Long Vent About The Latest Girl Scout Council Problems

[CarolA]

Janette,
Last year I gave out a spreadsheet. One Mom gave me an order form, the spreadsheet and what we call the circle form (It is something I use to count out cookies on pick up day!) Each of these have a place for the total number of cases. NONE of them agreed. It took me going girl by girl with her over the phone to do her order! (I asked that she NOT be the cookie mom this year, everything we did was an adventure!) She kept saying I don't do math! Now for the scary part! She is a second grade teacher! LOL!

 

[m&m's mom]

Good news! No spreadsheets or paper!!! At least not in N. Texas.
As soon as I finish here I am going to start figuring out the new computer ordering system that is in place for the first time for cookie sales. I work w/ computers every day so I feel very comfortable w/ this new way of ordering.
I definitely agree there is a different management philosophy between the GS and BS. GS make it way too difficult.
My sister is a board certified Pediatrician, and Radiologist, w/ a specialization in Nuclear Medicine. She had to get CPR certified before her troop could leave her house. That's kinda silly to me.
My cousin is in management in BS and I cannot believe the differences. For example, in my DD's Elementary School I was having to call every 2 days to volunteer to be a leader when the BS had signs all over the school for recruitment. And I should mention I was in GS from 1st grade through High School. I was very qualified.
I work full time an hour away from my house and it was a hassle doing all of the training but all-in-all I have to say it is worth it.

 

[mcnuss]

Sorry, CarolA, in my vent I did not really articulate well. I think spreadsheets should be give by Council to those who want to use them, but that until the whole process is automated, the town cookie managers need to have paper. I do wish, though, they'd find some way not to be so duplicative. What appalled me though, was that Council's process is still so manual. I am hoping that N. Texas's system will someday prevail. Wouldn't you prefer to do the final order for all those troops on-line? I also think more personalization could be done for each town/troop. For instance, when forms are done, they could be printed for each troop with the names/addresses of each girl printed on them. (They have this from the registration forms.) If a girl does not sell, you'd just cross off her name. I got so sick of writing down 15 girls names on 4 forms! I know it's nothing compared to the 70 troops you are dealing with but after 3 years, I was soooo done. (Well, there was that and the fact that Council threatened to take me to collections for money that had been paid 2 months prior - without so much as a phone call to ask about it. Why no phone call? Because they had lost my phone number in all their paper. But they could find my address to send to the collections agency. Hello? Phonebook? )

Oh, and my friend the RN was required to take first aid to go on a trip with her troop, so I can really empathise with the poster's physician sister having to take CPR.

But I am way OT!!! To tell the truth, I am really annoyed with the GS this weekend. We got our camp brochure and the price of the camp that DD has attended for three years has gone up by $175 for a 2 week session. No notice, no mention of it in the brochure, just a price hike of 25%! I'll bet there are a lot of girls who won't be able to return this year bc of it.

 

[kidzmom3]

I had a thought to add to this discussion. In our council, when you are on an officially approved outing/trip you are covered by thier insurance policy. I would hate to have a child injured or killed and then you personally being held libel. You could lose everything.

 

[AirForceRocks]

I'm our troop's cookie mom...just finished filling out the initial order form and incentive estimate, and I'm taking it over tomorrow. So far, so good! I've not found it to be all that difficult, other than getting the parents to send in the order forms so that I could finalize our order.

I agree that GS has lots of rules - we often joke about whether or not any of the adults have yet completed the "stand by the river and look at the water" certification before we go camping.
OTOH, in today's litigious society, I can hardly blame an organization for going the extra mile to protect themselves.

As for cash donations during the cookie sale, we don't encourage those - instead, we participate in the gift of sharing program.

Our council sounds like paradise compared to GSL's.

 

[Tigger1]

Have the girls pay for the rest of the trip thereself. Of course you could have garage sells, bake sells, sandwich sells with them to earn the money. The fundraising candy bars earn 50 cents per dollar. They sell fast at school.

Good luck.

Tigger