Reversing the Membership Decline in Girl Scouts

[Anonymous]

When I was a Girl Scout, a lot of the badges were really cool. In addition to camping, hiking, sailing, etc., you could get a badge in automotives, environmentalism, cooking, etc. It felt like it was focused on learning real skills, being outdoors, and serving your community, plus you got to go to camp. The only thing we sold was cookies (and the cookies were way better then. Imagine a Thin Mint with actual mint in it). I'm disappointed, because I would have loved to have my daughter be involved, but it doesn't feel like the same organization anymore.

[Anonymous]

Cookie sales and fall product sales are not mandatory. I have always made it clear to our families that participation is optional.

I believe participation in fall product sales and 100% participation in cookie sales ARE required if your troop wants to be an honor troop, but I haven't checked the requirements recently. Fall product sales are also a requirement if your troop wants to do additional fundraising. We wanted to raise funds to support another group last year, so I checked that box by ordering a box of candy online and crediting it to my daughter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But can we all agree that it's a better organization than the Boy Scouts?

No.

I have boys in boy scouts (no daughters) but from what I see above, it doesn't sound better. My sons have not experienced any pressure to sell things/fund raise. There is a camping outing at least once a month.

Popcorn anyone??? Mulch in the springtime?? Boy Scouts in this area are just as cash happy as the Girls Scouts.

Both scouting organizations are becoming tiresome with their fundraising. I admit that I was a bit taken back a few evenings ago when the doorbell rang and I found a young girl scout out selling chocolates at 8 pm. Yes, her mother was with her but really? I even asked about the fundraiser as I was used to cookies in the late winter / spring. The mother stated that the girl had to sell a certain amount of chocolates in the fall to even be considered to sell cookies in the winter. What??? If that's true, that's absolutely crazy and a far, far cry from the scouting organizations in which I participated as a kid.

Mom was wrong. The cookie sale is independent of the fall product sales. But if the troop wants to raise money in any other way besides cookies during the year they need to first participate in the fall product sales. It's ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a new Brownie leader and I find the entire thing totally inscrutable. There are all these Journeys and guides, but they're organized terribly and we can't figure out what the requirements are for any of the badges the girls want to earn. PLUS - all the paperwork and everything else that everyone has to do. It all seems so needlessly complicated and I know we're missing probably half of what we're supposed to be doing. (Don't even get me started on fall sales - totally ridiculous - no way we're doing that).

I worked with major companies and I have never seen the likes of the legal hoops that GS makes everyone jump through.

[Anonymous]

My daughter started Daisies last year and I will say it's been pretty discouraging so far. They are doing the Journeys and my kid finds them to be really boring. I feel bad saying that because I know the troop leaders put in a lot of time, which I appreciate. We stuck with it again this year because we already sunk so much money into it that I felt like we needed to give it another year. But at this point it seems unlikely that my daughter will want to move on to Brownies, which is a shame. I loved Girl Scouts when I was a kid.

[Anonymous]

Wow, this thread is making me sad. I have very found memories of scouting, even into high school. My family didn't do a lot of outdoorsy things, and GS was the only opportunity I had to go camping, hiking, etc. I agree that it was awesome to have the focus on life skills (automotive, carpentry) that I just didn't have the opportunity to learn elsewhere. I have two daughters, and have been looking forward to getting them involved with GS too (the oldest is four). Sad to know that it has changed so much.

Do leaders have the freedom to make it more "outdoorsy"? I don't know a whole lot about how much control leaders have with the individual troop activities. I had mentally planned to get involved and maybe actually be a troop leader when my youngest is old enough to join.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But can we all agree that it's a better organization than the Boy Scouts?

No. The Boy Scouts are evolving positively. And, they're outdoors all the time. Hikes, camping. And they haven't sold their campgrounds.

[Anonymous]

Former girl scout leader here. The badges are horrible now, the new programs were a bad decision. It was just a way to get everyone to buy new books. And there's a lot of paperwork, not to mention dealing with all of the politics of the service unit meetings.

[Anonymous]

As a 10 year scout (and mom of a son too young for Boy Scouts), this makes me so sad to read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, this thread is making me sad. I have very found memories of scouting, even into high school. My family didn't do a lot of outdoorsy things, and GS was the only opportunity I had to go camping, hiking, etc. I agree that it was awesome to have the focus on life skills (automotive, carpentry) that I just didn't have the opportunity to learn elsewhere. I have two daughters, and have been looking forward to getting them involved with GS too (the oldest is four). Sad to know that it has changed so much.

Do leaders have the freedom to make it more "outdoorsy"? I don't know a whole lot about how much control leaders have with the individual troop activities. I had mentally planned to get involved and maybe actually be a troop leader when my youngest is old enough to join.

Our troop pretty much abandoned the journeys as the girls got older. The leader tells us fall sales and individual cookie sales are optional, although we do staff a cookie booth and the girls are expected to participate (which they enjoy). I think it was in 3rd or 4th grade that the troop started to organize its year by having the girls vote on what badges they wanted to work on, they were divided into 3-girl teams to learn the requirements and then lead the troop to complete them. Some of the things they voted on were outdoorsy, like hiking and outdoor skills. Often part of the being the leader team was finding a "guest speaker" adult to come talk about the topic (w/ parent help, of course). I don't know any of the details behind the scenes but our leaders have been great about adapting the program to make it fun for the girls and help them learn new things and step up to be leaders. DD is in 5th grade and still enjoys GS. When she was in Daisies-Brownies, she wasn't thrilled with the meetings but wanted to continue simply for the 1-2 camping trips they do each year. I'm not sure at this point if she'll continue into middle school. Our middle school has a hiking club that would give her the outdoors experiences she gets from GS but more frequently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But can we all agree that it's a better organization than the Boy Scouts?

NO! We cannot.

[Anonymous]

But can we all agree that it's a better organization than the Boy Scouts?


No.

I have boys in boy scouts (no daughters) but from what I see above, it doesn't sound better. My sons have not experienced any pressure to sell things/fund raise. There is a camping outing at least once a month.

In some ways yes, in some ways no. My son is a boy scout and likes the little activities and camping - the pinewood derby is an especially fun thing for younger kids. But there is a LOT of religion (don't have to be any specific one, but do have to be A religion - no atheists or agnostics allowed). We really struggled last year with the "my duty to God" patch since we are pretty much agnostics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cookie sales and fall product sales are not mandatory. I have always made it clear to our families that participation is optional.

I believe participation in fall product sales and 100% participation in cookie sales ARE required if your troop wants to be an honor troop, but I haven't checked the requirements recently. Fall product sales are also a requirement if your troop wants to do additional fundraising. We wanted to raise funds to support another group last year, so I checked that box by ordering a box of candy online and crediting it to my daughter.

If my troop skips fall product sales, we are not allowed to have any other fundraising activities for the rest of the year, including cookies.

[Anonymous]

I am in the process of trying to start a troop at my daughters school. It has been ridiculously difficult and frustrating to do, and this discussion is not encouraging.

That said I'm quite outdoorsy and that's what I'm hoping this troop can provide for the girls, so hopefully I am able to help direct that. I also have no problem telling the GSs to go take a hike when it comes to direct sales. That's just not going to happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do leaders have the freedom to make it more "outdoorsy"? I don't know a whole lot about how much control leaders have with the individual troop activities. I had mentally planned to get involved and maybe actually be a troop leader when my youngest is old enough to join.

You can pretty much do anything you want, assuming the other parents are on board, but incorporating more outdoor activities can be challenging for those of us who need to learn alongside the girls.