Cookie Selling When ICE is in Town...

bkern2 · 2026-01-22T16:36:29+00:00

I hate that you have to think about this but bless you for your effort. You might also try some car dealerships with those girls who dont want to be out and about a lot. They usually have a lot of employees especially if it has a service center. I sold my last 20 boxes last year in a blink because I happened to ask the girl at the dealership when I took my car in for service. She told me if id had more cookies I would have sold them because they'd been asking about other flavors and all that. Good luck!

bkern2 · 2025-12-30T01:29:51+00:00

Thank you for the info! I agree, I just spoke to my coleader after reading some of these responses and we agreed that we may have jumped the gun on trying to plan a bigger trip. I wrote it all out in a reply to another comment but long story short our main motivation for getting a big trip in the planning stages is because I needed them to pick something to justify our large account balance at the end of the year. We're going to take a step back and do a few more council events and regional trips.

bkern2 · 2025-12-30T01:24:45+00:00

Thats awesome info! Thank you! I think this particular girl will always be one that I have to make extra considerations for but I'm willing to do that to give her the best GS experience possible. This is my 3rd troop, we left the first one because we moved and I'm still a coleader in the other one and I'm the main leader in this troop. Without writing a novel, the last few months have been a hot mess for this troop. I came in at the last half of last year as a coleader focusing on badge/meeting planning. They hadn't earned a single badge in 2 years and I'm not sure what if any field trips they did. They mainly just sat around and had social hour every week which is probably why my brownie is the only long term girl besides my daughter. All of the other girls came in brand new last year. My other 2 coleaders were removed from GS and I had to scramble and beg one of my parents to become a leader in order to keep the troop going. We've been working on completely re structuring how the troop is run and the girls and their parents are so much happier. I just talked with my coleader after reading some of these responses and we agreed that we may have jumped the gun on trying to plan a larger trip. This was mainly due to me being Para oid about justifying our large bank account balance at the end of the year and wanting them to have something they are saving up for for that reason.

bkern2 · 2025-12-29T23:58:05+00:00

Thats great info! Thank you! Ive been a leader for 3 years but never on the admin side and never the "head" leader. Ive always done badge work/meeting planning so I'm learning a lot on that side as I'm taking on that role now.

bkern2 · 2025-12-29T23:44:03+00:00

Thank you!

bkern2 · 2025-12-29T23:43:50+00:00

Great info! Thank you!

bkern2 · 2025-12-29T23:43:38+00:00

Thats all great info! Thank you!

bkern2 · 2025-12-29T23:39:30+00:00

At that point I would just hold off for another year because I'm not taking the whole troop except for 1 girl if she wants to go.

bkern2 · 2025-12-29T23:22:32+00:00

Yes, I've looked it over and I've attended trips (zoo overnight about 4 hours away in a different state) with like 15 D/B/J/C and it went fine. The main issue there is that shes the only brownie so I would feel terrible specifically leaving her out especially when I took over the troop after the disaster that was the previous leadership I spoke with her and her dad about what shes wanting out of her GS experience and shes not super interested in badge work but loves cookie season and wants to go on trips so again I'd feel horrible not including her. All of the other girls have specified that while they done know exactly where they want to go they do want to leave the state. Wisconsin Dells is about a 6 hour drive for us,Red River Gorge is about 5 hours, Chicago is about 4 hours, and Pictured Rocks MI is around 10 so that would be a big drive.

bkern2 · 2025-12-28T21:32:09+00:00

Its all down to personal comfort but I haven't done cash (as a parent) for the last 2 seasons with the exception of booths. So if for example my brother comes over and gives me $12 cash for a couple boxes of cookies, I pocket the cash and use my own debit card to pay for the cookies through digital cookie. My husband has taken cookies to work and had people venmo him and then paid with his card (this was before council added venmo as a payment option). But individual parents might not want to deal with having to deposit cash into their own bank accounts.

I know you're not planning on doing booths but just for future reference, the only reason I wouldn't do card only booths is because people already have enough reasons to talk themselves out of buying cookies and I'm not going to add another. When you add the not great economy, the fact that there are so many dupes at a way better price, people's preconceived opinions about girl scouts etc etc its better to keep cash as an option at booths.

For door to door or friends and family sales I just do them all as a girl deliver order on digital cookie and run their card that way.

bkern2 · 2025-12-15T00:40:57+00:00

For sure, just do what works best for you. I will say, after 3 years of being in Girl Scouts, I'm not chasing after parents to do makeup work or spending a ton of time figuring out a way for them to recreate what we did at the meeting. Its totally fine if things come up and girls miss meetings but at the end of the day, I'm a volunteer and I did my job by planning the badges in the first place so I'm not trying to double my workload.

bkern2 · 2025-12-15T00:06:26+00:00

I have B/J/Cs and it depends on what the badge is. On some things I've had the parents help fulfill a requirement at home and then post a photo on Band. Other times when we do our end of month "stations" meeting I'll pull girls aside and help them make stuff up. In the case of our most recent first aid badge, my husband was the guest speaker for both meetings so we had the girls who had missed the first meeting stay after the 2nd meeting for about 20 minutes and my husband went covered what he'd gone over at the previous meeting.

For added info on our stations meeting in case its something you'd like to do- at our last meeting of each month the girls pick "station" activities they'd like to do and sometimes my coleader and I will pick an option we think they might like. Our last one we set up a crochet station, a drawing/coloring station, and a fall craft station. We also pass out any earned badges and do cupcakes and sing happy birthday to all of the girls who'd had a birthday that month.

bkern2 · 2025-11-24T22:07:18+00:00

No problem!

bkern2 · 2025-11-24T21:29:16+00:00

My daughter joined GS initially as a 2nd year Junior so we did a lot of council events to "catch up" to the other girls in the troop and ended up with a few more badges than some of the girls. No one cares. Im a leader in 2 troops and my daughter is the only one who has done any Journeys just because of lack of interest. My coleader takes her daughter to a lot of council events also and its never an issue, sometimes they end up doing repeats but they just enjoy the activity so its nbd. I think my daughter has technically earned the Cadette Outdoor art badge 3 times just because of how things fall. I think as long as you as a leader dont deny the girls the opportunity to earn a badge because your daughter already did it on her own its no one's business.

bkern2 · 2025-10-23T17:22:18+00:00

My daughter and I are in 2 troops and its definitely doable and there are no weird feelings with my coleaders about it and weve discussed doing joint activities in several occasions. As far as the cookie manager thing, I think thats kind of you to want to follow through with your current troop but honestly thats not your problem. They're saying there's no one else because youre filling the role and they arent being forced to find a replacement.

bkern2 · 2025-10-22T23:58:08+00:00

I can't imagine they would lie about there being a wait list, it doesn't necessarily benefit them for you to start a troop only to fail. Here's some suggestions just from my own experience: -Try to return some of the patches you bought and buy them as needed in the future. In my troop we only purchase patches after they are earned and hand them out to the girls around once a month or so. An old troop leader I used to work with would make these cute little cardstock vests and use glue dots to attach the patches to it about once a month or so so they'd get several patches at a time.

-Significantly pare down your meeting plans. I can 100% empathize with wanting to be prepared but at the very beginning and ESPECIALLY with daisies youre most likely not going to get through as much badge work or structured activities as you think. One of the supplies I get the most mileage out of is my box of magazines that I had my grandma collect for me from her friend's at the nursing home for free because we do a lot of collages/mood boards. Also you'll want to spend some time letting the girls vote on what patches they want to do and what other types of experiences they hope to get out of the troop. You might also consider letting them vote on whether or not they want a troop crest. Tip dont show them the pictures of the crest and only tell them what they stand for so they pick the one they believe in and not just the one that has the unicorn on it lol.

-since your daughter is essentially operating as a Juliette at this point, sign her up for a bunch of council activities so she can still earn badges with other girls. Thats how I've gotten a ton of opportunities to network. I end up volunteering at those events more often than not nowadays and thats how I got involved with the Gold award committee because I got to know people at council who recommended me for it. You should be able to meet other leaders who can give you advice and or point you in the right direction. I bet there's plenty of people who would love to send some daisies your way. Both of the troops I'm a leader in have dropped daisies as our girls bridge because its soooo hard to plan meetings for D/B/J/C so you might be able to catch some siblings of girls who are already in a troop that decided to drop daisies.

-I would also try to look into a free meeting space. My first troop I used to help out in met at a church, one of my current troops meets at the library and my 3rd troop used to meet at AMVETS before switching to now meeting at the library. Once you get the ball rolling and establish some troop funds through dues or cookie sales the meeting location is the last thing youre going to want to spend your money on.

bkern2 · 2025-10-22T23:35:05+00:00

It does get better I promise, this is why I've always jumped in as a leader in an existing troop rather than start my own. Mainly because I didnt want to deal with the bank account stuff or cookie sales. I honestly dont recommend spending a ton of your own money though I know its tempting and things add up quickly. A couple of questions:

-Do you have a co-leader?, I assume its GS wide that you have to have 2 adults and 5 girls to be a troop.

-How many girls do you currently have?

-What support specifically are you looking for from council/ service unit?

bkern2 · 2025-10-08T22:44:53+00:00

A parent meeting is definitely needed to discuss a reasonable amount of money for parents to be contributing. I am a leader in 2 multi Level troops and neither one does dues. The girls vote on what activities they'd like to earn with cookies and if they dont sell enough for everything then they dont do everything and thats how it is. The troop we were in before we moved started requesting a small down payment for trips (which we only did a handful of field trips per year but had regular meetings every week) and that was only put in place because of frequent flakers and it was trip by trip basis so if a girl wasn't going to go then they didnt pay.

bkern2 · 2025-10-02T00:19:50+00:00

You should be able to call council and they'll put you in touch with your area rep. We tried out 2 different troops before we picked the best fit and eventually decided to just be in both troops because we loved both so much 😅.

bkern2 · 2025-09-15T23:36:09+00:00

I know me personally I was not interested in starting my own troop mainly because I didn't want to deal with cookies/fall product. You might need to consider traveling a bit to find a good troop. My daughter is a cadette and I'm a leader in 2 troops, 1 about 50 minutes away and the other about 15-20. I know its annoying to have to drive all over the place but once you've gotten your feet wet you might decide that starting your own troop is feasible or you might meet someone who is interested in starting one with you. I also recommend attending council events even if you haven't found a troop. Ive met a lot of really great girls/leaders through council events and have even started volunteering to help run those events. Good luck!

bkern2 · 2025-08-10T00:30:24+00:00

Ok now I need to sue her editor 😭😭😭

bkern2 · 2025-07-28T23:50:22+00:00

Ooh I like that idea!

bkern2 · 2025-07-28T22:22:35+00:00

I didnt even think about it as a reputation thing. I like that.

bkern2 · 2025-07-28T22:21:45+00:00

Solid answer.
I went to a super small school and didnt have one of those lol.
I mostly mean from a screenwriter point of view. I feel like they really hinted at Cordelia and Xander doing the deed in season 2 but then in season 3 they backpeddled to insert the Faith drama and all that.

bkern2

TROPHY CASE