Question for Girl Scout parents

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am curious if the fund should be ALL used by the end of school year ( like before the last meeting in mid June)? I predict not every girl scouts will re-enroll next school year for whatever reasons in the same troop.

They were supposed to be yes!

Ideally this is what the local council wants, but troops can carry over some funds and in my experience they do, because otherwise there's no money to run things at the beginning of the year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am curious if the fund should be ALL used by the end of school year ( like before the last meeting in mid June)? I predict not every girl scouts will re-enroll next school year for whatever reasons in the same troop.

They were supposed to be yes!

We have always earmarked a few hundred for a start of the year ceremony and an early fall camping trip. Carrying over funds is fine as long as you have a specific spending plan for them.

[Anonymous]

You don’t earn as much as you might think from cookies plus you get those funds near the end of the year. Basic craft supplies and snacks for meetings can also cost more than you think plus badges. But the troop is required to keep records and submit receipts to their service unit.

[Anonymous]

OP, it's might be $400. I'm sure it's much less than <$1,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am curious if the fund should be ALL used by the end of school year ( like before the last meeting in mid June)? I predict not every girl scouts will re-enroll next school year for whatever reasons in the same troop.

Generally for the younger girls they encourage troops to spend most of the money in the same year. As a leader, I always prefer to save a few hundred dollars so we have money to do things in the fall before cookie money comes in the next year. In GSCM, anything more than $200 rolled over to the next year needs to be explained. (No complicated explanation, I've written things like "money will be used for fall meeting expenses and encampment weekend")
Once the girls are older they can definitely save it year to year as they save for big trips, bigger take action projects, etc.

[Anonymous]

Just ask the leader.
I'm a leader and I try to be transparent with finances. I send out our finance info in Sept and May each year, and remind parents they're always welcome to see more details if they want. (No one has asked, but I wouldn't mind at all if they did.)

All that said... badges are $3.50 each, and that adds up quick! And other expenses add up quickly too.

[Anonymous]

Our troop funds were used for a horseback riding outing last year.

[Anonymous]

Op please pick up phone and have a conversation. Also offer to volunteer and help. It takes a village and if comms is a gap maybe you can offer to help with that.

Leaders are often overwhelmed. They aren’t trying to not share, just taking so much of their own time to prepare for troop meetings, get supplies, coordinate room logistics, keep kids happy, manage fires or complaints, etc that they don’t have extra time to think strategically about everything.

They are tired and overwhelmed bc often no other parent steps up. Ideally, every parent takes on a volunteer role to help support the troop and it helps create cohesion and shared understanding.

Your troop must have a money manger that manages the budget. It’s impossible not to have one given regs each troop needs to have two background checked, trained non-related adults to stand up your troop with one bring Troop Leader and one bring Money Mgr. Sometimes the second troop leader might be the money manager as well.

Most funds go to troop meetings and annual membership fee for service unit (no one listed that but that’s additional fee) and CPR and camping trainings for adults (they aren’t yearly but expensive).

Most of time troop leaders say what they are doing, but kids never share back with parents so it’s lack of comms vs being malicious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thank you for all the replies! Very helpful. I had no idea other troops were so transparent with their financial info. I don’t believe we have a treasurer, just a leader who does it all. No info provided about cookie profits but I do know we had several girls who sold 200+ boxes and we did several booths, so like I said, I’m curious where the $ goes if we’re covering activity costs individually. I’d be more than happy to give up cookie sales, lol.

I will report back after discussing with the troop leader![/quote

Your troop should have a designated Troop Money Manager. It's actually a rule that every troop needs a separate Money Manager who is not related to either of the Troop Leaders.

I'm a TMM and I have to submit bank statements and receipts to our Service Unit monthly. I have not given details to parents beyond a general "We have X amount in the account" kind of updates but I certainly could for anyone who asked for it. They should have all that info.

Some things we use cookie money/dues for:

Camping (this is actually pretty cheap because we camp at the Council camps)
End of year activity (like Six Flags)
Buying supplies for World Thinking Day or other events
Activities (usually the troop will pay a portion and the parents will pay a portion of the fees)
Badges
Renewal fees for the next year

[Anonymous]

Former leader (my girls are now all graduated from college) Our books were transparent. Once the girls reached 6th grade our troop voted and decided to track earnings per girl. These funds were then available to each girl to be spent on any GS expense. We carried funds over from year to year so girls could save up for trips. Some girls chose to use their earnings a little at a time for things like small outing and registration fees. Other girls saved up multiple years and used their money to pay for larger trips like a Girl Scout Destination in Minnesota, Ohio or Panama (all examples from our troop). As others noted we had to have a Troop Money Manager and had to submit reports to our Service Unit multiple times a year. For girls that did not plan to return the next year we either worked to make sure their funds were used before they left or used their funds to do service for a project the remaining other girls voted on. A girls funds never got given to other girls individual accounts.

If you have any bandwidth to help please do so. Many jobs like being the Money Manager can be done remotely. Leaders need help and the girls are the ones who benefit from it.

[Anonymous]

I’m the money manager for our troop. We have been covering all the outings and plan to pay for an overnight in 2025. We only pay for the actual scouts, not parents or siblings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, it's might be $400. I'm sure it's much less than <$1,000.

I do think they should cover these types of costs. They may be saving for a bigger trip or plan to carry over and cover vests. Vests and actual badges cost money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op please pick up phone and have a conversation. Also offer to volunteer and help. It takes a village and if comms is a gap maybe you can offer to help with that.

Leaders are often overwhelmed. They aren’t trying to not share, just taking so much of their own time to prepare for troop meetings, get supplies, coordinate room logistics, keep kids happy, manage fires or complaints, etc that they don’t have extra time to think strategically about everything.

They are tired and overwhelmed bc often no other parent steps up. Ideally, every parent takes on a volunteer role to help support the troop and it helps create cohesion and shared understanding.

Your troop must have a money manger that manages the budget. It’s impossible not to have one given regs each troop needs to have two background checked, trained non-related adults to stand up your troop with one bring Troop Leader and one bring Money Mgr. Sometimes the second troop leader might be the money manager as well.

Most funds go to troop meetings and annual membership fee for service unit (no one listed that but that’s additional fee) and CPR and camping trainings for adults (they aren’t yearly but expensive).

Most of time troop leaders say what they are doing, but kids never share back with parents so it’s lack of comms vs being malicious.

Not all Service units have fees. I’m a SU manager and read this and my first thought was oh crap — did I forget to charge a fee? But I’m pretty confident we’ve never had one! We always somehow end up with extra money that we are trying to spend!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thank you for all the replies! Very helpful. I had no idea other troops were so transparent with their financial info. I don’t believe we have a treasurer, just a leader who does it all. No info provided about cookie profits but I do know we had several girls who sold 200+ boxes and we did several booths, so like I said, I’m curious where the $ goes if we’re covering activity costs individually. I’d be more than happy to give up cookie sales, lol.

I will report back after discussing with the troop leader!

If you’re in the DC council troops are required to have a separate Money Managet. Council won’t start up a troop now unless that’s the case. (If it’s a MS or HS troop it may have come in under the old rules.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op please pick up phone and have a conversation. Also offer to volunteer and help. It takes a village and if comms is a gap maybe you can offer to help with that.

Leaders are often overwhelmed. They aren’t trying to not share, just taking so much of their own time to prepare for troop meetings, get supplies, coordinate room logistics, keep kids happy, manage fires or complaints, etc that they don’t have extra time to think strategically about everything.

They are tired and overwhelmed bc often no other parent steps up. Ideally, every parent takes on a volunteer role to help support the troop and it helps create cohesion and shared understanding.

Your troop must have a money manger that manages the budget. It’s impossible not to have one given regs each troop needs to have two background checked, trained non-related adults to stand up your troop with one bring Troop Leader and one bring Money Mgr. Sometimes the second troop leader might be the money manager as well.

Most funds go to troop meetings and annual membership fee for service unit (no one listed that but that’s additional fee) and CPR and camping trainings for adults (they aren’t yearly but expensive).

Most of time troop leaders say what they are doing, but kids never share back with parents so it’s lack of comms vs being malicious.

Not all Service units have fees. I’m a SU manager and read this and my first thought was oh crap — did I forget to charge a fee? But I’m pretty confident we’ve never had one! We always somehow end up with extra money that we are trying to spend!

Right! I read that and was so confused. I’m on our SU team and I can’t imagine charging troops a fee, and I sure wouldn’t be happy to pay one as a troop!