Cookie Booths and Cookie Season Recap

In our council, Juliettes can not do cookie booths by themselves. The official booths are scheduled in eBuddie and the rules are at least 2 girls and 2 adults. I was advised that we could, however, set up a small stand. We have been taking advantage of that! My little Brownie managed to stay very busy every weekend in April by either setting up her stand or participating in booths with other troops (also allowed).

Her initial pre-order turn-in was for 240 boxes & 6 boxes sold through her digital cookie site (her goal was 235), and I thought we were done...

I didn't get pictures of every stand that we set up, or the individual deliveries and door to door sales, but generally this is what April looked like:

4/2/2016 Booth with Troop 6081

   

4/5/2016 Stand at Moose's Country Store

This is where we were done with all of our pre-order deliveries and sold out of cookies. We had gotten several more orders, so we had to go to the Cookie Cupboard to fill them. We also got enough to set up one more stand.

4/9/2016 Cookie Cupboard (pick up 7 more cases)

We set up what was to be her last stand on the 9th. We sold out in a little over an hour and got a ton of orders for delivery, so we had to go get more cookies on the 16th.

4/16/2016 Cookie Cupboard (pick up 14 more cases)

This is when my inner struggle took place... We don't have a troop to help us get rid of extra cookies, so we are personally financially responsible for any cookies we sign for. I sat my Little Brownie down and explained the situation to her and gave her a choice. We could just pick up what we had orders for and be done with cookies for the year or we could continue to set up stands. She told me she was having fun and wanted to continue. She showed me the prizes and the additional $75 resident camp incentive she could earn if she got to the next level of 500 boxes. So I took a deep breathe and we picked up 14 more cases...

4/22/2016 Stand at Moose's Country Store

4/23/2016 (morning) Booth with Troop 6081

4/23/2016 (afternoon) Recruiting Booth at Cabot
Annual Strawberry Festival with Troop 6533. The
girls spent the afternoon talking to other young
 ladies about joining Girl Scouts. The Assistant Leader
gave my Little Brownie the 2016 cookie booth patch
 for helping to sell cookies as well.

On 4/29/2016 we had our final stand at Moose's Country Store. We sold out with the exception of some orders to be delivered later that week. (I had to fill those by purchasing 25 boxes from 2 other troops because awards had already been finalized). Her official total for 2016 cookie season is 556 boxes (not including the 25 boxes for orders that our troop friends helped us fill.)

By participating in Cookie Booths with our friendly host troops, my Little Brownie was able to earn the 2016 Cookie Activity Pin. In a sad and ironic twist, my Little Brownie's membership number was in eBuddie twice (not supposed to be possible), and she was listed under 2 different service units. Her cookie sales were split between those 2 service units, so as far as I know, she is only getting the rewards for 284 boxes in our service unit. She will be getting a trophy at the Cookie Brigade and Bridging ceremony for the entire 556 boxes.

I usually purchase one box of each kind for the freezer for next year, but I had a case of Samoas stolen out of my car, which I had to pay for. We ended up with 2 boxes each of Rah-Rah Raisins and Toffee-tastics for ourselves. C'est la vie...

I'm sooo glad that's over with! Hope your cookie season was great!

My Family Story Skill Building Badge

My Family Story is part of the Brownie Quest Skill Building Badge set.

  Step 1. Explore Family Stories: We spent a lot of time going through photo albums and my genealogy binders. I keep old photos, birth announcements, and obituaries in the genealogy binders. They are organized by family group sheets. I told her the family stories that I remembered. We read about how in the 1600's one of our ancestors was kidnapped by pirates and ransomed! One of our most notable family stories is about Frances Slocum. She was taken by Indians as a child and there is a state park in Pennsylvania and a state forest in Indiana dedicated to her. There have been some books & publications written about several of my ancestors as well, so I shared some of those with her.

  Step 2. Know Where Your Family is From: We got a lot of info from our family Gedcom. We have English, Irish, Dutch, German & American Indian (Mohican-Wappinger) heritage. We put tacks in the world map to show everywhere we have ancestors. (That we know of...) I printed off the flags from those countries and we used them as cupcake toppers for a cupcake decorating party!

  Step 3. Make a Story Tree: We used the template provided in the pamphlet for this activity. I converted it into Photo Shop and we added pictures of family members to complete the worksheet. She has 8 grown brothers and sisters, so we put them in as family groups - though we still ran out of spots! We added journaling after I got this picture to post.                                                                                                                       Step 4. Find an Object That Means Something to Your Family: Since we don't have any family heirlooms (except for a small coin collection my father gave me), we decided that our scrapbooks fit that bill. We did talk about the coin collection as well. She loved looking through the old coins. It represents time that I spent with my father while we sorted coins for it, so our scrapbooks would represent that time spent together for us.

  Step 5. Share Your Family Story: We added some pages to our scrapbooks. I do chronological photos and journaling in our scrapbooks, so we updated several weeks worth!

My Family Story Binder Card

My Best Self Brownie Skill Building Badge

My Best Self Brownie Badge is part of the Brownie Quest Skill Building Badge set. Each step has three suggestions to choose from. These are the ones we chose to complete.

Step 1. Get to Know Your Body:
Color in your eyes, hair, and favorite clothes. She also pointed out how her features are like or different people in her family. (My hair color, Daddy's eyes...)

Step 2. Eat & Play in a Healthy Way: 

Try three different kinds of exercise. She chose jumping on the trampoline, riding her bike, and jumping rope.

Step 3. Find Out How Your Body Works:
Learn about a healthy temperature. We took my Little Brownie's temperature to make sure it was 98.6', then we talked about 2 things that might make her temperature higher or lower.


Step 4. Know What to Do If Something Bugs You:
Create a "happy box" with five things that make you smile. I asked her the 5 things she might like to have if she were away from home and got homesick. She chose her favorite blanket, a stuffed toy, a book, her tablet (of course), and a candy bar. I mentioned to her that I read that sometimes emergency workers carried stuffed animals in their vehicles to make little ones feel better.


Step 5. Meet a Health Helper:
Visit a doctor, dentist, or optometrist. This badge was done at the perfect time! Her vision checkup was this week. The optometrist answered all of her questions and helped things go smoother with a running dialog during the whole checkup.

The Voice of a Juliette

I've been pretty upbeat so far with this blog (because Girl Scouts are cheerful, lol), but there are also downsides to being an Independently Registered Girl (Juliette) in Girl Scouts. So to be fair, I should also write about that (and how I handle it), so that if you are struggling with the decision to take this path with your girl, or you feel you are in over your head because you already did, you can take some of these things into consideration. These are notes that I have been taking since the beginning of our Julietting journey that I have been pulling together as a work in progess. I think it is time to share so you can get a bigger picture of what it is to take this pathway.

Don't get me wrong, as you can see, we take these downsides in stride most of the time and really enjoy the activities as a mom & me thing. The negative experiences we may have occasionally are not a deal-killer when it comes to Julietting, because I have found that this pathway has more advantages than disadvantages. My grown daughter (my oldest) was in a "troop" that had dwindled down to 2 Cadette girls, so the leader didn't do anything with them except sell cookies, and the cookie profits eventually just got absorbed into her Council. She recently admitted to me that she wished she could have a do-over, so sometimes we let her sit in with our activities and she's having a blast.

Imagine being a woman in 1912 trying to make a major statement like Juliette Gordon Low did. Sure, she was a member of the social and financial elite (according to her bio), but she was basically speaking out at a time when strong women were probably viewed as eccentric and a pain in the you know what in a "Man's World". Today she is looked up to as a role-model for opening up opportunities for girls that at that time had not been available except to girls with her advantages and means. She was the first Girl Scout, (the first Juliette, in fact!), and I'll bet that she had to push hard, be vocal in her beliefs, and never give up! So what started out as a tiny ripple in Savannah, GA over a hundred years ago is now huge and far reaching. You GO, Girl!

So, I'm talking to you, Mom of a Juliette. When you encounter roadblocks in this journey with your daughter, keep in mind that she is looking at you to see how you are going to handle it. Don't think that you have to be a part of a troop to make a difference. You may at first receive information that is incomplete or out of date, then later find out that a particular policy worked out better for your situation after all. This is usually the case, so you have to follow through.

I've mentioned before that there is not a lot of guidance on being a Juliette. I know that there are a few Councils out there that are quite fond of theirs and really try to make sure that they get the same opportunities as the trooping girls, but this is not the case everywhere. Remember the Councils each have their own policies, and it is most likely at the Service Unit level that your Juliette could fall through the cracks. So few Juliettes are active that most of the Leadership has not had any experience with handling our stuff. Don't be afraid to get to know your Directors and get out there and meet other troops. You and your girl have to become a face for Juliettes instead of just an obscure concept. You have to push hard, be vocal and never give up. Chances are the frustration may just be a momentary glitch that can be ironed out with patience, a little research, and good communication.

Don't let the people who are willing to let you fall between a crack tell you that you have to be a part of a crowd (or troop) to have a voice! After all, the exalted and fearless Founder of Girl Scouts promised to empower our daughters and turn them into leaders and upstanding members of our communities. Team building is just one stepping stone to building courage, confidence, and character.

A lot of trooping girls earn their Gold Awards as an individual. I recently spoke to a Juliette mom that told me her girl is pairing up with another Juliette (from another service unit) with their project. How they got that one approved is a concept I don't even want to dwell on...

We are learning from Juliette Gordan Low to Discover, Connect, and Take Action!

The Steps:

Discover: Find out your Council's position on and rules regarding their Juliettes. Our Recruitment Officer helped us with the uniform set up and seemed to have the most information about how to begin. Find out who does what. Each aspect of this program has a side note about individual girls, so you may have to speak to many departments to get all the info. Sign up for your council and service unit emails! I can't stress that one enough.

Not everything happens at the Council level - sometimes it's the Service Unit that handles specifics for you, the Juliette. Research who GETS what. I found out from our Service Unit Director in a totally unrelated conversation that there have been recent policy changes in our Council in how cookie sales are handled for Juliettes. On the other hand, you have the option to find a troop that is willing to host you for events like World Thinking Day booths and cookie booths. So far we have developed sister relationships with 3 troops, but it took time...

Connect: Make friends. Put yourself out there. Attend those functions. Attend those Leader's meetings - you ARE a Leader too! (I personally think that Juliette Leaders are afraid to speak up for their daughter, but there are more of us than you may realize.) Represent Girl Scouts in a positive way. Contact those people. Don't whine! But don't curl up in the fetal position and give up either.

I recently found out that many girls in my council just pay the membership fees and wait for a troop to appear. They are out $15 a year and don't even participate! I wish I had a way to reach out to them and form a coop like the homeschoolers do!

Our Council has formed what is called "Epic Troops" (or HQ directed troops) where the administration at Little Rock headquarters take some of those individually registered girls into the fold and hold meetings after business hours. They have created a chef shuttle partnership for cookie orders that benefit those "troops". This has created some bad feelings with some troop leaders, and I agree on some points, but I don't have all the info on it, so I refuse to take a position on it. Since both of those concepts are new they are probably (IMHO) just trying to get start up money for it and I am sure, like most new things, it will evolve as they work out the kinks and get established as a "thing".

To be fair, all scouts have the option to opt-in to the I want cookies map and add their digital cookie page, so all girls kind of get equal opportunity and free promotion for online cookie sales. These links are for Diamonds of AR, OK & TX Council, and are for informational purposes only. Research your council's website and even their Facebook page for info specific to you.

***Since I began this "work in progress over 4 months" post, our Council retracted the policy for chef shuttle to only benefit epic troops and are distributing cookie proceeds to benefit all troops in the council. There is no mention of Juliettes benefiting, but I have faith in the process and the good will of the Council.

Take Action: Find creative ways to show that your daughter is an asset and also has valuable voice as an individual member. Let them know that your walking the Girl Scout walk but that your path is not to follow the crowd. Let your service projects shine and speak for you as well. Talk about your activities - I think you'll find that most Leadership is curious about how you have walked this path. This is a relatively new pathway, so they are learning right along with us.

My Council is also trying to make positive changes for Juliettes and I have been quizzed by a couple of council admins for my ideas to find solutions for the many Juliettes in my area that are getting lost. Some councils even offer the Virtual Pathway! (We probably would have taken that route if it had been available in our Council.) If you are not willing to share your experiences, they just won't know how to accommodate your pathway!

My first suggestion to my Council would be to please make a handbook for us too!

You are not a renegade, or oddity. This is an official Girl Scout Pathway that was created for girls to be included in Girl Scouts that may not have access to a troop, or in a holding pattern for a troop to be created in their area, or for girls who have other activities to schedule around. This last usually being the case for girls who are older and increasingly busy with many other school and sporting activities. You don't have to follow the crowd to have a voice! That is absolutely not the message that I want my daughter to believe and it is not the Mission of Girl Scouts.

My Little Brownie and I are at the tail-end of our first year as practicing Juliettes. It was frustrating at first, because we didn't know our way around. I was a parent/volunteer for her first year of Daisy's and a more active volunteer for her second. I took the New Leader Training so that I could take a more active role this year and further lift up the Troop Leaders, but my plans evolved into something else. I learned a little from watching her Daisy Leader as she muddled her way through being a new leader, but I learned the most from breaking out on my own. I talked to established troop leaders and council admins, tirelessly researched the GSUSA materials, and (don't laugh,) Pinterest links that lead to the many, many Troop Blogs that are such a wealth of information, creative ideas, free printables, and encouragement. New troop leaders have it just as rough as we do (times more girls and other moms), so don't be discouraged!

So, Ladies, you have YOUR mission - if you choose to accept it! Get out there and make some positive changes - Let your girl's voice be heard!

All you Juliette moms out there, now that we are all liberated, lets have some fun with this!

Cookies, Of Course

Wednesday was the cookie drop for our service unit. Taking orders is rough on the whole family because it seems like everything this time of year revolves around just this one thing...


Then the cookies come and the true madness begins! I couldn't help unload the truck this year, but I did last year and it was actually fun. The cookies are brought by semi to a central location for the service unit. Then the cases are sorted by troop order. Each Troop Leader picks up the cases for the troop, then they are distributed to each girl (parent). The girls have to further break down the boxes by orders. Easy peasy, right?

The marketing doesn't end when the orders are delivered, because now we want those wonderful customers to come back next year!

Last year my little brownie had 23 large orders, but this year we had 63 smaller orders... All but 3 of last year's customers were returning customers - and those 3 had moved away, so... Keep your order forms! Use them next year when you start trolling for new orders!

We add thank you tags to our orders with each customer's name, order, and total for convenience - and it looks nice. Last year we even put some in those Dollar Tree gift bags, you know the 3/$1 ones. I saw that people really do appreciate the extra effort with presentation and decided to go a little bigger this year. (You know me - go big or go home!) Thanking your customers is also the last step for the "Meet My Customers" badge.

I took the time to do something I wish I had done the last 2 years and took a picture of my little brownie with her cookies. I saw something very similar on Pinterest and made it my very own. You don't want to see what my living room looked like to set this up! I had to move the couch and take about 40 shots to get the perfect one. Yes, it was a pain and very time consuming. They fell over twice until I got out my left over boards and several different sized boxes to stack the cookie boxes on. The backdrop is our cookie table cloth, then I cropped it and added the text in Photoshop.

I bought some postcard stock and plan on making this year's tags by printing these out 2 to each postcard, trimming them down to 3x4" and putting our contact info on the back - you know, in case someone runs out of cookies. I am going to print out a full sized postcard to send to the nice lady (distant cousin by marriage twice removed, lol) that ordered online and paid that extravagant shipping to help my little brownie go to camp this year!

Maybe next year we will get even more orders!

Have fun with your cookies!