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.