Your Turn to Talk II: More Comments About Proposed Dues Increase

 Wow, 1753 responses, so far, on my survey about GSUSA's proposed dues increase.  The survey, which is open for responses through September 25, 2024, is here.  When I do a survey, I always include a "Say whatever you want" question because sometimes people do not feel that the wording of the question allows them to truly express their opinion.  

Because of the large number of comments on this survey, I'm breaking my "Your Turn to Talk" post into several parts.  You can read part 1 here. 

So, here are some more comments:

• I want to clarify that I don't necessarily think that leaders are doing a bad job teaching girls. How to properly do take actions/ earn the awards, But I do think there needs to be a more clear and concise information provided to complete these. I understand that girls are supposed to look around and find something to address, but especially in smaller communities. This isn't always easy or feasible in the way that this is left. Open-ended. If they even just provided leaders with actual talking points for any of the journeys or higher awards, it would be helpful. The fact is we already have to buy all of our materials in order to even "do" Scouts.... At least provide us with the right kind of information..... And honestly, I think there needs to be more oversight about how councils run. I know there's some weird hierarchical set up regarding non-profit versus troops etc. But it's really hard to be on the edge of a council and watch a neighboring one. Have their stuff together and feel like yours completely ignores your area of council....
  
  
• THe graphic was a little hard to read.   I think having better resources and information on the volunteer tool kit would be more beneficial than creating the boxes.  The idea is interesting but I know it will end up costing more than we'd want to spend when we likely wouldn't use all of what is included. 
  
  
• I know a lot of volunteers plan to quit if they raise the price because majority of us also have children involved we can’t afford both fees increasing. We volunteer our time and know one cares. Without me my troop would be done and I hardly have any consistent help. So I’m only here for the girls, but anymore I’m not even sure why especially if they raise prices. My troop comes from low income area and we can’t afford the higher prices. My whole troop would end up on financial assistance. It’s getting harder and harder to sell fall product and cookies when they keep rising the prices. People don’t want to buy anything when everyone is struggling for money right now to meet basic needs.
  
  
• They should make things optional for people to buy into if interested instead of forcing it on everyone and increasing dues. We have some families who need assistance financially as it is and do not want to make it harder on them.
  
  
• Looking at the proposed increase, it alienates multi-level troops, especially if they are small. I would rather see programming that has additional requirements as the girls get older but the same badge for a daisy vs a junior. Cadettes+ could have their own programming or steps to be more of a leader of the badge work. 

• My Council's badge in a box that they have made available is good and I would rather spend $5-$10 per box to have ready made programs than figure something out on my own. Unfortunately it isn't always helpful having a multi level troop. I have found myself forcing a brownie badge in a box to confirm to junior and daisy requirements just so we can do a badge as a group.  For context I have 1 - 1st grade, 1 3rd grader, 4 4th graders and 1 5th graders that regularly attend.  Then hand a handful that sign up, show up and disappear/ghosted by parents.  Which brings me to another sore subject. My Council's recruits girls heavily and advertise the financial assistance. a majority of families using FA show up once or twice and ghost the leader, if I can even get in contact with them about our meeting.  Finally, GSUSA needs to improve the VTK! And allow us to use it for communication instead of using a 3rd party app. The concept is great, a leader can communicate to special speaker and send attachments of the badge requirements or they can send emails to the troop families, except no email actually go out to anyone other than the leader sending the email.  That was a waste of time/effort.
  
  
• Don’t raise dues more. Personally, the money we don’t doesn’t go to the areas I want to see improve, like outdoor programming, and outdoor specialists. 
  
  
• For the last question above, parents are opting in to more expensive field trips and activities.  Dues don’t cover uniforms or badges. With higher dues, parents can’t opt out. My daughter is in 8th grade and really just hanging out until she becomes gold eligible. troops in middle and high school rarely have 12 girls and the badge options are so crappy I wouldn’t want to pay for badge in a box supplies, especially if I had to buy supplies for more girls than I have in my troop
  
  
• I've can only speak from being a second year leader in saying I live in a low income area. Half of my girls (at least) are on financial assistance. If the price goes up I'm going to loose girls and I know they will not be able to be involved in many other activities because of the disparity of my area. I feel like council in my area is lacking and because we are a rural area we are forgotten or just a back burner. I feel like we make plenty of money for council between cookie and fall product sales to cover the cost increase. 
  
  
• Why have they created so much that we can’t use the way we want.  Volunteer tool kit doesn’t work the way I need it too.  Everything is too rigid.  Bring Back Print options.  
  
  
• With the price increase, I think this would be the end of our troop. We don’t get much support as volunteers and it has become increasingly challenging. This year increase in cookie prices has also meant less sales. 
  
  
• Prefer to keep costs low, I don’t use the volunteer tool kit, Probably wouldn’t use a premade box, I have a homeschool troop and make my own curriculum using the badge requirements.  We meet every week year round.   Prefer the troop to stay girl led.  The best part about girl scouts is that each troop can customize their own experiences 
  
  
• Don't waste money on things people don't want and don't improve the experience 
  
  
• We pay for our uniforms completely separate from any dues. It's up to each girl to go buy vest/sash and get the required patches. It's already expensive just to do that every 2 years (until cadettes then 3 yrs) so no, if dues were higher we probably never would have joined. What am I getting for my money? It doesn't go to my troop. It goes to GSUSA. 
  
  
• One of the draws of Girl Scouts is that it’s affordable, meaning it’s more accessible financially for kids whose families can’t afford other things but want their kids to have these types of experiences and kids can do it and other activities.
  
  
• I believe I read something about membership being down overall. If that is the case, increasing the membership fees will not add members in my opinion. Our council adds $5 to our annual membership to help with FA for camps and programs within our area. So why is this not a viable option for GSUSA to help. Are there things that can be improved, yes. Example, VTK is not great for multi level troops. Digital cookie is okay, maybe minor interface improvements needed between parents and eBudde. That being said, overall I think what GSUSA has put out so far is great and improvements requiring up to a $50+ increase is a major hit to budgets for families and troops.
  
  
• We do not see any of the money we pay for registration in our service unit or local council. Our troop uses cookie money to pay for our girls registration. These changes would make us have to reevaluate. It’s like all the fundraising the girls do is cyclical and right back in council pocket instead of the girls. We take home 7% to our troop of sales for fall product. We take home 15% for cookie sales. Let us do our own fundraisers so the girls can keep their money.  
  
  
• Many troops will disband if the price increases.
  
  
• Our council already increased dues. We will lose members if they increase at the national level. 
  
  
• Most of our troop’s girls attend Title 1 schools. A massive increase such as this would make Girl Scouts inaccessible for many families.
  
  
• Our troop pays for all membership renewals, uniforms, badges/insignia, programming, and activities. We do this by raising thousands of dollars in fall and cookie sales. Most of which goes back to GSUSA for all of those things. I can’t imagine having to raise more money to just pay them more money for membership. Especially for volunteers, we have to pay for annual dues and for much of our training, raising fees to volunteer is awful and disrespectful. It will also cause less adults to join as official volunteers to save trips money and that’s dangerous situation without background checks. GSUSA and local council (ours anyway) tend to have people on the leadership trans and service units making decisions but not having current experience with an active troop. They are typically “retired” from a troop. That experience is not up to date to be making decisions for us that are working with current troops and current issues. Most of our staff have zero experience with being a troop leader or volunteer. That’s not helpful to us. 
  
  
• Honestly pretty cheap program to be a part of compared to sports, Boy Scouts, and other organizations
  
  
• There is NO point in raising rates - my council can’t even get ADULTS to volunteer. I’ve got 22 in my troop from multiple schools/districts. There have been NO new troops in my area in years . I’ve got a list of 20+ girls that want to join but no one wants to volunteer to run one.
  
  
•  It seems they came up with the ideas on how to spend more money without asking girls and leaders. None of those changes from the increase in dues would directly affect my troop in a positive way. So many activities are so expensive. Let’s keep GS affordable and the girls’ cookie money go toward what they choose, not just dues. This would backfire greatly.
  
  
• The new troop boxes do not benefit established troops. My family alone would struggle paying out $340 to be members. Plus the costs of vests and increasing costs of badges. 
  
  
• I worry that programing and communication will suffer significantly if they don't raise dues. With the cost of everything going up it is the reality. I also think they need to do a better job of advertising FA for families, as I hear a lot of people don't know about it. 
  
  
• Personally I think GS wastes a lot of money and instead of raising our prices they should budget better on their end. I’ve been a leader for 7 years and I was a GS as a child. It’s gone down hill a lot. 
  
  
• We are losing girls to Scouts of America and the solution is to rise cost. This is not a good idea. We will lose them even faster.
  
  
• Improving Digital Cookie is needed and that’s where we make the most money so I think that should be GSUSA priority. Other funds are needed at the council level like community managers and council personnel. So if the rest of the increase goes back to the council then I’d be in favor. Girls Scouts is already DEI heavy, we don’t need to spend more on it. The GS promise and law is what’s most important. Also I do like the boxes but I think that could be a one time fee to new members, like an initiation fee, to cover the costs. 
  
  
• I think the number of parent sign ups will plummet. They might pay more for their child, but won’t be buying multiple memberships for adults. This will hurt troops who rely on parents to help out on field trips, camping, cookie program, etc. Although I see Daisy boxes as a way to promote leader recruitment, I don’t think it is a good idea to provide everything in a box. 1. It makes leaders rely upon GS to provide everything. It stifles growth and creativity. 2. As girls get older it becomes a waste of money and resources as it doesn’t take into account troop dynamics and interests 3. In multi-level troops it will cause issues with distribution of funds as the other levels will be spending money on badgework and Daisies will have more discretionary funds (for field trips, providing vests, etc.)  Also, I think companies are finding that in many cases diversity and inclusion programs are failing and being scrapped. I do believe the spirit of GS is inclusiveness already and we don’t need more funds going towards goals we have already accomplished. It doesn’t make financial sense to increase dues to fund Financial Assistance. They will literally be adding to the number of people requiring FA by increasing dues while simultaneously causing people to drop out of Girl Scouts, especially if they have multiple scouts, because they are either too embarrassed to request FA or they don’t qualify for FA but they really don’t have the extra funds to cover GS at an increased level. Also, it puts undue pressure on troop leaders who also have to ask for dues. At the beginning of the year, for a new scout, the financial layout can be quite high; registration, uniform requirements, troop dues, and misc expenses (I’ve paid extra for field trips, troop snacks on a rotating basis, etc.). Troop dues would be the first thing that parents stop paying and that will hinder what troops can do. Especially if leaders can’t afford to front money until cookie season! Increasing dues will make GSUSA look greedy and out of touch with their mission.  More so in this economic environment. And as the face of Girl Scouts, leaders will bear the brunt of this ill advised decision.
  
  
• Stop charging leaders a membership fees. We spend so much of our time and money running the troops. We are literally the backbone of GS. Offer more training for us not the people on council that don't interact with the girls. Using the money we pay GS USA for programming then charging us to attend the programming at the same cost (or more) it would be to attend without GS is robbery. 
  
  
• The dues need to happen very gradually. Not a huge mark up or there will be huge membership losses for both girls and volunteers. Volunteers are already “working” and paying to do so. 
  
  
• For a family with several Girl Scouts and one or two parent volunteers, this is no longer affordable, even without adding in uniforms and activity fees.
  
  
• I think there does need to be an increase. $25 is not a lot of money for a full year. If someone needs financial assistance they should get it. I will gladly pay extra to cover a girl or leader that cannot afford it. I want a return to outdoors. STEM, STEM is everywhere. Kids don’t get to get out in nature. GS will lose the girls that are interested in outdoors and camping to the rebranded Scouts of America. 
  
  
• GSUSA says they want to be more inclusive.  If they raise the prices they will prohibit the very girls they say they are trying to include. Quit offering incentives and such and just do your job. Instead of offering incentives, spend that money on the girls. GSUSA has no programming. Councils provide that. Yes Boy Scouts charge a higher fee but look at their numbers, they drop more every year. 
  
  
• On top of the GSUSA proposed increase, my council already charges an extra $20 at registration. So if they keep that as well as raise the cost to $85. That's $105 a girl/volunteer in my council.  For my family that would be a total of $315. This doesn't include if they need a new vest or anything else that comes up during the year. 
  
  
• My daughter said that no one knows that girl scouts goes beyond little kids. She said they need to do a better job portraying older girls and their programming.  For the badge boxes, I think they would be good for younger troops as long as they are reasonably priced. However they should offer the supplies list and details for a very cheap price for those who want to gather the items. 
  
  
• You have to take into account, mom's who volunteer are usually ones who did Girl Scouts and are now leading a troop because their daughter(s) want to be in Girl Scouts.  Then what about those families that have multiple girls in Girl Scouts.  It would become financially hard for families to pay the $85 for multiple girls and an adult.
  
  
• A 3x+ increase is ludicrous! The ceo makes over $700k a year. Is that necessary?? Maybe start cutting costs at the top, instead of raising them at the bottom.
  
  
• Given the amount of time spent fundraising, I’m starting to question where all of the money goes.  The whole setup feels like a pyramid scheme.
  
  
• Such increases will actually price out many families, leading to decreased membership. GSUSA should be listening to what the girls want, not what THEY think they want (how many troops have asked for the sewing badge??). Badges look like cartoons-hard to take seriously. As far as “marketing “, with GS on everything from lip balm to ice cream to eyeshadow (???) it’s hard to believe they’re not rolling in money. Where’s the Councils’ cut of those endorsements?
  
  
• The proposed increase will hit families with multiple girls and adult volunteers the hardest! Also, at the $85 price point, that is comparable to Scouts BSA. I feel we will loose more girls to the other program.
  
  
• I understand that we are in a highly inflated economy. Going up makes sense, however the things they’re proposing don’t seem to be things we can actually utilize. There should be other ideas for how the girls can get use of the money spent. 
  
  
• Dues need to bring value to all troops,  not just Daisy and Brownie or new leaders. Resources need to be spent on recruiting and training volunteers instead of girls, never enough leaders to meet demand. Help with meeting space costs would be valuable for older girls who need to meet evenings/ weekends and our schools have to charge for those times.  
  
  
• Forget more diversity crap.  If those people want to join our org, then that is fine.  If not, then don’t.  Why are we making a big deal of this just because the Democrats are?  The troop boxes should only be for daisies and brownies, that’s it.  And it shouldn’t stop at 12 girls.  I am surprised the annual membership fee isn’t more than $25!!!  In 2019, I paid $35 for National for Cub Scouts.  Today, I pay $85 for National plus $83 for our council plus pack dues.  It’s ok to raise rates for GS but do it incrementally, not double right away!!!
  
  
• Improvements are needed but the money should not come from volunteers or parents. Take it from corporate.
  
  
• I live in an area of the country where we have extremely high per capita rates of homelessness and high levels of poverty. I know there is financial assistance available, but raising the registration fees would absolutely be a barrier for girls already enrolled and would make it much harder for me to recruit new members. 
  
  
• I am concerned that it will make girl scouts unaffordable to girls who really rely on it.  While my troops likely won't be impacted - this will cause us to lose girls and volunteers.  Plus the benefits of the increase are just not what the girls and volunteers need.
  
  
• I believe a small increase is feasible with some other improvements to the programming, but no more than a total of $40. If the increase is as much as $85, some major improvements would need to be happening to match the higher cost like Boy Scouts. At that big of an increase, many of our parents would bow out even if they could afford it, especially if its all going to GSUSA and not to benefit our councils. 
  
  
• The yearly dues are just to be considered a Girl Scout.  All the patches, materials, events are all paid for separately and not part of the dues.  They should not go up if the troops are not being given more free things on a yearly basis.  
  
  
• We will not be scouts if they raise them to those levels 
  
  
• Too high of a jump in one year. 
  
  
• A minor increase of $10 is  reasonable but any more is way too much. 
  
  
• I agree with the comment someone made about JGL selling her pearls to fund the girls….get off 5th Ave and get into reality. The GS veranda is well known and sells shampoo and soap along with cookies…..no advertising needed. Happy girls sell the experience.
  
  
• I could see the cost being $65-$85 if it included uniforms; books; all badges/awards, etc earned for the year; and all events. I think maybe they should have a tiered system. If you want basic membership pay $25. If you want it to come with an Experience Box of your choice (I shouldn't have to pay $65 for my Sr or Ambassador and get a Daisy box) pay $65. If you want the membership to come with full uniform, badges, Experience Box etc pay the $85. Not every girl will need new uniforms and books every year. Then have the badges, uniforms, Experience Boxes, etc for sale just like they do now.
  
  
• I understand that dues should be raised but it is a lot to go from $25 to $65 then council dues on top of it, especially if families have more than one sibling participating. They should have had a plan to roll out over the years to incrementally increase but to stay manageable for families. 
  
  
• Our council just increased their girl fee by $20 this year. An additional hike, especially a large hike, by National is going to be challenging for many families. We live in a fairly rural, lower socioeconomic area.
  
  
• The only advertising in our area is recruiting tables run by volunteers and newspapers articles written by volunteers who are talking about what their troops do.  Badges for older girls leave a lot to be desired - they don’t need more school.  They need things like exploring careers, they need self defense, more skill stuff and less lecture like badges - make them fun.
  
  
• They would lose a leader, and a Girl Scout. 
  
  
• I live in a rural community where most of my parents can't afford the $25 much less an increase. 
  
  
• I am worried that we will be pricing families out of participation. Our troop is funded through our product sales, including our member renewals. However, a large amount of our expenditures are on badges/awards. This decreases the amount we can spend on actual experiences, travel, and even supplies. Our 5th grade girls want to do more adventures and travel, but we are already exhausted from cookie season. Cookie sales have also been declining. It’s hard to retain older girls and I fear shifting finances will make it even less likely that they will stick around. As a volunteer, I cover the costs of my participation, trainings, and donate materials. I am in a financial position where I am able to do this, but it is a conscious budget choice I make to give the girls more opportunities. Most leaders in my area do not have the option. We have a hard time recruiting volunteers and will likely lose more of them if they’re expected to pay more. As much as I hate comparisons to Scouts U.S.A. (which my kids were also a member), I see what the fees have done to the organization. It has made it truly an elite activity and in competition to sports and other activities, Girl Scouts will lose because the general population does not see the value in participation (this is a HUGE issue). We need to take a lesson from them and not follow down the same path. 
  
  
• I have a troop of 11th graders and a troop of 7th graders. If Girl Scouts had cost more than $25 just to join with no additional benefits, we would not have joined. If it increases by more than $50-$10, my 7th grade troop will disband.  We have always paid for our troop memberships with cookie profits. Ask year our profits went way down bc of the price increase in our council did not come anywhere near to being balanced the tiny increase in troop profit. It's about the money, but it's also about feeling like our volunteer time and energy is respected. Although all of my families love GSA, none of them would be sad about ending our troops. We'd still be friends and could do Girl Scout like activities on our own and through clubs at our high school that don't require so much money or adult volunteer effort. If Girl Scouts is going to cost a similar amount as other activities, such as sports or music, I'm not sure the ROI becomes worth it. 
  
  
• I think active volunteers she’s not be paying a dime to GSUSA, we provide all the labor and they get all the profits. 
  
  
• If dues went up I might leave my 2 girls in if that were their choice, but I would quit as a leader. I already do not feel leaders, as volunteers who spend their own time and money, should have to pay to recruit kids to sell their cookies, merchandise, badges, and the rest of their business. It's ridiculous if you ask me. I complain every year. Don't get me started on the cookie sales sites disasters I have every year because they can't make systems that communicate.
  
  
• My income status doesn’t matter here. It’s about all girls having options. The current older girl programs are basically just online school work and don’t teach any life skills like they used to with sewing, cooking etc it’s all online and impersonal. You could do a badge alone that’s not very “troop”. 

Part III is here.