Business Ethics and the Girl Scout Cookie Program

In my last post I talked about a way you can introduce goal setting, decision making, and money management to your troop. Now I'd like to address a fourth component of the Girl Scout Cookie program - Business Ethics.

Every council sets their own start and end dates for their cookie program. Here in western Pennsylvania, our program begins on January 8, 2016. That means that girls are not able to sell cookies until January 8th (actually, in the Central Westmoreland Service Unit we go a step further and set the start date as January 8, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. EST). 

The start date (and time) is an integral component of teaching business ethics to your girls. 

We set a start date (and time) to ensure fairness for all girls. Some troops received their cookie packets (order forms, etc.) in November. Others didn't receive their's until December. Some won't receive their's until the first week of January. Without a set start date (and time), you could start your sale as soon as you receive your order forms - giving your girls an unfair advantage over those troops that don't receive their forms until later.

It's important that you stress the importance of the start date (and time) with your girls. Teach them the importance of business ethics and use the start date (and time) as an example of having good business ethics.