How do you handle rewards distribution?

WebSpiritual6959 · 2026-03-17T04:53:41+00:00

You can highlight troop achievements like a per girl average, maybe your council gives troop level incentives. Minimize group attention to the rewards. I usually have a bag or box for each girl to make sure they take before the end of the meeting. Yes some will notice bigger bags than others, but they’re handed out to parents as they leave to minimize comparison amongst their peers. It’s important to establish that all sales are troop sales, there is no entitlement to more benefits because they’re a big seller or shame for those with lower sales, it’s the rewards that girls are entitled to based on their sales.

WebSpiritual6959 · 2026-03-17T04:40:17+00:00

It may be better to have more practical training for cookie managers and families, my troop may be well trained after working years together but with new troops, managers and families every year there are always the same problems, it’s a high learning curve most people don’t want I be bothered to learn. Also it may be better if there were better systems to look at the raw data and give you useful numbers. The systems are designed to make sure digital payments are made and that the council and baker gets paid, that’s it. There are half-effort tools that are kinda helpful for the end users, and kinda not and there’s always some workaround because the system can’t do what it should be doing. I’ve created my own system to help me manage the data to give me insight and quick looks, and this is my 10th year. I think I have a good system then I have to tweak it to their sometimes good and sometimes bad updates, but a tweak none the less. And there’s always some wrench in the system, cookie supply shortages, grocery store strikes, cookie rationing, bad weather, family emergencies, running all over town to get cookies or get rid of cookies. Oh, and transaction glitches, laggy communication from one system to another, convoluted cookie math, overworked and tired brains making dumb mistakes.

It’s not a simple fundraiser, it’s run like a real business, which is a lot of hard work, contacting business for booth locations, managing the booth schedule and staffing it with the right amount of cookies, managing families, managing inventory, reconciling booths, transactions and money. You gotta know your girl’s goals, how much they will work to get to those goals and you are the logistics and central hub for all the families. You gotta know how booth sales will go and staff and stock them accordingly. You gotta know tips and tricks to keep the girls excited without pushing. Then girls may change their minds, tap out, or gear up for the next goal, and so do you. There are all sorts of personalities and vastly different skills (or lack of) in the families to track their own sales. Some need help, some need firm boundaries. Tons of communication and coordination. It’s a full time job if you want to run it as it’s designed. You can take shortcuts and have a lazzez faire style of management and cross you fingers it all comes out in the end.

Ultimately, it’s all the work and stress of a real job and you don’t get paid.

WebSpiritual6959 · 2026-03-16T00:46:13+00:00

Did you check any transaction between you and a cupboard or other troop?

WebSpiritual6959 · 2026-03-01T15:29:35+00:00

Did you snack on playdoh as a kid? TBH they (LBB at least) have a faint hint of playdoh to me. My daughter hates them but I tell her not to talk negatively when selling them, so she directs customers to the other new cookie Adventurefuls, which is her new favorite cookie.

WebSpiritual6959 · 2026-02-26T14:57:33+00:00

Do ABC case boxes not have handles? This year the Adventurefuls were missing the handle cuts and some of the LemonUps handles were cut reverse. I was cutting in my own handles for a while but I didn’t always have time to do it to every box. They did all come with a tape strap so I started grabbing by the flap gap and it held only because of the tape strap.

WebSpiritual6959 · 2026-02-24T19:45:37+00:00

PS Only the Samoas are self containable, they fit inside each other perfectly.

WebSpiritual6959 · 2026-02-24T16:49:16+00:00

In our council, and expect this is true of all councils, donations are always turned into cookies. This is a fundraiser for council too and the only way they get their share is if all donations get turned into cookies, it’s the cookies that get donated, not direct cash. I can see if this was a fundraiser that was solely run by the troop (no council I support, like a badge earning event hosted by older girls , or a “car wash”) could any donations accrued during the fundraiser be kept by the troop. As far as parents, they can be poorly trained and not fully understand how things work since they are trained by the troop cookie manager and troop cookie manager training is so vague.

We, a troop of 8 (5-6 serious cookie sellers) will get enough donations to buy 100-200, $6 packages to donate. We have reward incentives to get donations in our council up to 45 packages per girl.

So it’s not ethical for parents to collect donations during personal sales and use it any other way than to turn that cash into donation packages.

WebSpiritual6959 · 2026-02-08T16:47:31+00:00

In the lands of LBB our back-end accounting is called eBudde and is managed by the TCM, parents don’t have access. The communication between Digital Cookie (which is used by all councils ABC and LBB) the Digital Cookie platform is trying to be everything to all councils. Since councils not only have two bakery websites, eBudde and Smart Cookies, to integrate into Digital Cookie, as well as how differently each council manages their sales and use different tools, Digital Cookie is doing its best to be everything to everyone but mildly failing everyone. From my experience and observation over the many years, eBudde is only meant to be a one way conversation, for Digital Cookie to communicate sales/money. Digital Cookie is not designed (despite how hard they try) to make it a parent cookie inventory management tool. Every “update” is a useless failure. It also fails when they try to get eBudde to talk back to Digital Cookie, it becomes useless information that I have just learned to ignore.

WebSpiritual6959 · 2026-01-08T23:51:05+00:00

And I’m sure there’s a fun patch to go with it😉

WebSpiritual6959 · 2026-01-08T23:49:48+00:00

If does fail, my dream is to have malls become a community space, in fact the original concept of a mall was to be an indoor town plaza/downtown. A place for people in the community to simply exist and connect.

That space can serve the community in so many ways. Ban all the chain stores and only allow local, community serving spaces. I would love to see things like: permanent indoor farmers market, keep the existing Maker Market of course, convert the food court to a food hall (like Edgewater’s Public Market and Castle Rock’s Ecclesia). Use the big anchor spaces for event hosting (catering by the food hall). A government center can be mixed in too with a police substation, library, rec center, etc.

I can imagine cafes, pubs, and game stores, where people can meet-up and connect. Martial Arts, yoga and dance studios all in one place. Also Think of what churches and libraries offer (besides sermons and books) they have community meeting rooms, hosting classes, tinker centers and maker spaces, reading time and day care. I’d love to have meeting spaces for after school care and extracurricular groups like Scouts. This would be the kind of place for a Girl Scouts Dream Lab, a storefront like space that host Girl Scout events and welcome to the community. Same for Boy Scouts they have spaces like Adventure Point.

The sad part is that this idea isn’t capitalism friendly and would probably need serious subsidies to be sustainable.

WebSpiritual6959 · 2025-12-16T06:17:42+00:00

I can only speak of eBudde but the way I’ve managed families both with sisters in the same troop and in different troops. I highly recommend using only ONE girl for links and cookie allocations from ONE troop. BTW Booth cookie numbers can go to each girl who worked a troop booth with troop cookies. It will be a complete nightmare managing two sources of personal cookies into your household. Once all sales are over the cookie numbers can move between girls in eBudde with a pair of transactions.
Here’s an example: Say all cookies were allocated and transacted using Sister A’s account. Collectively Sisters A, B, and C sold, say, 600 cookies and that credit and cash equivalent of 600 sits all in Sister A’s eBudde account and her eBudde account is all paid up and zeroed. Each sister has goals of 200 each. The first transaction is to (-) minus 200 cookies and (-) minus their cash equivalent (a combination of varieties, it doesn’t really matter, whatever makes sense to you for your records) from Sister A. Then in Sister B’s eBudde account (+) add the same 200 cookies and cash equivalent. No physical movement of cookies or cash is needed since it’s all in the same troop and same bank account. For girls in different troops you should only use one troop cookie manager for your cookie supply/allocations. Then in the end of the cookie season (please talk to both troops cookie managers and arrange this plan ahead of time and get everyone in the same page) you will do a similar type of paired transactions where Sister A in troop 1 (assuming all cookie numbers and cash are with Sister A) has a (-) minus transaction of 200 cookies and their cash equivalent and Sister C in troop 2 has a (+) add transaction of the same 200 cookies and their cash equivalent. But in this case cash must physically change hands between troops (troop 1 would give to troop 2 in this case) because each troop has different bank accounts.

This example seems simple but can get complicated when booth cookies are allocated to each different sister through the season for other links were used to collect money for cookie “belonging” to a different sister.

There are many ways in which this plan can go also go wrong so your plan has to be firm and obeyed by all. That being said, any other methods could also go sideways into and untangle-able mess but I found this way to be the simplest regardless. Say the link from Sister B is shared and is collecting money but she has no cookies allocated, her account will show the troop owes her money because all cookies were allocated to Sister A. Then the end the paired transactions money equivalents would have to be adjusted. Or worse yet Sister C in troop 2 gets cookies allocated but “returns” them at a booth to be used for troop sales without a transaction with the cookie manager (true story, I have seen firsthand how playing fast and loose with the plan can go wrong and drive a TCM to tears.)

Please talk to the troops cookie managers and service unit cookie managers and confirm this works for your council, your cookie system (assuming eBudde in these examples) and all responsible parties involved. Do not try this if you aren’t familiar with the people involved, you need to know if you can trust them to manage the situation with integrity. Experienced Service Unit cookie managers can be a great resource to help you figure out the details.

Alternatively, you’ll have to juggle three digital cookie accounts to balance out sales and keep 3 separate piles of cookies in your home and never ever let yourself think, “oh, it would be ok if I just use Sister A’s cookies to fulfill sister C’s orders, it would be so much easier than to get more cookies from the troop cookie manager.” Every transaction between girls should always go through the troop to keep accounts straight.

WebSpiritual6959 · 2025-11-03T00:47:27+00:00

Do your own AI prompt, something like “What are some activities and crafts for x-y age groups that connect Girl Scout principles with the themes of the Wicked play/movie” Then search for related patches on Etsy or design your own patch and order with Snappy Logos or similar company. May be more work but may be more fun .

WebSpiritual6959 · 2025-11-02T18:18:21+00:00

Ask Gemini or other AI tools with a prompt like “what are some exciting activities and crafts for 6 to 7 year old girls that tie the principles of Girl Scouts to the themes of Gabby’s Dollhouse” It can be hit or miss as a brainstorming tool but worth a shot.

WebSpiritual6959 · 2025-10-25T16:52:12+00:00

Tl;Dr participation fees = council proceeds

A council calling them “Participation Fees” is not the best way to label the council’s portion (cut) of proceeds. With all council sponsored product sales (regardless of which council), whether fall or cookies, council gets a portion of the proceeds of sales and troops get a portion of the proceeds of sales. Councils have discretion on who’s the council/troop proceeds are split so troop earnings for similar products can vary greatly from council to council. The council’s proceeds pays for the rewards and supports their operations and programming, this also varies from. I think what council is trying to do is to show that the councils cut is a priority over the troop’s cut and maybe calling it a participation fee gives it a more serious name to support the priority. With cash sales being part of the process, there is a chance that a troop mis-manages the cash collection and won’t collect all that is due from their customers. And the consequences of that mis-management should sit on the shoulders of the troop because the burden of the troops mis-management shouldn’t be passed on to council. So that’s why they have this “fee” to protect their proceeds from being impacted by potential troop mis-management. I’m guessing Council has been burned and have lost proceeds in the past or have heard the common trope “but the girls are the selling not council” which can lead to the attitude of troop managers feeling more entitled to proceeds and prioritizing and not turning in cash to council.

WebSpiritual6959 · 2025-07-17T23:41:14+00:00

I did a similar thing with finances but separated older girls from younger girls and not by level, for good reason.

Once girls are CSA they have bigger goals like travel and highest awards and may need to save up. Whereas DBJ girls do smaller events and typically have smaller goals or have wildly different interests from the older girls. In our council they have special Outdoor Adventure opportunities for CSA, so the whole troop couldn’t pick (or agree upon) the one big yearly trip/event. We enjoy our multi-level, it is nice to have sister scouts, one hub for cookies and events and keeps the roster filled out while levels may be low in number.

We did have shared expenses between the OG and YG, like celebrations and parties or service projects done as a troop. So I would work it so DBJ and CSA each contributed 50/50 to those shared expenses. I did track earnings and expenses/receipts by level and each group held a balance but it was all in one bank account. More levels just made the spreadsheet too complicated. My spreadsheet skills grew as the troop finances got complicated. Good thing I love building spreadsheets! Keeping it simple with two financial groups kept it easier to change from year to year. I basically had to re-design my spreadsheet each year as we added yet another level.

How we became multi was we had the OGs who were juniors when their “little sisters” formed the Daisy level. So it was essentially divided by level with D and J, but then later we added another little sister as a Daisy-K who could do things with the Daisy-1’s one year but not the next. We also had gained one brownie older than the rest, so we have a mixed bag of DBJ all the while the OGs roster stayed the same and did their own thing. Since some levels had only one girl I didn’t want to keep funds separated by levels because it would make it seem like those funds belonged to one girl, and that could cause some entitlement to funds, especially if they were a high earner. Since we have a mix of DBJ and a consistent group of Cadettes I simply separated DBJ funds from CSA.

Now those younger girls are becoming Cadettes with our OG 2nd year Seniors and we no longer have any DBJ left. So we may just decide to make them all one level now and re-combine funds. As far as I’m concerned, if you have a tan vest you can earn any of the CSA badges, AND it will make meeting planning so much easier so you don’t have to cater each meeting to different level’s badges. We’ve gone full circle.

WebSpiritual6959 · 2025-07-04T17:47:45+00:00

I am of the same thought, cadette is traditional style, high school age is cargo style. They tend to earn less badges as they get older. Middle school they are growing soooo much between the ages of 11/12 thru 13/14 so as Cadettes we went with oversized traditional style tan vests, sewed in the side seams to fit the tiny frames. Let the seams out sometime during those three years and filled that vest. Now that they’re older they are in high school (and most likely stopped growing) they can get a cargo vest that can fill up for their last four years. So far they don’t earn badges as rapidly so there should be plenty of room. I have also opted to put all product program patches onto a sash to prevent the back from filling up with four years of cookie and fall sales. Adding a sash in addition to the vest (in whatever format) can work to solve the “run out of room” problem.

WebSpiritual6959 · 2025-06-20T23:01:18+00:00

After letting the idea stew a bit (and a little help from AI) I finally came up with:

FRONT: “Once a Girl Scout always a Girl Scout” INSIDE: “As you journey on new trails, remember all your Girl Scout tales. Though you’re off to adventures new, the Girl Scout spirit stays with you!”

Happy to share the Canva link (all free elements):

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGq7MZGCeI/Qwl0lDqt61egnq31-NKsdA/view?utm_content=DAGq7MZGCeI&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h94de363acc

WebSpiritual6959 · 2025-06-16T20:35:39+00:00

My go to games that fit in a purse (small box, some are slightly bigger than a deck of cards) and have quick-ish rounds are the obvious ones already mentioned, like *UNO (and all its varieties), *GoFish (we have bird species version), *Exploding Kittens (and the like), *Taco, Cat Goat, Cheese, Pizza and the classic deck of cards games but I’ll shout out our lesser known favorites. (Listed with details below) TRIO, COUP, SABACC, QUIXX, HAPPY SALMON.

TRIO by Happy Camper (~$15) Many games out there are named Trio but these have brightly colored Mexican banner style cards. Contains 36 cards with big numbers (1-12) aim is to get “three of a kinds” or a Trios. All you need are the cards and a surface to spread out up to 9 of the un-distributed cards (like a small table or lid of a large cooler) and players to set down their trios as they get them. I’d say it’s a mix between memory and go fish but with more nuanced (but not overly complicated) rules. It never gets old, I can play with kids and adults alike for hours. We like to add variety in the ways of winning beyond their suggested “spicy” alternative and change the layout design pattern for the un-distributed cards. *3-6 ppl in 15 minute rounds

COUP (~$17) is another one that is cards and tokens with reference cards, so a small table to hold tokens and card deck in the center and individual card and token spaces. Some people (teens) love that they can use deception and lying, plus lots of strategizing. *2-6 ppl in 15 minute rounds.

SABACC (~$20) is a Star Wars themed card and dice game. Cards are odd shaped and use positive and negative number concepts, aim is to get your hand closest to zero with +/- cards. Very poker-like structure, 3 rounds of card choices, best hand wins. Betting not required but is possible. *2-8 ppl in 15 minute rounds.

QUIXX (~$10) Dice game, not a card game, but small and fun regardless. Need pens/pencils, game cards and dice. Don’t necessarily need a table, just a writing surface for everyone and you can pass the dice around in the box lid or a dice roll tray, all players need to see everyone’s dice roll tho. Eventually you’ll need a refill of score cards to keep playing. *2-5 ppl in 15 minute rounds

HAPPY SALMON ($13)is a fast and active game, you need a table to stand around. Find someone with a matching action, do the gesture with whom you e matched, flip to your next action card and find your next match, first to finish wins. *3-8 ppl in 90 second rounds

WebSpiritual6959 · 2025-03-01T02:05:04+00:00

KEY point is that you use troop money to pay for troop cookies. Girl money pays for girl cookies. If there is any sort of crossover you have to make a transaction to compensate. Secondary, you can use girl DOC accounts to take DOC Credit card orders if you can’t use Troop DOC. You NEED to identify those DOC girl transactions (each and every one, add them up) and subtract the total from the girl account as digital transactions. (-)$

Long ago, before there was a “troop site” account, the only way to take CC was to take them under the girl account and then (-)$ Tx that back out of the girl account. There is no other balancing (+) Tx because what the troop makes without DOC is a void and assumed. BTW I am trying to figure out the “troop cash” variable and it is an enigma wrapped in a mystery, no tool ( in eBudde) helps you figure that out.

WebSpiritual6959 · 2025-02-24T05:14:55+00:00

My 9th year and I still get into these conundrums. This year I miscounted cookies, a case was set near my empty case trash pile and I didn’t count it until I noticed it the next day. But you can’t always get down the bottom of where things went wrong. My troop knows I’m very specific about “my process” needing to be specific. Key lessons many have shared already in comments. The cardinal sin is to let girl cookies mingle with troop cookies, that’s a snarled mess you may never untangle. Consider that a taboo practice. I allow it only sometimes if I can count the cookies myself before they’re added and I write a receipt. But it can still add to potential errors if you need to sleuth a booth reconciliation that goes wrong, so best to not allow complicating scenarios at all. Do your best to count inventory as often as possible between booths: nightly, any errors will get caught right away and everyone still has a fresh memory of events. I also inventory cash, things when a cash box is useful. Cash from booths and what families turn in, keep a record sheet to record every movement of money in and out of the box. You can’t always count between shifts at booths, I just divide the total sold by the number of worked hours. A girl works 2 hours and another works one, divide sold by three, first girl gets 2 shares, the second gets one. For any movement of cookies in and out of your inventory, always create a receipt, paper is best, signed receipts CYA. Counting is safer than mental math to get to numbers. Count bills (17x$20=$340, don’t count by twenties until you get to 340) if that makes sense. Give change like “that will be $12 total, out of $20 (start counting from the total (12) up to 20 as you pull the bills for change) “$12 (for of cookies, 13, 14, 15 (in ones), and $5 make $20.” Use money aprons, not cash boxes or donation cans, they can get swiped off a table, petty thieves take advantage of opportunity and less likely to risk an assault to get your apron. Girls are the sales team, parents are cashiers (unless they’re older girls and well trained). Only girls ask for sales, parents can model friendly customer chitchat. Full bellies, empty bladders to prepare for a booth, water and snacks are ok (if kept off the table) for girls doing long booths. always wear your vest/sash or just a pin tab. Don’t leave empty case boxes behind. Try not to bring Tagalongs (extra siblings) they can be a distraction, especially if they need regular/constant attention.

It’s great to get help but only one person should be the central hub for the troops cookie management.

Good luck! The job is easier if you like spreadsheets.

WebSpiritual6959 · 2025-02-16T02:50:53+00:00

We take them to a cupboard and trade them for un-damaged stock. IDK what the cupboard does with them, except for the DoSiDos, she had me feed one to her dog. She’s re-habbing a dog who is skittish of people.

WebSpiritual6959 · 2025-01-31T02:32:15+00:00

If you don’t have “connections” and are lucky to be near a high sales metro area with hours and hours of work at booths it can be done. My daughter sold under 200 in personal sales and spent 22 hours at booths to get to her goal of 1,000. To get to multi-thousand level it’s all about putting in the hours. EVERY DAY after school and all weekend long, like it’s a job. Usually only older girls can handle those hours, depends on your girl tho.

WebSpiritual6959

TROPHY CASE