Reversing the Membership Decline in Girl Scouts

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

We were not told this. Are you in GSCNC?

[Anonymous]

A friend who is a Boy Scout leader explained to me that the Boy Scouts have been grandfathered into some cheap insurance deals, so their overhead is much lower than the Girl Scouts.

The Scouts also are really competing for kids' time these days.

[Anonymous]

I am a troop leader and a cookie mom. My observations:

1. The journeys are terrible. We did one, it was awful and vowed never again. And that was even with us trying to make it more interesting than the ideas suggested in the materials.
2. The badges are not much better. I very loosely define some of the things they want us to do just to keep the girls engaged. Most of the fun stuff we do is from me googling local activities or spending hours on Pinterest.
3. I understand that much of Girl Scouts is volunteer-led, but it is so disorganized. The technology infrastructure is a mess, although it has improved somewhat with the introduction of Rallyhood. Of course, most people don't even know it exists because little was communicated out to parents/volunteers.
4. As a volunteer, I don't find things respectful of my time. Service Unit meetings are a waste of time and most information could just be shared via email. I've been added and dropped from listservs repeatedly, but my contact information and status in my troop has not changed for 5 years. I've tried to utilize some of the equipment and resources the local council has, but you can only pickup in the middle of the day. I've tried to get other parents to help and it's hard, but I can't miss half a day of work for stuff like that.
5. Same with cookies. Can only pick them up during the work day. A million trips to the cupboard and the bank. Having to wake up and get into the booth lottery at 7am. The online site is clunky, but at least I know what I'm doing after 5 years on it.

[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.

Yes, leaders have a lot of freedom, but the point of this woman's letter to the Board of Directors has been to explain how much things have changed in the official programming. People have been complaining louder and louder for the past 5 years ever since the official program changed. Whole badge books were lost in favor of these Journeys which no one likes. Experienced leaders have been told "Change is Hard" etc etc. In the letter she describes what many people have felt to be true -- the old guard, experienced Girl Scouts, have been pushed out to try to make this new program work. They are desperately trying to create new "Pathways" so girls can still be scouts without actually having to have leaders and troops -- because the weak link in all these new plans is that if leaders find the program difficult and uninspiring to the girls, we won't continue to volunteer. We aren't paid employees. GSUSA is trying to force this program on us for some reason.
IT ISN'T WORKING.

Those of us who Love Girl Scouts are sad that the Scouting we loved and remembered isn't really part of the program anymore. Yes, you can try to make it work despite the fact that they have made it very difficult. OR, we could follow some of the very sensible suggestions in this letter and turn things around, officially. That's what I'm hoping for!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

We were not told this. Are you in GSCNC?

It's true. You have to do both fall sales and cookies before you can do any other fundraisers. I don't mind cookies, but the fall fundraiser sucks.

[Anonymous]

This thread is really eye opening to me - I can strike girl scouts off my list for my kid. Thanks all!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

We were not told this. Are you in GSCNC?

It's true. You have to do both fall sales and cookies before you can do any other fundraisers. I don't mind cookies, but the fall fundraiser sucks.

But do you have to do fall sales to do cookies? I've never heard that, and I don't see anything about it on the GSCNC site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

We were not told this. Are you in GSCNC?

It's true. You have to do both fall sales and cookies before you can do any other fundraisers. I don't mind cookies, but the fall fundraiser sucks.

But do you have to do fall sales to do cookies? I've never heard that, and I don't see anything about it on the GSCNC site.

No, you don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They are desperately trying to create new "Pathways" so girls can still be scouts without actually having to have leaders and troops -- because the weak link in all these new plans is that if leaders find the program difficult and uninspiring to the girls, we won't continue to volunteer.

And we certainly won't continue to support Girl Scouts once we finally give up and disband our troops.

[Anonymous]

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.

Really? We got hit up for that terrible, expensive popcorn twice in the same day last week. (My husband the sucker bought both times.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

We were not told this. Are you in GSCNC?

I am a GSCNC service unit manager. You don't have to sell fall product in order to sell cookies. You have to sell fall product in order to do other troop-initiated fundraisers such as badge days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

We were not told this. Are you in GSCNC?

Yes. We're in one of the fairfax county service units.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

We were not told this. Are you in GSCNC?

I am a GSCNC service unit manager. You don't have to sell fall product in order to sell cookies. You have to sell fall product in order to do other troop-initiated fundraisers such as badge days.

This has been the policy for our service unit for the last 2 years.

[Anonymous]

I should have been more specific. I meant the fall product before any other fundraising has been in place in 2 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a GSCNC service unit manager. You don't have to sell fall product in order to sell cookies. You have to sell fall product in order to do other troop-initiated fundraisers such as badge days.

This has been the policy for our service unit for the last 2 years.

Shouldn't this be uniform across GSCNC (stupid policy though it is)?