So, Girl Scouts is a money racket around here

[anlo]

I had no idea what we were getting into when we signed DD up. She's only in K, so a Daisy scout. With troop dues, activity fees, uniform costs, etc. we've dropped at least $250 since September.

Now they are demanding that each girl sign up for four sessions of 2 hours each running cookie booths, in addition to taking time to sell to friends/family. WTF? Eight hours of cookie booths? For five year olds? Am I just a jerk or does this seem excessive to anyone else?

You'd think that with all of these cookie sales we could at least have part of the activities/uniforms and other costs paid by the troop, but nope.

[Deleted]

My mom positively hated Girl Scouts for this reason. My sister and I were two years apart so in different troops - and the time suck was a pain in the ass.

[wannabe]

Does your troop require the uniforms? I was just reading the GS website and it says uniforms are optional. I'm debating putting the bean in daisy scouts.

[jaylea]

That seems excessive. I went through training to become a troop leader, and it's really stressed that it should be accessible to everyone - so activities are very low-cost until you build up funds from cookie sales to be able to cover everyone's fees.

And they also said Daisies DON'T do things like cookie booth sales.

[franciepants]

Really? DD is in Daisies for first grade.

In K, I paid for her tunic, initial patches troop dues, my fee for being a volunteer, and it was still around $120. In first, all I paid for, so far, is the annual dues and my volunteer fee. The other fees for activities and additional patches come out of cookie money from last year and nut sales money.

Like Jaylea mentioned, activities in K were minimal to keep costs down until cookie money could build up.

What exactly is the $250 for?

[franciepants]

Oh, and our K Daisy troop didn't do booth sales either. Leaders of older troops said booth sales were too much for K aged kids.

[anlo]

Jan 3, 2013 11:57:51 GMT -5 franciepants said:

Really? DD is in Daisies for first grade.

In K, I paid for her tunic, initial patches troop dues, my fee for being a volunteer, and it was still around $120. In first, all I paid for, so far, is the annual dues and my volunteer fee. The other fees for activities and additional patches come out of cookie money from last year and nut sales money.

Like Jaylea mentioned, activities in K were minimal to keep costs down until cookie money could build up.

What exactly is the $250 for?

It covered all of the things you mentioned, plus the activities for the past semester. We now owe another $20 in dues and will have more activities to pay for this semester.

I knew there would be certain costs to cover, I guess I had assumed cookie sales would cover troop activities and such. When I was in scouts we never did cookie booths so this is totally new to me.

[Deleted]

My mom hated girl scouts for my little sister.

I was looking into boy scouts for DS. But I think boys don't start until age 7.

[jaylea]

Jun 6, 1970 21:05:26 GMT -5 anlo said:

It covered all of the things you mentioned, plus the activities for the past semester. We now owe another $20 in dues and will have more activities to pay for this semester.

Our dues will be $1-$2 per meeting.

[aprilludgate]

I think I would look into this a little more closely to see if all these things are actually mandatory. Maybe call the regional office?

My mom was a troop leader when I was growing up, and I know a couple times there were some fishy things with some other leaders and money.

[franciepants]

Jan 3, 2013 12:03:43 GMT -5 anlo said:

Jan 3, 2013 11:57:51 GMT -5 franciepants said:

Really? DD is in Daisies for first grade.

In K, I paid for her tunic, initial patches troop dues, my fee for being a volunteer, and it was still around $120. In first, all I paid for, so far, is the annual dues and my volunteer fee. The other fees for activities and additional patches come out of cookie money from last year and nut sales money.

Like Jaylea mentioned, activities in K were minimal to keep costs down until cookie money could build up.

What exactly is the $250 for?

It covered all of the things you mentioned, plus the activities for the past semester. We now owe another $20 in dues and will have more activities to pay for this semester.

I knew there would be certain costs to cover, I guess I had assumed cookie sales would cover troop activities and such. When I was in scouts we never did cookie booths so this is totally new to me.

What sort of activities are they doing? What are they doing with the cookie money?

I am very good friends with our leaders, so I know a lot about the income versus expenditures. Our troop covers all activities and patches, and we still have a nice balance in our checking account. This sounds sort of odd to me.

Cookie sales should cover a lot of it. I would just flat out ask what the sales money goes toward.

Our leaders give parents a copy of the balance sheet showing expenses and income. Maybe ask for the same thing?

If Daisies had cost us $250 plus the first year, I'm not sure we would have been able to continue with it.

[CaliSpiderman]

How much it costs is going to vary based on the troop. Some troops are big into activities and events and earning badges, and that costs money so they have to raise it somehow. It's usually more out of pocket costs for the younger ones because they can't do much of the fundraising stuff on their own. Daisies can participate in cookie sales, but I question what the leader must be smoking if she thinks kindergarteners can do anything for longer than an hour or two.

[dragonfly08]

Jan 3, 2013 11:51:46 GMT -5 anlo said:

Eight hours of cookie booths? For five year olds? Am I just a jerk or does this seem excessive to anyone else?

I get that Girl Scouts can be expensive...I've got a Junior and a Daisy, so yeah...the uniform costs (which thankfully are only every other year since they spend two years per level) and fees and activities add up, especially if you've got an active troop that does a lot. In my girls' troops, all of the extra fee stuff is totally voluntary, though.

But eight hours of booth sales for a DAISY troop? For which selling cookies is voluntary and many don't even bother??? DD #1's Junior troop doesn't require more than two hours per girl, and as a Daisy she didn't even sell. #2 is selling as a Daisy but they are not doing booth sales. You've got an overly ambitious troop leader on your hands, IMO

[auntie]

Activities cost money. Most of the sports locally cost that much or more and all you get is a t-shirt. $250 would pay for 10 x 30 minute music lessons with the cheapest instructor at the music school. Two months at the karate dojo.

Part of the fundraising associated with cookies is to underwrite the adminstrative costs of the council/district as well as help offset costs of camp. Our troop requires a single popcorn shift of 4 hours per child and one parent. My least favorite day of the year typically. But it taught DS to put the time in to support something that mattered to him.

$250 for a year sounds about what a Tiger Cub/Tenderfoot Scout family would pay for a year plus extra for a couple of the more expensive activities. DS's old troop charges $120/year in dues plus extra for skiing, summer camp and high adventure trips. Uniforming is a considerable expense. A Class A costs about $25-30 plus and additional $25 for the patches required. Pants are $30-ish. Socks are $6. Our troop gives earned merit badge and activity patches, the inexpensive ones are over $2 each- my son has almost 40. Most activity patches cost more.

[laptopvixen]

Having 5 year olds man a cookie booth is fucked in the head. How many adults per kid will be there to supervise? Does 8 hours for her mean 8 hours for you?

There's no fucking way I'm putting a five year old girl in a Daisy uniform outside of some busy storefront without a 1:1 kid:parent ratio. And I generally think you people are overreactionary and insane about evil things that can happen to children.

[StormyDixon]

Jan 3, 2013 13:42:53 GMT -5 auntie said:

Activities cost money. Most of the sports locally cost that much or more and all you get is a t-shirt. $250 would pay for 10 x 30 minute music lessons with the cheapest instructor at the music school. Two months at the karate dojo.

Part of the fundraising associated with cookies is to underwrite the adminstrative costs of the council/district as well as help offset costs of camp. Our troop requires a single popcorn shift of 4 hours per child and one parent. My least favorite day of the year typically. But it taught DS to put the time in to support something that mattered to him.

$250 for a year sounds about what a Tiger Cub/Tenderfoot Scout family would pay for a year plus extra for a couple of the more expensive activities. DS's old troop charges $120/year in dues plus extra for skiing, summer camp and high adventure trips. Uniforming is a considerable expense. A Class A costs about $25-30 plus and additional $25 for the patches required. Pants are $30-ish. Socks are $6. Our troop gives earned merit badge and activity patches, the inexpensive ones are over $2 each- my son has almost 40. Most activity patches cost more.

6 of us only pay $225 per month at our dojo.
the girl scout troop I lead only charges the $15 registration fee and uniforms/books one time(roughly $55). activites are paid as we do them (usually about $6.00 per head). Our parents don't pay anywhere near $250 per year.