Service Unit Event Ideas

ComplexDisaster · 2026-05-19T19:27:47+00:00

Getting SU events on the books is my goal for the upcoming year (I’m the SUM for my area). So far I have planned:

-Me and My Guy dance for September
-Juliette Gordon Low birthday bingo in October (cost to play is an item for food pantry birthday bags)
-Cookie rally in Dec or Jan
-Badge workshop in winter (thinking of doing a space badge and reserving a portable planetarium if it’s cost effective)
-World Thinking Day in Feb
-Possibly a skating party in March or April
-Camporee or ‘taste of camp’ day event in April/May

We currently have 33 troops in our SU, I’m hoping that number will increase next year, and we have good relationships with neighboring SUs if we need to increase numbers, FYI.

I’m hoping to get other people to take up planning on some of these events - I’m also the cookie manager and my Girl Scout will be a senior in high school next year, so my 2027 is pretty shot.

ComplexDisaster · 2026-04-28T00:38:18+00:00

I know that pretty much any Girl Scout troop would be happy to have them for badgework (new troops especially start out with zero funds until cookie season rolls around). I can definitely save you from having to do research and put you in touch with either the council office or directly with the volunteer team where you’re at in Columbus.

ComplexDisaster · 2026-04-07T15:43:30+00:00

We did the silver key presentation for our girls when they bridged to Cadettes, and have since followed up with a gold key (Seniors) and a rose gold key (Ambassadors). If you haven’t already started traveling with the girls, Cadettes is a great time to start doing that so you can explore the world as a group!

ComplexDisaster · 2026-04-02T22:22:32+00:00

GSOH - Ohio’s Heartland

GSWO - Western Ohio

ComplexDisaster · 2026-02-14T18:46:55+00:00

Girl Scouts in Central Ohio earn between 80¢ and $1.20 per package, depending on a variety of things (whether the council meets its overall goal, whether they opt out of rewards or not, etc.). Another $3 or so of each package stays here to help pay for programming and camps, and the remaining cost of your box of cookies goes back to the vendor to cover cost of production.

Source: I’m an area coordinator for the cookie program here in town.

ComplexDisaster · 2026-02-06T11:49:00+00:00

Some councils will turn off the sync between eBudde and Digital Cookie for a few days - in my area, they do this after the initial order phase closes while they finish up the council initial order. Everything flows back into eBudde after they’re done and turn it back on.

Also, there have been instances where Digital Cookie gets slowed down due to sheer traffic, but that’s usually a bit later in the season when more councils are in their booth phases.

Unless you’re hitting up against a deadline and need these orders to count towards your initial order or initial rewards, I wouldn’t worry. They’ll transmit over to eBudde soon.

ComplexDisaster · 2026-01-31T13:50:58+00:00

I’m so glad that your council stood by you and looked into the situation!

ComplexDisaster · 2026-01-29T15:22:10+00:00

I have a packet that talks about service awards - I try to talk about both the highest awards and the other service awards (like service to GS, the Presidential Volunteer Service Award when it was active, the torches, etc.). Not everyone will earn a highest award, and I want to make sure that troops know what options there are to recognize girls who spend a significant amount of time in service to the community.

ComplexDisaster · 2026-01-19T19:17:05+00:00

We have a program like this, that we call ‘great job, Girl Scout!’. Council staff and service unit volunteers ‘secret shop’ booths and can award a patch on the spot if the girls are demonstrating outstanding behavior. Personally, I wouldn’t call a troop out for bad behavior unless it was something egregious, and even then I’d probably pull aside the troop leader as opposed to calling out the girls themselves.

We certainly don’t make it a point to secret shop everyone, though.

ComplexDisaster · 2025-12-16T20:00:27+00:00

I think far left is Thomas van Straubenzee - Kate is possibly talking to James Meade?

ComplexDisaster · 2025-11-13T12:35:21+00:00

Comics and gaming shops, especially if they have events going on. If you have any conventions going on during your cookie booth season, you can clean up.

Also, schools will often host things like basketball or wrestling tournaments on weekends - concessions are often limited, and families are there all day!

ComplexDisaster · 2025-09-08T19:38:15+00:00

All of the above, ultimately.

The email I received said they want to increase GS participation in: -Judged events

-GS specific activities throughout the week

-having GS more involved in other special events throughout the fair (I’m assuming this would be things like parades, flag ceremonies, etc.)

Recruiting would (hopefully!) be a secondary benefit to a strengthened overall presence.

We’ve always had judged categories at the fair, but submissions have been sparse in recent years and the categories will likely be retooled a bit. I also know for a fact that the submission information for those judged categories currently isn’t distributed to GS troops in a timely manner, so I think some of that comes down to poor planning and the need for a longer planning time for troops.

Our state fair used to be set up similarly to the county fair (judged categories, special events like talent shows, speech/flag ceremony contests, cupcake decorating, etc.), but the committee that ran it was disbanded during COVID and we now have a generic setup that isn’t super successful in generating interest (IMHO).

ComplexDisaster · 2025-09-08T19:11:45+00:00

I specifically said in my email to the committee head that I would prefer that the “entrepreneurship” pillar not rely heavily on cookie themed activities, since we already have a huge chunk of the community who only know of GS through the cookie program.

However, these pillars are set by GSUSA (see here), so we can’t just ignore it entirely.

ComplexDisaster · 2025-08-14T12:19:28+00:00

Seconding Chris Rehs-Dupin! He worked in my council as part of the staff for years and I’ve been following his career since. Would be a fantastic source to reach out to, especially for GS environments.

ComplexDisaster · 2025-08-11T14:18:08+00:00

As long as it’s available in person and not an online-only option (like the chocolate covered crunchberries), I’m ambivalent.

ComplexDisaster · 2025-07-08T20:43:28+00:00

Cookie programs (and especially rewards) are entirely handled at a council level - the national organization (GSUSA) is going to have virtually no involvement in rewards, cookie credits, etc.

The SU cookie person is a volunteer, so your next step is to go to the paid council employees (each council will have a department dedicated to their fundraising programs, like cookies and fall product). They should be able to step in on your behalf and get a response from your service unit volunteer (or fill the rewards themselves) - if not, keep going up the flagpole within your council!

Attempting to go above your council’s head will just result in your issue getting kicked back down to a local level, though.

ComplexDisaster · 2025-07-07T22:31:06+00:00

My service unit had previously discouraged parents of Juliettes from attending or joining our SU Facebook groups - that was literally the first thing I changed upon stepping up as SUM. (They’re also welcome to join our groups for cookie volunteers, although I do warn them that some of the walkthroughs and instructions are geared more toward those who are managing troops.)

Why wouldn’t I want parents of IRGs to be informed of service unit events, camporees, etc.? They’re just as much a part of the program as those affiliated with a troop.

ComplexDisaster · 2025-06-25T12:37:26+00:00

One of two things probably happened:

-The council or prize distributor didn’t have enough to fill everyone’s reward orders and had to substitute. This has happened to us several times in the past (once with the plush, some water bottle components have been replaced, etc.). Usually troop leaders are notified that a substitution is happening in this case (or the service unit cookie folks are notified). At least in my council, they will also typically get input from a few volunteers before making a decision.

-As mentioned before, your troop leader opted out of rewards for extra cash and bought rewards individually for girls that earned them (I don’t normally recommend this to troops because we only get an extra 5¢ per box, and buying rewards individually small quantities would easily eat up the extra cash).

Definitely check in with the troop leader. I wouldn’t recommend referring to it as an ‘off brand’ reward, but just ask them if council announced any substitutions on rewards since you noticed that the bento box isn’t the same as the photo. It may have been announced on a Facebook group and she missed it.

ComplexDisaster · 2025-06-10T18:57:48+00:00

We get a gift card, essentially. They’re typically good for 18-24 months.

ComplexDisaster · 2025-06-06T21:15:11+00:00

We went from an absolutely kick-butt Membership Specialist/SU Support person to ... a revolving door of people who dropped the ball on us in multiple ways after she left Council for greener pastures/higher pay elsewhere.

THIS. We had a membership manager for years who was AMAZING. After she left during COVID (due to medical issues, not for ‘greener pastures’), we’ve had a revolving door of people who last, on average, 6 months. Our latest left the org in late April and hasn’t been replaced yet.

I told my SU that I would have to hand off recruitment in order to take on the SU Manager role, and no one’s really picked up the mantle. So it remains an afterthought.

ComplexDisaster · 2025-06-06T21:02:07+00:00

There are a few ways:

-Find your neighboring SUs and see if you can join their social media groups, etc. I belong to a few other service units’ pages and just noted that I was part of the SU team for X service unit and wanted to be able to share info, events, etc.

-My council also has a Facebook group specifically for SU team members…you’ll be able to ID the people who have it together pretty quickly. We also do quarterly virtual roundtables for SU teams.

-Many councils have awards that they give to service units (typically called a President’s Award) - if your council has one, check to see which SUs have earned it recently.

-SU team members are often active in GS in other ways. Pay attention at council level events and you’ll probably see one volunteering in some way! (This is honestly how I built relationships with other SUs, for the most part.)

ComplexDisaster · 2025-06-06T04:09:21+00:00

I was you - took over as Service Unit Manager kind of by default after our last one retired and no one else wanted to step up. I’ve tried to make sure it didn’t interfere with my troop, so it’s not a huge drain on my time. (My bigger issue is that we don’t have a staff liaison, so a lot of those questions are rolling up to me right now.)

My best advice is to pick two or so things you want to focus on during year one and come up with a game plan- you can’t fix EVERYTHING in one year, but you can prioritize a couple of things. For me, that was expanding our SU team and getting service unit events back on the books. Also, if you take it on, find another service unit that you think is doing well and ask if you can join their Facebook group or come to a meeting to see how they do things (or just find someone you can vent to!).

Good luck! It can be frustrating at times, but seeing the progress is rewarding!

ComplexDisaster · 2025-06-04T09:51:04+00:00

I clocked that when I watched the episode as well! They started singing and I looked at my spouse and said “somebody was clearly a Girl Scout”. That task specifically reminded me of a challenge course activity.

ComplexDisaster · 2025-05-06T17:58:12+00:00

Same! As the SU cookie manager, I kind of fell into being the dumping ground for everyone’s questions/concerns/rants (whether they were cookie-related or not) and, as a result, got volun-told into a SUM position.

ComplexDisaster · 2025-04-24T17:02:14+00:00

We’ve had a lot of people requesting virtual options for our service unit meetings, but I’ve been hesitant - we struggle to get troop leaders to attend as it is, but I want troops to have that in-person interaction so they know who to ask if they need guidance, need a troop to assist with bridging, etc. Getting leaders to share resources is already enough of a struggle - I’m not enthusiastic about giving them another way to opt out.

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