The most WONDERFUL time of the year isn't over because in just a few days Girl Scouts throughout western Pennsylvania will be hitting the pavements to begin taking Girl Scout Cookie orders.
While the money our troops earn through this time-honored program is pretty sweet, let's instead focus on how we can use the program to help our girls further grow their leadership experience.
Our Girl Scout councils remind us constantly that the five skills Girl Scouts learn through the Girl Scout Cookie Program are an important component of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience.
- Goal Setting
- Decision Making
- Money Management
- People Skills
- Business Ethics
It's great to talk about these skills (Parents certainly like to hear about it don't they???). But really, if you think about all that goes on before, during, and after the sale, the girls really are learning this stuff. They're learning by doing (btw...academics call this experiential learning).
I'd like to make this blog post a bit more practical...
Girl Scout troops - young and old - are to be girl led. That means that the GIRLS (not the parents) should be deciding as a group as to what they want to learn and explore as Girl Scouts. The leaders' role is to help guide the girls as they set goals, make decisions, and manage their money.
How can we teach our girls...especially our younger Daisies and Brownies...about goal setting, decision making, and money management (we'll focus on people skills and business ethics in an upcoming post)? Several years ago one of my older Girl Scouts (Shelly - she's now a Senior Girl Scout) and I came up with a really cool activity to do with younger girls who are less apt to be able to comprehend large dollar amounts. Let's be honest, if you ask your girls what they want to do as a troop, at least a few of the girls are going to say "We want to go to Disney World" or some other far off and often times out-of-reach financially location. Here's an activity you can complete in less than one meeting.
(1.) As a leader or parent volunteer, create a list of typical Girl Scout activities appropriate for your
troop's age (i.e. roller skating party, sleepover at a museum or zoo, trip to an amusement park, troop camping, Girl Scout summer camp, spa day, etc.). Research how much each activity will cost per girl (if you have an older girl troop - Juniors and/or above - have them brainstorm a list of typical troop activities and have the girls research how much the activity costs per girl).
(2.) Write each activity on one side of an index card.
(3.) On the back side of the index card write the cost per girl and equate that to a number of boxes each girl would have to sell in order to raise that much money.
EXAMPLE: Zoo Sleepover = $38/girl. In my council we receive $.70/box of cookies. Therefore, each girl would have to sell 55 boxes to raise enough money to have a sleepover at the zoo.
(4.) Make three sets of your activity cards.
(5.) Divide your girls into three smaller groups and give each group a set of activity cards.
(6.) Tell the girls to only look at the front side of the cards and pick the activities they would like to do as a troop.
(7.) Once each group picks their activities, have them turn over the cards and add up the number of boxes they would each need to sell to do those activities.
(8.) Ask the girls if that sounds like a realistic goal. Is this something they could manage selling? You might also want to use this time to talk about how many boxes the troop sold last year.
(9.) If the activities the girls want to do cost too much money (i.e. the number of boxes of cookies that they would need to sell is unrealistic), then talk to the girls about things you might do to be able to do these activities (i.e. maybe hold one or two more cookie booth sales, remove one of the more costly activities and replace it with something less expensive, etc.).
This activity helps the girls to understand what is realistic to plan for and what isn't realistic. This activity also helps the girls - as a troop - make decisions as to the types of activities they'd like to do and what they may need to save for another year.
As your girls get older you can begin to introduce the idea of saving some money from this year's cookie sale to put towards an activity in a future year (i.e. in my troop we've been saving for over to two years to go to on a trip to Savannah, Georgia in July 2016).
This is just one activity that we do in my troop. In fact, we're going to be doing this activity at our Service Unit Cookie Rally on December 30th.
What activities do you do in your troop to teach goal setting, decision making, and money management? Post your ideas in the comments section.
