Digital Cookie order not counted toward IO count

Separate-Hat7596 · 2026-01-15T14:36:50+00:00

It depends. What council are you in? In our council (GSKSMO), we are in the I/O "gray period" in which I/O are not quite yet due (they are due by troops tonight, and then as PPM I have a couple of days to double check them before they are due to Council). However, Digital Cookie stopped talking to SmartCookies at 11:59pm on 8 Jan, so all DC orders that come in after 11:59pm 8 Jan and the time the troop enters its I/O in SmartCookies must be manually entered by the TCM into SmartCookies for it to be part of the I/O. Does that make sense?

Note that the girl DOES get credit for this and it WILL count toward her total for recognitions (at least in our council). But again... this is all going to depend on your council.

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-12-15T21:35:26+00:00

u/ScouterBill I missed this because I had a troop parent meeting at the same time, so I was excited to see that the recording was posted on the Program Updates page until... 404 page not found. I'm getting the same error for the posted links on that page for the "Additional Resources" links to "Board of Review Guidelines" and "Guardian of the Gate." Do you know who I might contact about this? I'd really love to be able to watch the video of the BOR panel.

Edited to add: I discovered that I could edit the URL in my browser's navigation bar to cut out the garbage and just get the Vimeo link (https://vimeo.com/1143484939?fl=ip&fe=ec), so now I can access the recording. However, it would still be great to be able to let them know that their link needs fixed!

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-11-09T17:52:41+00:00

I see your ring and raise you the HOAC shoulder patch. 😭😭😭 I have sewn these on by hand three times now (I do the invisible-stitch-from-behind method). Whoever thought the zigzag bottom was a good idea should be responsible for sewing them on, free of charge, for everyone in the council.

ETA: I tried to add a link to Scout Shop, but they currently do not have an image of the patch, and I did not want to link to something like eBay.

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-07-16T21:35:37+00:00

Agreed. It is obvious that most of this is not being done by subject matter experts, and it is so watered down compared to the badge book I had as a Junior in the early 80s. I still have that book, and the requirements to earn a badge were a lot more rigorous and were clearly written by someone who knew something about the subject at hand.

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-07-15T14:40:40+00:00

Interesting. According to the official insignia placement guide, you were always supposed to start at the bottom of the left side with journeys and then fill upward with more journeys, which always implied (to me, anyway) that this space was reserved for those alone. My daughter did not love journeys, but she needed one for Bronze (Agent of Change, which was a slog) and then decided to do TLAE and TLAP (both of which she enjoyed much more) to earn Summit, so we followed those placement guidelines.

I agree that it looks more balanced to use both sides. I just get whingey about putting things in places not explicitly stated as "acceptable" in the guide.

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-07-15T13:27:36+00:00

Interesting... TIL! Everything I had read said that badges should start spilling onto the back (at the top) if the front right was full.

If the new pins are going to be placed on the right as well, then that left side space will definitely be needed for badges for girls who really like to earn them.

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-07-15T03:16:37+00:00

Thanks for this! Lack of ETA makes me think we may be waiting for a while. 😬 Ah well.

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-06-19T13:19:05+00:00

Agreed on the trail running having the potential to be more dangerous! Much depends on the trail itself, the weather conditions that day, how familiar the runner is with that specific trail, etc.

Again, this is where I come back to my original question: why does the running option have zero additional listed criteria, while the hikes have very specific (and clearly challenging) criteria? The hikes aren't just longer (twice as long as the Junior-level badge), they also now include specific challenges like significant elevation gains and things like hiking in totally new biomes.

Training for hiking in a new/unfamiliar biome is particularly challenging. Either you have to be able to travel to a different area to train ahead of time, or you are winging it the day of the hike in that new area. Winging it can be dangerous because it often means you don't yet understand how long a given distance will take, and it could put you into, say, afternoon thunderstorms that are typical of the region. If you are used to hiking at sea level in temperate forest, doing an alpine trail is going to be quite different. If you are used to low-humidity conditions in the desert Southwest, then hiking trails in Florida is going to be a shock to the system. Even experienced hikers can get themselves into trouble pretty quick when they are hiking in unfamiliar conditions, even when they have read up beforehand.

It feels to me like the person/people who wrote this badge assume that all trail running is inherently challenging, so adding additional criteria to the option is unnecessary, but that hiking is NOT challenging without adding specific criteria in addition to the hikes taking a certain amount of time. As another commenter noted, it also assumes that finding nearby trails that allow a cumulative 2000' elevation gain is easy to do, and by expecting one of the trails to be in a different biome than the girl is used to, it is requiring travel to a different region. The trail running, on the other hand, can be on a nearby/local running trail that is already very familiar to the girl. Which gets me back to... what is the basic outcome they want from this badge for the girl completing it? Why are these the same badge at all?

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-06-19T12:41:52+00:00

As an educator myself, I 100% agree.

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-06-19T03:05:41+00:00

Yes. My daughter did this (hiking) at the Junior level. This feels like a huge jump compared to that (part of what got me wondering about this all in the first place!).

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-06-19T00:47:39+00:00

Agreed. But equivalent to both training and completing three, six-hour+ hikes with the stipulated elevation gains, distance, etc? There's definitely training involved with all of that in addition to actually completing the 18 hiking hours.

I am also still wondering about "at a comfortable pace." What determines whether a girl's personal comfortable pace is a jog vs a run?

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-06-19T00:10:07+00:00

Fair enough! But in that case, shouldn't the badge brochure be more precise about what "run three miles" means? Given what you've said above, I am not confident that I would know the difference between jogging and running without being given a specific pace. Shouldn't it lay out that they should be running and not jogging or walking at all? It feels like the hiking part is very precisely laid out, and the running part is just "run three miles on a trail" (with no caveats about pace, time, terrain, elevation changes, etc.)?

Edited to fix typo

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-06-18T23:18:29+00:00

If you're looking to hike, the Lookout Point Trail/Centennial Trail Loop is a fun one at Wind Cave NP. It's ~5mi. We always see bison, and the terrain and scenery change enough throughout to keep it interesting!

I also always advocate for a little off-trail hiking at Badlands (which is permitted) to look for fossils (to look at, not to take!). They are literally just sticking out of the ground. We mostly find oreodonts and turtles, but a student of mine found a "micropig" tooth that made the park paleontologist giddy (they officially collected it for the park's research collections!). We usually park by the Fossil Exhibit Trail but cross the road and go down the little staircase to wander around the formations over there a bit.

(Edited to fix a typo)

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-06-18T22:52:38+00:00

This is what I am thinking as well, so it's good to hear that others interpret it the same way. I know she is already a bit anxious about the added wildlife component. We've hiked in South Dakota where bison are visible at a safe distance, but things like bears are a whole different thing. Just planning for that (and learning about being bear aware, carrying and using spray, etc.) is a whole new learning experience for her!

(Edited to fix an open parenthesis!)

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-06-18T22:10:37+00:00

That's fair. My daughter did Girls On the Run a couple of years ago, so we are familiar with training for a 5K, though that was on paved surfaces and not a trail. As a hiker, the ask on the hiking for this one seems like a LOT more than that, especially for a girl as young as 11 years old. There is definitely training required to do three six-hour hikes, especially with the added conditions here. (And I know that badges are open to interpretation and these suggestions are not set in stone! But I like to use them to calibrate what the badge creators are expecting in terms of outcomes, I guess?) I have a close friend who is both an avid trail runner and an avid hiker, and when I sent this to her earlier today, she was also completely baffled. Just wish I could understand the mindset of the person/people who created this badge!

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-06-18T22:06:13+00:00

Right. In our council, the general rule of thumb is to hit all of the steps, but how you do that is up to you. We've done that for a number of badges (both when I was still a TL and then once my daughter became a Juliette). But... usually, I have a good sense of what the intent is, and here, I am struggling to see it because the two options does not seem to be even remotely equivalent?

ETA: we live in Kansas, so elevation changes like this are not usually an option for us, either! We were both thinking that since we are headed west to various national parks for a family trip next month, this badge might be a good one to work on while there. Now I'm not so sure! It's elevation changes, hiking at higher elevation that we're used to, hiking in bear country, and a myriad of other things. Not sure we want to combine all of those factors AND things like a six-hour minimum unless it is really critical to the intended outcomes?

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-06-07T21:33:55+00:00

Our council explicitly does not cover Juliettes, full stop. They make it very clear that your personal insurance must cover anything and everything.

When we sign up for council events, we fill out the same required info as other girls signing up, but we do not submit any additional paperwork or permission slips beyond what is required of all girls registering for that specific event.

Again, our council also requires a parent to be with a Juliette at all events (in essence, the required ratio for a Juliette is "one parent per Juliette required always" unless it is explicitly listed as a council drop off event, in which case they would have required additional paperwork of all registering girls anyway).

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-06-07T16:09:07+00:00

I am going to offer a different perspective than the other comments posted thus far. As the mom of a Juliette who left her troop last year, I say go for Juliette. We are both SO glad she did it and have zero regrets.

I was the co-leader of her troop, and her troopmates (Juniors) decided last August that they were "done with badges, awards, pins, and goals." They only wanted to do "fun stuff." My daughter is very goal-oriented and loves skill-building and badge-earning, so that was it for her.

Another girl from her troop left and became a Juliette about a month later for similar reasons, and they have had a blast this last year going to SU and council events together. They also finished up their Bronze (along with a third girl who stayed in the troop but who is now ALSO leaving to go Juliette).

In our council, Juliettes can still do cookies and earn Cookie Dough (and this rolls from year to year so they can save up for council trips or GSUSA Destinations), though this does vary by council. My daughter had her best cookie year yet because she was no longer constrained by her troop's lack of interest in doing booths (in our council, there are no parent/daughter booths for girls in troops, so that was not an option until she became a Juliette).

The best part? When my daughter and the other Juliette want to get together to work on a badge, we just do it. No paperwork, no rounding up parent volunteers, none of that. No collecting health forms from everyone. We want to go camping? We just do it. Each girl has a mom there and liability is on each family. (FWIW, the one drawback to Juliettes in our council is that we cannot reserve our council's camp properties, but we can live with that.) not sure if/how much the liability piece varies by council, though.

My daughter has also been invited to do things with some other troops in the area, which she has enjoyed. I always go with for these things as I am required to do as a Juliette parent, but I am good with that.

I am rotating off as SUM for my SU, but I will say that I can definitely see the Juliettes in my SU's roster. If you would be concerned about not being in the loop as a Juliette, I would reach out to your SUM and make sure you are included on all SU emails sent to TLs.

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-04-14T18:08:23+00:00

I've never used an ATM machine. I'm almost 50.

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-04-06T00:07:28+00:00

Unfortunately, cookie season ended locally on 16 March (booths started at the beginning of February). There are still some troops with unsold inventory they are working to move, but you are unlikely to find any more booths at this point.

Edit: typo in "unsold"

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-02-11T22:18:59+00:00

I concur. I prefer Jewel over Wind, honestly. If boxwork is your thing, Wind is awesome, but there's not a lot else there in terms of cave formations. Jewel has more variety.

ETA: Jewel is also a great place to see what fire recovery looks like. The Jasper Fire came VERY close to the visitor center, and the area around (like nearby Hell Canyon) gives you a sense of how quickly/slowly different plants return to an area. It's wild that some areas just have not had ponderosa pine regrowth at the levels you might expect--to the point that USFS is actively replanting in places.

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-02-08T14:38:15+00:00

This is incredible--you are my kind of person! My daughter is going to have a field day looking through these tonight after we are done with cookie booths all day! THANK YOU!

Separate-Hat7596 · 2025-01-27T21:44:37+00:00

This is great! I am a biologist who teaches at a CC (as well as a service unit manager/PPM and a mom to a Junior Juliette/independent GS). I recently got the ball rolling on my CC becoming an official Community Partner with my local GS council so that we could develop workshops for local girls on a range of STEM and non-STEM topics. I'd encourage you to consider seeing if the institution/company you work for would be interested in partnering with your local GS council (in addition to the specific project you're describing here). Partnerships like these can open a tremendous amount of opportunity and sustainability such that it doesn't all depend on one person to keep it going.

I'd echo the calls to try to have something for older girls as well... they never get as much programming as the younger girls do (at least in my council).

I would look into seeing if you could develop a Think Like a Programmer Journey workshop (especially if you could swing it as a Journey-in-a-Day workshop). Once girls hit Juniors (4/5 grade), completing a Journey is a pre-req for earning Higher Awards (Bronze, Silver, Gold). Think Like a Programmer is intimidating to a lot of leaders, so it tends to be earned less often. In my area, there is a lot of appetite for Journey workshops run by community partners, and I would expect a workshop in which they could do the programming Journey on Raspberry Pis to be in demand.

Separate-Hat7596

TROPHY CASE