'Tis the season for my nine year old to sell thin mints (no fa la las). I notice she had more sales when she was a cute little six year old Brownie than now--and I believe the "cute" factor helps sales based on my experiences as both parent/leader and a former Girl Scout! (Nothing wrong with that unless you're a high school aged Girl Scout who can't get anyone but acne-afflicted adolescent males to purchase your wares, often along with snide propositions for something beyond cookies and cash to change hands!) I saw an article on a site called yumsugar.com about the things and you wouldn't believe the number of snarky posts pro and con prompted by it!
Now it's my turn, but I offer this disclaimer: the local leadership where I live is fabulous, I love our neighborhood chairman dearly, and the women with whom I served as a leader three of the past four years are the most fun bunch of women in town! That said, I respectfully note that 99% of my beefs with the organization predate my work with that fine group of gals and are directed specifically to 420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018. (The other 1% relates to parents who don't support their children's full participation, and I only had ONE parent in my three years of leading troops with this issue!)
The article I read cited dropping membership in the organization over the past five years. I'm not sure where that's a problem, because our local troops have GROWN over the past THREE years--I'd testify to that in a courtroom. I can see where the membership drop may have coincided with more families being stretched to the budgetary & time limit just providing for daily needs, often with only one hands-on parent. (Did this not occur to anyone at national headquarters?)
Corporate hacks that Fifth Avenue types tend to be (I grew up in the tri-state area with numerous family members commuting daily to Manhattan, so I DO know!), the Girl Scout leadership in its wisdom brought in a consulting team for an image overhaul, which concluded among other things that the group should decrease its emphasis on the annual cookie sale. Contrary to what was included in the article, the image overhaul also included a change in the names and levels of Girl Scouts, to be accompanied (predictably) by a change in the uniforms, handbooks, etc. for each level. Note to Fifth Avenue--NOT EVERYONE can afford a new uniform/book/etc. every time we turn around twice (even in the NY metropolitan area), so QUIT CONSTANTLY CHANGING THINGS! The bright idea of restructuring the organization might grate less on my nerves if there hadn't been THREE PRIOR reorganizations of a similar nature since I was invested as a Brownie in September 1972!
For the sake of the organization, get the girls involved in community service, camping, and all the other cool stuff I remember doing as both Girl Scout and leader (and they still do here in my community)! During my tenure as leader or assistant I have done the following with the girls in my troops:
*Slept overnight in the local shopping mall (twice)!
*Camped out overnight on five different occasions (once in my co-leader's substantial backyard, once at a local state park, and three other times at the nearest Girl Scout camp).
*Traveled to the Savannah, GA birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low on a day trip that included lunch at a similar establishment to Chuck E. Cheese & strolling on the Savannah River's quayside to the strains of a local trumpeter playing Girl Scout songs (e.g. "Make New Friends," "The Brownie Smile Song").
*Skills day events with the girls that included teaching them to pitch their own tents, render basic first aid, & create their own troop's box oven, then help prepare a communal meal for nearly 100 girls, use and clean up a mess kit with a sanitation station, and concluded with a community campfire during which each troop presented a skit or song while the entire group noshed on s'mores.
*PLUS I participated in a leaders' get together with a local outdoor adventure instructor where I climbed on the high course & rappelled myself off a log some 30 feet in the air!
So why aren't these other troops elsewhere getting girls involved in this sort of physical activity & TRYING to retain their interest? Did we really need an ad hoc restructuring committee to figure this out?!
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