interested in scouting. My DN (7 in march) has not join yet, but I hope she does in her new city. My other niece is still too young---she will be 4 in March. Good luck and pixie dust to the girls in their sales. I know they will do their best.


NC Belle

 

[Cruise04]

One thing I want to say about doing just a blank donation to the troop. We discourage that in our council because the cookie sales (as do Fall Product Sales) also go towards the upkeep of our camps. We are one of the only councils that do not charge for use of the camps to troops. A lot of other councils do - if they own camp property. When a parent makes a blank donation to a troop, no money is kept at the council level to help with the upkeep of the camps. Also money is then not set aside for training leaders (the material that need to be printed for those trainings - not for salaries for trainers - we are volunteers as well) or for programs for the girls. The amount that a girl or a troop has to pay per girl for an activity is a discount because the councils generally allocate a certain amount toward activities and programs. If they lose that money - that's what makes the budgets run and the loss of that money is what makes cookie prices go up.

So instead of doing a blank donation - buy a couple boxes of cookies and donate them to the local homeless shelter or food pantry. That way helps everyone!

 

[Cruise04]

Also as a parent and/or leader you have every right to know where your money goes in your council. If you don't know, call the council and ask them to mail you their financial statement from last year or better yet, call and find out when their annual meeting is and attend it. That information is given during that time. Ours is in two weeks and it's always interesting to see what has happened to our budget. Two years ago we were way down and guess where it had to be made up at - cookies! (well, some of it anyway).

 

[Kirby]

GS cookies are $3 a box here. And Lemon Coolers and Double Dutch is our new ones.

My daughter's troop will be receiving 60 cents a box because they chose not to receive prizes. Their proceeds are going towards helping to pay for a trip to Sea World. They will get 60 cents a box also at their booth sales.

I like the Boy Scouts method of each child's earnings going into an account for them. My son has helped to pay for dues, campout and camp fees this way.

Some of the girls in my daughters troop (they are Jr. Cadets) have no desire to sell cookies. It is not fair that they will receive the same benefits toward the trip to Sea World as those who are busting their butt to sell. Each girl has to sell 207 boxes to pay for admission to Sea World and hotel expenses. My daughter is over halfway there. At least she will have the satisfaction that she did her part.

 

[Atotty]

I didn't know this board was here. I just stumbled across it.

I have a question that I sent to the WAGGGS list, but didn't get a good reply from:

Has anyone had a booth sale yet with the LBB's two new cookies--the lemon and the chocolate? and if so, do they sell well?

We'll be ordering for booth sales soon and def don't want to overbuy. I've got two troops and need to let the two cookie moms have some idea of how these are selling.

Thanks!

 

[Cruise04]

Atotty - I'm the booth sale coordinator for our county and here is the advice I give to troops (because my troop never did a booth sale but I have asked people what sells) - take the order forms and see what has sold or how these cookies have sold. If you have high numbers than chances are they will sell well. If you have lower numbers (depending on your troop size I would say 5 cases or less) then don't order more than a couple of cases.

Do you have the opportunity to get extra cases if you end up selling out before all your booth sales are done (they are allowed 3 booths here) so that if they go like hotcakes you can get more? Two years ago we had a new cookie and it didn't sell well. We did have some troops order extra so that they could sample them at some of the smaller booth sales (that's an idea to bring about the sales for next year). Of course the troop had to pay for the cookies.

 

[Pam]

Our cub scout pack talked about individual accounts, but didn't do it, primarily because our boys are mostly military, and it's very hard to tell a new boy that other boys can do events, but he would have to pay because they just moved in and don't have money in the account. Our boy scout troops do have individual accounts.

That's how it is here, too. In Cub Scouts, all popcorn/bowl-a-thon money was put into a general Pack fund. Once he crossed over into Boy Scouts, the individual accounts system kicked in. My son is now an Eagle Scout and has funded ALL of his summer camps for the pst 4 years. In addition to selling popcorn, he has sold Christmas trees, delivered newspapers, worked at summer camp and to date he has paid his way ($850.00) to the 2001 National Scout Jamboree at Fort AP Hill, VA, all camporees (average cost $6-10.00 each), and this past summer he went to the Philmont Scout Ranch, again paying the $1,000 all on his own.

He has always put on his full uniform and sold the popcorn. One year he wrote to businesses and then made follow-up personal calls - he sold an additional $250.00 in popcorn that way.

I have never experienced stale popcorn in the 9 years my son has been in Scouts. I wonder if the Council has some leftover popcorn from previous years that they passed on to you? I would definitely complain. I do believe that Trail's End, the manufacturer, lists their phone number on all the tins and boxes.

I personally think the girls deserve a much higher profit percentage.

 

[Atotty]

Originally posted by Cruise04
Atotty - I'm the booth sale coordinator for our county and here is the advice I give to troops (because my troop never did a booth sale but I have asked people what sells) - take the order forms and see what has sold or how these cookies have sold. If you have high numbers than chances are they will sell well. If you have lower numbers (depending on your troop size I would say 5 cases or less) then don't order more than a couple of cases.

Do you have the opportunity to get extra cases if you end up selling out before all your booth sales are done (they are allowed 3 booths here) so that if they go like hotcakes you can get more? Two years ago we had a new cookie and it didn't sell well. We did have some troops order extra so that they could sample them at some of the smaller booth sales (that's an idea to bring about the sales for next year). Of course the troop had to pay for the cookies.

We've got two booth sales planned for each troop. A friend of mine, and a leader for 20+ years, got stuck with 6 cases each of the new cookies last year because she ordered extra for her booths....and no one wanted them. I think we'll order maybe one or two...depending on pre-sales. But I'm not investing a lot into them, because you never know how they're going to sell.

Thanks!

 

[FOJMO]

Originally posted by always quiet
It's just when I saw the box, I was stunned!! The box is half the size of the mint cookie box and you only get 18 cookies!!! For $3.50 a box, you should at least get a few more than that!! I know it's for a good cause and all, but, geez!!

When I ordered my boxes this past weekend ($3.50/box also), it says right on the order form that there are 18 cookies in the box. Maybe you didn't get a look at the form when you bought them.

I also have not heard of the Pinatas.

 

[always quiet]

I bought these cookies from my friends' daughter. Never saw an order form or anything. Normally, when they are outside of a grocery store, you can see the boxes as you buy them. Since it was a new item, I never thought of any difference in quanity. I'll buy more cookies this year, but I think I'll stick to the thin mints!!