Scammed by the Girl Scouts!

[johonmirae]

While I think it's a pretty slick move on their part, we'll probably be able to sell the bulk of them.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

My son did one year in Boy Scouts, it was terrible. They did obscure crap like study the food pyramid to earn worthless patches. The local leadership was a joke. He joined thinking that he would be getting to go camping, fishing, shooting .22s at summer camp, etc. He did all of that stuff........with me. I finally convinced him that Boy Scouts were not required to have outdoor fun. I know this is a failure of the local leadership, lots of people have great experiences in Boy Scouts.
!

Note that my boyscout experience was *** cough 35-40 cough years ago and most to of the scoutmasters were ex- military...

Thanks for reminding me... my first firearms experience too... .22 in the forest.

[LeeH]

Cookie season was my least favorite part of my daughter being in Girl Scouts. I hate door to door selling. Funny thing is, she was really good at moving cookies and didn't seem to mind.

The Girl Scout experience is all about the troop leader. We had two while she was involved. They were polar opposites in every way. Had the first leader stayed involved my daughter would probably still be participating.

[biosurfer1]

My old boss's son was in the boy scouts and they sold that terrible popcorn each year. It is beyond gross and so expensive. I stopped buying it because I have no problem supporting Boy Scouts but I'm not going to pay $35 for the worst popcorn I've ever had. They go around picking up Christmas tree's in January and I give a bigger donation for that.

How hard is it to sell GOOD popcorn?!?!

[cairns]

[BE911SC]

My wife has been a GS troop leader for over five years and my daughter is in the troop, of course. Every year our living room gets filled with stacks of GS cookie boxes for the big push. Troop moms come at all hours to pick up their quota and there is quite an effort to sell them all. But they all go and people ask when we're going to start selling again. My son's CS/BS troop used to sell popcorn/etc. at supermarket entries and he did very well at it. But it's no longer about learning valuable life skills, it's about learning to market and to sell. Yes, very American indeed but what happened to summer camps and survival skills--both male and female? I don't touch those cookies because they are full of heart disease! Say the words "congestive heart failure" to yourself when you reach for the cookies and you'll stop in your tracks.

Don't get me started about Cub Scout dads using the Internet to find all the ways to trick-out their son's Pinewood Derby cars--and then letting the boy slop paint on it so it looks like the boy built the car.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

I got hit up for magazine subscriptions...by my cousin's daughter...in New Jersey. I've met her ONCE.

Ugh.

[Monza_dh]

Have any thin mints left?

[bivenator]

My friends and I were discussing having thier kids in boy scouts. She said they were going to doing "Home Scouting". Meaning they will take the kids camping and teach all those outdoors lessons.
They even had some ideas for patches, the older kid (13) had earned his "making a good drink on the lake" badge. Some of thier patches and lessons may not be suitable for all, but that is the nature of home scouting.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Monza_dh

Have any thin mints left?

Only like 30 boxes.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by Monza_dh

Have any thin mints left?

Mmmm....Thin heart congestion mints...my favorite!

Originally Posted by bivenator

....
They even had some ideas for patches, the older kid (13) had earned his "making a good drink on the lake" badge. Some of thier patches and lessons may not be suitable for all, but that is the nature of home scouting.

LOL....A "How to drive the boat when daddy has been drinkin' too much" badge

I keed...Don't do GS cookies, and don't have more than a beer or two when "I'm" the captain either...can't say it's always been that way...live & learn.

[gassy]

A Cub Scout becomes a Boy Scout after he eats his first Brownie.

[GWN7]

When I was in Scouts we sold lightbulbs one year. I sold a ton of them. Price was right and everyone needed them. No calories in lightbulbs.

[billh1963]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

Note that my boyscout experience was *** cough 35-40 cough years ago and most to of the scoutmasters were ex- military...

Thanks for reminding me... my first firearms experience too... .22 in the forest.

That sounds familiar! I was in Scouts from the mid through late '70's....we never sold anything. This was in Middletown, Ohio. Some of you may be familiar with the troop I am referring to.

Our camping gear was all military surplus...pup tents with no floors, bakers tents, etc. Our Scoutmaster was a decorated Vietnam veteran who hadn't been back in the US for very long. When we camped it was all about survival skills. Seriously, it was a mini boot camp. Today you could never get away the stuff he had us doing back then. We even had a survival weekend where we only had a knife, rope, a couple of matches, and a few odds and ends. We killed rabbits and squirrels with traps/snares and cooked/ate them.

The only thing that was really weird was that he never slept at night. He patrolled the perimeter all night long...just outside the light thrown by the campfire. One day one of the kids asked him why he patrolled at night. He said something to the effect that one night when they were on patrol some VC infiltrated the camp and killed a couple of his friends before they could react. He said that ever since then he could never sleep in an unsecured area. He had a serious look on his face when he said, " Gooks are everywhere.. you have to be ready!".

[mikester]

That's gotta be a local decision: "We will sell this many cookies per girl to support the troop for the year" kind of thing. Sell it or buy it. A fantastic way to thin out a Pack or Troop. I have seen it many times and have a few parents who brought their kids from one troop elsewhere to our troop because we do not do that.

I realize it isn't the best product and the cost is MORE than what you would buy at the store but the idea is that it is to support the Scouts. That is why it costs more - it's a donation mechanism. Instead of simply asking for a hand-out the boys are actually given a product to sell and work with. It is not nearly as good as the girl scout cookie thing though. Man...

I encourage our Scouts to do their best at selling. We do it door to door in our neighborhood which is a nice one in this regard. We are generally well received but if a boy comes to my door and he isn't in uniform then...well he doesn't sell anything to me. It fosters a self supportive attitude and a sense of entrepreneurship. Would you prefer they simply ask for money?

We also do a Christmas tree lot which I like more than the popcorn sales. My son isn't very good at the popcorn thing, kind of shy but that is something else he needs to overcome and popcorn gives him something to help with that. As a Cub, he isn't old enough to work the tree lot unfortunately so I have to do that (16 hours a season per family).

With popcorn and tree lot our boys don't pay anything else to be in the organization, they are self supporting.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by cstreit

Have you tried saying "No?"

Boy Scouts are similar to this and it drives me crazy. I don't mind contributing to the organization but we don't have days free to sit outside the grocery store while people pretend not to notice us. Kudo's to the families that do, but if I had that kinda free time, well...

This.


A coworker told me about a local little league that tried an interesting stunt:

Families that were deemed by the league as "affluent" were told they had to raise a certain amount of additional sponsorship $$, or pay it themselves.
This was above and beyond all the fees they were already required to pay. I believe it was something like an extra $125.
They said it was "necessary so that families that couldn't afford to pay the fees could still participate.
Evidently their selection process including driving by the family's residence and taking a picture. then the couple who invented this scam looked at the pictures and decided if the family could afford to pay extra or not.

My coworker made one call to the little league HQ and that little stunt was stopped dead in it's tracks and the people who came up with it were replaced.

That's the problem with things like this: any time people are involved, you have people involved.
And people suck more than anybody

[Aragorn]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

It's mostly in jest Jim. While I think it's a pretty slick move on their part, we'll probably be able to sell the bulk of them. I'll take care of the rest! Unless they are those weird ones with coconut in them, then I'm screwed.

Samoas are the best!

[pavulon]

My 6 y.o.'s girl scout sales pitch last fall was done dead pan...insired by the kid from the movie "Up!":

"Hello. My name is Autumn. I am with the Girl Scouts. Would you like to buy some over-priced nuts or candy?"


Girl Scouts sales...sponsored be Herbalife.

[vash]

thanks for the warning.

i expect the scout mom/dads to start making the rounds in the office soon.

how much of the money actually make it to the girls these days?

[ckelly78z]

Originally Posted by BE911SC

I don't touch those cookies because they are full of heart disease! Say the words "congestive heart failure" to yourself when you reach for the cookies and you'll stop in your tracks.

.

I have had congestive heart failure several times in the last 10 years or so as a result of a no longer used chemotherapy drug that I got about 25 years ago. CHF is more a result of fluids not being pumped away before they start building up and making it difficult to breathe and it limits the heart function.

For me, the Boyscout popcorn was like CHF in a tin, because of the massive amount of salt they used for flavoring. I have never had problems with the cookies luckily.