[QUOTE=Rand Rover]
Nope. I’m probably the smartest poster here. So you’re wrong.
[/QUOTE]
Plus, Mr. Rover spends more on golf club polish than you earn in a year, and he has cigars that cost more than your car. So that makes him a better person.
I think the Girls Scouts might be a non-profit organization not a charity. You can give your money to them and that is your charitable gift. But as a nonprofit they don’t have to use their money in charitable ways.
Randy, would you let your little girl go begging for money from strangers?
WTF is with you tards who break up responses into three, four or five posts in a row? You do know there’s a multiquote button, right? As you’re reading the thread you can go through clicking multiquote, then at the end address all the points you want to make all in one post!
It is a charity. The various Girl Scouts organizations in the USA are listed on the IRS charity website. Search for Girl Scouts and select “all of the words” at Tax Exempt Organization Search | Internal Revenue Service
First off, I feel like it’s not that big a deal anymore. Second, the other mothers lost their right to complain when they didn’t bother reading the note, and then did the underhanded email thing.
But in general, it’s not a good message to be sending the girls. Doing good deeds should be its own reward, not to generate a Princess Party or shopping spree at Toys R Us for the troop. The Girl Scouts website is clear on what types of activities the funds collected are supposed to be used for, and no matter how much we try to twist around that the girls are learning valuable lessons in skin exfoliation, a Princess Party or a shopping spree at Toys R Us is not a good use of donated money.
Did you really let them vote on a shopping spree to Toys R Us?
From our local council’s website:
But again, not that big a deal. Thanks for taking on the responsibility. Those other mothers should be grateful and be quiet if they can’t take the time to step up when you ask.
Oops, I just realized this is in the Pit. I was about to ponder why people were being so vitriolic.
Actually,
I was not attacking the OP, and I was not equating spa days with stripping. (Hint: you brought the word stripper to the party!). I was just pointing out that saying “they voted on it” is not much justification, to my mind. Not a solid argument for or against anything, that 8 yr old voted on it. Next time read for comprehension, okay?
I said I wouldn’t complain, simply remove my child, from this activity or this troop, (it would depend on future activities). That’s because I wouldn’t want to judge anyone else, or have them feel like I was judging them. It’s just not something my 8 yr old needs in her world, in my opinion.
I’m not offended, nor am I calling anyone names, or being hypocritical, the OP asked for opinions and I offered mine. Other people’s choices are not an indictment of yours, get over it.
It’s a bit of a hijack, and I probably could find out the answer through google, but are there any unisexual scouting groups? Because I could see that being kinda cool. Girls get to learn “boy” things and vice versa. Not sure how a Princess Day would go down with a bunch of boys, but maybe a costume party would be welcomed by all.
When I was a girl scout, I don’t remember doing fun-for-the-sake-of-fun events. Everything we did had to have some lesson or helping-the-community spirit tied to it. So in a way, I’m jealous. But on the other hand, it does seem kind of weird letting the girls pick whatever they want to do with the money, no matter how superficial. I’m actually a person who buys those cookies because I like the idea of helping girls do constructive things they wouldn’t normally do, like camping or planting a rain garden or going to a play. A Princess Party sounds like something any of the girls could have on their birthday or on any rainy Saturday afternoon at grandma’s house.
I’m not a Brownie leader, so maybe it’s inappropriate for me to even offer a suggestion, but I’ll give one anyway. Maybe in the future, the leaders could come up with several ideas, give the list to the parents’ for their approval or input and maybe winnowing, and then have the girls decide amongst that list what they’ll go with. The situation would probably still be wrought with complaining, but I dunno. It just seems like leaving it all up to the girls’ isn’t quite right. (Note: I don’t think the mother in the OP should be all complainy, even if I am sympathetic.)
I also don’t understand why just one activity is being offered up as a reward. With a group so small, ya’ll can’t afford to split the earnings into two events, just so that everyone has something to look forward to? I know I’d be feeling pretty rotten if all I had to look forward to was a Princess Party, being the tomboy that I am. But I could suck it up and deal with it if there was something else scheduled that was up my alley. Just an idea.
waxing just takes advil and tequila. But that isn’t appropriate for girl scouts.
Children’s Advil, then.
They are: if I am reading correctly, a larger portion of the money was set aside for summer camp. This was the little bit left over after they’d 1) paid their dues to the national organization 2) set aside money for summer camp 3) set aside money for operational expenses. It’s not saying “Here’s the pile, girls, go wild”. It’s saying “Ok, girls, here are all the responsible things we need to do with the money, and here’s the big goal–summer camp–now we are going to let you all decide to do with this little bit left over”.
The point to that little bit is to teach the girls to brainstorm and research and negotiate and, perhaps, end up with a compromise that isn’t everyone’s first choice, but that’s a lesson, too. And you don’t teach that if first the parents do the research and approve the list and let the kids chose from 5 things that they never would have picked to begin with. Letting people make choices means risking them making silly choices.
I bought some stupid toys with my allowance. I spent a lot of money (like $20!) on a knock-off lite-brite I saw advertised on TV. It was a total piece of crap, and my parents had to know that when they helped me order it. They likely could have steered me to a dozen other toys that would have been more useful and that I would have enjoyed more. But sometimes you have to let kids make real choices.
I’m baffled as to what percentage of money went to what.
It sounds like it was everyone’s first choice minus one. So I don’t think there was probably much negotiating involved, though I wasn’t there. And I guess the lesson for the odd-girl-out is that sometimes you have to suck it up and deal. It isn’t fair, but I suppose that’s a lesson too. Life isn’t fair.
Still, it sucks. I probably would beg off from going to the party. So another lesson learned. You don’t always have to do what everyone is doing for the sake of fitting in. Although it might not be as bad as you thought it would be and you might miss out on fun.
All of this reminds of the days back in elementary school. Whenever there was a contest amongst the different classes, the reward was always a popcorn party. I’m sure there were some kids that did not like popcorn, or at least didn’t like it enough to want to make a party out of it, but they still had it foisted on them anyway. So I guess this situation is really no different.
Life’s tough sometimes.
The girls do a lot of activities and field trips over the course of the year. This is unlikely to be their only fun thing. But here is my question as a leader…
Who is going to organize multiple activities? Who is going to drive the girls? Who is going to chaperon the girls? Who is going to make sure that the field trips forms are filled out? Who is going to listen to the other mother’s complain about your choice in activities?
Once again, if a parent doesn’t like the stuff the troop is doing under my leadership - as a volunteer in my own time - step up. Want to coordinate another event for the troop - by ALL MEANS. Here is the volunteer form, you’ll need to have a background check run, make sure you get your CPR and First Aid certifications before you take the girls out. You’ll need to convince at least one other adult to come along. Check the safety guidelines and make sure that you don’t need special training or the activity isn’t forbidden. Try to keep in mind that not all girls are working with large budgets - several come from disadvantaged households, and the money we make from cookies only goes so far. Its perfectly OK to have the girls supplement a little from their parents pockets, but please pick an activity that we’d be comfortable asking ALL the girls parents to supplement. I wouldn’t schedule anything for Wednesday night - that’s church night. And one of the girls has swim lessons at 2pm on Saturdays, you should be done by then…
IMO, GS is only as good as the council. I was my daughter’s Brownie troop leader, having loved Brownies and GS as a girl myself.
All I can say is that GS has changed since the 1960s and 70s and not for the better. We CAMPED–in tents, in the rain and mud. We learned how to build fires and tie knots and identify plants. We learned other things as well: how to make blanket stitches, French knots and other embroidery stitches. We learned how to cook and do dozens of other things that I can’t recall offhand.
“Camping” now consists of the girls going to a “rural” area, sleeping in a bunk house with electricity no less(!), with their hair dryers and cell phones. WTH is that? I have no idea how big city troops ever addressed the camping, but surely suburban kids are not this fragile nowadays? :dubious:
I couldn’t stand our council liaison or whatever she was. She sucked all the fun out of Brownies for me and my co-leader, as did the parents who were never on time to pick up their kids and who created drama at the slightest chance. I had a parent accuse me of deliberately excluding her daughter–I had announced that I was not going to be the GS troop leader next year (since I was 9 months pregnant at that point). She said to me that I was merely saying that, but that I was going to have a troop, but didn’t want her Tina in it. Ok, she was probably batshit insane, but that was the kind of shit these parents pulled. But the worst was the council and her petty-fogging nonsense.
I wish my daughter had had the joy in GS that I had, but that ship has sailed. Even the wonderful GS camp is long gone. Camp Manistee–in gorgeous Manistee Michigan-- was a great camp. 
We’re surfing on PDAs, the multiquote function doesn’t work.
Cracking up. One of my male friends had a terrible experience with wax. Long story short, he…being male…didn’t read the instructions and instead of warming the wax strips in his hands, ran hot water over it. The wax stuck, the plastic strip came off and when he bent over to look, his dangling bits got stuck to his leg.:smack:
I don’t have children, won’t have children, but I let my neices play with my makeup and nail polish. I use my curling iron on their hair. We play around and then go out and get messy again. When I was growing up, my aunts did the same thing for me. I didn’t know that they were teaching me to be a pole dancer. I guess that I need to go to the community college and sign up for classes on Monday.
In our council you can do the rough it camping - but the leaders have to be willing. I have met one leader gung ho on it - her girls CAMP. My co-leader needs a place to plug in her CPAP…we don’t CAMP. We give the girls opportunities to rough it (two of my fifth grade juniors will spend four days tent camping and cooking over fires this summer - but it won’t be “I think a hotel without room service is roughing it” me or my CPAP depended co-leader out there with them).
The program itself is in a huge state of flux at the moment - they are reducing the emphasis on badges and putting the girls through “Journeys.” I think that in the end this will be a better program for today. The biggest problem we are having as a council is getting volunteers - and the time sink on our volunteers - I’ll spend about 400 hours on Girl Scout related activities this year as a leader, service team member, and council delegate. When I was a Girl Scout we had plenty of volunteer moms who stayed home and made volunteering at school and for things like Brownies their careers. In my service unit, all the leaders work full time jobs. The Journeys give the leaders a eleven session lesson plan to work through. The girls still make decisions - each Journey ends with a service project and a celebration of the work done (or at least both are suggested), but the leaders are no longer figuring out how to teach the kids how to embroider when they haven’t sewed a button on themselves since seventh grade home ec.
(Our service team leaders include two project managers, a systems analyst, a criminal forensic pathologist, a corporate tax attorney, an engineer (mechanical, I think) and a statistician. We provide great role models for the girls, but finding time to take them out camping can be a challenge. And I’m not sure how many of us know how to do a French Knot.)
I gotta delurk to comment here. The first paragraph here directly informs the other two. Not to mention that within the council, the service unit administration and the troop leaders have a wide leeway. I was a scout throughout the mid-90s in one of the two merged councils that now make up Dangerosa’s. My troop was made up of misfits like she describes - we took all girls from a whole school district who couldn’t get into their local, school/grade based troop. Mostly they were mid-year transfer students or otherwise rejected by existing troops. We even had girls from a second school district that lived in neighborhoods across the border. At the largest point we had I think 4 grades represented (5-8) and a sister troop of Brownies made up of similar demographics. Our leaders were very committed to the idea that every girl deserved to be a scout and went to great lengths to make that possible.
Our troop was very camping focused, and went on weekend trips, with real tents, in the mud, cooking over a fire, every 4 or 5 weeks throughout the school year, and for a longer trip each summer. Mostly the sites we camped at were around 2 hours from us. We did other activities as well, but most of our fundraising was for camping and there were full subsidies (including sleeping bags and such) for the lower income girls. We decided on these subsidies as a troop, never being told by the leaders which girls were receiving them. It was important to all of us that we all make the trips together and if that meant that the high cookie sellers ‘subsidized’ some lower ones so be it. It was awesome and I am so grateful for those experiences, plus all the awesome camping!!!
That said, that was our troop’s focus. We spent at least a portion of every meeting planning the trips, and through this learned a ton of group decision making skills and other things like healthy meal planning, taking allergies into account and such, plus all the other logistics that go into planning a big group camping trip from drivers to packing lists. By the second or third year, the girls were at least participating in all the logistical steps. The leaders and mom and dad volunteers certainly did a lot, but these 9 or 10 yearly trips weren’t served up to us - we made them happen!
Other troops were more into community service, or horses, or job skills training, or literature, and that’s ok. We all got a taste of the others mixed in, especially by participating in council wide events and such. I wouldn’t have been as happy in a different kind of troop, and in fact dropped GS when I moved out of state in high school. The only troop in my new small town had their whole year planned out by the time I got there, and it included such highlights as “high tea” at a local restaurant and such. No camping trips at all. I bore those girls no ill will but it just wasn’t my bag.
So, I have to ask - was it council rules that kept you from taking your girls on real camping trips? Are there not good state parks or council-owned campsites in your area? We had some of our best trips in the ‘group camp’ area of one of our council’s camps, which we were able to rent for a song during the off season. We even got to camp on a frozen lake in January in Minnesota! That was an amazing learning experience. We had months of winter survival training and slept under the stars in very elaborate sleeping bags. Again, this was maybe 1997 or so, not some mythical past. It was the passion of our leaders (my mom among them) and the interest of the girls that made this possible. And, by the same logic, if the girls and their parents and leaders are just not interested in camping, as many people aren’t, it’s not going to work.
As for the OP, that’s not an activity I would have wanted to do at that age, but I did a lot of things through GS that I might not have chosen for myself and overall it was still a great experience. Heck, there were half a dozen girls who didn’t come on the frozen lake camping trip for various and quite understandable reasons. That was ok and didn’t lead to a troop schism. More power to you and your girls - I think that the decision-making process you describe is an excellent one. Having the girls come up with the options and then hash it out is so much more meaningful than having them vote on a preapproved list. The latter just seems fake to me, if what you’re trying to do is help them learn how to make meaningful decisions as a group. And that’s what’s going to stick with them, not what the activity itself ends up as.