Neat pictures of our heritage

http://www.vintagegirlscout.com/default.html

Snack sign up for 2016-2017

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0f48a5ad2ba3f85-snack

2015-2016 Troop #44401

Junior Troop 44401

Martha and I are pleased to announce that Troop 44401 will continue to meet, every Monday after school, at the Wallingford Presbyterian Church.  We're getting excited to see the girls again, hear about their summers, and head off on our Junior experience.

We are planning a back-to-troop pot-luck dinner the evening of Monday, September 26th.  During this meeting we will have our bridging ceremony for returning girls to fly-up to Juniors, and an investiture ceremony for new girls.  We will send information about that in a separate email.

We will hold our first meeting on October 3rd, and every Monday that there is school henceforth.  (Martha and I are open to doing informal 'meetings' to serve as after school care the first few weeks of school for girls who need it.  Let us know!)

We have signed up to attend another two-night encamporee, at Camp River Ranch, the first weekend in November, and hope all girls can come to that.

More detailed information, for returning and potential new girls:

I know that, as parents prepare their girls to return to or join our troop, it is important to figure out budgets for both time and money.  I'm trying for a complete accounting below.

Time:

Our troop holds weekly meetings, which last a little over an hour.  Any continuing work we do (activities towards a badge, or journey, say) will be done during this time.  We also try to arrange for some free time for the girls.  If your girl has to miss a meeting, its no big deal, although she will want to complete any badge activities on her own at home.  So far, I think we have been able to work with girls as they have conflicts or illness.

Additionally, we may participate in extra events (last year we had a one afternoon bug-badge event, an afternoon of pottery making, a two night camping trip, an afternoon of blanket making, and our climbing party on the last day of school).  While we love to have good attendance for these, it is understood that some girls will have conflicts.

Cookie season require some additional effort on the part of both girls and parents.  Since cookie sales are our primary budget provider, we'll be encouraging all the girls to participate.  Time requirements can range from a few hours of selling, or one two hour booth, to extensive hours of selling.  Cookie sales take place in February and March.  You can see a little more about cookie selling by looking backward in this blog.

Girls can, additionally, take part in many Girl Scout activities outside of our troop.  This summer many of our girls attended camp, and during the year there are a plethora of other activities for the girls to take part in, solo or with friends, should they desire.  None of this is required, however.

Time for parents is minimal - while many parents do volunteer with the troop, many are not in a position to do so, and we are glad we can work with our families to meet them where they are on this dimension.  If a parent desires involvement, however, we can always come up with ideas for service.  In previous years, parents have organized the snack signup, joined occasionally as a small group leader for weekly meetings, driven carpools for camps or field trips, or accompanied the troop as an additional adult on field trips as space allows.

Money:

Girl Scouts USA membership fee:  $15  (already covered for returning girls, with last year's cookie proceeds).
Troop #44401 dues:  $40 (covers early activities, materials, etc.)

Girl Scout equipment:

Required:

http://www.girlscoutshop.com/THE-JUNIOR-GIRLS-GUIDE-TO-GIRL-SCOUTING  ($19.50)
http://www.girlscoutshop.com/OFFICIAL-GIRL-SCOUT-JUNIOR-VEST  ($20.50)
http://www.girlscoutshop.com/BADGES-PINS-AND-AWARDS/GIRL-SCOUT-IRON-ON-TROOP-NUMERAL  (#44401 $8.75)
(Note:  We will be awarding each girl her GS membership pin as part of our opening ceremonies, and will purchase it separately with troop funds.)

Total = $103.75

There may be some additional fees, to cover extra activities.  This depends, somewhat, on how many cookies the girls sell, as we try to cover expenses with these funds instead of asking for additional contributions.

GSUSA provide financial support for girls in need.  Qualified girls are eligible for up to four grants (areas include Troop dues, Supply voucher for uniforms, Events, along with one camp or travel grant per membership year).

The qualification guidelines are the same as the federal school lunch program.  Find out more here:
http://www.girlscoutsww.org/FinancialAssistance

You can find more about our finances here:  http://gs44401.blogspot.com/2016/08/2015-2016-financial-report.html

A Brownie Story

Two years of Brownies represented via sash.  14 badges, one journey, a bunch of fun patches...  

This might be a great combination for our girls this year.

https://www.nps.gov/kids/index.cfm
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/youthprograms/girlscoutranger.htm

End-of-year party.

At the end of the year the girls chose to have a rock climbing party (paid for with Cookie Proceeds).

First, we took the bus over to the Mountaineers location.  Taking the bus was a great activity in itself, and knowing we can navigate the city opens up opportunities for the coming years.  It went really smoothly, and the girls were responsible and polite.  (Shown here with last-day-of-school candy, of course.)

The pros at the Mountaineers gave the girls basic instruction on rock climbing and belay techniques.  Every girl got to try a number of routes on the outside climbing wall.  (And that's fearless leader Martha at the top on the right!)

The girls also enjoyed bouldering on the site.  For some of these girls the climbs were a little intimidating at first, while other girls scampered up quickly, but I think every girl had a good time.

 

Blanket Making

In May our troop participated in a Service Unit wide event.  During this event our girls helped make a number of fleece blankets, which were then donated to Children's Hospital.  Children's gives these blankets to kids who are hospitalized as a comforting gift.

This was a great event.  Our girls were wonderful, and our troop donated fabric and time for a number of blankets.  (Our materials were paid for using cookie sale proceeds.)  Another fun thing about this event is that the girls got to spend time with and work with other local troops.  

2015-2016 Financial report

2015-2016 Financials

Quick summary: as mentioned above, we made $2032 on cookie sales (selling 2902 boxes, an average of 170 boxes per scout). We spent $2547 (including the renewal for all scouts for next fall), the difference being covered by parent dues. To maintain our activity level, we need to keep dues at $40. To do more events (especially fall camping), we either need to increase parent support or encourage higher cookie sales. The troop will begin Fall 2016 with a balance of $763.83.

November 1, 2015 - June 30, 2016 

Income: $2,700.34

   - Dues: $640 ($40 per scout)
   - Cookie proceeds: $2,032.80
   - Other: $27.54 ($23.54 parent donation; $4 refund from Girl Scout event)

Expenditures: $2,547.52   - December pottery event: $300
   - April Encamporee: $678.85 ($423.00 registration; $255.85 food)
   - May blanket making service activity: $204.81 (fabric)
   - June Mountaineers party: $435 ($415 party, $20 bus)
   - Church donation, in lieu of rent: $500 (see note below)

   - Badges and supplies: $123.86
   - 2016 Renewals: $300
   - Bank fees: $5 (for checks)

2016 net increase: $152.82 

Balance, Fall 2015: $611.01

Balance to begin Fall 2016: $763.83

Note: Each year, we gave a donation to the church in exchange for using the children's play room as a meeting space. We are thrilled to be able to meet at a place near school for that donation level. Many options we considered, like the school or a public library, are either not as affordable or are not available on a weekly schedule. 

Bronze Awards

I hope our girls will work for their Bronze award as Juniors.  Putting this here for now:

http://www.girlscouts.org/en/about-girl-scouts/our-stories/girl-scouts/take-action/juniors-go-for-bronze-in-big-ways.html#girls$$$/content/gsusa/en/our-stories/girl-scouts.html

What does it take to lead?

Some thoughts on what it takes to lead a Girl Scout troop, from one rather new leader....

I have been a co-leader for three years, for my daughter's troop.  Prior to that, I had been a Girl Scout as a kid, but not recently.  I hadn't been a CIT, nor do I have a background in early-elementary education.  (My current co-leader has much deeper experience with scouting, leading at camps, and education.  That's useful.)  With that background, here are some thoughts about what it would take to start your own troop.

1.  First things first - register yourself and your girl for Girl Scouts.  Its not too expensive, and you can express interest in a troop and potentially find other girls and leaders that way.  Sign up to volunteer, get your background check, and start watching the training videos.  You can do all this without committing to leading a troop, and it gets it out of the way.  The training videos are also a bit of an insight into what the GSUSA organization believes and promotes.

2.  Leading a scout troop requires two co-leaders.  In fact, all scout activities require two un-related adults.  This means you need to find another co-leader you can work with.  It also means you won't be alone.  That's good.

I can imagine other ways to implement this in practise - you need to register two primary leaders, but if you had a bunch of parents willing to contribute you could each take responsibility for some subset of the meetings.  (You could have one primary leader with a rotating second leader, or three people each taking 2/3 of the meetings, or....  )  Possibly the logistics make this harder than it is worth, but, GS is endlessly flexible, and what is really important is that the girls are supported.

I strongly recommend having additional adult help.  Even if you have two leaders doing most of the work, having an additional adult doing treasury, or cookie sales, or day-trip / outdoor specialist work can help distribute the work among all the parents in the troop.   Having an additional adult who can fill in for sickness or last minute trips is also nice.  I am fond of having a leadership team.

3.  A troop requires a place to meet.  That can mean your living room.  But it can also mean using a room in a church or community space.  Or, it can mean rotating around the houses of the other troop parents.  Or, a third parent could provide the space for the two leading parents to hold the meetings.... You get the idea - again, it is endlessly flexible.

4.  (Here you get more of my personal interjecting about how scouting should work, sorry.)  Girl Scouts is girl led.  This means you basically do what the girls want - they want to earn badges, you work on badges, or they want to sell cookies, they sell cookies, etc.  The way this makes sense to me is that you start simple, with simple goals, and build to more complicated things as the girls get more experienced and capable.

The premise works the best if you are lucky enough to start with Daisy's - start with just planning to earn your petals, and do the bare minimum on cookies.  Once you get a year under your belt, decide what you'd like to add to the agenda for the following year.  Decide whether you need more help, or can handle it.  Decide what was really hard, and look for assistance with that.  (What, you hate buying supplies?  Ask a parent who doesn't mind to be in charge of that - it can be done after hours.  etc.)

But it also works if you have older girls.  Arguably, its better for a girl to have a troop that doesn't do too much than no troop at all.

5.  One of the side effects of idea 4 is that you don't need to commit tons and tons of hours.  Many troops meet weekly (like ours), but many others meet bi-weekly or monthly.  Many troops do additional activities, many don't.  Some troops meet very infrequently, and leave a lot of the work up to the individual girls.

There are eleven badges to be earned for the Daisy petal set - plan eleven meetings and do one petal per meeting.  OR, something along those lines.  Or, you know, jump in with both feet and go big, if that's how you roll.

6.  You will want more time than just your meetings, though - there is a little paperwork, planning time for each meeting (sometimes very little, sometimes more), supply-buying, potentially more training for you, and potentially bigger activities with more time still.  You will also probably want to set aside time to see other leaders, get an idea of what is going on in Girl Scouts, and be involved.  In Seattle, we have once monthly service unit meetings for leaders that area really useful to attend - it turns out to be one Monday evening a month for a couple of hours, and can be shared between your leadership team.

I would say that, during the year, I put in an average of 8 hours per week, although it isn't distributed evenly.  This is a pure estimate, I don't have records.  On a normal week we have a couple hours for a meeting, plus an additional for planning or prep, so 3-4 hours (I have a good co-leader who really does a lot of the work).  Once a month add 2 hours for the SU meeting.  We don't expect our cookie parent to do 100% of the work, so February and March add a few hours a week to help with cookies.   Plus, we did a few extra events that required ~5 hours additional each, and camping which required a weekend and another ~5-10 hours.  I like advancing my leadership skills and donating additional effort to the council, so add another 5-10 hours per year for training and volunteer work.

7.  You do need to know some stuff - Girl Scouts has some internal goals and structures that are designed to make it reliably a good program for girls.  This means you need to do a little bit of training.  You also want to spend some time familiarizing yourself with the materials.  Since you're working with kids, having some experience leading a group of kids is beneficial.  Agreeing with parents on leadership techniques (discipline if necessary) is also beneficial.  If you do cookies, there is a lot (and training available).

8.  Where to you find help?  Well, there is training available through GSWW.  The service unit meetings are a good place to find things out.  There is a Facebook page for leaders that can be a great resource.  Searching on-line can give lots of lesson plans and project directions.  You can look for programs offered by other troops, or call in experts to lead sessions.

I hope that is helpful.  I'd love for people to add comments and criticism, and to ask questions and to flesh this out.

Encamporee, more details

1.  About that packing list - we will refine it a bit as we get closer to the day.  Among other things, it will be important to look at the weather forecast and plan accordingly.

I will note that our beds are inside, and so protected from weather.  We also have access to flush toilets.  Our kitchen is under cover, but outside.

2.  This week we did a little meal planning.  We essentially need to plan for two breakfasts, and two lunch/dinner meals.  (We anticipate that girls will either bring a bag dinner on Friday, or stop for food on the way to camp.  We also anticipate that girls will have one meal in the dining hall, but do not know which one yet.)

Breakfast:  Pancakes & Bacon (veg. substitue), Bagels & Cream cheese, Fruit
Lunch (or dinner):  Sandwich bar, Yogurt Parfaits
Drinks:  Apply & Orange juice, milk, hot cocoa, lemonade
Snack:  Make your own trail mix, Fruit, granola bars, cheese sticks, popcorn.
Extras:  S'Mores,

We have lots of girls who are vegetarians, and all meals are either vegetarian, or have that option.  We do not have notable food allergies to consider, within our troop.

If you have concerns about the food, please let me know.  This is also a great time to let me know if you have an update on your daughter's allergy status.

3.  Volunteers.  We have some room for additional adults in our unit, and would welcome some help.  In order to join us you need to be a) an approved volunteer for GSA (including having a passed background check), and b) willing to work.  We will not need all adults on duty at all times, but, plan to volunteer for extra adult-required capers (jobs to make the camp run).

We can also possibly use an extra volunteer to help with the grocery shopping.  (Troop funds are being used, but, actually getting to the store is hard work!)


4.  Oh yeah, this week, in addition to menu planning, we worked on learning the 10 essentials, and what makes good hiking equipment.  The girls will be teaching this material to other girls at encamporee, and were brainstorming ways to make the activity fun.

If you have a moment, ask your girl how she would choose hiking equipment.

Encamporee, quick facts

A lot of parents have been asking about encamporee.  This is an event that our girls have been working hard to attend, and I know some of them have brought it up to you.

Don't know what encamporee is?  Well, this is when our Service Unit (the sub-grouping of Girl Scouts in North Seattle) rents our Camp River Ranch, and many troops from the service unit do a two night campover at the camp.

What does this mean to you?  Your girls are eager to spend two nights 'camping' at Camp River Ranch, which will include continued work on our Hiking and Outdoor badges, SU run activities, camp food, lots of songs, and good fun.  Our returning girls loved the event last year, and are excited to go again.

So, good news!  We have fully registered for the weekend, and are working on finalizing our activities and meals with the service unit.  The girls sold enough cookies to completely cover the cost of the trip, including foods.  (No, you haven't had to do anything yet, except hold the dates.)

Details:

Friday night - Sunday late morning, April 22-April 24.

We will be in unit Sundance:

An outdoor unit of five cabins, each with six bunks with mattresses. Flush toilet, water, and fire circle. Cook shelter features a fire place, two burner propane stove and unit equipment.

Estimated packing list:

1.  Boots
 2.  Raincoat and hat, or extra plastic garbage bag to serve as a poncho
 3.  Toilet articles (brush, washcloth, towel, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, medications)
 4.  Flashlight
 5.  Sleeping bag, pillow
 6.  Two extra blankets (not necessary in winterized units)
 7.  2 or 3 pair of underwear
 8.  4 pair of socks (in case of heavy rain and wet feet)
 9.  2 to 3 pair of pants
10.  Warm shirts and a sweater
11.  Warm pajamas
12.  Hat or sun visor
13.  Sunscreen
14.  1 extra pair of shoes
15.  Dunk bag with plastic bowl, plate, cup, spoon, knife & fork (outdoor units only)


If you have questions, don't worry - more information will be forthcoming.  We can also work with you if your girl can't attend both nights of the event, or if she needs to borrow equipment.

Cookie Sale Final Numbers

Girls Selling:  17
Total Sales:  2904
Average boxes per girl:  ~170

Troop proceeds:  $2032.80

By type:

OCD:  323
Savannah Smiles:  118
Trefoils:  214
Do-si-dos:  166
Samoas:  680
Tagalongs:  401
Thin Mints:  949
Toffetastics: 53

Why we sell

Around this time of year we hear things questioning why the scouts do the cookie sales.  Why don't we just ask for direct donations, or something like that?

I thought I'd give a run down of what we're doing, in our troop, this year, that is facilitated by the cookie sale.

1.  We are earning money.  Our girls get $0.70 on the box.  This is money that enables are girls to pursue activities and community service.  Additionally, the council gets around $2.50 per box, which is money that pays for volunteer training and management, girl programming, and camp/facility management.

2.  We engaged the girls in financial planning.  Our girls have goals, and in one exercise we had them calculate how many boxes they'd need to sell to achieve different goals.  All of our girls could estimate the cost of an activity for the troop, and then calculate how many boxes each girl would need to sell to raise that much money.

Actually, we did this work around the time the girls were doing long-division in school, which means we additionally got them a real world application for their math study.

3.  We worked on goal setting.  We presented the idea of setting SMART goals, and helped the girls choose goals based on what sorts of things they wanted to accomplish, and what last year's sales numbers told us about realistic expectations.  We will evaluate their success in achieving these goals at the end of the sales seasons.

4.  We talk about personal safety, especially when out dealing with the public.  Girls who use digital cookie learn a little about digital safety.

5.  We work on skills like eye-contact, politeness, and speaking voice.  We work on developing a sales approach.  Girls get experience public speaking.

6.  This year we have tied in the financial badges, so our girls have learned a lot about wants, and needs.  The girls looked at how, in some cases, wants aren't possible because available funds only will provide the needs.  We have calculated real-world numbers for costs of things, and eyed places in the community where they could make a difference.

7.  We have done an art project to sell cookies (painting signs), and an art project to thank our customers (making thank-you card templates).

8.  For the cookie badge we are doing we will be looking at how some business give back to the community, as well as talking to our customers about where they think Scouts efforts should be directed for community service.

9.  Girls get practice taking responsibility for cookie product, collected money, and math to tally and match results.  Girls get practice in math calculating total costs and change due.

10.  Our girls take ownership of their actions, and responsibility for making them happen, because they participate in cookie sales.  Requesting parental funds for each activity, or donor support in seaprate fund drivers would not give the girls this opportunity.  GSA is very serious about teaching girls how to manage their own finances, and be successful in the business world.  The cookie program, and accompanying badges, is designed to give them this opportunity.

Cookie Booths

As our pre-sale period of cookie selling comes to an end, we are starting to plan for cookie booths.  What is a booth you ask?  Well, this is when girls gather in a public place, and sell cookies directly to customers.  You can see some more details about booths here:

http://gs44401.blogspot.com/2015/02/booth-information.html

This year we have enough booths planned for each girl to do 2, and some girls to do 3, if they so desire.   I hope it is a fun time for every one.  There is a sign-up-genius for choosing your booths, sent via email.

Cookie commitments

Cookie sales officially start Friday, January 22.  The first two weeks are dedicated to cookie commitments, or pre-sales.  During this period the girls can take orders for cookies, which are delivered later.

Here are some reminders about this portion of the cookie sales:

• If you were unable to sign the parent financial agreement and scout selling agreement at our last meeting, please sign those and return them to use before your girl sells cookies.  You can get the forms to us at drop-off/pick-up on Thursday or Friday, or drop them by one of our houses whenever you like.
• Right now girls take order or buying commitments.  They do not collect money until the cookies are delivered, which should happen during the first week of March.  (We expect to get the cookies on February 27th.  Your girl will be able to deliver them after that.)
• We are selling six kinds of cookies:  Thin Mints, Tagalongs, Do-si-dos, Samoas, Savannah Smiles, and Trefoils.  You can find out more about these cookies (such as complete allergy information), here:  http://www.littlebrowniebakers.com/cookies/ .  You may get questions about Rah-rah-raisins (our council decided not to sell that flavor this year), or the gluten-free Toffee-tastic (which we will sell, during the direct sales period, but not as pre-orders.  Customers can order toffee-tastic through digital cookie at any time).  You may also wish to know that Thin Mints are vegan, Thin Mints and Trefoils are nut free, no cookies contain high-fructose corn syrup, and that Little Brownie uses a mass-balance plan to responsibly source palm oil.
• If a customer places an order FOR OPERATION COOKIE DROP ONLY, your girl may collect the money at this time.
• All orders should be recorded on the cookie order form.
• Your girl may sell cookies starting January 22.  We need to place our orders on February 8th.  We would like you to email your girls totals to Megan <meganursula@gmail.com> on Sunday February 7th.  
• The girls agreed, as a troop, that there will be NO SELLING AT SCHOOL during pre-orders.  We will arrange a time for girls to sell later in the season, and any sales from the school will be divided evenly among all the girls in the troop.
• Please follow safety precautions - girls should sell during daylight, girls should have an adult with them, girls shouldn't enter a customer's house or car.   

Here are some tips for happy selling:

• This is a great time for your girl to accompany a parent to work, and pick up orders from your colleagues.   If your girl can't come into the office, consider having her write a note to put out with the order form.
• Similarly, its a good time to call family members or family friends.
• Girls may enjoy selling with a friend - consider allowing your girl to team up with a troop-mate.   They can take turns house by house, or alternate neighborhoods.
• Remind your girl that she can take orders for cookies, or for Operation Cookie Drop (donations for the troops).  
• Customers tend to be repeat customers - a good starting list for neighbors to visit is on last year's order form.
• On Friday the digital cookie sites are active, so your girl may also begin to use her digital cookie web site to sell cookies.  (You should have received email with instructions for setting it up if you would like to use it.)

As always all questions welcome,

Good luck,

and Happy selling!

Save the Date: Encamporee

We've got the dates and a confirmation that we have spaced reserved for this year's encamporee, at River Ranch.  (Encamporee is a weekend that the service unit - a.k.a. all the troops in North Seattle - reserves the girl scout camp.  Our girls will stay in one of the units, there are some activities during the days, and my hope is to work on getting the outdoors badge this year.  It is one of the big things we're saving for with cookie money.)

Dates are:

April 22 - 24.

More info later, but I figured you'd want it on your calendars.

Girl Scout Camp

Beyond cookies, another great Girl Scout experience is CAMP.  This one was awesome last year, and  I know at least my girl wants to go back:

Cookie, Cookie, COOKIE!

Ask any Girl Scout what they remember about scouting, and they'll come around to cookies.  (Songs, sure, camp, hopefully, cookies, definitely!)  For that matter, ask any non-Girl Scout what they know about Girl Scouts, and they'll come around to cookies.  So, guess what time it is?  That's right, 

COOKIE TIME!

This year's cookie sale begins on January 22.  Actually, many folks have already been working behind to the scenes to get things rolling (Sue, Martha, and Lynne all attended training in December), but, for your girl's purposes, the day is January 22nd.

We will be 'training' the girls for this year's cookie sales in the meeting Monday (January 11).  We will talk to them about their responsibilities, as well as discuss reasonable goals for participation.  While we do not require girls to sell cookies, we do use the proceeds for troop activities, so we encourage the girls to participate at their comfort level.

We are hoping to avoid a parent meeting because we are sensitive to everyone's tight time.  In lieu, we are asking all parents to pick up their girl's packet, including the order form, reference booklet, and some paper work we need signed. Paper work must be signed before your girl can sell cookies.  We will be providing information in the form of email, and with some of the materials provided in the packet.  Please do take some time to read the materials in the next week or so.  And please do ask any questions you may have! 

1.  We do not require participation, although we do encourage it.  Girl Scouts USA has a thoughtful program where girls learn about finances, public interaction, philanthropy through cookie sales.  We also use the proceeds to fund our activities.  Finally, and no less important to the girls, they earn prizes for meeting different sales goals.  (Prizes pictured on the back of the sales order form.)

2.  We are selling, for $4 per box, through out the cookie sale:

• Thin Mints
• Samoas
• Tagalongs
• Trefoils
• Do-si-dos
• Savanna Smiles lemon cookies

We will also have Toffe Tastic gluten free cookies available through Digital Cookie and during booth sales, for $5.50 per box.

Finally, patrons can buy boxes for 'Operation Cooke Drop'.  The way this works, someone buys a number of boxes, but instead of specifying a type and taking delivery, all the OCD cookes are shipped to active military recipients at the end of the sales period.  (This is a way for someone to 'make a donation' without buying boxes.)

3.  We do both pre-sales (girls go door-to-door with order forms and take commitments.  They do not collect money at this time), direct sales (girls can carry boxes around and sell them directly, they collect money as they sell), and booth sales (girls work in a team to sell cookies directly at a booth).

The girls have decided that there will BE NO SELLING AT SCHOOL during the pre-sale period.  We will organize a 'booth' day for girls to sell at school together, and all schools based sales will be divided evenly between the girls.  This is to prevent pressure on teachers or staff who may have relationships with many of our girls.

4.  Once your girl has taken possession of cookies she (you) are financially liable for them.  They can not be returned to the council.  If you think your girls can't sell all the cookies she has taken into her possession, please let us know - we can probably place them with someone who needs extra boxes.

You will be liable for the cost of the cookies.  Initial money is due on 3/7, and all the funds are due to the troop by 3/22.

5.  Important dates summarized:

1/11 - Packet pick up date

1/18 - No meeting (MLK day)

1/22 - Cookie sales start

2/7 - Pre-order sales due

2/28 - initial cookie shipment recieved

3/4 - 3/20 - booth sales

3/7 - initial money return due

3/22 - all money due

6.  Etiquette and safety - We will be discussing these issues on an on-going basis with the girls.  It is important for them to follow the safety rules laid out in the cookie booklet, and to observe Girl Scout etiquette guidelines.

7.  Girls should wear some part of their uniform during cookies sales.  The bare minimum is their brownie pin, but sashes, beanies, etc. are encouraged.  

Getting ready to represent

Cookie sales are coming up, so I figured it was about time to update M's sash.  Official troop designation, membership stars, and badges earned for projects go on the front.  The top set of badges is the World of Water journey set, and the bottom ones are stand-alone badges.

Patches from fun activities, or other small rewards go on the back.  Most of these are from cookie sales or summer camp.

Things I have learned:

1.  We're a little conservative in what we ask the girls to put on their uniforms.  This sash, for example, doesn't have a flag.  Madeleine doesn't have extra reward pins.  (She should have one more membership star, though.)  We don't have a troop crest.  She is still running out of room.  I mean, that's cool - that a bunch of badges for a year and a half in Brownies.

1b.  But sashes - they kind suck.  Maybe back int eh day when the badges were smaller and circular, but these triangular things are hard to get on there looking organized and neat.  If the troop earns all the badges I think they should earn by the end of the year, I'm not sure they will all fit.
I think the vests also just stay on the girls better - they are much easier to wear.
From here on out, it is vests!

2.  Badge magic seems to work.  (Badge magic is like double-sided sticky tape for badges.)  The badges seem secure, although we'll have to see how they wear.  A down side is, you can't combine ironing and badge-magic, because you aren't supposed to iron badge-magic, so now that I've started down this path I'm sort of stuck.
I think sewing is probably the best way, but I don't like sewing through the iron-on adhesive that comes on the badges.

I'm sort of proud of our girls, though - look at all that stuff they've done!