Girl scouts/Brownies - Financial and Time Money Pit

[crisi]

IF your troop is large and sells a lot of cookies then it is a HUGE deal! I am picking up 100 cases (1200 boxes) of cookies on Saturday that I then have to sort and have the parents get on Saturday/Sunday afternoon. Having 12 - 8 year olds trying to sort them would not be practical.

They also keep selling so I will have parents picking up cookies at my house for about a month and I will have to make runs to the cookie pantry if necessary.

We will do 3 cookie booths - so I will have to make sure that we have cookies and change on hand each time and then reconcile what was sold at the sale and see if I need more inventory for the next one. We are limited to 4 girls per booth so I have to have 3 so each girl has a chance to have one.

I have to have a paper trail of everything and make sure that each parent turns in the correct amount of money. Then I have to do all the paperwork, take the money to the bank. Then I have to order the prizes, pick them up and delive them.

Its not rocket science to be the cookie mom - but it is a fairly large time commitment in troops with a lot of girls.

I only have five girls - but will pick up 800 boxes. And sort them with the troop/by myself. The girls are a little older, nine and ten instead of eight. But as I said, I just say no to cookie booths. That is too much work when I am the only adult putting in time for all five girls. And honestly, neither the girls nor the parents WANt to do cookie booths (the girls are intending to do a walkabout with the "extra" cookies in a wagon this year. As the cookie mom, if its too much work to do booths, say "no booths unless I get a co-cookie mom."

 

[clanmcculloch]

How involved are you with your girl's troop and how much extra stuff do you have to do?

For our troop - each parent has to take one meeting and be in charge of it - we have to come up with the try-it activity, pay for any materials and for snacks.

A lot of parents opted for field trip activities that we then had to pay for - when I suggested a field trip for mine - she told me that we had too many "field trips" and that I would have to have a regular meeting so I can't ask for money from other parents.

We also have to help another troop plan a Father/Daughter dance in the spring so I have to pay for my DH and DD to go and all of the moms have to go work the event - which means I will have to get a babysitter for my DS. We were never asked if we wanted to assist with the event - we were told.

I also have turned down several other overnight trips that I would have to go on with my DD. One is scheduled for Mother's day weekend and when I pointed that out - she didn't seem to think that was that big of a deal

I am also the cookie mom - and my meeting to lead is scheduled for tomorrow (I didn't pick the date) - cookie delivery is this weekend and then there are cookie shops that I have to coordinate for the following 3 weekends on top of getting more cookies for additional orders placed. Last year - I ended up buying 30 extra box of cookies b/c we were not able to sell them all - I sent out emails letting everyone know there were extras and only one mom took any more.

So we have snow and it is unlikely there will be school tomorrow - to be honest I was so relieved!! I didn't want to have to lead the meeting and I feel stressed with all the other stuff I have to do for Brownies. So our leader sends out an email today - letting us know that if there is no school tomorrow then the meeting will be next week instead - she never asked me if that works for me or not - just assumed I would be there.

She also let more girls into the troop (I had supplies bought for the girls we had in the troop) and said that she would like more parents to be at the meetings b/c some of the girls are difficult to engage and she would like more assistance at meetings.

I honestly would like for this to just be our last year with it - but DD doesn't want to quit. So I guess my question to all of you is this normal level of parent involvment in a troop? I really think that as cookie mom - I should be good for doing enough but I feel like I have to do a million other things as well. This is our 3rd year in the troop but the first time it has been this stressful. We went from the laid back troop to where she signs us up for everything - despite the fact that her time seems more limited. It is costing more money and taking way more time than I ever anticipated. I don't think finding another troop would work b/c there are only 2 in the school and DD's best friends are all in this troop - for her it is about being with them - not really Girl Scouts.

I'm a leader of a Junior troop. I've been with the troop since Daisies. We've NEVER operated like this. Leaders receive some training regarding how to teach the girls to become independent and learn how to take on more leadership roles themselves. Parents do not receive this.

We used to do snacks back when we were Daisies and a really tiny troop but we haven't since then. We only meet for 1 hour. We don't have time for snacks. It's hard enough to accomplish what we want to do within a meeting so we don't want to take up more time with snacks. We meet 6:30-7:30 so everybody should have already eaten dinner. No need for snacks.

We occasionally send out a list of supplies that the troop will need for upcoming activities and if parents have them then they bring them in. The troop then buys anything that's not donated using troop funds. All badges (try-its when we were Brownies) and fun patches are paid for by the troop. The parents are expected to provide vests and insignia as well as $2/week dues but we also tell parents at the beginning of year parent meeting to come see us privately if they can not afford these and we'll work with them discreetly (it's nobody else's business). All expenses including field trips are paid for from dues, the fall fundraiser and cookie sales. We don't ask families to pay for anything else. If it's an activity that can support having family members attend (like when we went to Disney on Ice) then families can pay for the additional family members but the troop pays for troop members (girls and leaders; there are perks to being a leader LOL) plus if we need an additional parent due to official GS safety rules then the troop pays for that parent as well. We do give parents the option of buying certain GS books but make it clear that they're not mandatory. We photocopy pages from books if the pages are important for an activity.

We have actually told parents that they're not permitted to stay at meetings. Kids act differently with parents around. They're much better behaved without their parents and parents tend to chat and distract the girls.

You know, I really don't spend all that much time no GS outside of meetings. Right now we're working on our Journey awards and the leader book pretty much plans the meetings for us so right now it's taking me maybe 15 minutes to get ready for a meeting (review the plan and photocopy necessary pages). I don't know why it's necessary for parents to do all of what you're describing. If the leaders don't want to be leaders then they shouldn't sign on for it.

When working on badges, we're now at the point where the girls choose the next badge during our meeting, decide which patrol will lead which activity and then even plan how to do the work as well as what supplies will be needed (we're really working on this year being much more girl lead). In Brownies, us leaders planned the activities but it still only took a couple hours a couple times per year to set out the plan. It really isn't a huge committment on my part. I plan the meetings and our other leader does all the paperwork. She hates doing the planning and I hate the paperwork so we've really got a perfect partnership.

We meet every Monday unless there's no school. We do some field trips during meeting times but these are generally free such as meeting at the police station or a shelter or a store (stores do free tours and make these tours interesting and they provide all the supplies; this includes hardware stores, craft stores, grocery stores, pet stores, etc), always relevant to whatever we're working on at the moment. A few times per year we do have weekend field trips.

I definitely do understand troops that have to close themselves to new admissions. We told our Service Unit that we're not longer taking new girls when we hit 14 girls. All of our girls attend every meeting unless they're sick or in a sport with a conflicting time (the first 3 months of the year we're missing 3 or 4 girls for this). We still accepted girls who were friends of troop members but we said no more placements. With this, we're now up to 18 girls who are right now attending every single meeting with the exception of sickeness and when a girl misses a meeting we do try to come up with alternate activities so they can make up what they've missed (that actually is more work than planning the meeting since meetings are group efforts by the girls). We now are telling everybody that we will not take any more girls regardless of their situation. 18 girls is a lot for 2 leaders.

Luckily, we do get lots of volunteers for field trips. Those are fun though. We have to restrict our field trip volunteers to the number that we need for driving purposes and for Safety Wise. The girls at this point really do need to do activities without their parents. We always choose the parents that have been most supportive of the troop for these priviledges. Yes, in our troop being chosen to volunteer is a privilidge and we have parents vying for this.

ETA: No way should you have been responsible for the cost of the leftover cookies. The troop should have picked up the tab on that. Us leaders do try to make sure that aren't any left but if there are then the troop pays for them and then uses then at our awards ceremony for snacks. Leaders within our Service Unit also email back and forth what kind of needs troops have for cookies so we can swap between troops. Within our own troop we send emails to parents regarding what cookies are left so parents can all try to sell the remainders. In the end, we generally don't end up with more than a few leftover boxes for the toop to pay for.

I was looking to join an established troop that had its act together, and that wasn't available in my area. It was never that I didn't want to participate - I just didn't want to be in the midst of what seemed like looming chaos.

The most common way to find an established troop is for your daughter to have a friend in a troop and to inquire if your daughter can join. If you join through open recruitment, you'll most likely be placed in a new troop. That's how most of us started. There just weren't troops to be found so our daughters were wait listed so we just stepped up to do it ourselves. You either step up or accept what's given to you. There really is no other way. We definitely did not have our act together in the beginning but we've grown a lot as leaders (and as parents) as time has gone on.

I am surprised though that there wasn't already somebody there who was listed as the leader before you met for the first time. Our Service Unit won't assign a girl to a troop without somebody already stating they'll be the leader. They may not have had their training yet (though before the troop can meet they have to have at least a certain level of training but they may not have had the bulk of it) but they would have had the first part and would certainly be listed officially as the leader. That part does seem odd. I'm surprised by your Service Unit.

 

[ceecee]

Being a cookie mom can be a BIG deal. I had to rent a truck every year and organize up to 14 orders in one garage until the girls picked them up AND help DD get hers delivered within a few days (she sold 1500 boxes a lot by walking the neighborbood and you can't deliver all of that thru the snow without some help so I drove her and put the cookies in the van.) I had 6000 boxes of cookies in my garage at times...you have to have around 100-250 for a booth sale and we had 5 scheduled thru March (they have to be stored somewhere!). THEN you have to make sure you get $ for everyones orders PLUS all of the other girls orders and then make out their prize selections. Of course they started doing it by computer two years ago which took another 1/2 hour training in addition to your hour of yearly cookie training. I would say with booth sales and counts etc, I spent at least 10-20 hours a week during cookie sales during Feb and Mar. Really booths sales are the way to make $, we would sell up to 250 boxes in 3-4 hours at Walmart (the major place to be!). We tried a "walkabout" one year...we walked for 3 hours on a Saturday and sold a big 24 boxes between the six girls who did it! I had the van decorated and we thought we would do a lot better, didn't do that again.
I was also a GS recruiter for 3 years...this took major time and was not a paid position although, now the lady doing it is a council employee. You get groups of moms together with interested girls and see who you can get to be a leader by explaining how it all works and then you make your troops. I'd have 50 girls wanting a troop and no new leaders and older troops not accepting new girls so it's not easy. But that's how I got recruited "your daughter wants to be a Daisy but we have no leader"

 

[dogluva]

How involved are you with your girl's troop and how much extra stuff do you have to do?

For our troop - each parent has to take one meeting and be in charge of it - we have to come up with the try-it activity, pay for any materials and for snacks.

A lot of parents opted for field trip activities that we then had to pay for - when I suggested a field trip for mine - she told me that we had too many "field trips" and that I would have to have a regular meeting so I can't ask for money from other parents.

We also have to help another troop plan a Father/Daughter dance in the spring so I have to pay for my DH and DD to go and all of the moms have to go work the event - which means I will have to get a babysitter for my DS. We were never asked if we wanted to assist with the event - we were told.

I also have turned down several other overnight trips that I would have to go on with my DD. One is scheduled for Mother's day weekend and when I pointed that out - she didn't seem to think that was that big of a deal

I am also the cookie mom - and my meeting to lead is scheduled for tomorrow (I didn't pick the date) - cookie delivery is this weekend and then there are cookie shops that I have to coordinate for the following 3 weekends on top of getting more cookies for additional orders placed. Last year - I ended up buying 30 extra box of cookies b/c we were not able to sell them all - I sent out emails letting everyone know there were extras and only one mom took any more.

So we have snow and it is unlikely there will be school tomorrow - to be honest I was so relieved!! I didn't want to have to lead the meeting and I feel stressed with all the other stuff I have to do for Brownies. So our leader sends out an email today - letting us know that if there is no school tomorrow then the meeting will be next week instead - she never asked me if that works for me or not - just assumed I would be there.

She also let more girls into the troop (I had supplies bought for the girls we had in the troop) and said that she would like more parents to be at the meetings b/c some of the girls are difficult to engage and she would like more assistance at meetings.

I honestly would like for this to just be our last year with it - but DD doesn't want to quit. So I guess my question to all of you is this normal level of parent involvment in a troop? I really think that as cookie mom - I should be good for doing enough but I feel like I have to do a million other things as well. This is our 3rd year in the troop but the first time it has been this stressful. We went from the laid back troop to where she signs us up for everything - despite the fact that her time seems more limited. It is costing more money and taking way more time than I ever anticipated. I don't think finding another troop would work b/c there are only 2 in the school and DD's best friends are all in this troop - for her it is about being with them - not really Girl Scouts.

I am not going to be popular but I was a girl scout leader for six years and I know where I am coming from. I say good for her for asking parents to help. Most just want it to be used as a babysitter while they head to the mall. I also had to fork over so much of my own money because dues were always forgotten. I also paid for trips that many of the girls didn't attend because something better came along. I never had volunteers to help me with cookies or booth sales. I did this along with taking care of my family and working full time. It is a volunteer position but the paper work and the training were over the top.

I think she may have had enough of the parents who don't want to step up and help. You think planning for one meeting is hard-try planning every week. I also had to deal with complaints from parents who didn't like the way things were run. Well, hello, you do it then. I finally had enough and never want to do it again.

 

[dogluva]

I was just explaining what happened at the organizational meeting I attended. It wasn't very organized as you said. And as for my own experience as a kid, what I meant was that our troop leader was actually an older woman, of course I know it wasn't a paid position, who's daughter was actually out of GS at that point and had been the troop leader in my town for like 10 years. My expectations were for something similar, but I guess that was a unique situation.

I was looking to join an established troop that had its act together, and that wasn't available in my area. It was never that I didn't want to participate - I just didn't want to be in the midst of what seemed like looming chaos.

Well maybe you could have stepped up to the plate an ran an organized one. This is what I got my first year of being a VOLUNTEER-complaints who things were run but nobody offering to assist me with anything.

The older woman was probably retired and enjoyed doing it. I did it for my daughters but I also work. I have to say I did get a lot of enjoyment out of leading but it was not worth it in the end.

 

[BuzzPrincessMom]

I am a co-leader and cookie Mom, for the second year. My DD is a Brownie.

Our girls pay a $1 dues every week. We meet for 1 hour every week and the other leader and I plan the meetings.

Yesterday we made valentine frames and talked about our cookie booths and pickup.

Brownies can be as busy or simple as you make it. Sounds like to me the leader does not want to plan anything herself.

I agree, a cookie mom is plenty...say no.

Why did you end up with 30 extra boxes of cookies, don't you have a cookie pantry? We have a place we can "check out cases" of cookies before a sale and then return full cases. That means the most you would be left with is 11 boxes. As for me at our last sale, we will end the sale when it is close to the end and we have just full cases left.

Try the Manners Try It - you can do everything without buying a thing!

 

[vicki_c]

Well maybe you could have stepped up to the plate an ran an organized one. This is what I got my first year of being a VOLUNTEER-complaints who things were run but nobody offering to assist me with anything.

The older woman was probably retired and enjoyed doing it. I did it for my daughters but I also work. I have to say I did get a lot of enjoyment out of leading but it was not worth it in the end.

Seriously? Why are you continuing to try and pick a fight with me? If you had read my first post, I clearly said I didn't want to volunteer to be the leader because given my personality and what was occurring at the meeting, it was pretty clear that I would probably end up running the whole thing with no help and I wasn't willing to do that. Just leave me alone now, please because it's none of your business why I didn't "step up to the plate" anyway.

 

[ZuZugal]

To all scout leaders out there - THANK YOU!

To all co-leaders, cookie moms, camping moms, planners, helpers - THANK YOU!

My DD is long out of scouts, but her leaders over the years spent many thankless hours planning/holding meetings and trips. Some parents were thankful, some were not. I was cookie mom for a few years, and yes it was a very demanding volunteer position.

To the OP -
1. Try to take it all in stride for your daughter.
2. Learn to say "no". (I have learned over the years that "no" is a complete sentence; no explanation needed.)
3. Instead of just going along with what the leader tells you, ask questions and make suggestions! You should not be purchasing the extra cookies yourself; you should not be the only parent running a meeting if the others have all done "field trips", etc.
4. This should be a fun experience for you and your daughter. Do the best you can with a "can do" attitude but do not let the leader or other parents run you over in the process.

 

[DebMcDonald]

I am a brownie leader along with a friend and this year we instituted a parent get involved process, but only for our registered parents. We highly encourged the parents NOT to register last year, but if you choose to then you needed to get involved vs sitting at a table in the room and just judging everything we do.

For our troop, we have a sign up for snacks at the beginning of the year and each girl was asked to pick a week or two and bring both a snack and drinks for that meeting. Our girls pay $4 per meeting for dues and this money goes towards troop activities, including field trips. We try to have the girls pay as little out of pocket as possible. For our field trips we chose to do more free things, a trip to the library, fire deparment, police department, local MSPCA, historical society (and before you laugh this was probably the girls favorite activity). Regarding cookies, we as the leaders take on that responsibility as we'd prefer to keep the cookie money close to hand.

For our parents that are planning meeting, it's their meeting to plan for what they want to do within reason from a financial standpoint.

To be honest, I'm a little fed up with the entire GS process and after four years will not be signing up again to be a leader. There's ALOt required from a time standpoint and I just don't have it in me anymore and besides the entire cookie thing has rubbed me the wrong way - I think girls should sell what they can, but according to GS, girls should have to sell a certain number, and the marority of the money goes back to council anywhere from $1.70 to $2.00 a box where my troop may make about $.50 a box and it was my daughter out there pedeling those cookies. A local troop in our town made the girls in her troop commit to 11 cases per girl! That's $528 worth of cookies, $66 which will end up in the troops bank account, but anywhere from $224 to 264 that will go to council and then of course there's $.85 that goes to the bakery. The thing that gets me is that it was my daughter out there pedaling hard to sell those cookies. I would much rather right the troop the check for $66 than to send in front of Stop and Shop weekend after weekend after weekend.

Just My Opinion.

 

[irish_trip_mom]

I have not had time to read all the responses, but plan to.

But I am a co-leader by necessity. Nobody else would step up and basically it came down to the fact if I didn't, no troop. We have 14 girls, and one is a huge behavioral problem (another story for another day!) My co-leader has a 3 yr old that she gets a sitter for each meeting. I have two other sons....one comes begrudgingly to meetings, the other has autism and I have to get a sitter for him. We are both SAHM, but it is not easy for either of us to be there, as we both have to pay sitters for each and every meeting.

We started a co-op this year, with parents teaming up to do 1 meeting. We did exempt our wonderful cookie mom from doing a meeting, but she wants to do one. We do ask our parents to supply snacks and materials for their meetings. We supply the other meetings, either personally from our own pantries or from troop funds, always keeping it budget friendly. (We meet 2x a month.)

As a leader, I spend more volunteer time than I'd like reconciling cookie money, bank account issues, planning meetings, etc. I put quite a bit of my own money out for things because at times before cookie sales, our troop was low on funds and I didn't want to ask parents to contribute more. Same with my other co-leader. Your child's troop may not be running in a way you agree with. Remember that this person is volunteering their time and resources for the good of the girls. I only say this because there have been MANY, MANY times where I have left meetings feeling like I have been babysitting a group of unruly children for free. If my daughter did not enjoy it so much, I would have quit a long time ago.

But I do feel like all parents have the right to question how a troop is running, what cookie money is being spent on, etc. We keep good records of all of that, so should your troop.

I feel like all of our parents like the fact that their children are involved with scouts, and I truly like that these girls know me and can't wait for Brownie day. I would suggest speaking openly with your leader(s). We give our parents a guideline of what is expected of each girl and parent at the beginning of the year.

 

[NMW]

Ugh...scouts. My son did one year of cub scouts in 1st grade and I could not believe all the time that was required for the parents. They totally mislead us when we signed up. I asked lots of questions about how much time was involved since I had a baby and a pre-schooler also at the time and my husband worked a lot. They flat out LIED to me. We quit that spring.

When our next son and daughter asked to join (after they give that presentation in their school) we said NO WAY.

I will sign my kids up for any sport or activity that interests them, but I am anti-scout. Most of the people that signed up when my son did have since quit. The few that stayed are uber-involved.

 

[dogluva]

Seriously? Why are you continuing to try and pick a fight with me? If you had read my first post, I clearly said I didn't want to volunteer to be the leader because given my personality and what was occurring at the meeting, it was pretty clear that I would probably end up running the whole thing with no help and I wasn't willing to do that. Just leave me alone now, please because it's none of your business why I didn't "step up to the plate" anyway.

Seriously, picking a fight? Just asking. People complain but unless you do something about it-don't. I will leave you alone now. And by the way, I really don't care why didn't step up. Seriously.

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

I am a brownie leader along with a friend and this year we instituted a parent get involved process, but only for our registered parents. We highly encourged the parents NOT to register last year, but if you choose to then you needed to get involved vs sitting at a table in the room and just judging everything we do.

For our troop, we have a sign up for snacks at the beginning of the year and each girl was asked to pick a week or two and bring both a snack and drinks for that meeting. Our girls pay $4 per meeting for dues and this money goes towards troop activities, including field trips. We try to have the girls pay as little out of pocket as possible. For our field trips we chose to do more free things, a trip to the library, fire deparment, police department, local MSPCA, historical society (and before you laugh this was probably the girls favorite activity). Regarding cookies, we as the leaders take on that responsibility as we'd prefer to keep the cookie money close to hand.

For our parents that are planning meeting, it's their meeting to plan for what they want to do within reason from a financial standpoint.

To be honest, I'm a little fed up with the entire GS process and after four years will not be signing up again to be a leader. There's ALOt required from a time standpoint and I just don't have it in me anymore and besides the entire cookie thing has rubbed me the wrong way - I think girls should sell what they can, but according to GS, girls should have to sell a certain number, and the marority of the money goes back to council anywhere from $1.70 to $2.00 a box where my troop may make about $.50 a box and it was my daughter out there pedeling those cookies. A local troop in our town made the girls in her troop commit to 11 cases per girl! That's $528 worth of cookies, $66 which will end up in the troops bank account, but anywhere from $224 to 264 that will go to council and then of course there's $.85 that goes to the bakery. The thing that gets me is that it was my daughter out there pedaling hard to sell those cookies. I would much rather right the troop the check for $66 than to send in front of Stop and Shop weekend after weekend after weekend.

Just My Opinion.

I know it seems like so much of the money goes back into the council and it is hard for someone on the outside to see the benfit because your girls are the ones putting in the hard work, but the reality of it is, without cookie sales (or something similar) there just wouldn't be Girl Scouts. Every council is different, even to the price of cookies and amounts that come back to the council, but I know cookie sales makes up more than half of our annual budget! We can get donars and sponsors for programs, trips, supplies, ect But not operating costs like employee salaries. Even the yearly GS dues do not come to the local council but go directly to the national level. Cookie sales underwrite a lot of the bigger programs too like summer camp!

My hats off to the people who do volunteer to be troop leaders, cookie moms, ect. You can make such a difference in girls' lives!

 

[monorailsilver]

OP that is crazy!

I am a co-leader for my dd's 3rd grade Brownie troop. We have 17 girls in our troop which is almost the entire 3rd grade of girls in our school.

My leader who has done this for years with her older 2 knows what she is doing thankfully!

I booked the meetings at our local library which is a 3 min walk from school. We meet about twice a month for 1.5 hours.

My leader schedualed each parent for a week for snack hoping that they'd stay & help but so far they haven't & it is tough dealing with these girls sometimes.

About 10 or so moms & one dad did sign up to be a volunteer and we are still waiting for them to actually do something.

Basically it is myself, my leader & the other co-leader there at all the meetings.

We plan them & get the stuff we need. We are having one mom who is a math teacher do the math try it in a few weeks & another mom suggested the place she goes riding (horses) & that lady would work on a badge for the girls so that is a help.

We took them on 2 field trips so far. One was our first meeting & it was to a local farm for the corn maze (again not fun with very mouthy 8 year olds) & the other was to a museum that did a badge for us. That was stressful at the end.

Luckily on those 2 trips this year many parents did come to help.

We also collect dues to pay for the stuff we buy for crafts/try its.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Wow. That's way too much. You have to say no.
My DD did it last year and that was enough for her, thank goodness.

Each parent was assigned a meeting to bring snacks, the supplies for the try its were paid for by the cookie money plus 1.00 dues per meeting.

There were 3 meetings a month.

Parents could not be involved in the meetings unless they filled out a volunteer form and they paid the cost of it to the Girl Scout council. Supposedly a background check was done.

I even had to fill one out just so I could go help them out on a field trip when the original parent volunteer got sick.

We had a cookie Mom and 2 assistants, again they had to fill out the volunteer forms and pay the council for the privledge.

Honestly, I think it was ridiculous and was very happy that DD wanted to quit.