Cookie Sales

It's Girl Scout cookie time again!  I like Thin Mints as well as the next person, but when did Girl Scout cookie sales become a business entity unto itself?  Last year, my daughter joined Girl Scouts for the first time.  She had been involved with a YMCA Father-Daughter program for the last several years.  I thought Girl Scouts would provide a nice alternative for her.

We attended the recruitment event in the fall.  She was placed in an established troop.  Coordinators raved about how active this troop was and how involved the leader was with the GS organization.  That sounded great because I had no desire to be a troop leader.  A dozen ten and eleven year olds at a slumber party, no thanks!

The fall meetings came and went uneventfully.  But at the December holiday gathering, my supportive but elusive position came to a quick ending.  A parent meeting was held while the children partied.  Two hours to provide information about cookie sales.  The troop's cookie sale coordinator announced that the goal was for each child to sell 600 boxes of cookies!  Dozens of “tabletop” times and locations had been set and were waiting for the parents to sign-up. 

My first question was “What's a tabletop?”  I was told two parents and two children would set up a table outside businesses to sell cookies during four-hour time periods.  Oh, and remember to bring blankets and heavy coats, because this time of the year can be cold!  I signed up for only two slots.

The GS cookie sale brochure discusses the skills girls learn in the process:  communication, leadership, goal setting, money management, planning, and teamwork.  I was thinking, if this is a time where girls take the lead, why am I in the meeting while my daughter was in the next room having a gift exchange!

I was a girl scout in the fifth grade.  I remember going all over the neighborhood, by myself, trying to sell cookies.  I was so proud of myself for selling 25 boxes.  And I took orders for the cookies, requiring me to go to each house twice.  As I look back, I can't believe my parents allowed me to sell cookies by myself.  But the initiative to sell was all mine.

The coordinator's emails concerning cookie sales were overwhelming.  Apparently the two-hour planning meeting had not been sufficient in explaining the process.  The effort required to complete a “tabletop” would be a pain.  I was dreading the experience. 

Then a conflict arose.  My daughter wanted to do an alternative activity with her cousin instead of the tabletop.  My menopausal self emerged.  If I don't want to do this and my child doesn't want to do this, why are we doing it!  Maybe it was time to quit Girl Scouts. 

The leader quickly gave me a way out.  Girl Scout cookie sales are not required.  We could sell just individual sales on our own or nothing at all.  I reconsidered.  Okay, no tabletops, but maybe we could sell 50 boxes.  That would provide my daughter two patches.

We hauled those 50 boxes to that alternative event - The Fort Worth Stock Show parade.  We sold 35 boxes!  The rest were sold to neighbors on our immediate block.  One week into the process and our cookie sales were DONE!

Selling 600 boxes of cookies provides a girl a week of summer camp.  A week that many would not be able to afford otherwise.  That's a good thing.  However, taking your daughter out of school so she can sell cookies outside the bank all day, is over the top.  Is there nothing we do as a society that we don't take to the extreme?