Opinions on Mothers Placing Order Requests for Girl Scout Cookies.

I have never met anyone who has gone door to door to sell GS cookies. They usually are outside supermarkets or at community events and parades. Some people who look forward to the cookies and don't have kids want to know who is selling them so if you are not interested, just ignore it.

i like the idea of putting it on FB so people can contact if they want, rather than the door-to-door peddling.
khairete
S.

When I was a kid, plenty of dads took the forms to their offices and collected orders there. My mom used to take my form to her bowling league. I don't see posting on FB as being any different than that, just updated for the times. The girls may very well be going door to door also, but why not spread the word as much as possible?

Just wait until your daughter is old enough and you are directly involved.

I classify this post under the naïve post of a non parent telling a parent, 'When I have kids, I'll never....'

It's normal. Door to door selling is more discouraged these days than ever before for safety reasons. We post on FB to our family and friends (immediate and extended of both) so they know we are accepting orders. Then they know where their GS cookie connections are.

I have seen a couple of postings on my FB which has a cute picture of the girl scouts and a simple statement to call us if you are interested in GS cookies.

Personally, I do not find that offensive. This particular posting is from my hometown which is very rural and most of the girls are involved in scouts because there is nothing else to do.

I live in a pretty upscale area and I substitute teach at the local elementary school and I had 4 scouts come to my door yesterday. They came to my door because they know me, I am a teacher on the side, and a neighbor. A parent was with each of them. Our block is pretty tight knit so it isn't an issue so much here. I buy from any child I know who lives in my neighborhood. I also get swamped with kids who are dropped off in the neighborhood as well and I am surprised that some parents will go that far as to drop into a nice neighborhood to get sales away from the children who live here.

I'd cut the mom's who posted a break. It is not like mom is the one selling, she posted the info for her child and it is up to others to contact her to let her know if they are interested. Most every scout has a certain goal to achieve during cookie sales season!

When you see those postings, just keep moving scrolling down the page and don't participate.

edited to answer Susan B: An individual troop receives approximately 21 percent of the purchase price of each box sold. The troop holds the money earned in it's treasury, and its girl members vote on how to use that money. Last year our troop sold 1604 boxes of cookies @ $4 each for a total of $6416. The bakery is paid out of that total, a portion goes to our council to fund camps and activities and our troop received $1347. The girls elected to make care packages of non perishable foods, toiletries, and cleaning supplies for the Ronald McDonald House in Baltimore. They also made care packages for our elderly neighbors in our local nursing home. We still had money left over so the girls voted to go shopping again but this time they purchased items for our local food bank, homeless shelter and humane society.

This year our Troop is using our proceeds to purchase non perishable items for our new Backpack program. Food would be sent home each weekend in the backpacks of children who don't have enough to eat. The girls will also be making blankets for our elderly friends and neighbors at the nursing home.

My co-leader and I both feel that a huge part of being a Girl Scout is being a part of community service. Yes, the girls are having fun and enjoying all the things Brownie's has to offer. They are learning to set goals, strive to meet those goals, manage money, make budgets and even to lobby for their individual charities they want to support. More importantly they are learning to use their voices to help others. The girls are learning to look around to see who needs your help and do your best to be of service to that person or group.

***************

It also may depend on the area they are in. I know several GS service units have forbidden the girls to go door to door as they feel it is a safety risk to the girls. It could be due to heavy traffic patterns if they are near busy streets. I also know several units that map out the registered sex offenders in their area. If the number is too high they don't allow the girls to do door to door sales either.

Last year our service unit asked us NOT to go door to door but they did allow the girls to do a "Walkabout" day with several adults registered with the Girl Scouts that have a security clearance.

We take our girls as a troop to sell door to door as well as doing cookie booths. I also had my daughter help me create a poster in Publisher to post to fb. She had to write up her goals, explain what the troop is doing with the proceeds, explain the Operation Taste of Home program and is responsible for writing up the orders we are receiving via fb.

Peace and Blessings,
Mom2M&Ms

Are you actually stating that by putting it on facebook makes this women not a good mother? You said you were surprised because this is a good mother? You recall going door to door. When back in the 70s? Do you watch the news? Do you know how many sex offenders their are. Or the sad truth people do not answer their doors anymore for strangers? Even children. My god.... mind your own buisness.

Would you allow your 8 year old daughter go door to door in your neighborhood to sell her boxes of cookies? We used to go in pairs.
I would not feel comfortable with this today.

Also Selling at a store is great, but not every store allows it. If there are lots of girl Scouts in the area, you can imagine how hard it is to book a spot.

I recall my very intelligent, clever mother, back in the day, called the GS council to find out what parts f town did not have a Girl Scout Troop.

She then called those neighborhood Grocery stores to set up times and dates for us to sell. These were older neighborhoods with not many children. She then had us dress in our uniforms.. We practiced our sales pitches and we ended up selling 149 CASES each. Yep got 2 full weeks of summer camp!

Now, I have been told they do not allow this. Girl Scouts have to stay in their zones.. But look into it, in case it is not the same where you live.

Here is a hint to all of your Girl Scout parents.

When your girls are selling have them do the typical "Hello, we are selling GS cookies for our troop number (insert number). We attend (Insert name of neighborhood school). Here are the cookies that we are selling."

When asked how much, they answer "Only $ 0.00 for a box! " When the person decides on a flavor, have your daughter then ask," how many boxes would you like?"

When a flavor gets down to less than 4 boxes, have the girls make a little sign that says.. "Only 4 boxes of Thin mints left!"

Also remind them to say "thank you", whether someone buys cookies or not. Make sure they smile, make sure they look people in the eyes and make sure they look and act like they want to be there.

Good luck!

I posted on my FB page that my daughter was selling GS cookies (she is a brownie) so that my family has a chance to purchase them, I did add on there that I was only mentioning it. We live in a rural area in central Florida and there is no way she can go door to door on my street (all the properties are no less then 5 acres with gated entries). I thought about going to one of the developments near by but most of the homes are short term vacation so that wont work either.

Maybe this is one way in which technology has changed our world. It used to be that we saw the Girl Scout cookie girls outside the store with their table set up or they knocked on our door. I know my nieces send us order requests, and I can tell that they took the time to address them on their own.

My guess would be that some people thought "it can make more money for GS or a worthy cause, so what does it hurt?" and that Facebook is convenient for many moms.

ETA: interesting to read that so door to door is considered dangerous now. So sad!

Eh, when I was younger and single and lived in an apartment in a very urban area, I appreciated this because I didn't live in a neighborhood where kids would knock on the door. But I love GS cookies, and appreciated the opportunity to buy them. It's no different from parents taking the order form to work and leaving it on the break room table - which I think has always been really common, even before the advent of FB.

I don't think it's a big deal.

Every year my daughter goes door to door. I don't really like FB so I wouldn't post there plus most of my friends and family either have scouts or live to far away. Still I sell them at work and my husband sells them at work as well.

It isn't that my daughter doesn't sell them, we just help.

This is my dd's third year selling. She has gained confidence each year. She started by just asking family to sell the first year. her second year she said she would like to go to our neighbors who know us and that we trust, this year it has been too cold but she has a plan to go to the houses 2 doors down on each side that we know of the families but just wave hi not stand and chat for 20 mins. I always go with her and stand in eye sight while she goes up the steps and I wait for her and step in if needed.

It is also very interesting to hear her discuss the troops plans for the proceeds and how they all arrived at an agreement.

I do take the order sheet to my work she writes a note introducing herself and why she is selling. And I do post it on fb ( lol I posted a few days ago that I am one of the few people that is only fb friends with people who are actually my friends in real life, all 30 of them) If someone on fb is interested I usually have dd call them and confirm the order. I've made sure to teach her phone skills as well.

I could be wrong but in my area the days of going door to door is LONG Past like 20 years Long past. any fundraising is done through friends an family. when your dd is older and if she is involved in school fundraising or sports fundraising, or something like scouting, I think you will also ask friends and family on her behalf, ( or if you are lucky by that time society will move to flat fees and do away with all fundraising Period).

I am fine with mothers placing orders. I came back to edit: I'm fine w them placing orders to people THEY KNOW not someone they went to hs with 35 yrs ago and have seen once since then.

Times have changed. Many no longer feel it is safe to send children door to door for sales. Also, we use the internet for more and more things. And you don't know the girl did not do the work, she may have help design the FB request/ad, and I am sure she will be delivering and collecting money. She is also likely helping with public sales, here they mostly set up in front of stores like Walmart.

I think it's mainly because the selling procedures have changed.

Mamas understandably don't want their children going so public on FB; they'd rather do the selling on their daughters' behalf. I believe Scouts are discouraged from going door to door, so that time-honored procedure is out. Our granddaughters call us personally about spending our money, and they talk personally to their nearest neighbors, their parents' adult friends, and their teachers. I see troop members selling outside (or inside) businesses as well.

I'm revealing my age here - but back in the dinosaur days when I was a Scout, we were encouraged to go door to door ourselves in our own neighborhoods, but were not allowed to go into businesses. My dad would take all the paperwork down to his office and get orders for us.

I will always buy from a girl who came door to door. I sometimes buy at Walmart. I often will buy from co-workers as I recall co-workers supporting my son's various sales.

Our organization only lets the kids take orders from family and friends. Parents have to sell the stuff or they end up buying it. Each kiddo has to sell a quota so it's one way or the other.

Ours go to the doors of Walmart and sell tons and tons and tons of cookies. They do it weeks in a row and the whole organization takes turns with their own group. So everyone benefits.

Parents have always taken the cookie forms to their work. Facebook has just opened up another opportunity for parents to support sales without as much direct pressure. Kids still often participate in direct sales activities (a lot of troupes rotate sales shifts outside of local venues etc). But most parents don't feel safe letting their kids go door to door anymore. Girl scout cookie sales have changed a bit, as has the world. I wouldn't judge.

When I participated in a school fundraiser as a child, I raised a lot of money myself, but it was because my father allowed me to contact his friends over the phone. No one could say no to a kid, which in retrospect was unfair. Yes, I did the work, but I also coerced people into giving more money than they probably should have, just because it made them feel guilty to turn me down. My mother never would have let me walk around our neighborhood to solicit, for safety concerns (the neighborhood was 'safe', some neighbors, less so). You can look at cookie sales and other kid lead fundraising from more than one direction. I would just trust that parents are using their best judgement and trying to do their best by their kids, generally.

My younger daughter has "sold" them for 3 years with most of the orders coming from my coworkers --people that she has met once or twice at most. She does make direct sales to our family, friends, and closest neighbors, but they are largely people who will buy a box or two to humor her. Whereas my coworkers will place orders for an entire case apiece!
We did two outdoor booth sales that our troop leader arranged at a local grocery store in near-freezing January/February that left us both sick for weeks afterwards so we won't be doing those again.
My older daughter was able to sell individual boxes to classmates, teachers, tutors, coaches, etc, during her years in GS. However, only my parents ever bought whole cases from her. She could not roam our neighborhood selling because of the number of sex-offenders in our zip code as well as cars speeding through because our side street is a shortcut between two major MoCo roads.

My son recently sold popcorn for Cub Scouts. My husband took the order form to work, and sold many boxes there. I wasn't thrilled, because I agree that it should be my son's job to do the selling.

My soon did go door to door in our neighborhood and in my parents' neighborhood. He sold to 5 people total. Hardly anyone was home. But I thought it was really important that he have that experience.

I'm really not worried about anything happening to our son ... other than wasting his time knocking on doors when no one is home. Even I started to get discouraged.

Good thing my husband did sell popcorn at work. As it was our son just barely sold the minimum requirement.

When I was in brownies and girl scouts (25-30 ears ago - YIKES!) I would write a letter introducing myself and my dad would take it to work and put it in the teachers' lounge at the school he taught at.

I have friends who do this. I actually feel LESS pressure to buy them. I DO like that I can buy from friends that are now farther away so their kids would be able to come over for me to order. She just brings them when she comes into town later in the year.

Girl scouts do n ot allow the kids to go door to door. They are encouraged to sell within there family / friends circle. why on earth would they not put out a note saying hey we are selling girlscout cookies. i don't think its a problem
if you don't want them just say thanks but no thanks. and let it go. your friend will not have a problem with that unless you have hit her up with stuff to sell for your kids.

I'm like J. S below - we DO go door to door. My daughter doesn't go by herself - I end up losing a big chunk of my Saturday going with her. For the most part I wait on the sidewalk now (she is 11), but when she was younger I went up to the door with her. It was a GREAT way to meet people in my neighborhood that I would not have met otherwise.

And our council doesn't say anything at all to discourage door to door. I just think most people don't do it any more because it is not easy.

I also put the word out on Facebook but we don't get many sales that way. Most of my friends are far away.

It's your opinion that mothers shouldn't sell for their kids. Not everyone shares your opinion. It bothers me that you are judging her for this. How would you feel if someone said about you that you're a wonderful person who normally doesn't think that others have to come up to "your standards"?

Your standards aren't the be all, end all.

I do not have a girl scout, but I do have two cub scouts. We sell popcorn. We do go door to door, but with the economy we get A LOT of no's. Plus going door to door cost's money in gas of driving to all these places to sell enough. Times are tough and camps cost a TON!! My hubby and I both have full time jobs, but I do not make enough to send them to the camps with out the help of the money we get by selling the popcorn. Plus out pack needs the money to keep going as well. Each tin of popcorn costs about between $5 and $20 and we have to sell $3,500 (both boys together) to pay for most events throughout the year. That is a TON of popcorn to sell so I help out, my mom helps, and so does my husbands sister. I look at it as teaching my kids that when you need something being a family means coming together and helping each other out.

The Facebook posting was probably a suggestion by the troop or the Girl Scout Council to reach people interested in buying Girl Scout cookies. It is my guess that they suggested the parents post on parent Facebook page, not on a child's page. Girl Scouts has changed a lot - today I heard cookies are $4 a box. (when I sold them in the early 1960's, they were 50 cents a box)) ((Oh, NO! I was a Girl Scout more than 50 years ago!!) I also spent time as a Girl Scout Leader more recently. We encouraged the girls to sell to family and friends and neighbors that they knew (accompanied by an adult). We also did troop sales at a local grocery store. The internet and Facebook are just new marketing tools to sell things. The girls are more tech savvy now so I think this is a natural extension. However, I was wondering how much of the $4 box goes to the individual troop (or is it credited per girl) vs. the local Girl Scout Council vs the national Girl Scout Council vs. the actual cost of the cookies????

I have a daughter that is a junior scout and on Saturday, i posted on FB that pre orders were going on. I have lots of family and friends on fb that order. My daughter also goes to my friends business and solicits pre orders. (they are waiting for her in fact. lol) She sold 300 boxes there alone last year. She also does booth sales.
When the cookies arrive she puts them in order and we go deliver them.
I guess I am lucky as our troop does not put any pressure on the girls to sell, each girl comes up with their own goal. The only requirement is that each girl attends 2 booth sales. There should be no pressure to buy, if you want them buy them, if you dont dont. The girl at my work never buys directly from me or my other coworker, she prefers to buy at a booth sale. It is your choice who you buy for.
I think personally it is easier to understand if you are directly involved in scouting.

Many blessings

When I was a GS, my mom and I went door-to-door. If I didn't want to go, I didn't sell cookies. She never took an order on my behalf.

When I became a GS leader, I insisted that the girls in our troop be involved in every order in some way. My daughter and I went door-to-door, visited local small business merchants to ask them to order cookies in their shops, and put up signs in my DH and my work places, and even in those of a couple of our close friends. We also ordered extra boxes of the best sellers to cart around door-to-door and around town after the presales had ended. As I said, she had to be involved in every sale in some way. That meant that she had to speak to the merchants and others herself, and she had to make the signs that we put up in work places. She also had to be responsible for tracking all orders and personally delivered every single one. It was up to her to develop her sales pitch and to learn how to close a sale. Obviously, when she was very young she had some help from me, and as she grew older and more experienced she handled these things on her own. By the time she was a junior scout (4th grade), she routinely sold over 1000 boxes each year. (BTW, a great trick for boosting sales is to ask people buy boxes to donate to the Gift of Caring. Some people will increase their orders by a box or two. Others who don't want the cookies for themselves would often buy boxes to donate, which would turn noncustomers into customers.)

GS is a place for girls to grow and learn multiple skills--especially leadership skills. When parents take over these projects, it doesn't benefit the girls. Many female business leaders have spoken about how GScouting was an integral part of building their love of business and was important to their success. This has been true for my DD. She really enjoyed the "cookie business," and her early experience and success motivated her to pursue business studies in college, where she is now majoring in corporate finance. Following through with the program has greatly contributed, I think, to the development of her internal drive and determination to succeed. Why would any parent want to deprive her child of that opportunity?

Ugh, technology now days...