Are Cookies Worth It?

 Its that time of year again--Cookie Season, and despite the pandemic, Girl Scouts are out selling cookies (but in a socially distant way).  As regularly as Cookie Season comes around, so do the complaints that the girls and troops don't get enough for selling them.  Are Girl Scout Cookies good for girls and troops, or just for the adults running the organization?

How the Cookie Crumbles

Many council websites have pages that tell "how the cookie crumbles" -- how the price of the cookies is allotted between the baker, the council, and the troops.

Brownie Fling Flyer Badge Via Zoom

One of the mechanical engineering badges for Brownies is "Fling Flyer" which is basically a rubber band propelled airplane.  We did it this week via Zoom and I'm sharing my plan and results.

Four Pillars?

 Currently, GSUSA says that the Girl Scout program is built on four pillars:  STEM, Outdoors, Life Skills and Entrepreneurship, but does the current programming reflect that?  GSUSA's Badge Explorer allows you to sort awards by program pillar, and this post is going to review them in that light.

Cancel Girl Scout Cookies?

 

It is that time of year again, time for Girl Scout Cookies.  It is also time for the yearly barrage of Facebook posts claiming that Girl Scouts supports Planned Parenthood (for the truth, read this post), that it exploints child labor, and now, some about how Girl Scout Cookies use palm oil (an ingredient found in the majority of store-bought cookies).  Maybe the cookie sale has outlived its usefulness and it is time to move on.  

Making Friends, Social Butterfly and Holiday Party

 One thing I've noticed about my troop is that there is an "inside" group that has been together since kindergarten and an "outside" group that has joined the troop later.  Its not like anyone is mean, its just that they really aren't one group and I'd like to do something to work on that.  Unfortunately, facilitating interactions and friendships is probably my weak point as a leader.  

Since we usually have a holiday party, I thought we could tie it into the Making Friends and Social Butterfly badges.  Let's take a look at them.

What Girl Scout Leaders Think of the Brownie Program?

 This is the second post in a series that involves surveying members of Girl Scout Facebook groups about their opinons of the current program. You can read about the Daisy program here.  

Who Replied?

With any survey, knowing who responded is important.  My gut feeling, based on replies to other surveys I've done and responses to posts on those Facebook groups was that people who responded tended to be more experienced than most leaders, and probably had a bigger committment to the program than most leaders.  

What Do Girl Scout Leaders Think of the Daisy Program

 

One part of Girl Scouts that has changed a lot in the last 15 years is Daisies.  Originally it was a one year program focused on learning the Girl Scout Law.  The only "badges" were the petals and since it was often October or November before troops were up and running, they were really enough for the year.  

When my sixteen year old was in kindergarten, the current program started and Daisies became a two  year program.  The awards expanded to include the leaves and the three original Journeys (actually one was added per year for three years so my daughter could have only earned two).

A few years later GSUSA went though a couple of years of "girls' choice" badges and added Buddy Camper and Outdoor Art to the Daisy portfolio.  Then they substantially expanded badge choices at all levels focusing on STEM, and Daisies got even more badges, an Outdoor Journey and three STEM Journeys.  

I was curious what badges and Journeys Daisies work on, how they do them and what they think of them.  Since surveying Daisies is hard, I surveyed leaders who are members of various Facebook groups for Girl Scout leaders and at the time I started the post, I had 168 responses.  While I did not gather data about the leaders, in past experience with surveying members of these groups, I have found that those who reply tend to be older than the average Girl Scout leader and tend to have been leading longer than most.  Whether that is true of the respondents to this survey I do  not know.