Which is stupid, because with everyone selling at once, the market becomes oversaturated.
I give Dominic a $10-15 budget for each time the Scholastic book thing comes home. I remember how exciting it was when the books got delivered to the school back when I was a kid… it was like Christmas!
School District Systems Administrator here … the money for those laptops could well have come from directed spending at a district level or money coming from on high (state/provincial) that targets technology acquisition and replacement.
Not that it affects your earlier statement. Just a minor highjacking. Please continue your thread unharrassed by my terrorist commentary.
I’m surprised there’s so much variance between this and the post that said the troops earn .32. The literature for leaders that I have gotten in the past (and I haven’t been a leader for 3 years now, so things may have changed) stated that, from the $3 price of a box of cookies, the baking company got .32, and the individual girl got .78 to go into her own “account” in the troop. The remaining $2 per box went to the Council office, most of which (I think in my council it was 1.25/box) is put into a fund to subsidize financial assistance for girls who cannot afford the registration fees, vests/sashes, etc. NONE of the money is spent on administrative salaries. What makes the cookies a valuable fundraiser is that all BUT .32 goes back to the Girl Scouts.
On school fundraisers - our schools do a magazine drive and that one’s easy because enough members of our own family already subscribe to various magazines. You can buy a new subscription or renew one, and the cost to the subscriber is no more than the regular subscription price (sometimes less.) Plus the “prizes” aren’t too bad - no .20 frisbees and kazoos, instead the kids can get cameras and tote bags and other relatively useful stuff. I honestly have no idea what percentage of the subscription price goes back to the schools, but I do know that the money goes to fund educational materials, and not dances or playground equipment. (Our PTO also does a book fair, and that one routinely raises $6000-$7000, with the money going to fund stuff like field trips and dances. )
But the candy/wrapping paper/scented candle crap? I’m with y’all there! We just refuse to play, and thus far there have been no alarming consequences.
I had to throw in my own “huh???” regarding that laptop thing. I’d be pissed if money that could have gone to by laptops had gone to something like prom.
Like I said, at my school we just had to buy tickets to prom… just like you had to buy tickets to any other dance, or to a football game, or to a play…
I would like to expand this beyond just the schools. Several years ago I was driving on a weekend through McLean VA, near Langley High School. At a stop light I was accosted by a pack of tow-headed youngsters with their parents at a stop light.
They were trying to collect change and dollar bills to help them with the expense of playing Pop Warner football. For those who don’t know the NoVa area, this is one of the richest zipcodes on earth. The side of the road was littered with the parent’s parked luxury vehicles. The average household income in this areas hovers around 200k.
Just what would possess someone to think I might be interested in helping rich kids play sports their parents can well afford? I would sooner slip a crack vial to a homeless addict than I would offer a dime to these morons. I gave them the old roll up the windows and stare straight ahead treatment I usually reserve for the sketchier areas on the District.
Re: GS cookies. I’m the cookie manager for my daughters’ troop. Of the 2.50 we sell them for here in Ohio, the baker makes a buck, the Council makes a buck (which goes for GS camps, training, insurance, etc.), .12 goes to recoup the cost of the sale (storage, training, materials) and an average of .38 goes to the troop. (The troops earn .32-$.42/box depending on average # boxes sold per girl.) If you live in areas where they sell for 3.00/box, the troop presumably makes .88/box.