Program Comments
Comments are presented "as is" from the survey. They have not been edited for spelling or grammar.
- the leader guides do not match the girl journeys. It is very frustrating to try to put them together and follow them. I am a teacher and this is horrible to use to try to teach
- like STEM but stop making it touch everything. Girls don't always want to learn every single time they come to scouts. Sometimes they want to have fun
- Not every girl can be or wants to be molded into a leader. How do these girls learn to sew on a button or cook a decent meal? It's not in home ec. There are real life skills that are not being taught to this generation of GS.
- In my camp, the GS Promise and GS laws are not posted anywhere on the property. Many of our staff are not Girl Scouts. I believe that GS principles should be reflected at every level, not just on troop level.
- It's all about camp.
- Talking to others around the country I do not think the leadership portion of the program is communicated well. People seem to think it is only to create CEOs ... when it is leadership in any aspect a girl chooses. This lack of understanding needs to be addressed. 2) The recent push for the 5 skills of the cookie sale is good, but it also has not reached the troop level. Girls (and their parents) sell to raise $$ for the troop and to get the incentives. Goal setting and the others are not as central as they should be. And when girls and parents say they are freezing at winter booth sales and we are told the sale time will not change because that's when the membership numbers are finally met .... this just appears that selling cookies is really and only about funding the council programs. 3) I like the Journeys (and I liked Studio 2B) but they are not consistent. If they are supposed to support the GSLE and the Discover-Connect-Take Action process, then the internal badges need to be named D-C-TA or at least state clearly that what each represents. And some, like MeDia, has the Take Action project in the middle. This is confusing to leaders and to girls. 4) The girls, at least in my area, are sick of self esteem programs. They get it at school to no end. They have self esteem. They want action.
- About all that is seen in the public about Girl Scouting is cookies. It is sad that Girl Scouting is not known for its outdoor programs and service as it was years ago.
- I would like to see more council-led programs available in our area of the council.
- I would only advocate some other national product sales program as: it's either magazines (good - literacy focus) or cookies and candy. Cookies and candy are not healthy. How about dried smoothie mixes in the GS Cookie flavors? (a mint choc, a caramel nut, a very berry, a vanilla) Easy to manufacture, ship, carry... and a healthier option. I have not seen something like that before either. GSUSA has to come up with a new product that no one else is doing and doesn't compete with PTO and Church offerings.
- We miss the old days when there were more badges available to earn. For older girls, there are so few choices of badges to work on that they have a hard time finding something they want to do. They do not like the Journeys, so they are only doing the bare minimum required.
- As a scientist, I can say that girls can get plenty of STEM at school or other ways. We need to do more of what separates us from other organizations, not makes us more like them.
- We joined to join my mom who was a member back in the 40s. While we realize change is necessary, we don't like the direction that this organization seems to be headed. We like the traditions - there was nothing wrong with that....
- I hope that GSUSA is listening to its membership. It needs to stop doing its own polling also and use an independent service. Also, GSUSA needs to allow its Membership to vote on important issues and make it easier for Members and Volunteers to know about governance and how to be heard statewide and nationally so they can help with good Girl Scout program.
- We need more programs to get the girls outside, they have way to much inside with all the school work. Scouting should be about fun not more book work like school. Lets teach them life skills. The Award Program for Gold needs to be relooked at. Why is it the Boy Scouts have more Eagles then GS has Gold.. Our SU had 8 girls cross into Adult hood last year and not one of them was Gold. Why? It's to hard to get approved. One of the above girls submitted 3 projects and all we're turned down she just gave up. So will they return to be leaders themselves probably not.. Or at least not till they are mom's.
- Cookies - as troop leaders we are pimping out our girls to sell cookies. We spend a lot of time and energy doing this. The girls deserve better than .60 to 1.00 a box.
- I wish there were more outdoor activities for the younger girls.
- I am the head leader of a virtual online troop. I'm finding it impossible to do any sales because we span over 3 countries and 5 states. Councils and National, at this point in time, are not communicating at all with us in helping our girls participate in any program because we have to have 1 "delivery" point and the cost of shipping after that must be out of our own pockets. It's bad enough that we get very little commission out of any sales through the GSUSA, but they're making us go bankrupt or have us spend money out of our pockets to participate in selling.
- You can't teach leadership, no matter how much you try. Leadership is something you DEVELOP by learning new skills and sharing them. And not everyone can be a CEO. Someone has to be minding the store, so to speak.
- Due to the regulations and technical requirements for cookies, I find it difficult to allow the girls to take any leadership roles during cookie sales. As a leader, the online paperwork confines it to the troop leader only and the consequences of mistakes too risky to allow elementary aged girls to handle much more than the actual pre-orders and booth sales. Also, the with the program beginning during the holidays, it is difficult to coordinate with troop members as many of them are unavailable during the last couple of weeks of the year. Cookie program should be pushed back a month.
- Granted, many of the badges that already existed needed anything from a tweaking to a full reboot, but I think GSUSA went overboard by throwing them all out and starting over. The current badges are *very* limited, even if most programs went from three to two years.
- I have been a girl scout myself. My daughter did all 13 years and each time a new program came out we lost girls! They felt let down and abandoned. I am starting over now with a new group, and it's interesting to see how they are doing... leaders can make things fun (if we don't just do what is written). I also help at an outdoor daycamp and we can't do ANY programming for them anymore! It's a joke! Teach them something they DON'T do in school!
- On the cookie issue, I believe that it was great when it was started, but I don't feel it is safe to go door to door any longer. I am sure that they are being taught safety precautions though. However, there are other ways to teach financial literacy. Just concerned with the girls safety.
- Wish council would have more programs. Heart of MI has a ton. Camps open year round. Great programs not cheesy.
- Cookies sell themselves. By far, the most successful Girl Scout fundraising. Why try to fix something that isn't broken? PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE find another type of Fall Product. Magazines and nut/candy? Our children are already being told to peddle these items at school, for athletics, etc. Why not sell the Nestle GS cookie candy bars that can be found in any store? Take them out of the stores, put them into the hands of the girls. Far more would sell, and they'd be a great "tide you over until Cookie Season" incentive for ppl to buy. And, Programs in general....Our council programs have in the past been so dang expensive to attend. THANKFULLY, I am finally seeing fun programs at reasonable prices ($15-20 per girl, as opposed to $35-40 per girl). Let's keep this up! Also, Cookie Sales. Incentives...Juniors should be able to "opt out" of prizes. They are too "baby-ish" for girls this age ("baby-ish" stated by my own Juniors, both 4th and 5th grade) and the extra $.05 a box will go a LONG way towards girls doing things they want to do as opposed to getting prizes they didn't even care about earning.
- The cookie program is good however I wish Girl Scouts was known more for there Gold Award and community service than cookies
- With school home work does not leave much time for things like when we were kids. Kid now a days have more homework to do.
- I have always supported the events that get my daughter to try a new activity or experience. The girls are so wrapped up in technology and their parents are too busy to get the girls out and about that scouting presents an opportunity for the girls to experience what we all took for granted growing up. By that I mean getting outside and doing something!
- My daughters joined Girl Scouts because I was a Girl Scout from 2-5th grade and enjoyed it. Today's program is not enjoyable. I lead a troop in Germany. We have tremendous travel opportunities and our troop takes advantage of many of them. A girl who moved back to the US wrote a paper to her new leader talking about all of the things that she did in our troop. The paper was all about the travel. The program didn't come up once. Not the Journey. Not the badges. Just the travel.
- I think each program should be sent out by email and have more advertising, on who to contact to get into the program MONTHLY.
- Perhaps spelling opportunities correctly would be a good thing.
- More STEM is great, but just make it about the science, not "girls in science". (I'm an engineer, nothing is worse than feeling like we aren't good enough for regular science - just girl science). More outdoors. More FUN for them. Take things away from the central councils, too. It's 45 minutes to an hour for us to get to anything. I have Brownies and we've not started the financial literacy badges yet. I think that the Daisy leaves were fairly decent for that age group.
- I understand the new GS direction on subtainibility (sp) if gets very hard to find Silver or Gold Award projects that you can do that with in the large town I live in, plus at least one high school out of 5 makes every Senior do a Quest project which is just like a Gold or Eagle project. Also by making it out outside of GS, we have lost a lot of service unit events. No longer can a group of girls put in a event for Daisy's or Juniors, they have to go to a different group in the area. This gets hard to find a group, to get permission and some girls need the opportunity to do those types of projects, but they don't have the skills to pull a large one outside of Girl scouting. Every girls should be able to do Silver or Gold to the best of their ability and the new standards for Silver and Gold make they feel like they don't have the ability to do it.
- Please create an Outdoor stem!
- You took all the fun out -choices
- I am concerned that GSUSA has become more like a business for the individual troops and less and less volunteer friendly. The girls are complaining that it is more like school with uninteresting projects required to earn journeys and going for the summit. I have been involved in scouting for over 50 years off and on, and the recent change is overwhelming, somewhat confusing and not as exciting as the old program. It seems to be like a pyramid with Gold at the top. So much was dropped that made scouting fun and exciting...
- Well the idea of "identical" experiences might be appealing, that is NOT how it is in the real world. No two troops approach the program the same way. With the trend for "micro-sized troops" even girls and adults to take two vans, much of the traditional methods of the historical Girl Scouting experience can not be done today.
- When I was a leader I really liked the journeys because they were easy to modify to meet the needs and wants of my troop. It seemed to me the leaders who were complaining about them didn't understand how to modify them or were scared to modify them. It would be nice if there were more journeys in other interest areas so troops would have more options.
- I don't think the cookie program teaches the girls ANY financial literacy - the leaders do all of the work. And then the money goes to pay salaries, etc rather than going to the girls or to camps or to programming on the troop level.
- Our council is currently failing in program options for our girls.
- The cookie program doesn't help the girls because we can no longer use it as a major money earner. The time of year changed, the booth sale rules changed to earn money for council while the average troop makes very little. We used to love the cookies, now we have to be careful not to loose money on the booth sales. We change the journeys to fit our needs, but find them stifling and too long. We do the badges that let the girls explore interests and find their passions, and turn those passions into service projects that build leadership, but we don't get much help from council.
- The amount of available programs for each level is not balanced. There are little amount for daisies compare to higher levels. Too many indoor arts and crafts even with active troops. I thought Girl Scouts are about getting out there learning about outdoors and doing service project for the community. At the same time, building courage, character, and confidence. We should be shaping the girls to be scientist, lawmakers, engineers, etc.
- The financial badges are good. The idea of a Journey (discover, connect, take action) is good but the three choices are too limiting. My troop has found it doesn't use the GSUSA resources for the material as it becomes too much like school.
- My daughter Troops have not done many service projects - I however actually anticipated more of that as she progressed in scouting along with more opportunities to go to summer camp with progressive outdoor skill experiences, like canoeing & backpacking trips, with some primitive camp. I was not happy that the experience at camp this past summer in a session called Night Owls included a movie she has seen at home a dozen time, instead of a night sleeping out under the stars or taking night hike.
- I think all those incentives should be optional for ALL levels. I think how good the cookie program is in any given troop depends on the Leader's direction.
- The journeys are too much like homework. Too much talking, not enough action. My girls only do them because they're required to do the major awards. They also don't like the badges. There are so few of them, and the things you have to do them are boring.
- Programs very often cancelled due to lack of enrollment. Very frustrating or my troop so we do many activities direct with a business.
- Very disappointed in the selection of badges, the journeys, the emphasis on cookies...I had a troop of 24 girls for years -- until the journeys arrived. They loved the badge route required for the Bronze, and I oversaw 6 different projects -- all customized for their different interests. When time for the Silver came, I lost half my troop because they hated the mandatory journey and the new Silver. I am now down to 10 girls -- we hardly meet now, except for social activities. We're trying to arrange an overnight to bang out the Journey so they can work on Gold. If we can't get it done in a weekend, I have only 2 girls who will remain. This sentiment abounds around here.
- The flower friends journey for daisies is unrealistic for ppl who live in cold climates. Hey lets plant a community garden in feb. Not happening!
- One thing that most troops don't seek out is leadership opportunities. Many troops operate as little islands just doing things with their own members and not seeking out greater opportunities within their neighborhoods. But it's really hard to learn leadership in that setting. Things like LIA are offered, but not stressed within our program. Boy Scouts have a much better system set up since they operate in a multi-age setting more often. I wish Girl Scouts had a more natural way to encourage this kind of cooperation between troops. Because unless a troop leader seeks it out, many of them don't even know about opportunities like Junior Aide, Cadette Leadership, etc. Many of them don't even earn their bridges!
- Girls should be able to earn money in simpler ways (selling candy bars, etc.) that doesn't completely exhaust the adult troop volunteers. Cookies are fine but we lose at least 4 meetings getting prepared, talking about booths, collecting forms and money, etc.
- Bring back the "leaf" for adult enhancement hours - they were fun!
- What happened to wider opportunities? They were great!
- I want to see more outdoor programs, but no the way that the Journeys are set up. I liked the old method where the girls actually get their hands dirty and don't feel like they are back in school as the Journeys are laid out.
- Our council is very spread out and our area does not seem to get as much programming as our southern area which is frustrating. It is also very difficult to get people within our council to share their programs with us so we can duplicate them. We are 3 hours apart so we are not in competition for people attending the events.
- I pretty much rambled in the previous area, and all that I would say would duplicate what was already said. More nature, less electronic or research. The girls HAVE to be aware of their surroundings that doesn't depend on whether or not they have cell phone reception.
- I think the cookie program is too important to GSUSA. I have girls in my troop who choose not to sell cookies, so they miss out on that programming, which takes up 1/3 of our scouting year.
- I am truly saddened by the lack of outdoor programming and the various ways council discourages the use of our camp properties...from not informing volunteers of the opportunities to use them to not budgeting for their maintenance and upkeep. Very poor operational management overall.
- I've never been a fan of the journeys programs. I feel that if the girls are working and completing their badgework the journeys are redundant. 2) In terms of the cookie sales, the prices get higher, packaging gets smaller, but the percentage profits earned by the girls stay the same. I would like to see some type of flexibility in terms of cookie sales-longer booth sale period.
- outdoor programming offered by my council is fair to poor, but too expensive and not enough hands on. GS HAS to offer programming that the girls cannot get anywhere else, and that program should not be STEM (too much in school already), nor should it be only leadership, as there are already tons of leadership opportunities available in schools.
- I read a lot about leaders complaining about how GS has changed. I wasn't a scout as a girl, so I'm living my childhood now through my troops. My girls and I thoroughly love Girl Scouts and all the different things we try. I run my troops as "girl led" as I can. As 1st Juniors they are running most of their own meetings now and coming up with all kinds of new things to try. My Daisies had their meeting today and needed very little help after explaining what we were doing. They are now confident enough to just take over and do it. So proud of them!
- Bring back the fun of being a girl back into scouting. Don't make them grow up and take on adult type responsibilities. They will have enough of that before too long. There is too much emphasis on leadership. But most girls are not interested in leadership so scouting is losing them left and right. Make scouting for everyone, not just the perfect Dove candidates.
- Although I think the cookie program is a great way to teach financial literacy, not all troops involve every girl in the budgeting and goal setting portions of the program thus defeating some of the goals of the program. Other literacy programs such as teaching about savings, and how a penny doubled can compound exponentially, and for older girls, using checks and checkbooks and registers would be truly helpful for those ready to go on to college.
- Many good council-level programs fill up too quickly..
- My daughter purchased an older version of the Girl Scout handbook from 2001 at a local used book store, she loves to read it and asked, "Mom, why doesn't Girl Scouts do any of this? The new books are boring!?!" I follow the programs, add a lot via council own badge work (mostly from other councils) and make things interesting for my Troop, but really dislike the journeys and new handbooks.
- Outdoor programming should be more plentiful
- The journeys are horrible. The girls hate them and only do them because they must to earn the higher awards - bronze, silver and gold. As for cookies - my troop will not be doing booth sales this year and they will not be setting their troop goal to exceed last years sales. They feel $4 a box is outrageous. Smaller boxes the last few years, price increase and no increase in the profits for the girls - the ones who are out selling their butts off. In the middle of winter in our council. The girls do not want money to go to council since they are trying to break up our troop.
- Cookie sale is about the parents selling cookies, not the girls - at 8:00 a.m. in Suburban Station in Philadelphia, there are no Girl Scouts selling cookies - there are moms.
- If kids sell cookies, the money should go to maintain camps, not pay for salaries and office buildings. Good grief, people. Get it together. When I worked for the organization we made a modest living and had a vibrant, active group of volunteers who did a lot of work in troops and at camp.
- Cookies play too big of a role in gs. All the councils want is for the girls to sell cookies so they can have the money. It is rarely about the girls anymore. It is money, money, money. The girls dont enjoy the journeys and the new patch program is not as good or fun and it costs way too much money. Troops don't have that much money and $30 to $40 books are not where we need to spend the girls' hard earned money.
- Give them a taste of a lot of things and have cooperative efforts with other groups so the girls can pick the. Items they enjoy and continue on.
- Bring survival back the GS. I understand giving girls what they want, but all you needed to do was upgrade the badges. Journeys are a joke. we doing them in the simplest form so they can earn the higher awards.
- Scouting was an important part of my growing up and is now helping to shape my daughter's character. The cookie program is a good way to get the girls involved in the process of raising funds for the troop but it feels a bit superficial so far in our scouting experience as far as financial literacy tool. As first year juniors I feel they are only just getting to the point where we could process the tie in of raise money for x project and even then the process is so drawn out and really not handled at their level for them to see the direct connection between the cookie sales and the end goal. Particularly when they are selling boxes for $4 and only seeing pennies on the dollar for those sales go towards their goals.
- I don't have young kids anymore, my daughter completed her Gold Award. I asked her what was her most memorable memories and her response was Leadership, Service and the outdoor skills. She loved going over a frozen lake and learning how to do ice fishing, a badge she earned in her Jr. year. And, as an older girls she was fascinated when she learned how to build a shelter if she was ever stranded in the woods.
- I would like to see general badges that could be done for a multilevel troop. The new program is a little difficult to fulfill the requirements for multiple levels since each level actually does something different.
- Council keeps so much of the profit that it's hard to teach much financial literacy with less than 2% profit
- Financial literacy is NOT taught with Cookie sales. Honestly, teaching girls to work for a 17% profit margin is teaching them how to fail in business.
- Programs need to be based in communities, not in cities where rural service units find it more difficult to attend. The program needs to be smaller and less centered around council. Council has become a big business and seems more like government than a non profit organization. Emphasis should be placed on troops and community building instead of "financial literacy" and selling cookies.
- The girls like the petals, tri-its, and badges A LOT more than the journeys. The cost of the journey books is crazy and should come with the patches for that price. For a troop of 10 girls, it is very expensive to complete a journey.
- Nut sales are a waste of time, The amount of work that goes into the cookie sales with such a small return to the troop or SU is not teaching them a good message. When we break down the dollars a box of cookie sells for they are disappointed to see how little they get. The cookie program is not helping our girls when they see the "cookies" in the grocery in candy bars, ice cream and in the shelf under a large company name. Our council is wasting a huge amount of money for a concert with 5th dimension at an astronomical price to attend, obviously council does not understand the financial literacy program.
- Frankly if not for Girl Scout camps, Girl Scout summer resident camps, and Girl Scouts' relationship with WAGGGS (and the fact that I was a 12 year girl scout and lifetime member) I would have left for Frontier Girls. I prefer their badges and programming - BUT they don't have camps and world centers. However if Girl Scouts keeps selling camps and keeps cutting away at the variety of badges and ability to focus on trying new and different things and learning new skills and being exposed to new opportunities then ..... I may reach a point where I do leave - right now I am trying to change the program from within and focus my troop and my service unit on the things our girls want to do even if their are not the badges and the programming to support their desires to camp, back pack, travel, and explore new things.
- There is not enough emphasis on the outdoors, and not enough variety. Why do we need so many cookie badges and financial literacy badges?
- I do feel that cookies has been focused on too much. I do realize that cookies is essential to the success of Girl scouting, but all the new badges that relate to just cookies is a bit too much. Bring back some of the older outdoor skill badges
- The predominance of the cookie programs in Girl Scouts is an issue; when I went to the hundred year anniversary Girltopia event two years ago, an entire section of the conference room was devoted to cookies -- how to sell them, what are their nutrition facts, can you tell which one's which with your eyes closed. This was in contrast to the relative lack of camping and outdoors at the event. When I went to Camporee last year, the big events were a skit, a dance party, and a girl band performing in the evenings (plus a night hike); the daytime rotations were crafts, dance, songs, and either STEM or outdoors (I forget which). That's about 3/4th of the time at an outdoors campsite NOT focused on outdoors camping. There's a reason our main reputation as an organization is in our service and our fundraising, and why when I tell people I'm a Girl Scout the first question I get, invariably, is whether I sell cookies. People congratulate my brother on his eventual Eagle Scout award (years off, at this point) and have no clue what I'm referencing when I mention I've earned the Gold Award myself (which requires an equivalent amount of work). I'd like to, at some point, be able to tell people about being a Girl Scout and my accomplishments therein without all the comments about a fundraiser (one which is blown way out of proportion even within the organization itself). When Boy Scouts = camping and "Be Prepared" and Girl Scouts = cookies and crafting, there is a problem that needs to be addressed.
- Outdoor program is the one thing that sets Girl Scouting apart from any other girls youth program... Boys and Girls clubs, the YWCA, after school clubs all do a great job of self esteem, financial literacy, sports, and girly stuff... Only GS teaches gilts to survive in the wilderness. Every female astronaut who has bedmate to space and most women in the military have been Girl Scouts, ask them how you endure and survive!
- I find it concerning that parents are often the ones taking care of their child's GS cookie ordering these days. Because of this, another financial program should be in place for girls that parent's do not have influence over.
- Journeys are only tolerable if leaders do a ton of customization to fit their troops needs.
- I really LIKE the goal we have of trying to get girls to work together and lead their own troop is great. Girl Scouts should definitely focus on Service. And outdoor skills they will get no where else (unless their parents are into camping) The ability to explore interests are needful. And if I had to add a 5th... it would be community... bonding together as Girl Scout sisters. There should be no 'clicks' and we should get off the grid and learn how to work together to make the world a better place. (The other options above are good too... but some like self esteem will happen automatically if we are helping to groom the girls to be their best.)
- The cookie sale is the most successful fund raiser in the country and teaches the girls a great deal. Why not continue to keep a good thing instead of being critical of it?
- GSUSA needs to stop funding (WAGGGS) and promoting organizations that are contrary to their claim that they do not take a position on abortion, human sexuality and birth control. If they cannot stop funding and promoting such organizations, then be honest! Stop telling parents one thing and doing another. It's not the Girl Scout way. GSUSA is isolating a large part of their pro-life membership by continuing to do this - is it worth it?
- I was a Girl Scout from 1st grade to 12th (no Daisies back then) and I know the benefits to the program. Very good at building skills and at letting girls explore. That's why different "stuff" in the badges and outdoor skills are so important.
- Journeys are a sell out for grant money.
- The emphasis on cookies is ironic and out of control. What financial literacy are girls learning by setting up in front of grocery stores -- seems more a lesson in how to be opportunistic, selling to hungry people/people in search of food. GSUSA touts the lessons they teach the girls about finances, yet the organization is a financial mess! Apply the lesson to GSUSA, instead of looking to the government for a solution.
- The journeys could be better in that the structure within the book is not organized at all. It jumps around a lot and is hard to navigate on a particular idea of focus. Kids tend to have a lot if book work and homework in school these days. When they see another workbook, it is a turn off. I try to copy items and hand them out if it relates to the idea we are focusing on and use the hands on activities
- Working independently in committees to make decisions about activities and carry them out definitely increases self-esteem. Learning camping skills increases self-efficacy.
- I believe when the cookie program is presented to the girls the way it was designed to be, the girls increase their financial literacy. However, not all leaders do this.
- Is it the intent of GS to teach financial literacy or simply to introduce the concept, as is such with the patches/badges? Either way, the reality of cookie sales is that the girls do very little learning about financial literacy (especially at the younger ages), parents do the majority of the selling and it's all about the cheap, made-in-china prizes (same with the nut and candy sale). We sold the minimum nuts/candy required to earn the patch and nothing more- if the troop needs funds to do activities I would much rather simply chip in an extra $10 each semester than have to deal with the hassle of selling nuts/candy or cookies- our family would prefer to spend that time doing things that have value for our family. When cookie sales come, if she's even still in GS/hasn't changed programs, again, we (notice I said "we") will sell the minimum for her patch and that's it.
- I'm also frustrated at Girl Scouts for their fussiness about what is a "correct" project for service awards. My daughter will never get a Silver award, and is unlikely to go after a Gold award, after having her project squashed by Council. My daughter is very bright, and mainstreamed Aspergers, and was having trouble getting traction with the sort of project that her peers were doing in groups. So, with her wonderful leader, who has made it possible for her to be mainstreamed in Scouting, they came up with a project tailored to her needs and skills, building a tracking tool for youth to use in service projects, initially focused on Scout awards. It was rejected because it was not focused on our immediate community, because it did something related to Girl Scouts, and because "National wants to build its own tool". So, congratulations GSUSA...a gifted but struggling 8th grader simply gave up on doing a service project, because the curriculum rules have been built to drive girls toward a specific leadership development goal. Girl Scouting told her "No", and I feel very let down.
- I think Leadership skills are important, but maybe should not be the sole focus. Leadership skills are developed as a byproduct of most everything else. STEM activities, again, are more school based and the girls will choose more 'fun' activities over those.
- Leaders need to get over their fear of journeys. Training and opportunities to explore journeys together help to broaden the view of the journeys in the eyes of the new leaders.
- I like that the Journeys promote leadership skills. The girls just don't find them interesting to earn. Don't understand how some of the badges relate to the journey they are paired up with. Why aren't the journey activity sets included with the handbook? Girls want to do the badges and not always the journey. More cost to girls/parents.
- The Journeys are awful. They are badges on steroids. They are harder to get, so the girls can't have the satisfaction of accumulating several of them. And they are just too involved. With badges & interest projects, you can have several going on at once, allowing for different interests & levels of participation depending on the subject matter & ability to commit. With one huge project, it's too narrow & girls will be excluded. Also, with journeys being the only prerequisite for Bronze, Silver, & Gold Awards, they are too easy to earn. Nearly as easy as Eagle scout.
- I signed my daughter up for GS because she wanted to join and because I truly value my experience in girl scouts. I was given many opportunities and developed skills and confidence that helped me become the person I am today. I would like my daughter to have a similar experience. I loved camp and learning outdoor skills. I know there is a movement arguing that outdoor skills have been de-emphasized, but I don't think that is true. I love that GS is relevant to today's girls and includes STEM opportunities. As a leader, I personally find the camping aspects challenging because troops are smaller than when I was a girl and there are a lot of chores that a troop must complete when camping at a GS camp --- which with smaller numbers means a lot of work for little girls. 2)Another comment -- I feel like GS programming is very expensive and a money making venture. I liked having handbooks that included all of the badges. The programming now recommends an expensive handbook that contains legacy badges, additional purchases for the interest badges, and additional purchases for the journeys. No longer can girls just look through the book and earn badges that interest them on their own because girls do not own the entire curriculum. Plus, the handbook is not big enough to hold all of the badges. It does not make sense to sell everything separately, unless GS is just wanting to have more profit providing materials. Instead, my girls have a three ring binder and I provide them copies of the materials we will use. I feel like this is probably a violation of copyright, but I am downloading the material from a council website, so I assume it is okay. It also seems consistent with the general philosophy that expenses shouldn't prevent a girl from being able to participate in girl scouts. 3) I do teach my girls financial literacy skills, although we don't do it through the cookie program directly. We did not earn the leaves as daisies. We earned the Money Manager Badge and are earning the Philanthopist badge as brownies -- but this is not tied to the cookie program. Our cookie program takes place in January. We do booths in March. We get our money in late April. We bridge in May. This timing is completely out of sinc with troop programming. We use the money to pay for uniforms, bridging, and our budget for the next year. It is too long term and too big for the girls to get a real appreciation. During the course of the year, the girls keep track of our funds and help make decisions on how to spend troop money.
- My daughter did not say I like GS because it makes me a leader. She said it was fun, she liked earning the awards and loved camp and travel.
- Ask. The. Girl. Scouts. Because. We. Are. What. Count.
- Programs should help girls develop skills and explore activities that they can't get anywhere else. Especially for older girls, the ones that stay in scouting want opportunities to explore new and different skills, and leadership skills, in a safe, supportive environment of other women and girls. Girl Scouts gives girls a place to be themselves without worrying about how they look or dress with boys around.
- My girls are Ambassadors. We tried the Sow What Journey a few years ago. It was just okay so we didn't look into any more Journeys. We liked the badge books, but haven't used the new one yet. Our girls are more service oriented than award oriented.
- Cookies are a joke. Once you're past 4th grade nobody wants to buy cookies from an older girl. You're asking us to sell them in WINTER...how can we have a booth sale? It's child abuse! Parents can't sell them at work and you can't compete with girls in urban areas. Our SU is in a rural area and all of the incentives with our council are for SALES. The urban kids get all the benefits and it's disgusting. This year I'm boycotting selling cookies...shutting down our camps is inexcusable and it's just one way I can 'speak up'.
- The cookie program can be very useful for financial literacy skills. But i see a lot of parents and troop leaders taking over those roles from the scouts. The scouts aren't stepping up and doing it. The parents and leaders should be there to support and help and show the girls but it should be the girls doing it. Even when the adults are showing the girls it should be walking the girls though it step by step making the girls do what they say where the girls have the money in there hands.
- I think Journeys take away from the years of history with Girl Scouts and the traditions. The lack of emphasis on girls learning outdoor skills and entering areas that were predominately male dominated was a positive benefit of badges. Examples would be the backpacking interest project and others that were earned from badges as juniors to try-it's as brownies.
- Would like to see better self esteem programming. Not glam and glitz. And not farmed out to a third party cooperate sponsor with their own agenda.
- Outdoor programming and Camping should be a core "REQUIREMENT" of all program level award. This is sc"OUTING." Otherwise, drop the term "Scouts" and give it to BSA and let them develop Sc"OUTING" program for both Boys and Girls at all levels. Otherwise, we are just running a weekly Girl's Club.
- My daughter and troop enjoyed camping, travel, and the outdoors. We did a caving camporee with older girls from around the country, camped and backpacked with a leader on crutches (me), and took a Bahamas cruise.
- I sign the girls up so that they can have opportunities that they would not otherwise have like going to a Girl Scout camp where I know that they will be safe, learn how to survive on their own, depend on themselves to accomplish goals.
- I know she will have an amazing experience in what is available - so just leave it up to her to decide if we go or not.
- Cookies as "financial literacy" is a joke when one considers that girls turn over most of the earnings to council but have no say in what council will spend it on
- Put the girls back outside! Teach them some useful skills ... don't beat a dead horse to death. The badges are SO REPETITIVE that the girls get bored and leave.
- I think our concentration on STEM programming is hurting us. The girls are rebelling because they hear "STEM" and think "school." Also, as a woman with a job in the humanities (I am an historian) I am seeing more and more backlash against STEM-centric education. Pupils are coming through school with strong science backgrounds, but poor literacy skills and analytical skills and people are starting to notice. I hope this will lead to a more all-encompassing educational focus. I love the ideas of getting girls involved in STEM, but it shouldn't be our only concern. Also, we can't claim a commitment to STEM while dropping our outdoor/camp properties like hot rocks. It's hypocritical.
- To move away for only being know for the cookie program GSUSA needs to develop other financial literacy programs. Such as teaching daily living skill such as balancing a check book.
- I answered this because it is symptomatic of the problem - Girl Scouting has become too compartmentalized. The best program is when the adult adviser sits down with the girls, lets them discuss what they want to do and then helps them plan how to get there. The adviser should not add ideas unless none are forthcoming. She is there for advice over the rough spots, reminders about safety issues and aid in emergencies - Program should not be dependent on what GSUSA offers for purchase in a box.
- I am new to the Journey program. For Daisy level, it seems appropriate, but have trouble envisioning the use of Journey program for older girls. It is much improved over Studio 2B, but I really miss the "building block" approach to learning and then applying the skills.
- All girls including Daisies should be allowed to fully participate in Cookie Sale program, including the exchange of money. Most girls at the age of 5 or 6 has learned to count money in school and if not it is a great opportunity for them to do so under adult supervision.
- I would like to see the cookie program go away. My councils is sponsoring a live bank for $65/girl to kick off cookies. This has become the only important subject for my council. They are using the girls to sell, to support the paid staff. It is a shame. I have gotten so that I only do cookies because one of my parents likes to sell at work.
- The cookie program should not be dropped, but in my experience was not ever a way to learn about financial literacy. Another program(s) should be put into place to focus on that, or more financial focus and learning should be incorporated into the cookie program.
- The Journeys are confusing to volunteers who are used to "Do five steps and choose one of three activities for each step." I try in training to show how to approach a Journey and help the girls to choose the activities they want to do. The emphasis on Journeys should not be greater than the emphasis on Badges and I try to show how to work Badges into Journeys so they are doing both. Also, some of the Journey activities seem to have been chosen by people who have never worked with children. Make a paper mache birdbath with Daisies!! All they need it for is to put little slips of paper in They can do that with a decorated box.
- Camping was the ONLY reason we went to GS
- Science can definitely be learned in an outdoor program, especially environmental/earth science. This is a huge area/need of our future and will need people comfortable in the outdoors to work on it. Also, I went through two troops of very fine young leaders (as of today) and, from Cadettes on, they did very few badges/IPs, etc. But they learned to set goals and work through the goals. I think it is unrealistic to take away from the cookie financial literacy program because the girls today have so little time! This is a way to integrate such literacy into something we know they will be doing.
- I miss the variety of badges and the challenges that were available a generation ago. It seems there are far fewer badges and recognitions available.
- Thanks for asking! I think it is imperative that GS join the campaign to eat and live healthier. What are we teaching when we sell junk food that is killing people. Let's think of something NEW - something that fits the times and the need. Surely we can do better than this. We are Girl Scouts, after all - Leaders, not just a bunch of money hungry followers!
- Not enough emphasis on domestic skills and outdoor camping and survival. Take a look at the GS Handbook from around 1934. It teaches girls how to catch a burglar and wash white gloves. Now we teach our girls how to attend a spa and "hotel" camp. Young girls need to be better prepared for the real world academically but most importantly how to be a caring nurturing young lady. Something Girl Scouts has gotten away from but use to fill a gap in young girls lives.
- Many of the old badges were still good. And the rest needed minor tweaking. Girl Scouts threw the baby out with the bath water.
- The journeys hinder some girls from continuing gs in my troop.
- I am disappointed in the outdoor program and what it has turned into. GSUSA needs to get back to its core values. It is not the girls fault and nor should they suffer for GSUSA's poor financial management.
- Look beyond stem that is not going to get or keep girls if GSUSA heads in that direction and that direction only
- Travel in Girl Scouts is not important in our community. The girls go with the school groups at the High School level. STEM- good but it should not be the main focus. Bring Back "home ec" skills. Many parents don't know how to teach back sewing skills and will throw away a shirt because they don't know how to thread a needle.
- There should be a wider variety of badges offered at each level.
- I would like them to have an opportunity to explore things that they do not have the opportunity to explore in school. STEM, Financial Literacy, Leadership skills, and Self Esteem activities are prevalent in our school system. Outdoor programming is not as widely available in school. I want my girls to be active and get out and do things, not read about and discuss them. (I do feel the materials are good at what they are aimed to do.)
- Definitely did NOT join scouts just to sell cookies!!!
- Girl Scouts is big into financial literacy, but the organization itself seems to have failed miserably financially with so many councils having to sell off camps to bay bills SOMEONE should have seen coming!!! You can't spend money you don't have yet , HOPING your new program is going to attract a much larger membership!! ( hence, more income)
- there are to many programs don't suit the girls
- Program boring
- Our council offers too many programs near their headquarters and doesn't seem to care that this is too far to travel for the bulk of the members of said council.
- The organization is putting too much emphasis on cookie sales and making money and not enough emphasis on the girls and Girl Scout core values and know how. Too many rules and too much paperwork for leaders making it not an enjoyable program.
- All current research shows that young people are not learning how to make decisions--their parents do it for them. Concentrate on convincing leaders to let girls actually make their only plans and carry them out, instead of providing a travel/entertainment service. Recognize the vast array of skills built by camping activities, including planning, budgeting, teamwork, reaching consensus, research, etc.
- As a Gold Award recipient, I am concerned about the current Gold requirements - I would like to see a more-rounded programme that includes badges (a combination of required and girls' choice) and something similar to the old Girl Scout Challenges in addition to the Journey requirement (or instead of - I'm not a fan of the Journeys and neither are the girls I've worked with including my daughter - especially at the Junior and up level)
- Being with other girls in a positive setting
- The girls do not get truly interested on financial literacy as far as the the cookie program goes. At least they never did in my troop. This is my daughters first year after being off for several years. She just started being back and this is her first year that I am involved to see how she will handle the cookie program.
- Parents sell cookies more than girls from what I can tell. So the girls do not get that much out of it.
- More programs are needed for the outdoors.
- There is too much emphasis on selling cookies for a "big end of the year trip or for junky prizes." Cookie profits should be able to be used for all troop expenses, and not some big end of the year trip. Cookie profits should be a flat rate per box sold--will be better to budget for things and not have to have pressure on girls to sell X number of boxes so our troop can average X and get the high rate per box.
- I can see potential in the company partnerships. Loved the Barbie program book because it tied into the law and career exploration. Not fond of the Barilla program because it is more like advertising, it contradicts what they are taught in school about my plate vs pyramids, and doesn't seem to really tie into any programming (at least for daisies)
- Now that cookies can be ordered online, my girls aren't interested in selling - what a bummer to knock on a door and be told that they "already ordered." This must be a great driver of funds for GS but it does NOTHING for the girls.
- How much the girls learn from cookie and nut sales is dependent on the leader of the troop. We always had open discussions about what activities cost and how much money was in the troop treasury. The girls knew where their troop stood and why they were selling products. They were also very aware of how much money the made off of the different items.
- STEM is very important, but the fact is that the huge number of outdoor and DIY badges were ALL STEM BASED! When you removed the old badges you LESSENED the emphasis on STEM...STEM is NOT well covered by having Cadettes learn how to make a digital movie and basic nettiquette! (It's FLUFF!) Engineering is found in designing and building a shelter. Math is in planning for a trip in the financing of the trip to calculating supplies needed and max weight each girl should carry in her backpack. Technology is learning to use BOTH a compass AND a GPSr, Science is found in observing nature and learning about the environments they encounter on the trail. All the old badges that covered home repair, car care, making things, cooking, sewing, etc WERE HIGHLY STEM related!
- With cookie badges, emphasis on the sale and financial literacy badges, there is already a very strong representation of financial literacy. No more is needed.
- The Journey and badge materials are too expensive. Cub Scouting makes all advancement and badge work information available online. Their advancement program is also much better organized!
- I haven't used or seen all the new materials yet. I've looked over the current Daisy and Brownie handbooks and a few of the Journeys. I like that GS is encouraging girls to explore STEM fields and use technology. I don't like the idea of replacing badges with Journeys. I'm concerned that GS has a good balance between embracing the future and holding onto traditions. What I saw in the Brownie handbook seemed to so a good job balancing old in new and making a program that would appeal to girls.
- Although I voted no on GS's putting less emphasis on cookies and go to an alternate financial literacy program, I feel that there is far too much emphasis on financial literacy in general. Why is there a financial AND cookie badge for every single year of scouting, but no astronomy, swimming, robotics, horsemanship, etc badge. I do not like Journey's. My girls do not like Journey's unless I spend an inordinate amount of time making them into something they would enjoy, not me bored to tears by. They are also not age appropriate. At each level they seem to either be too hard or two simple. They also focus far to much on leadership. I think GSUSA fails to realize that not every girl wants to be a leader, pathfinder, or pioneer.
- The journeys have some good parts but by and large they do not promote learning skills; Some of the activities are ridiculous and downright silly. Girls need to learn skills, not just how to get others to do the work. The award programs have been watered down. The increase in number of levels has removed the natural development of leadership within the organization.
- would like to see more opportunities for girls to earn money thru out the year instead of just cookies and fall product. Like car washes other fundrasiers where girls can set up booths and put themselves in the community. NO one knows where we have girls anymore all they see are boys doing fund raisers all year round
- GSUSA needs to do a better job of involving STEM programs in all councils. My daughter attended a STEM day in October and it was so boring. The age level of the event was too big (Juniors through Cadettes) and the older Cadettes were unimpressed/not challenged because the activities were geared more towards the Juniors.
- Really, it was GS, of course I would sign her up. I wasn't looking at anything but cookies and camping.
- I understand that it makes sense to offer an organization-wide fundraising option. It is a tough one for some people, because it flies in the face of what they know to be true about healthy eating. Having both a fall product sale and a cookie sale means you spend a significant chunk of your programming time fundraising, and council clearly rewards those who take aggressive part in both. I would like to see a more robust path to individual troop fundraising activities, one that doesn't require participation in both council fundraisers before becoming an option.
- The Cookie Program funds most of our COUNCILS, without it there would be no local direction and staff support.
- Disappointed that my questions sent to Macedonia office go unanswered.
- I think our Journey programs target Environmentalism, Media, World Issues and then our cookie program is standard old fashioned cookies made with not the "best" ingredients. Many of my girls' families eat organically grown food and would not eat cookies. I think the emphasis on branding the Girl Scout Cookie and the business side of the Girl Scout cookie is not in line with our Journey Programs or with our Girl Scout Promise and law at all.
- My daughter likes GS because it is a safe space to do fun things and be a little sillier than school or the other activities she belongs to. I did not sign her up with a particular skill set in mind. Kids initially join GS because they think it will be fun. Parents encourage their daughters to sign up mostly for social reasons. I don't think that this branding has an impact on initial enrollment at all. It mostly depends upon the parent's impression and experience as a GS.
- Girls and family are completely over-run with fundraising between schools, sports, scouts, etc. Family members and neighbors are tired of seeing the kids come knocking on the door to "beg" for money. I think the cookie program is still an important part of Girl Scouts, but you have to keep the above in mind from a parent's perspective. I have my personal girls do the scout sales and skips most of the school sales, but other parents do the school sales or no sales.
- GSCNC has Financial Literary for all levels - it's a very good program. It's something other Councils could see and use as a model.
- Way too much time/attention spent on product sales.
- The Cookie program could be a great way to teach finances, but the way it is utilized sucks. Leaders don't have the training or the time to use it as a financial teaching tool. Councils push for the girls to sell, sell, sell, but don't give them good reasons. Girls look at it as a burden.
- The executives and program authors seem out of touch with what the members want from the GS program. They keep trying to cater to non-Girl Scouts. Every time they redo the program, it gets worse. The girls mock the journeys and the leaders lose their expertise. The people making program decisions should focus on the traditional Girl Scout program. Learning and living the GS law is a good place to start. Return to basics and do not try to make Girl Scouts into something "new". You will lose the people who want the traditional GS experience and you won't attract new members with programs based on a marketing survey. There is a reason our membership is is declining. It's the program. There are plenty of GIRLS - you need to attract adults and the adults want the traditional scouting program. They want Girl Scouting to be ABOUT something, not a program built on a survey. Do not try to copy Boy Scouts either. Buying separate badge / journey books for each girl is a BAD idea!
- I'm an old school girl scout from the days when we were learning how to be homemakers. Today, girls are empowered, and I love that. I am trying to strike the balance between old school Girl Scout experience with camping and songs and traditions, and new school Girl Scout experience with science and engineering. If girls were more encouraged to do outdoor camping, service projects, etc, there would be higher use of camps by Troops, not just summer programs.
- Leadership comes with learning new skills and sharing them. I don't think leadership can be taught, but rather acquired by situations that allow the girl's knowledge to be shared.
- The reasons I signed up my daughter have now been severely limited with the new programming. There are not very many outdoor badges or programming that is reasonably priced. The camps and events that are planned council wide are 3-5 times higher than what can be done and they don't move events closer to some of the outer counties. Many events are 3-4 hours travel time.
- The journeys and current badges do not do much to encourage the girls to get outdoors or even try and learn new skills. Wasn't that what Juliette wanted for our girls?
- As a leader of troops of Juniors/Cadettes/Seniors and Ambassadors in 3 different troops, I fell the journeys are very repetitive. If the girls decide the Leadership journey is their choice in all 3 troops, as I leader I see the same thing being approached from a different angle. Will the girls get tired of doing them on each level if you keep doing the same things? I think so, and as a leader, I find it very draining!
- The journeys are too difficult to plan into a year when both leaders are full time working as well. We decided this year to focus only on the skill badges and take trips and activities that support those badges, with a lot of emphasis on the outdoors.
- The cookie sale has been a money making farce since I was a child selling them (50 years ago...). Between parents selling them at work and "booth sales" the girls barely recognize the change making, or financing involved. THEN the council takes so much of the profits in exchange for trashy prizes and the girls barely have enough money to do anything. If they do pay for a trip or event, the adults do all the budgeting, shopping, etc.
- As far as the cookie program goes- perhaps we could add some every day financial parts to the program. Budgets, checkbooks, etc. I don't think that is a far stretch.
- I see first hand that a lot of leaders do not run the cookie program as it is intended. Too many leaders get "cookie fever" and just sell, sell, sell. Since evry box sold is $$$$ both SU's and councils tend to look the other way.
- When we ask new girls in the troop what they are excited about for girl scouts, I hear the following the most: camping, cookies, and helping others, badges. This is where the focus needs to be. In my troop, the amuse journey seems obsolete already. None of our girls have any preconceived notions about stereotypes or that there are roles for boys and roles for girls. They all have a keen awareness that girls can do anything.
- In my experience, over the last 12 years, as an adult Girl Scout parents who look to register their daughters as Girl Scouts are doing so for the outdoor programming, the camaraderie, the traditions, service and the wide variety of interests found in doing badge work.
- The reasons we signed up are not necessarily the reasons my girls have stayed. As they have grown through the program (now freshmen and senior in HS) the STEM activities, the travel opportunities, and the service projects have played a big part in their experiences. They have both worked on awards which developed their leadership and world experience. One troop loves camping together and that is important to them and the other troop is not a big camping troop so only a couple girls participate in that so it isn't as big of a factor. The financial literacy aspect of the nut/candy and cookie programs have more to do with how much the leader wants it to be a part of their program.
- There should be other requirements to earn the Bronze/Silver/Gold besides the Journeys. The girls should have to earn some basic GS badges at their level - GS Way, First Aid, Financial Literacy, Independence, etc. I think they should have to earn all the "Legacy" badges at their level, and do one Journey before they can start their Bronze/Silver/Gold award project. It's crazy that girls can earn the highest awards from our organization without having to learn anything about the GS!
- My daughter joined for fun and friendship at age. 4. Our troop helped at a council recruiting night doing crafts with younger girls recently and I was horrified the membership person started with the first reason these parents of 5 year old was so they could earn a gold award to get them into college! Not only is this so far from what a parent of 5 year olds think about now but IT SHOULD NOT BE the foundation of GS. Having been one myself I did not think of or care about that growing up. And my memories are of crafts, cooking, camping, friends, snack at meetings and the like. Too much emphasis on Bronze, Silver, Gold and prerequisites take time and attention from the little things that make GS special.
- I particularly do not like the way that the cookie sales were set up to direct sales this year. Nor do I like the way that cookie booths are set up as lottery.
- My girls wanted to try the new and unfamiliar skills presented in the older badge sets. They feel the new ones are too limited and scripted. Why should they only be able to earn one cooking badge in 3 years--and it is so defined in focus to foods from other cultures. What about outdoor cooking? 2) My girls are also very vocal in their hatred of journeys. Making it a required part of the bronze/silver/gold awards is not winning GSUSA any fans in my troop. Also, the silver and gold guidelines seem undefined. I also feel they create a project, then look for a group to dump it on so it's sustainable. I don't want to be part of an organization that just makes work for other groups.
- Less cookie dough is awarded for selling 1000 boxes now and is limited in how it can be used. Can't be used for troop trips which should be an option as my troop is struggling to raise money for our Savannah trip.
- My girls do not learn from the cookie program - their parents generally do the work but that is my issue. They do however love to conduct booth sales and they learn from them - they are 13 and 14 years old.
- We have taken to doing our own lessons on financial literacy because the scouting program is so weak.
- I am so glad that my girls have graduated and are no longer Girls in Girl Scouting. It is sad to see how the program has deteriorated.
- My troop does a lot of leadership--we work with younger troops often to help develop those leadership skills. I would like to see GSUSA push for more multi-age events to help develop those leaders.
- My girls love camp! Wish they could earn badges at camp- we don't need spa camp where they paint nails. Teach them how to make and light a fire! Outdoor cooking, hiking skills. Bring back swimming lessons! Girls like to earn front of the vest badges and need more variety to do so.
- GSUSA must stop changing the requirements for girls to achieve their Silver and Gold awards. What "the public" thinks they know is that the Gold is similar to an Eagle Award. As it is currently written, the Gold Award is much more difficult than an Eagle. If that's all the value that outsiders place on the award, then let's make the Gold Award less difficult and onerous and more achievable. Girls don't get any value from an award if they don't try because they perceive it is out of reach. 2) Journey's are far too much like school work. Girls may enjoy the activities, but they hate the workbook feel of the Journey. So they drop it. No Journey, no Gold or Silver Award. And Journey work takes too long. Meeting every other week with holidays and Cookie Sales, I have only about a dozen troop meeting in a year. If we spend a whole year working on a Journey and a girl misses a meeting (it happens) she's sunk. They have homework to do at home, she and her family won't do Journey work too.
- i applaud the partnership with FIRST. I am currently a mentor on an FLL and FRC FIRST teams. I would LOVE to see my council involved in those activities... THIS is a great way to build strong, brilliant and capable young women.
- don't hold troops hostage to cookies - and don't sell nuts in the fall when boyscouts sell popcorn.
- I feel the programs are ok we just need to make the trainings mandatory. Adults who don't take the time to attend trainings are the first ones to complain the loudest about what they feel is wrong. The journeys are often not judged by the girls but rather the adults. We need to find a better, more effective way to appeal to the adults to let the girls take more control of their own destination
- GS has long filled in the gaps between what school and parents can offer to their kids. Since "Home Economics" and "Shop" are no longer part of the curriculum, kids need a place where they can learn this stuff. My Cadettes want to sew, learn carpentry basics, hike, etc. We need badges for skills again. RE COOKIE PROGRAM: my troop is usually so busy working on the journey or preparing for some other event that earning a cookie badge is not a high priority. (which is not to say that we don't work on some of the business skills, we just don't do the badge.) Maybe it should be, but since we meet bi-weekly, we need to pick and chose what we do. We have to complete the things that are required and we want to do something fun. No girl ever asks if we can earn a cookie badge, but they want to earn the skill builders. (Our Cadettes really want to earn the Trailblazing badge, so we're working that into the year.) Just as an aside: my Cadettes just completed the Field Day badge, which they had fun with. Among other things, they had to figure out how to run a game of "Ground Quidditch" at a service unit event. They did a lot of problem solving and figured out how to adjust the game to make it safer in a small outdoor space. Teamwork, improvisation, planning, tweaking...this is as real-world as it gets. I'd say they learned more by having fun with this than they did in any journey they've done.
- We are known for cookies so we should continue with that as our main fundraiser but the way the cookies keep getting smaller and more expensive does not help. Also when we see that the troop only gets about .65 per box it almost does not seem worth the effort to many families. I've had parents ask if they could just donate $20 to the troop and skip selling cookies this year. I would like to switch to a larger cookie in a single octagon shaped sleeve and sell it for $3. It would probably be less cookies but all the boxes and cookies could be the same size and the cookies would look larger and the containers more stream lined and modern so it would look like a newly re-vamped program. I know they just re-did the cookies boxes but they're still all different in size and packaging - and all the cookies seem smaller to the customers. Ten or twelve larger cookies for $3 would seem more like a deal. People hate to see small cookies - especially for $4 a box. Also the new cookie cupboard policies really hurt sales. You can no longer exchange single boxes for other flavors which is ridiculous when you consider that we are forced to order by the case so there will invariably be extras in flavors that customers don't want. This leaves unwanted flavors unsellable and hurts troop finances because they were forced to buy the extra cookies which they can't exchange. Additionally the new policies about cookie booth sales hurt troop sales and discourage troops from running booth sales. We can no longer take cookies on consignment. So you have to hope that you can calculate how many you will sell or you'll be stuck with the boxes. If its your first booth sale or a new location you have no idea how many you can sell. We used to be able to take a consignment amount and return the unsold boxes even single amounts but no more. My trrops used to have a weekend sale. We took out the max amount on Friday then sold Saturday. If we needed more of a certain flavor or just more cookies in general we would pop back to the cupboard and exchange or take out more cookies on Saturday. Then we would take out the max amount again on Saturday afternoon and sell on Sunday. On Monday we would return all the unsold boxes. Now we have to place the orders by computer and must keep any unsold boxes. The cupboard is no longer open on Saturday and no longer lets leaders pop back in for unscheduled pickups so our troop decided that the new rules were too difficult to work with so we cancelled our sale. I heard that many other troops cancelled their booth sales as well. I think they also eliminated the buying single boxes from the cupboard option. We used to round down on the unpopular flavors like the lemon (because we did not want to get stuck with more than half an unsold case) and buy the few single boxes we need from the cupboard but now we can't. It's hard enough to sell the more expensive smaller cookies without our own cookie cupboard policies discouraging sales.
- My scout has been a member of scouts for many years. I did not know about the bronze, silver and gold when she joined in Kindergarten, but after all these years in scouting, the awards has attracted her interest and she is now preparing to earn her Gold Award. So, our initial decision to enroll our daughter in scouts had nothing to do with awards, but it is a major factor in keeping her involved. And our Council has improved its awards program significantly, although more improvements are needed. That's another subject.
- Not everyone is slated to be a 'leader' but my girls have also learned good "Followership' skills from Girl Scouts too.
- Girl Scouts can do anything! I want my daughter to grow up learning that she can work independently and cooperatively with other girls to accomplish anything. I like that she doesn't have to worry about the distractions that rowdy boys in her class cause while she is learning something new because girls scouts are like sisters who simply allow her to be herself and focus on the subject at hand! I like that she is learning about the interests of others and is included in some way in every experience. I like that she can take turns leading and is able to practice showing consideration and respect for others!
- Not every girl can be a leader all the time. Leadership is important, but learning to be part of team , or group is important too. 2) Also, please stop focusing so much of your content on Girl's Emotional well-being. We are an after-school program, our leaders are not trained mental health counselors, and some of your new Journeys really seem to want us to be just that. 3) Are there girls who need emotional support? Absolutely, but scouts is NOT the place to reveal your deepest darkest fears and wounds, it should be the place to discover your strength, and skills and focus for the future.
- Stop pretending the cookie program is about "finical literacy". It's a fundraising. Be honest. Don't teach kids to lie. Badges for higher level of sells are good incentives, keep those. Let Junior troops opt out of all the prizes (like cassettes can) for cash for the troop. BUT, make them get the badges - they will sell more. As for prizes, the coupons for camping or programs were great.
- I was a Girl Scout and wanted my daughter to have the same opportunity to safely try new things and gain self-confidence.
- I believe that girls should see the DIRECT benefit to themselves of their financial management. While financial literacy is important, the cookie money should only go to girl events and activities, not for stability and staffing of councils.
- I think in order for the cookie program to promote financial literacy, we need to educate the leaders and the parents on how the benefits are received. Too many parents are willing to just "buy out" their daughters' sales goals thereby preventing their daughter from truly learning from the process and gaining the benefits.
- My daughter wants to be a scout because of all the fun her brother had in scouts and I was interested in the boy scout leadership style for my daughter. Unfortunately she has to wait until she is 13 before she can be an Explorer. To be fair I keep her in Girl Scouts sine her brother did scouts all the way through. The council interference and oversight is obnoxious, so are the training requirements to take the troop campig and such. As an experienced camper who is way to busy to take additional weekends away from family, my troop suffers for not being allowed to camp. Make a training campout where we get certified and go through the learning process with the girls
- Stem is ok, but she felt it was like continuing school. Our daughter was more interested in hiking, archery, kayaking, Cope Course, Horses and camping. She loved helping others with her Bronze, Silver and Gold programs.
- I was a Girl Scout as a girl, and learned a lot of outdoor skills, as well as how to work with others. Also we learned to work together as a team and make a difference. I am finding out that the variety of program options then was much better than it is now. Also the focus is on silver/gold awards and selling cookies, which can be much more an individual achievement, and do not necessarily require that the girls work together except in deciding what to do with the money they earn. Those who want to work hard at it do, and others coast on those girls' efforts.
- Girl Scouts is not the place I want my child to be indoctrinated with "financial literacy skills". GSUSA's need to be a social conditioning organization is why I no longer am involved and fits my daughters complaints as to why she no longer wants to be involved. It's like church now, she says, they just nag us all the time on topics that we are already aware of. She also says she has much better STEM activities at school and doesn't wish to have redundant lower quality forms if STEM at Girl Scouts.
- I think GSEP's decision to offer council programming and camps in the least populated areas is destroying the future of scouting. They are closing everything in the densely populated areas which hold 80% of our scouts and focusing on areas 5 hours away with a small sprinkling of scouts. Their "If We Build It They Will Come" theory is hogwash. Shutting out the bulk of your target population will not encourage more people to join. We will see an overall drop in scouting.
- We don't have enough volunteers to support the good programming we offer. If friends of Girl Scouts would spend their energy recruiting and working with a new generation of volunteers, we could offer the excellent programming we have to more girls. The complaining drives away potential new volunteers.
- I wanted my daughter to be able to earn the same badges I earned as a child. She was able to do this up until last year. Now, her additional badges won't look anything like the badges I earned as a child. Also, there is no camping badge for Cadettes which is very disappointing. Girl Scouts is Camping!
- Developing leadership skills is the real focus of scouting, because girls increase their level of confidence and self-esteem. With the implementation of the journeys, we are seeing fewer girls capable of understanding and implementing Gold award projects.
- open up camping. have more outdoors activities.
- Programming at a council level basically does not happen anymore, as post-merger everything at a council level is about trying to make ends meet to pay salaries for staff who provide support to GSUSA, not the girls and leaders they exist on behalf of
- I did not choose girl scouts for cookies, or to learn how to earn prizes. We chose for our girls to become good leaders and to have a safe place to practice new skills they might not try otherwise both indoor and outdoor.
- Regarding financial literacy: I think the cookie program can be an excellent vehicle if leaders truly teach the girls how it can be that and let them run with it. I don't mind that it's a fundraiser for Council - but I do wish our Council at least would give a little more back to the girls than they do. I did like the "Your Own Business" IP, which allows girls to develop financial literacy outside the Council fundraisers - so would agree that it would be nice if Council developed additional programs in this area.
- My daughter signed up because she and I looked at the GS Law together, and she agreed that they were values she wanted to uphold.
- I don't feel like there are enough opportunities in the northwest...it seems like most of the activities in IL are in Chicago or at other gathering places. If you are going to continue to offer journeys, offer dates/times when the girls get come together from multiple troops and do it one day.
- I have also believed that girl scouts made it possible to "try" new things. Girls didn't need to succeed, only try something new. Mastering skills are important as girls become young ladies and adults, but we seem to have lost the ability to try out new things.
- I was a leader until the troop dropped out due to lack of camping/outdoor programs due to no parental involvement. My daughter continued as a Julliette but has struggled with the new program and finally gave up because of the Journeys. She has not registered for 2 years now (she's in 11th grade). She wishes I had out her in Venturing Scouts through Boy Scouts instead.
- don't put the burden of advertising the program on the backs of the girls earning the silver/gold awards. GS should pay for it's own advertising
- PLEASE build on earlier programming - do not throw it out. Please keep cost of materials in mind. Please incorporate STEM activities into badges and Journeys.
- I have never thought of the Cookie program as teaching literacy. We sell them simply as a money maker and to provide to the community, who expect them.
- Cookie selling relating to teaching the girls financial skills is a farce. Parents sell cookies, as they always have. The girls (under Cadette, you know, the majority of membership) aren't even ALLOWED to sell cookies on their own. The girls see the cheap crap from China prizes and go gaga, that isn't financial literacy.
- We need to be teaching girls life skills because they are not always learning them at home and are definately not learning them in school.
- When developing new programs please think about how to measure and who might be interested in funding.
- Journey books are so boring for the girls. I like the concept the journeys are trying to teach the girls but a bunch of 7 and 8 year olds do not have the attention span for the journey lessons.
- I would have chosen STEM as well, especially robotics and building programs!
- As a Girl Scout everything I learned of value was attached to badge requirements, camp skills, travel, first jobs as a babysitter, learning to help out at home, canoeing, outdoor cooking, community service, etc. As a Girl Scout adult there is rarely a badge available for the things that my girls are learning even though they are many of the same activities/skills. When we won't recognize their efforts we devalue them. So I have had to developed other ways to recognize what my girls have contributed to the community so they know they are valued and appreciated.
- Our council's needs to change the dates of our cookie program. There is not enough time between fall product and cookies to properly train adults who then can properly guide girls into the financial literacy skills. If a troop leader spends a meeting on the cookie program, we are lucky.
- So little of the cookie money goes back to the troop.
- While I understand that selling cookies is a major part of how councils earn their money each year, I do not think selling cookies should be emphasized above all else. I also think that girls should get a higher percentage of what they sell, but again, I realize that the councils need money to operate and to offer financial aid, so I wouldn't want it to be at the expense of offering program opportunities to girls who otherwise can't afford it.
- We need to make people respect Girl Scouts again. We've become too commercial. My troop tries to do many community service events to promote an image other than cookies. Unfortunately, Cookies are the very first thing that comes to mind when you mention you're a GS. This is not what we should be associated with!
- With the cutback in badges it is like we are trying to put girls in certain groups - there is not the individual options like the old Girl Scout path had
- I don't see parents signing up girls just for leadership. 2) Cookie sales - for most girls don't teach financial literacy because the parents are doing the selling (ex - taking the form into work). Learning to budget when planning activities, crafts, and camping is a better way to teach this. 3) The girls that I have worked with over the past 10 years want to do things that they normally don't get a chance to do. They don't want to learn about self esteem again, or global warming they get enough of that in school. They want to DO something. Not only something fun or different but meaningful. Ex - a swimming badge you should have to be able to actually swim to earn. It should take more than 1 or 2 meeting to complete.
- STEM activities are good (although I didn't include them in my top 4). So how about developing a set of Journeys (assuming we're not getting rid of those things) that starts with basic STEM stuff for Daisies and BUILDS STEM activities as you move through the program levels. This would serve leaders/advisors of single-level troops as well as multi-level troops!! Then, tie meaningful badges to the STEM-based Journeys so that girls have the option of pursuing these on their own or troops could incorporate them into the Journey. Finally, stop linking Journeys to your top awards (Bronze, Silver & Gold) -- unless the goal of that idea is to limit the number of girls earning Silver & Gold in particular.
- Perhaps boy scouting is the way to go... Look into their programs and the way they integrate family. The girls love camping and being outside. Leadership journeys r fine, but we r losing girls due to b o r d o m.
- There are no leaders just parents who are roped into the job because Girl Scouts is so greedy to sign everyone up that they dont have enough real Girl Scout leaders, with experience to lead. It is a very disappointing program!
- I have no girls. But the truth is, that overnight camps do all of above, except the cookie program.
- My daughter has graduated but enjoyed all of the above. By having different leaders at different levels she had many adult mentors and learned and did things I didn't think of.
- I signed my daughter up for GS because I wanted her to learn leadership skills, respect, a sense of adventure and commitment. I also wanted her to find girls with similar interests and values. I'm sad to say that it seems to me that GS has moved away from the traditional values and beliefs and is trying too hard to be modern.
- Try-its, etc. provide opportunity to try new things. The new try its and badges are lame. Talk, talk, talk, get a grow up speaker, etc. no hands on get dirty try new things have fun.
- I believe girls are receiving STEM, Financial literacy and other program aspects in school. Scouting has always been about leadership, service, exploring interests and working in a non-competitive, all girl setting without peer pressure. Although I chose 4 of the above, most of them are important to me and my daughter.
- Regarding Journeys, my main complaint is the Take Action Project at the end. The way they sound like they should be approached makes them a mini Bronze/Silver/Gold Award project. And making them required doesn't enhance any B/S/G project. I preferred the old way of having to do a badge or two RELATED to your B/S/G Project. Right now, the Take Action project has no relation. It's just "something you have to do." I prefer that our program encourage discoveries that make connections that cause the girls to take action.
- As the world has become more adventurous, our outdoor programs should be following suit. No wonder we have lost so many teens. If rapelling and climbing are fun for girls in college, we should begin in high school with these girls. Could we ask college age girls what they might have wanted to do in middle and high school then develop our programs from that information? Look at the NOLS program. We should have lots of girls ready for that by the time they are 16. Girls need girl only programs. They build better leadership skills there. Attending Agnes Scott College taught me that. So we need activities that put girls into small groups that work together so many will get leadership practice. Cooking together on a backpacking trip provides such an opportunity. Canoeing tandem on a river will provide it. We need to attract physically fit energetic leaders to scouting and turn them loose to encourage our youngsters. Having overweight energetic adults running programs leads to couch potato type activities. Where are the women who are strong mentally and physically? They are not getting started in our program. They are not developing these skills until they get into college where the world opens up for them. We are missing the best years for developing our girls into the best leaders they can be for our society.
- Personally as far as I am concerned, the cookie sale is just a fundraiser. Making it an integral part of the program is pointless not, everyone wants to be a CEO. We earn very little on the cookie sale per box. This year our council has raised the price of cookies by $.50 per box and we as a troop will not see one penny of that money. I know that when I was a Girl Scout, especially once I became a Cadette, I was most interested in camping and the outdoor experience. What I want most for my daughter and by extension my troop is the opportunity to explore a wide variety of activities, especially ones they might not normally have a chance to. I do like the idea of STEM and my daughter does have interests in that direction. I would like to see it in a hands on form by including in the engineering actually building things similar to what Boy Scouts do.
- The program has strayed from it's original intents. Older girls are harder to keep because there isn't enough for the older girls to do. They also do not have the interaction with younger girls as they once did. How are we suppose to ensure the direction of such a wonderful organization if we do not support those whom are up and coming. It is well know membership dwindles each year after Brownies. There are many contributing factors for this. I would like to see some of these factors addressed.( such as sports, money etc)
- I think GSUSA needs to find other avenues for funding and allow the girls to keep more of the profit from cookie sales. This would allow them to explore a wider variety of interests and activities that may not be available to them because of costs.
- Scouting should provide a well rounded experience, so that all girls can find success in something... I thank Girl Scouts for my presidential scholarship in my undergraduate studies. Is the program still offering all of the opportunities that I had as a girl...???
- The GS program should be well rounded, not focusing on one thing. It seems that the whole focus around STEM, but, there is more to life. When girls are in troops there should be a balance. Every girl should have opportunities to have lots of difference types of experiences: Leadership, outdoor, STEM, & Service to other. Finacial literacy can be a by product that incorporates each of these.
- My daughter only stays in because of the local day camp- where she learns about the outdoors, makes friends, songs, cooking, and the other program areas.
- self esteem is not something you learn, but something you acquire by accomplishing skills
- Please, get back to the basics.
- What I found girls liked most was the opportunity to lead their group and others, the variety of programs to attend for their different interests, and the service projects.
- Courage, Confidence and Character are learned through the old program quite well. The organization often points to women who were once Girl Scouts and are now successful in their field. What the council must remember is these women grew up with the OLD program. A program that taught skills (Confidence), helping in the community (Character) and camp/outdoor skills (Courage as well as the other two!). The program was wonderful before, these new programs feel very heavily "governmental". My mother took my daughter to a meeting recently and she noted how the material didn't seem that "fun" or even age appropriate. She also didn't feel like it was information the girls would retain in the manner presented. But it is presented in the manner the council has asked. There is also too much pressure on troops to complete too much, with patches, community events, cookie sales - and now the dreadful journeys.
- to help with the self esteem for her but sometimes that back fires and she lets it go to her head and do want to act right
- No more navel gazing!
- troop leaders are choosing activities and events the girls are requesting so they are traveling and enjoying moving beyond our immediate area
- They build courage and confidence when they finally light a campfire, when they cook a meal, when they ride a horse, when they finish an obstacle course. Cookie program is okay IF the parents let the girls run it. Between the Parents AND the Leaders, the program doesn't work. Unfortunately you can't fix it as it's all about parenting.
- Self-esteem cannot really be loaded in or painted on. Don't have an answer, but too much emphasis sends the message "You don't have / won't have / positive self esteem. You don't have the skills or maturity to develop a strong intentional self-actualized self without our help/programs." Really?
- Girl Scouting has always been a place where girls can work on projects they are interested in trying out. They may pursue the subject or decide to go to a different area of interest. They don't want to be funneled into one area they want to spread their interests to find out about the unknown in a safe environment. That way they can come back with a wide variety of experiences to make educated decisions about their education in the future.
- How about making programs more affordable.
- Cookies are being sold by parents - not the girls - so much is lost from a financial literacy point of view.
- My problem with GS is that there is no consistency from place to place--we are given journeys as the national program and then told that we can change them any way we like to suit our troop's needs. There is no specific skill set that girls gain as they move through GS, so the public, and colleges, and future employers, do not see the value in the program. How nice would it be if there was a consistent national program with a defined set of outdoor and leadership skills that girls learn and develop and practice over time.
- I am saddened by the narrow scope of the program areas. Many of the girls enjoyed learning new skills in many different areas (badges) and with this developed a sense of self, leadership, service, etc. With so much emphasis on each of these areas individually there isn't much "fun" left in the program. Creative leaders will still introduce fun activities but those that just follow the current curriculum end up losing girls from lack of interest.
- My girls love to try new things and earn as many badges as they can. They are not fans of the journeys, especially being forced to do one to earn awards.
- Many girls including those in our troop like the journey girls story books but in the same thought, would rather not work in or read them during meetings or at home (they seem to get enough reading in with school homework and credit). We are starting to phase these books out and solely use the leader guides and the internet for FREE printables and resources. For many parents (though the girl story books are only requested, not required) many parents would rather not spend the extra money on them. Some have reported that they'd like a less expensive girl guide notebook though.
- we need more programs for our area instead of the larger city locations. Also we have lost several camps and we hae a hard time getting a spot for camping.
- My daughter joined Girl Scouts (and convinced me to be her troop leader) because she wanted to learn new things. She enjoyed herself through her Daisy, Brownie, and Junior years. Then the "new" program was introduced, requiring Journeys for the Awards. The girl who LOVED Girl Scouts is now considering quitting at the end of the current membership year because she's bored with what's available to her in the Journeys and Girl's Guide badges.
- Please revisit earlier badge books and manuals to return scouting into a challenging and leadership development program - rather than lowering standards to make awards easier to achieve and lessening the educational or esteem building process.
- I would like to see less emphasis on the prizes. Each girl should receive a patch for participating in the sales. The first patch should not go on the number of items sold. In some communities, it is very hard for the girls to sell our cookies and nuts/candies/ magazines.
- earn a badge in a 2 hour program is unacceptable whether you are a daisy or ambassador...journey program is to explore and learn and patches and badges are still crammed in with no understanding or experience
- I think the Journeys have value, but unfortunately, the girls would rather have less "bookwork" and more hands on. The Journeys take up so much of our troop time, that we lose time in doing the things that girls love about Girl Scouts. Since Journeys have been stressed strongly, and required, I have personally lost interest in Girl Scouts, and that's such a shame. We need to go back to spotlighting the badge programs, and other programs, and not place such a burden on the troop leaders and girls with the Journey requirements. As a volunteer leader, I am not a teacher, nor do I have any interest in pretending to be one. I want to interact with the girls with fun opportunities, without turning our Girl Scout troop into another study group.
- I personally feel that the GS cookies quality has gone down drastically. I have been selling GS cookies for over 38 years and last year my 20+ year customers told me that they are no longer going to purchase cookies because they can buy Wal-Mart brand of GS cookies at a cheaper price. Plus they are not happy that the girls get 50 cents per box and the baker receives $2.00 per box.
- As a leader, there is so much information to swim through. I would embrace and support a leader mentor program to be sure that adults who wish to volunteer for this organization are better prepared to serve our girls.
- At the Daisy and Brownie level the Journeys should be broken down more as it is difficult to complete the activities and work on petals or tryits. It's more like School and the girls need more hands on than reading at this age. My Juniors commented to me years ago that it was more like school work and they didn't enjoy scouting as much
- The cookie focus is off the chain. It really bothers me. I'm all for selling but it has gone to an obnoxious level. I feel that we are missing the point.
- I think it is a bit overwhelming for leaders to know what programs are available. Also, as far as the cookie program - I think Girl Scouts needs to get with the times. We need our customers to be able to order online and pay online. Families have girls all across the country. It would be great if Girl Scouts could drop ship like Boy Scouts allows for popcorn.
- As an engineer, I am not fond of the journey programs. My son is a tiger scout. I prefer his format, simple and straight to the point. Our troop wanted to work on the Simple Meals Badge. For step one I believe, one of the three options they had was to visit a restaurant and get a tour of the restaurant (hands on - or at least visual) the girls of course wanted to visit a restaurant. I searched and searched for a place to allow a back door tour. Finally one of the mothers knew that California Pizza Kitchen offered a tour of their restaurant, not shown on any girl scout site, but from word of mouth. Would have been nice again to have a database to see options.
- I would like to see Girl Scouts focus primarily on building skills and keeping active, with less material/time devoted to sedentary activities such as searching through media, journaling, etc. While the reflective activities have their place, I hear many scouts and leaders say that these activities are repetitive within the GS program, and also that many of these activities are part of their school routine. Girl Scout needs to offer activities and opportunities that are unique.
- My ambassador scouts are very uninterested in the Journeys. They are too elusive, and complicated for their busy school schedules. They have abandoned those in favor of volunteer opportunities and emphasis on Gold Award. As a leader the new journeys are difficult for me to understand and implement. If I have a hard time, the girls won't do them without me. As for cookies, as the girls get older it gets harder for them to sell them. People are not afraid to say no to their faces. It's pretty sad. Other ways to teach them skills like balancing checkbooks, budgeting would be appropriate for them since they have limited participation in cookie sales. I think an outdoor skill program is a good idea but since I don't like the journey format, I answered no to that question.
- There's so many things you can do with Girl Scouting.
- I feel like Girl Scouts is losing some of its traditions and original purpose intended by Juliette Low.
- We need more STEM for high school and middle school- they can't figure out high schoolers drop out- uh, because it isn't fun and doesn't fit in (time commitment) and doesn't relate to the real world....
- I think our council and SU do a fabulous job with their programming efforts. My daughter loved resident camp and plans to attend again next year.
- I think that financial literacy obviously goes beyond the cookie program. Girls also need to see how the 5 Skills are applied in the real world where they will live, manage a household and paycheck. As girls get older there should be much more tie in to what will happen when they move out of the house and start their own lives.
- In my leader experience ironically, the younger age level scouts sell most of the cookies, but they are not mature enough to understand the financial end. They understand that they get a (prize) for selling lots of cookies, but not "financial literacy". As girls get older they dont want to sell cookies and if required, they will sell a few boxes to their families just to fulfill the requirement. If there were a way to make the older girls WANT to sell...they might be more eager to participate.
- As a parent & former leader I really miss the outdoor badge options.
- had time getting training needed on my sch.
- The Journeys do not work like the badges. They are very confusing. Also you have to buy the whole patch set even when the book says you can earn 1,2 or all 3 parts of the Journey award.
- I wish there was more information and support available for volunteers so they would have better training to provide better experiences. I would love for Girl rewards to be more troop and area centered during sales to help avoid parents who push their daughters merely to collect the rewards for themselves. I believe scouting can introduce our girls to arts lost in our country such as sewing, canning and survival. These were our founders skills and our girls should have these skills as well as the ones that keep up with the times. We need more variety so we grow well rounded, self-reliant young women.
- I think there should be more emphasis on outdoor/camp activities. Cookies really seem to be a thinly veiled way to get girls and the already over-extended leader/volunteers to raise money for the GS organization. On another note, it would be helpful if you would define what you mean by 'financial literacy' for these cookie questions.
- Girl Scouts are known for cookies. People are surprised when they find out how little the troop makes from each box.
- Had foster and adoptive children and my focus was to add to areas where deficient and booster those that needed. Leadership when not pushed as such is very effective; all girls even those that idea of 'roughing' it or doing camping was a hotel had activities that taught them skills they used in disaster or difficult times. Award programs were up to that girl. Self-esteem developed by active involvement in a variety of learning situations especially then the girl had support for trying and failing and the encouragement to try, try, tray again
- I think the earned patches should be shaped better. The triangle shape for cadettes is not easy to sew on beings they have the same vest/sash for three years. When ordering earned patches online, you should be able to download the requirements also. The packets or old books are expensive.
- Leaving some of the programming to volunteers on the council level has been bad. Some of us can do it, but the majority of the leaders out there have no idea on the logistics of a council wide event.
- The journeys are okay; they do tend to be a little confusing! I liked it better when there was a book of badges for each level and the girl would look it over and plan out what they wanted to do as a group and what badges can be done on their own. But between the binder, the books, the badge inserts and then the badges. It starts to get really expensive.
- I would wish there was more consistency between the Journey sets. For example...have all the sections labeled the same throughout the Journeys and in approximately the same location in the guide. It makes it more familiar from set to set. There should have been more education on how to use the Journeys. I've spent the last 4 years trying to educate leaders how to use the Journeys in a fun way in their troops and still have many who think they just need to use the girl book to do the Journey leading to much frustration with the program. There should have also been guidance for the older girl troops to use the adult book to help the girls plan their own meetings (don't think it should be called adult guide at the Cadette and up level). Older girls should be using it to plan their own meetings if we are going to truly be girl led and understand when they are meeting the program requirements (by looking at the national outcomes in each book). And the national outcomes should be in the same place in each Journey guide and be formatted exactly the same in each Journey guide to help leaders and girls understand how they are meeting those needs. 2) Perhaps we need a page in each Journey guide of how to use the adult guide...how to know you are earning the award, that the sample sessions can be used as is or done differently depending on what the girls interests are as long as they are meeting the national outcomes for that journey, etc.3) Another complaint I hear a lot is that leaders don't understand how the related badges relate to a particular Journey. Maybe 1-3 may make sense,but the rest do not. It would be helpful to explain that better or move those that don't really apply into more of a general group that everyone gets in the Girl Guide. I would wish all the badges just came with the Girl Guide book to eliminate having to buy packets for one or two badges.
- I keep hearing about underutilization of camp programs, but then I see moves that make it even harder for girls to participate. Reducing mailings and going to online really hurts in lower income communities where a large percentage of families do not have internet access at home.
- My daughter is shy and not a risk taker. I signed her up so that she could have a chance to explore the world.. right after she became a Brownie GSUSA dissolved the variety of badges, which left her with far, far less to explore. This saddens me.
- I see Girl Scouts as an opportunity for my daughters to explore the world in ways they would not be able to do otherwise. This makes GS a better choice than sports alone or church youth group alone or any other activity - it pulls all the ideas into play. I did not sign them up to sell cookies - especially in the middle of winter! Booth sales are particularly challenging for the adults who have multiple kids they have to chauffeur around.
- My daughter and I are very disappointed in the quality of cookies we have to sell this next year 2014. We think it will be hard to resell these cookies to people who would have otherwise called on us to purchase more. My daughter sold over 500 boxes last season. We do not think this will happen this year.
- My daughter and Troop love selling cookies, but in the past few years I feel like it is being crammed down our throat and that is the sole focus / learning program. My girls want options for programs that interest them - STEM (we love them!), travel opportunities, etc.
- Keep our camps.
- My daughters are adult members now. When I had daughters the importance I found in girl scouts was providing them with older girl role models that were not based on media images. Also the program provided other adults as role models and whom they learned from. The program provided them with a progressive leadership program which was fun for them. They went then organized so many activities which were planned by girls. It so benefited their leadership capabilities, provided them with travel opportunities and exploring and learning in areas that my husband and I had no background in. Both have chosen professions which I see came directly from girl scouts.
- More STEM programs would be awesome.
- The current badges don't seem interesting. We keep being drawn to the council badges, and others being offered. We're currently working with a "classroom exchange" (troop on our end) with the Peace Corps which FASCINATES the girls. Also, we're using the PBS Kids' "Fetch with Ruff Ruffman" patch to develop "Sunny Second Sundays Science Sessions" for a summer program. At least there's a variety of things for us to draw upon, if we take the time to google.
- In the materials I have seen, the focus is always on careers for women, with no mention of motherhood and definitely not homemaker. Yet, most of the girls in my troop come from families where their mother is at home raising a family. I am glad for these girls to see choices, but I always have to be sure to add mother and homemaker and point out the positives of that choice.
- One good leader will have a swamped troop. Give that leader dependable, reliable help so the focus can be on the program for the girls instead of logistics.
- I was a Girl Scout and I remember being part of a patrol, a team. I remember selling the most cookies and being rewarded for it. And how much work it was delivering all those cookies! I loved singing and going camping with my friends. Those are the things I want our girls to remember when they are adults. How to function as a team, the hard work, the rewards and how much fun they had with good friends.
- See previous re: Medal awards and Journeys and the importance of camps. Cookie/product/other sales should be a learning tool, not a major portion of the troop year. Our council now has fall product sales that start mid-September (first month of school where we are) - BEFORE the GS year begins. When you're trying to ramp up and recruit some new kids and get your own kids settled into their school year. NOT HELPFUL. My family ends up ignoring them aside from ordering some nuts and candy for ourselves. That sale is blissfully brief - just for a month. Delivery is a month after that, around Thanksgiving. You take the money up front, which is nice and simple. There are NO booths. On the other hand, there are a billion weird-shaped (read: HARD TO SEW) patches. Way too many patches. A month later - just before Christmas, which means that some years it's DURING Chanukah to boot, and it's usually right around the last day or so of school before the holidays - our council's cookie sales start. I want to be spending time with my family then and doing holiday stuff, not selling things to friends and neighbors who may want cookies but have their own friends and family to do things with at that time. Cookie season isn't over until the END OF MARCH. Pre-sales are mid-December to mid-January. Then it's just a few weeks until the cookies arrive and you're supposed to start delivering them - bitter cold out, usually, for most of the pre-sales walking around and for most of the delivery season. Thinking Day happens around the same week that cookie booths start. Booths go until about the third week of March. After that, it's mostly paperwork for the TCM and leaders until the prizes (sorry, *incentives*) come - and that's not usually until the very end of the school year, very late May to early June. By the end of cookie season *every year* since the cookie season got extended to before the winter holidays and the deliveries moved to early February and the spring sale got moved to the first month of school, I was burned out as a troop leader - to the point that this year I'm not leading any more; I'm just there as institutional memory and to help with smaller aspects of running the troop. There shouldn't be such a huge emphasis on financial literacy. We got involved with GS because the high adventure and outdoor programs were things we hadn't done much of on our own but sounded fun. There CERTAINLY don't need to be multiple badges for this. Council's Own and special-interest badges: these were some of the best ones. Horseback riding! Archery! The Renaissance! Candy-making! Pioneer history! National telling councils to do local-focus-only Council's Owns loses a lot of the depth that we had. National cutting out the horse badges and a few of the others was a stupid idea. With all the emphasis now on paperwork and buddy programs and anti-bullying and group discussion and feelings, it's difficult to have the energy to do much else besides sales and Journeys and Thinking Day. And why bother? Most of the new badges are pretty boring and have too much discussion and an emphasis on projects in the community and/or leadership. Sometimes it's nice to learn some skills on your own and get a badge for that.
- We are missing the mark when we stopped making Girl Scouts fun. Most of my memories of Girl Scouts are from my high school years and that was also when I learned to be self confident and to lead. That was with a Mariner troop and a Senior Planning Board experience. I learned those by doing not by learning. Today we can't keep girls in Scouts long enough to even get to that point.
- Regarding Journeys--I find that the Juniors in my troop are easily bored by the content. Most of the lessons they are learning are things that they already know, they get in school, and they are kind of sick of hearing about! I've had more than a few girls drop out entirely when we start the Journey or they stop attending meetings and ask to be notified when we're finished with the Journey so they can come back again. Many, many girls find some of the activities interesting but complain that covering the same material for so many weeks is just boring.
- I got my daughter into scouting because of MY experiences with scouts and the fun I had learning about all kinds of things, trust me my sash was full of badges from trying new things. Had I known how much girl scouts had changed since the 70's I might have thought twice. There is also not enough programming in our area, and for the really fun stuff it fills up so quick and there are no second dates for most (i.e first aid)
- I have to say I am disappointed in Girl Scouts today. It is being used as another arm of education (school) than real world experience and participation in our communities. It feels more like home schooling and regulations rather than creativity and participation. I am sure for some girls this is what is needed as they do not have the opportunities in their communities or schools but for others they want to experience nature and activities related to our beautiful world and there does not seem to be a middle ground anymore. The focus is on money and STEM and most of the girls are overloaded at school already and just want to have fun while participating in activates at Girl Scouts. Cooking for a shelter, cleaning up a park, assisting neighbors to spruce up their yard, visiting museums and historical sights and camping. At least that is what my girls feedback is?
- Yes- still have cookies- but really how many cookie badges do you need to push. There are 4 for Juniors that are suppose to be related to selling cookies. The Cookies are over priced- similar ones in the stores for cheaper. The negative press over the sale and profits make it hard to sell. Its like you are making the girls peddle these cookies just so we can keep the troop going. If there was another way to earn money- I would do it. Fall sales QSP/Nuts suck. Same stuff as everyone else is selling- and they are selling the same time as GS. The product taste gross. The nuts taste like SOAP. Barely no profit.
- The six level Guides are excellent: l) each gives the overall view, 2) badges are current as well as legacy* and include individual interest badge options, 3) are for both girls and adults so that all are included. The first aid badge contains way too little real life training in the first four levels, particularly compared to past handbooks, and many girls drop out before the last two levels. Cadettes need to be challenged and know real skills not taught in school.
- As a financial professional I can tell you that Girl Scouts does not teach enough of that to the girls and the statistics that the girls will have to support themselves are staggering. Too many are going to make bad choices. I know that there is a lot of uproar about how we have gotten away from camping and outdoor stuff (which does deserve a place in our programming) but the things that are going to make these girls great are lacking. I would also love to see more STEM programming. My daughter just got her latest SAT scores and she had a 780 in Math. There is not enough in GS to support her in her interests in math and science.
- Get rid of STEM programming. Not needed and again GS is trying to make the umbrella parents happy. Wake up and gain distance by not people pleasing everyone.
- It changes often, I lose track of what is available.
- Body image and self-RESPECT (not self-esteem) are critical areas for all our girls. Self-respect comes from accomplishing things, which Girl Scouts has historically been excellent at providing opportunities for, unlike the movement toward "self-esteem", which has led to a generation that expects more than it should. In a world where every single photo in every magazine is Photoshopped, we need to give our girls the confidence to live in their own bodies happily. Whatever happened to the Dove program, with the wonderful videos "Amy" and "Onslaught" and "Evolution"?
- The main reason I signed up my girls for Scouts is because my sister earned her Gold Award and went to college on a Full Scholarship!
- The cookie program is needed to keep the girl scout organization alive. If you raise membership fees and enhance the program so that it interests more girls, then you do not need to be so cookie crazy. The journeys are so all consuming that for a troop that can only meet once a month, there is no opportunity to do anything but a journey once a year. The girls feel like it is school and it does not allow troop leaders to gear activities for girls that like other things other than social activism. The connection between girl scouts and the natural world is limited now. I think camp closures are due to lack of money. However, if the GS continue to limit the experience to journeys and cookie sales, they will continue to lose membership. GSUSA does not seem to listen to the majority of leaders who know the girls best. If you continue to ignore, will you be around in 6 years???
- Leadership by itself is the least of my desires. Leadership comes from doing all the other areas.
- Wasn't specifically looking for a "leadership" program that is now being jammed down our throats and the girls feel like it is school all over again. But with the above items, they actually learned leadership skills without being aware that they were gaining confidence and courage to lead others.
- We would like an alternative to the Journeys; more choices for the girls to explore their interests - the Journeys do not interest them; the Journeys offer few choices - their format is not exciting for the girls.
- The council needs to use its power to suggest that all events offered to girl scouts must include a patch without an extra cost to the troop or girl. Patches are very cheap when purchased in bulk. We paid $52.00 to attend an event at the Planetarium only to be told there was no patch but we could purchase one from the gift shop for $5.00 each. Some goes for the cost of an adult to attend and chaperone an event. The adult should not be charged the same cost as the girl. Example Marbles Kid Museum charges $42.00 per girl and $42.00 per adult when the adult should be no more that half the cost. Vendors are most likely calling GS and wanting them to include their event in their offerings. Learn to negotiate on behalf of your members.
- I truly dislike the journeys and the approach that they take. I do agree that bullying and a lack of good role models do affect girls and need some degree of discussion. However, every journey repeatedly addresses these issues and requires the girls to reflect and discuss how they feel about them. There should be more focus on exposure and exploration of new and interesting topics and events like the old badges used to provide. This way girls can experience new concepts or activities that they may not typically be given opportunities to do. I have heard girls complain about how the journeys are like homework and are boring. Journeys should be shorter and cover categories of topics like space exploration, science, cooking, engineering and environments. Each teaching about the topic, exploring what career fields are available, and included biographies of woman in those fields. This type of exposure would give a girl a strong foundation and belief that she could succeed in what truly interests her.
- We need to get the girls out and away from the computers, tvs etc. So many do not know basic life skills as cooking, mending, self entertainment without a machine.
- remember girls (and adults) are here to have FUN while they learn and make lifetime friendships
- The cookie program should continue, but all of the other selling needs to discontinue. Too much emphasis is on selling and sales. The kids need funds for projects, but they shouldn't be over-used to support the council.
- The cookie program was less about financial literacy and more about earning money for troop activities. That was ok, but as a parent, known that the girls are earning just $.50 per box was disappointing considering the effort expended, selling, delivering and standing a store front booths.
- Both of my daughters where in girl scouts when they where in school. My one daughter finished out her high school years being involved in girl scouts. Can't say enough on how great this program was to be involved with for my girls and for me. This is why I have decided to be a leader.
- Financial literacy should not be a focus with Girl Scouts! Not the organization's foundation or strength.
- Is there a way for parents to be involved with STEM activities? Our troop leader does not forward us info about programs like this, and when we get info, it's past the registration deadline.
- Girls want to do the things that they do not get in school anymore. Out of doors, arts and crafts, music and life skills. The last thing they want to do is research or listen to guest speakers.
- In the current model, self esteem programs only work if the scout has a functioning family unit. When separated parents only "allow" the girl to participate in scouting activities when it's not "their" weekend it makes it hard for the girls to complete the journey activities. Doing the journey activities as a canned program doesn't allow the girls to explore different interests as in the old badges. Girls could choose to work on badges as a troop and also individually. They could earn a bare minimum or most all of them. They could do them in coordination with their school activities, with their parents or leaders. There were more options for them to do more things. 2) Since so many of them can't afford the journey books, troops share them. Just like the program prior to the journeys. Leaders and troops can't afford to keep purchasing program materials. 3) Girls can't really follow in the footsteps of a previous GS because those options aren't available to them any longer. 4) We have a terrible time crunch with leaders getting all their required trainings, let alone sitting down with a journey and trying to figure how to work it in the way the girls choose. There is too much reading involved and not enough action by the girls. The magazine type program was easier, because we could have those discussions at a sleepover type event and it didn't feel so much like homework. Sorry but these are the girls' words, not mine. 5) GSUSA should be surveying girls who completed the program over the years. It really wasn't all the program, but the leaders and girls' partnerships and how they utilized their interests, formed ideas and helped others. 6) We need to continue to provide a safe and nurturing environment, not one of frustration, financial stress and lack of accomplishment (feelings of failure) because they don't fit the model of a two parent, fully employed, intact family with no concerns for housing, food, physical safety, etc. GSUSA needs to look at the type of girls who need the program to keep them safe (LGBT), special needs (Autism, reading, physical, etc) 7) When the girls explore a variety of interests and activities they move out of their comfort zone, they participate in outdoor skills that are continuing to be needed in natural disasters and shootings, they learn leadership through giving back to others and how even without money they can help someone in need. It could be through a project, it could be through their skill building, or it could be through the contacts they made exploring. 8) We know that successful people get to where they are by hard work and knowing the right people. Being in the right place at the right time makes a huge difference.
- The parents do too much of the work selling products for fundraisers instead of the girls. How are the girls learning anything when parents hang the form at work, do they really call previous customers?? They should, but I know this is not the case, girls should have options to trade incentives for a few extra cents per box as well. As a positive: the goal setting activities available thru the bakers website are very good.
- To elaborate on my answer above, I think for the older girls, additional financial literacy programs beyond the cookie sale would be useful. For the younger girls, using cookie sales as a basis for financial literacy programs is a good way to combine the programs. But for the older girls, we've been selling cookies for so long and there are so many other areas of financial literacy that would be useful to these girls who are getting ready to go out into the world on their own.
- Cookies are a means to an end. Yes, girls learn from them, but mainly girls learn that we work to support our own program, and that's good. Stop trying to make it a major part of the curriculum. There are many people who think that's all we do -- cookies and the programming leading to and from cookies. Make it a part of what we do for five weeks and be done with it.
- Well since there isn't a place to comment about the cookie sales, I'll state here..... Cookies are great, the sales are great but the ratio of amount of money that goes to the girls has never been good. Having spent every weekend standing in front of grocery stores for a month, year after year and only get a few cents... well, it's terrible.
- Regarding cookies- it would be great if there was a way for more money to stay with the troop. The amount of money we have directly impacts what we can do. The more activities we do, the more girls stay interested and want to keep re-joining year after year. I realize there is cooking making overhead, but anything that can be done to keep a larger percentage of money with the troop would be great.
- From what I see most cookies are being sold by parents at work anymore - girls aren't learning financial skills - although ... the badges are doing very well at this (except the one that has the girls looking for a house ... I even had parents mad about that one ...).
- like to see cheap stuff for the girls to do lot of the stuff is to high want things closer to home
- The current programs just do lip service. My daughter thought they were stupid and didn't get to the meat of the subjects. The Gold Award would allow to address the needs she felt the program should allow her to address.
- The programs offered are only as good as the leaders chose to make them.
- Seems like the program has gotten too much like being in school for the girls.
- Cookies seem to have overtaken half the year. It's not the best business model for girls at this point - they do the work for meager earnings. That kind of profit margin would not be acceptable in the business world.
- I have been a leader for 9 years and my scouts are very savy about choosing what they want to do. They are busy girls and they are not interested in badges that involve listening to someone else tell them about some thing. They do not want scouting to be like school. They will not make time in their schedules for scouting if it is not fun. My troop has earned one Journey as Brownies, one as Juniors and one as Cadets. The Journeys have gotten better over the years but they take a bit too long to earn. Our council has started to offer Journey workshops in which the girls earn the Journey in just a few meetings. This seems like they are just skimming the surface of the subject. It is very unfair to the girls who actually do all of the activities. The disparity between troops can be very troubling. Not all leaders are very well trained. They don't always follow the rules. This devalues the work of the scouts who put in a lot of effort. This is especially true of the cookie program. There are girls out there who earn big rewards when it is the parents who are selling the cookies. Its not fair to the girls who follow the program policies. Also, the policy of the whole troop having to agree weather or not to take cookie incentives leads to bullying. Each scout should be able to choose what is right for her.
- All these above are great as scouting activities!
- Selling cookies is an important tradition of Girl Scouts, but not an effective tool for teaching financial planning, goal setting or sales and marketing techniques. Many girls do very little sales on their own or in person anymore, so the focus of financial literacy is wasted.
- I didn't sign my daughter up for any of the current buzzwords--"leadership" or "financial literacy." I signed her up for adventure, skills, and the same opportunities I had, and her BSA brother has.
- PLEASE do more with Leave No Trace!
- I believe in the program completely. I did it and it is the greatest organization for girls. I just want to keep it traditional with relevant ideas and programs. Don't get rid of the old stuff, there needs to be history also.
- I would like to see us go back to a service requirement for each badge at the middle and high school level. Using the skills for others or using the info to find a way to help enhances so many of the things we want for our girls and gets them out of the beach cleaning, food drive, gift drive ruts.
- I would like to see a return to the values on which the program was originally founded. I learned so much from Scouting. I don't feel the present scouting program reflects the same focus that I experienced. Recently, at a reunion of GS Camp counselors from the late 60's early 70's, we sat in a circle and shared what each of us were doing in our lives. Every person had a vocation, every vocation was in education or health services, a couple were retired, but had served in a service based occupation. I found this amazing. Everyone shared that they owed their scouting experience, GS Camp in particular, to the development of self. Self confidence, self esteem, ability to push through adversity, acceptance of differences. The list goes on.
- need to be outdoors
- I have issue with the Journeys for the younger girls in that they take too long and do not allow for flexibility for a girl in a troop if they do not wan to do that particular Journey. With badges one could be done in a meeting or two and then move on to another badge of more interest to a particular girl, but not with the Journeys. It is also unrealistic for a younger Girl Scout to sit and read the books. They are good books, but not practical for a troop that meets twice a month for 1 1/2 hours if you are lucky.
- I understand that the cookie program is necessary to serve as a fundraiser for Girl Scouting. I think that it is rather disingenuous to refer to it as a financial literacy program, and I think that other financial literacy programs are needed as well, particularly programs that will provide girls with real-world information that they will need about personal finance.
- I let my daughter sign up because she wanted to. Period. Had I realized how much the program had changed i probably would have resisted a lot more.
- I believe in the cookie/financial literacy program, if it is done properly with the troops. As the SU cookie Manager, i do stress in my training the badges that go hand in hand with cookie season. As a troop leader, it is hard to manage that AND get a Journey done so my girls can earn their Silver award. Don't forget that in cookie season, we also have Thinking Day, another very important event for Girl Scouting. Back to financial literacy, I've seen troop leaders who choose where and how the girls will spend their cookie earnings. Quite often, the leaders have chosen a destination that is a far reach for the girls to earn through cookies. When this happens, the parents have had to make up the differences. I've also seen leaders who truly have the girls plan. When they didn't quite make enough money, they made choices to be able to do what they wanted. For example, while planning a trip to D.C. The girls did not have enough money to eat three meals out a day. They made menses and costed out breakfast at hotel and bring a packed lunch. The girls learned a great lesson on budgeting and compromising. That is what cookies do. Journeys. As a Cadette leader, last year it took me about 6-8 meetings to work through the Breathe Journey. My troop wants to earn their Silver. We never got to the Silver last year. Now it is time to get it done as my girls are in eight grade. This year, I had another troop join me, now we are multi ages but still in Cadette's. Juggling another Journey to get them caught up and then jumping right into the Silver Award, is a bit overwhelming. I've heard of other troops doing a Journey in 4 hours. Not sure really how that is done...
- I would love to see more "pioneering" type activities. Learn more about the way things used to be and how blessed we are today due to how far we have come. I would love to see a lot less, a LOT less "classroom" type programs and much more hands-on. Some of the steps for the badges and all of the Journeys that I have looked at seem to be more like a classroom or school learning and therefore not very interesting to the girls.
- A financial literacy program IN ADDITION to the annual cookie program would be a wise decision.
- Need more connections between troops and leaders. Too much online we have to go 'look up'. Stop cookie club if we can't sell online; this is a horrible program no one I know uses it, fall product online wasn't great either. Better teaching from council to GIRLS on award programs would be very helpful - how do we get girls motivated, especially teens to pick projects and do the work.
- If using a book at each level, one of the required badge could be a furthering of a financial literacy badge. For example, Daisies learn what a quarter is and how much it's worth, etc. Brownies learn about saving and spending. Juniors learn to count back change and having responsibility for troop dues and ways to spend it. Cadettes, etc build upon that with extensive budgeting and spending activities.
- I find it amazing that the list above didn't include friendship for a goal. In a world that can often be unkind, Girl Scouts is that safe place to come where these relationship can thrive. Each girl is valued and girls grow in appreciation for each other. Self-esteem comes from not talking about self-esteem but developing confidence in your abilities and your feeling that you belong to a group. 2) Some young girls see the uniform or the friend selling cookies. They want to be a part of something like that. The fun of selling cookies does wear off and becomes a necessary chore. 3) Girl Scouts needs to realize that cookies are a fundraising exercise. Parents have to fund raise for everything now. The girls only have a few hours a month to spend on all programming or even cookies during the cookie season. It's the parents that do most of the business side of cookies. They're legally and financially responsible - not the girls. My girls have learned some skills from cookie selling but I really balk at the '#1 business for girls" promotion. If our troop treated it like a business then my girls would make more money for their efforts. We've even figured out the time spent vs. earned and they don't even make minimum wage. This doesn't even account for all of the parent hours.
- These are the things that Girl Scouts are known for but it seems to be that there are fewer programs because the feeling is that Girl Scouts wants to be measured on STEM and Financial programming. Girl Scouts is a program for girls to find opportunities... not be fed STEM and Financial programs. I like that we have these programs but they should not be the end all and be all of what is available for girls.
- I still don't fully understand these "programs." It seems there is more work involved. The handbooks have very limited information. Everything is "talk to someone" or "look it up online." I understand we are in a technology era, but I believe girls need to learn how to do things for themselves, going back to basics.
- To many merit badges on cookie sales, focus on more of girls interests
- The Guide books are outstanding. They are consistent, with the whole overview K-l2, ethics, principles, etc. They, for most of the badge pamplets are age appropriate at each level.
- Cadette Level - more badges. Like in the old days there was a whole badge booklet and girls could work on them on their own in areas that interest them. It seems there are limited badge choices now, and that they all require talking to someone in that field. That is not an easy thing to do or coordinate as an individual girl, let alone in troop meetings. We'd like to do the First Aid badge but we need to find a doctor, a First Responder, etc etc. It is hard to find those people to come talk to us during our scheduled meeting and girls are too busy these days to be meeting other times of the week to accomplish these things.
- FUN
- I also think there is too much focus on cookie sales. We shouldn't have to worry about selling cookies in December when the leaders have enough to do with the holidays. Our troop refuses to do booth sales in December but when we start them in January, customers are already sick of seeing us at the supermarket, etc. Our girls have elected to not do booth sales this year.
- My girl just completed her bronze. She has outgrown what she is being offered by her GS leader and troop. She has experienced so many opportunities in other organizations and club settings GS is becoming mundane to her like schoolwork. She has changed troops once and it is not so much leadership and adult training but program that she is not interested in any longer. It feels forced and a bit jumbled. She doesnt feel like her troop is truly girl lead with all the program maps the leaders follow to get things done. They get to vote on small things but not the over all experience. They work straight from the girls guide and journey book. It is a bit to structured for her. She wishes the girls had more say in what they wanted to learn...sometimes it doesn't all have to tie together into a cute story. That takes us time and space in the older girls world when they would rather be learning and doing and move on to the next thing. Our troop has 18 girls and they are all so diff but only a portion have gotten to do what interests them because of time and the layout of program.They want to leave. I wish leaders did not feel so tied to the book structure. I have been to trainings as a past leader....that is what is taught. so it is only truly girl lead on a small scale in many troops. Leaders are told do the book...so they do it front ot back and a year goes by quickly and so much didnt get done that the girls wanted to do that would have helped them with their skills and interests grow and blossom. Instead it feels like school to them.
- As much as GS would like to have the girls out their selling cookies on their own, it takes the parent support and selling for GS to get their numbers. If the GS organization does not want to back the parents and insist that this teaching 5,6,7 and 8 years old financial literacy skills, then you are only kidding yourselves. Parent and leaders set up the cookie booths and little girls are asking if you want to buy cookies, but the safety factor and handling of the money is in the hands of the parents, so what is it teaching them???
- Not enough current badge options. My girls don't like the journey's and I find them not to be entirely age appropriate in some cases. I really don't like that the old pathway for earning the higher awards (bronze, silver, gold) are gone and now these new journey's that have no real defining measure to completing them and is basically leader driven are the sole path to these awards. I feel that most of the girls are not getting what national thinks they are getting out of them, as from what I gather most leaders rush through them as fast as possible with bare minimum requirements just to say the girls have completed them and the only ones getting short changed are the girls.
- I enjoyed scouting as a girl and wanted the same for my daughter. Once the journey program started = she lost interest in the program.
- I loved Girl Scouting as a girl and am enjoying my experience with my daughters and the other girls in the troops I work with, however, the current program is NOTHING like the program was just a few short years ago. I find it much more difficult to keep girls engaged and interested in the program that is being offered through GSUSA/GSWO. Our troop remains active and involved because we circumvent many of the programs and offer activities more in line with the program 15 years ago and what our girls and their parents want.
- Things where the girl has to do something, and the gold award the way it is now is not what my own daughter had wanted to do she was very disappointed that the program changed she has her bronze and silver. She also has a brother who is a Boy Scout and she wishes our program was like his
- Cookie program ability to teach financial literacy depends on the leader, and is a building program. My girls were so proud of being able to count change without a calculator! I was proud of them being able to speak with adult strangers in a business-like manner, accepting compliments and criticism and sometimes outright hostility with greater ease, Girls like badges. A Journey is a lot of time and work. Most girls weren't able to attend all sessions and so did not complete the Journey. Badges were more manageable in smaller blocks of time and more girls completed them. Many current requirements cannot be made up at home if a meeting is missed. Programming is geared primarily for Brownie and Junior Girl Scouts. Older girls feel left out.
- When Juliette Low started scouting for girls, one of the main components was survival. Girl Scouts did a better job at passing information during WWII than the boys. They were prepared. I am afraid girls of today's scouting could not do so well. With tornadoes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters happening all around us this could be life saving. If girls or some leaders run screaming at the sight of a bug or can't start a fire they don't have a chance of surviving.
- Not sure if the cookie program teaches girls about personal financial literacy as much as group decision making and compromising that happens. Girls should be taught about personal financial literacy as well. After speaking with two of my girls, they say that they don't really feel that girls see the money and don't have a say if the adults made decisions. We are working on changing this mentality in our brand new troop.
- more cookie money should go to the girls
- We love the way our council combines STEM with camping opportunities. Girls get to be messy and have fun while in the outdoors. I think there should be a STEM journey- the second journey series was more environmental and outdoors, or that's at least how our girls chose to do it.
- Drop the candy sales and move cookies from december to february and let people order online. Schools moved to that model years ago, time to catch up girls scouts!
- I like cookie sales, but think there should be other ways to work on financial literacy. Such as Teaming up with a local bank to create a savings program or having the bank that holds the bank accounts work more individually with the girls. I do not like the nuts/magazine sales at all. I don't feel that they are a good value for the money spent and don't teach the girls anything other than pestering friends and family to buy things.
- The journeys are too much like school work and they take to long to complete. We wouldn't do the journeys at all if they weren't required for Silver/Gold awards. The girls don't want more school work. They want to have fun and get a chance to try new things. The girls like the badges because you could get them done in a couple of meetings plus an outing. With the badges, it is easier for the girls to take leadership of a meeting or even the who badge.
- Our Council offers many options for girls to choose from, our troop has had some wonderful opportunities. The Journey's are really our least favorite part of the program.
- There is so much flexibility within Journeys. As a trainer I struggle with seeing volunteers hand a girl book to a girl and say start at page one and go. We have never done this with our handbooks--why on earth would it be the plan for Journeys? I think the initial messaging was wrong--for busy leaders, it's all there--just open the book and go... contributed to this. 2) My daughters are in college and beyond--they benefited enormously from the cookie program. I think it's important!
- The cookie program could be valuable to teaching girls financial literacy skills if you took the time. Remember that Accounting is a course, marketing is a course, writing business plans is a course so to give all that to a young girl and have them understand the concepts of money and saving and spending. Seemed to be too young or take too much time as you were trying to do other things as well.
- The thing I most value about Girl Scouting is that, when implemented well, the program is driven by the girls, who learn the leadership and team player skills needed to develop and implement the troop's activities. The Girl Scout programs provide the framework and guidance. Leaders facilitate and guide the process, leading from behind. All other activites that my children were involved in are designed and led by adults, so Scouting was able to provide opportunities not filled in other ways.
- Journeys...my selection above doesn't really cover it. The Journeys are OK. I have experience with three of them: Brownie Quest, aMuse, and Amaze. I have different feelings about each and it depends on many factors including the format, the girls, and my own experience with the Journeys. They can be confusing and difficult to use, especially the first set (It's my World). The story set was better in general with more clarity on how girls earn the various pieces. It would be nice to eventually retire some or add new topcs (like outdoors). Success with Journeys also depends on the adult faciliatating. I've heard some really interesting, creative uses of Journeys that girls love and get a lot out of and others where girls are doing them just to earn the higher awards. 2) Cookies and Financial literacy...I don't think it has to be one or the other. Cookies will be a main setting for learning financial literacy. There are also the badges so I think there is space in GS for financial literacy in many venues. 3) I do hope GS keeps its traditions and outdoor skills is one of them.
- Very few other organizations allow the girls to all become leaders without outside pressure. One of my troops really dislikes the Journeys - 1) reading the material is too much like schoolwork; 2) they spend a lot of our meetings planning for (and they run) multiple SU events; 3) they like to work on a badge or two each year; and 4) they spend other meetings planning for camping / outdoor activities, including taking younger troops along - which means they need to work with them in advance. There aren't enough meetings in the year to do more than a few sessions for each Journey, so we are one of the many troops who prefer to do these on a weekend.
- I looked at, and still do, that Girl Scouts is an overall character-development program. You can't do one event or series and expect to get anything out of it other than the topic of that event or series. You do not become a Girl Scout by doing one activity. Being a Girl Scout, becoming a Girl Scout is a real thing. I volunteer with GS because I like to be with others who are Girl Scouts .... respect the GS Promise and Law ... do your best ... do your duty ... make the world a better place ...
- Most parents sign up hoping to not have to read a troop. Most parents do not look forward to cookie sales and all that entails. Cookie sales are more about incentives then financial management.
- Areas of interest change as the girls get older - less about crafts and more about tomorrow's world.
- Girl Scouts is a wonderful movement. The Law and Promise reinforce the way I want my family to act, and I appreciate what the program has done for my girls. But today's girls have enough enforced time sitting around writing and talking, Girl Scouts needs to help them get up and do stuff.
- Award programs includes petals/badges.
- Journeys. An infamous word. I like the idea of a Journey but the execution is not yet there -- the journeys are very vague and unclear. Speaking for a troop who took on a youth-led Senior Journey in sophomore year, it's almost impossible to figure out what you're supposed to be doing or when you're done with a Journey. The girl books seem almost entirely irrelevant to the actual Journey. I like the customizable aspect of it, but it's unclear what, exactly, we're supposed to be customizing. A little more structure and/or a simple, clear guide to what the Journey should be would be very, very helpful. 2) The associated awards are also confusing -- should the GIRLtopia Journey, for instance, be based on Discover, Connect, Take Action, or the Senior Visionary Award's Create It, Guide It, Change It? They seem like the same thing, so how could you do one without the other? The whole program felt very disjointed and disorganized when we went through it.
- Nut and cookie sales are limited these days.
- The requirement of selling $4 boxes of 1 dozen cookies and the troop seeing so little of it is a waste. Also seeing the building and work environment of the Girl Scouts versus the Boy Scouts is horrendous! The Boy Scouts let the boys sell popcorn and the money goes into an account for them to use/manage that is teaching financial responsibility, not giving it to a troop so other girls/leaders can decide how to spend the money you raised (and they DID NOT). The system is not fair.....it does not teach responsibility it teaches the greediness of the system, it might as well be a pyramid marketing scheme.
- When I signed my daughter up in 1996 it was to go camping/get outdoors in ways that weren't an option for me growing up in the 1960s when the local GS program was all about cooking and sewing.
- Our girls learn STEM skills at school, they are not interested in learning them in Scouting. Financial literacy is not taught through hours of freezing for little profit for cookies, but a badge that teaches how to balance a checkbook or make an investment would be a better way. Our girls are in Scouts for experiences that they do not get in school or other places. Camping, hiking, and travel is what keeps them interested, not Journeys or cookie sales.
- The cookie program is all the community knows us for. My gold award is worthless because no one has a clue what it is. When you think Girl Scouting since the early 2000s, all you think is cookies. Not service, not outdoors, not skill building.
- Which of none of the above I checked off is accomplished in the troop my daughter is in.
- Cookie Goals for our area are almost out of reach. The prize points have been raised and the girls are only given one week before booth sales.
- One thing I do like about the new program is the financial literacy badges for each level. My troop runs a "Mall Hunt" program for my SU and neighboring SU's where the girls can earn the badge for their level by completing activities at our local mall. It's fun and the girls (and leaders) learn a lot.
- I would also like to see more environmental programs. Girls like the opportunity to earn badges and show what they have learned to others.
- I feel a return to pre-Chavez finances would help the overall program greatly.
- There is too much money handling going on at each meeting. Parents are constantly making checks out for events. It makes me feel bad as a leader. I am making efforts to go back to the basics. The girl scout shops in their effort to turn a profit are exploiting the program.
- Not only girls, but adults are moving away from Girl Scouts. Some of it is GSUSA and the new programming. More of it is the local councils. My old Service Unit, from the time of realignment to two years afterwards, lost 3/4 of the girls / adults. We ended up changing councils because of how bad it was.
- On the financial badges, I think the Cadette ones may be above my girls' heads somewhat or not fitting their interests. They want to do the animal helpers one, but setting some of these up are so hard to find resources or get people to come in. Please make requirements more low-tech or simplistic!
- Run badges and outdoor skills programs at camps at night, for an overnight, just for the day on a weekend, during school vacations. By doing what the girls REALLY want, you can accomplish skill building and camp usage. Reduce the $ necessary to rent space at camp and we will come back to OUR camps rather than going to BSA, 4H, environmental education, Y facilities that do not charge as much money and provide better programs.
- It boggles my mind that STEM and the outdoors continue to be seen as two separate things. What better way to get girls interested in science and physics than to see how things function in nature?
- I started a troop for my daughter. She is a Daisy. I like that the program provides an opportunity to talk about values that correspond to the GS law. However, I found the flower stories for each petal to be not thoughtful and I didn't use them. I created a program for each of the petals myself. It was too time consuming and one of the reasons why I won't be a troop leader again. The curriculum as it is right now isn't what creates leadership skills. It is the way in which the leader manages the meetings or gives the girls opportunities.
- The cookie program does not teach the girls financial literacy. Most of the parents end up selling the cookies at their work. I hate participating in sales program that my children need to sell a certain amount to get a prize. The cost of the cookies keep going up but the percentage returning to the troops continues to go down For example - the cost of a box of cookies went up 50 cents but the return coming to the troop only went up 5 cents. This does not make sense to me.
- I think the girls get a lot out of the cookie program, however I do not like the fall product program. It is very hard to find time for this program. We have just finished cookie and we are trying to get back to working on badges, awards, community service, camping or other summer trips, and then we have to start up with fall product. It is just too much. School are doing the same thing at the same time, so it is hard for the girls to do both. It is hard to find time to do everything we what to do and then have fall product.
- Cookie sale is traditional to Girl Scouting. The "Be a Reader" + nuts & candies program is secondary, but still helpful for troop financing. Please do NOT make contracts with any additional businesses.
- Programming/ meeting activity choices ultimately come down to what the leaders feel adept enough at teaching or finding outside activities for the girls to learn from. Most Leaders don't have time to research/ prepare/ lesson plan out activities they are not familiar wit for each meeting. Thankfully the internet group sites were a wonderful way to share councils own badge activities, get ideas for group activities and other things. I don't think GSUSA has done a good job at providing this help and information.
- The cookie program no longer teaches financial literacy. How much do you think a Daisy retains? Since girls in our council are no longer allowed to take pre orders, and are only allowed to participate in booth sales, how much do you think they are learning?! Adults do the work!! Adults have been made responsible for everything. Troops here are forced to order the same amount of cookies as they sold last year regardless of circumstances. Troop leaders are refusing to sell because they refuse to make their girls and parents responsible for that much money. This hurts rural troops. GS HAD other ways of teaching financial literacy through some of the old badges and those were thrown away. NONE of what GSUSA has done in the last few years makes ANY sense at all! I have been a Girl Scout for nearly 50 years and we are slowly working our way OUT of an organization!
- There should be more emphasis to get girls to want to work on Silver and Gold out in Chester County. Get them interested and involved.
- I would like to see more consistency across GSUSA with regards to higher award. What flies in some councils would never pass in others.
- Unfortunately, I find that the parents of my scouts are doing most of the cookie sales and handling the finances.
- Overall, I'm VERY disappointed in Girl Scouting. My daughter and her friends are loving it. Our troop is growing. But that has more to do with my co-leaders and I being dedicated to doing what WE see needs doing. We camp regularly (more and more as the girls are getting older). We teach outdoor skills (they LOVE knot tying). We expect our girls to "man up" and do for themselves. What I resent is cookie sales being "sold" to us as "financial literacy". I'm an accountant--that isn't even CLOSE to financial literacy training. I resent being forced into hours upon hours of forms & hoops to jump through. I resent being USED as a cash cow with no respect being given to the fact that OUR troop has never paid late or bounced a check to council...and yet we have to provide ACH information MONTHS in advance, which will sit in someone's office (security risk for the girls' account), with NO direct amount of money being authorized (just whatever council determines at the time they want). I resent being treated as if I don't have a clue what the world does in financial matters (by the CFO OF council removed) when, in fact, I'm a trained professional with my OWN business. He has no right to treat ANYONE that way...and yet he believes he does. No, I don't think Girl Scouting is effective at ANY level above the troop level at this time. And the only time it works at the troop level is if the leaders are confident enough to just create a program that works and don't allow themselves to be intimidated by council.
- I don't really like how the badges are now. My older daughter is now 19 and the program was better back when she was a daisy, brownie and junior. The Leader training was much better back then as well.
- Too much emphasis on cookie sales. Limited programming outside of this area in my council
- There needs to be move council events toward badges.
- We don't have too many council programs in our area. Because I have mixed level troops we couldn't participate together anyway
- The journey's are good until you hit Junior. They need to update this for the girls - they aren't little kids anymore and don't want to follow around a spider. We need to make them more mature and relevant. They were great as Brownies and Daisys. My troop loved them then.
- There is too much pencil/paper work in scouting. GSUSA has moved away from the hands-on learning that was so important prior to the large program change. We need to have the girls go and experience rather than writing about how many commercials they saw in a week. I don't see the point in the Journeys except to line the pocketbooks of National. I NEVER received any training or explanation on the new books when they came out originally. 2) Training... Why do we have to have so much training and paperwork????
- The cookie program is not designed with older scouts in mind. Many times our Cadette, Senior and Ambassador troop members have been told by the public they should not sell cookies as...1. They are too old to be Girl Scouts 2. It's unfair to the little ones 3. They are old enough to get jobs Girl Scouts of the USA and Council need to do a better job of educating the public that scouting does not stop in 5th grade. Because of this failure many of the older scouts actually hide the fact they are still in GS from friends, acquaintances and teachers. They only stay as they have fun at meetings where Journeys are not involved and are with scouts they have known for years. Also, please let high schools know that Girl Scouts exist. I met with my daughter's school councilor (college pathway planning). She has been with the district for many, many years. She did not know scouting existed at the HS level and there is the potential to earn scholarships. However, she was very aware of the Boy Scouting program at the HS. Overall, I believe the support for the older scouts is sadly lacking.
- I think GS remains the best, most effective place for girls and young women to gain practical, hands-on experience in leadership & generally "making things happen." GS overall tends to let our girls try (and even fail!) at things they want to attempt, where other organizations and the community at large tend to say, "Awww, you're too young."
- my troop goes camping once per year there are many troops that do not and need this experience. mentor programs need to be in place so that troop leaders that do not camp must at least do a backyard camp too many are saying things like to quote a movie" we need room service" outdoors is a very core piece of scouting and survival
- So I seen candy bars as a limited thing sold in gas stations why dont girls sell those instead of cookies or both or keep them in gas stations yr round
- About the Journeys: I like the idea behind them, however the girls really aren't interested in them. They're much more interested in completing badges, and we really don't have enough time to work on badges and the journeys and still make it fun for the girls and not make it seem like we're just cramming stuff into the meeting and trying to get one activity done quickly so we can move onto another one and get everything done in time.
- If GSUSA is truly interested in going paperless, why not put the many, many packets on-line instead of selling them a little at a time. One handbook and one badgebook per level really was enough. All these new journeys, packets, etc are too much financially and yet don't come close to covering all of the learning opportunities in the old books. Also, everyone keeps saying but you can customize the journey but if it just came out it should be relevant and easy to follow and not require so much customizing.
- I would love to see more emphasis put on the programs already existing (GirlSports, Bee a Reader, BFF, etc.) and weaving those into the Journeys and Legacy Badges so that girls who find a passion in those badges can easily find a way to get more involved. Right now, as the Brownie Leader, I have to seek them out for them and with 13 girls, it is hard to target which programs will be interesting for all the girls (or even most of them).
- I was expecting a program more like I experienced when I was a girl scout.
- Honestly? We don't have much money and live in a very affluent area. Girl Scouts is affordable and, after yearly memberships, it's pay-as-you-go so we can pick and choose which events we'd like to attend based on cost. I can't afford $50/month for each of my girls (I have three) for dance or gymnastics or music lessons, but I CAN do girl scouts and that is a wonderful gift to my family.
- My experience was back in the early 90's with my girls.
- Girls need a better financial return for the cookies they sell. When they are selling for $4 per box, they should at least get 25% as a minimum return to the troop.
- Cookies are a long standing tradition. The emphasis doesnt need to be removed from that portion of our program, but additional financial literacy programs would be great. Cookies teaches management and cashflow, but so many people are ignorant of credit building/use. The girls need to know complete financial literacy before they are 18 and bombarded with "student" credit card offers. It would be nice to have info on investing as well, so they can see that earning.the money is just the beginning. Let's teach them financial independence!
- I'm a grandmother so I answered the above based on what I would like to see for granddaughters.
- I wanted my girls to take trips with Girl Scouts like I did as a girl. Unfortunately it is not easy to take girls anywhere with a huge amount of GS training even though I have experience. It makes the GS experience prohibitive as an adult wanting to lead girls in fun activities.
- The current Girl Scout handbooks are very difficult to follow. All badge opportunities should be included the book. Girls should not have to buy other sections or journeys. There are not enough choices for badges.
- When registering my daughter the first year I wanted something for her to do. I didn't know much about GS.
- I don't think cookie sales teaches the girl a dang thing about financial literacy. I think gsusa relies entirely to much on young girls to make their money for them. 4.00 for a box of cookies and the troop itself the ones doing the all the hard work only sees 50 to 60 cents of that is outrageous
- There aren't a lot of programs for seniors and ambassador levels.
- If it were not for camps, the travel pathway, and WAGGGS I may have left with my daughter and troop for Frontieer Girls - but .... camps and travel opportunites is what has kept us and the hope that from the inside we can stem the tide and change things back to what they were when I was a girl and a Girl Scout (2-12th grade Brownies-Senior) and then a leader while I was in college.
- I have 3 daughters ages 9, 17, 18. They have very different interest and it seems that when I sign them up for anything they have to sacrifice their likes for something closer to our area to participate or chose not to participate in anything.
- Girl Scouts has a lot to offer.. The older journeys are much better. He new journeys are difficult because the girls don't want to sit and read a story. They want to be active.
- In signing my children up for Scouting, my priorities were leadership and social skills, outdoor programming, and exploration. I have been a strong advocate to get all my Scouts to summer camp, because I know how much a Scout can learn and develop at camp, and these are traits that can't be taught at school. The gender of my children is irrelevant to this decision--it is based on my own experiences over 15+ years in GSUSA.
- I feel like the current foci are cookie sales (under the guise of financial literacy) and Journeys. This is not why we joined.
- Service projects are #1
- My daughter loves selling cookies and it does help with her social anxiety. I don't agree with how much focus is on the cookie program to the exclusion of other things. There should be more outdoor skill and experience programming. Girl Scouts is pushing STEM, including environmentalism, while removing girls from the outdoors. When almost no programming exists for outdoors learning for each level, that is pushing other programming and excluding the outdoors. The same goes for other skills.
- While I would like to see an Outdoor Journey, overall Journeys are often difficult to do within a Troop setting (especially MULTI-LEVEL) - and take too long to complete (8+ weeks if you follow the Adult Guide). If a girl misses a meeting, unless she does the work at home, she cannot complete the Journey. If that happens, why should she bother coming back to the rest of the meetings during that Journey? I know many leaders/Councils are doing a Journey in a Day, which I feel doesn't do the "girl-led" process justice. I have heard that Girls feel they're too much like school, and often need a lot of tweeking to make them more interesting/hand on without having to do all the reading & fill in worksheets. Also, Daisy scouts (especially Kindergarten age) have difficulty reading and doing the workbook activities. (I have gone through 2 of the 3 Journeys in Daisy and Brownie levels and completely rewrote the meeting plans, incorporating many of the skill building and legacy badges into the meeting plans to make them more interesting - and am working on a Junior plan). Finally, with the Summit Award opportunity, I feel adding another Journey would be more difficult to earn - which could be either a good or a bad thing depending on your point of view.
- I signed her up because my son was a Cub Scout. I really didn't know much about what G.S. really was until I became a leader. It just seemed like a "right of passage" for her to be a Brownie. What KEPT us in was the friendships, the fun, then the bronze, silver and now gold (to help her gain entrance to colleges).
- I would never recommend girlscouts
- Having volunteered in both out of doors and stem activities I can first hand say that they don't exactly meet and work well together. Power is unstable. Unlike a football or band competition computer components are adversly impacted by cold inclement conditions. Its totally another story to hold band practice when you need to perform together on the out of doors. For instance.
- Their needs to be more emphasis on outdoor actives and tradition. If I was to sign up my daughter it would be because of traditional Girl Scout values which has be lot for several years.
- My girls enjoyed earning badges in the years past but are having a hard time getting into the Journeys. I am thinking about just going back to the Guide and community service.
- Again, GSA has shut out the girls and the families by going forward in such a horrible direction. Making the awards harder to obtain and removing local camping you have basically removed ALL incentive for keeping girls interested as they get older. There are tons of STEM options in our community and community service is required to graduate -- there are very few options for camping and environmental literacy, especially with peers. The schools, church groups, and parents are addressing the STEM needs of our children - and possibly with too much emphasis (and I work in sciences with advanced degrees). The organization may find that they have "cut off their nose to spite their face" since they have decided to close the camp that served their fastest growing county (where most of their cookie profits originate as well). Selling resources to get out of a current mess is short sighted - reign in spending, increase the cost of weekly summer camps, keep camps basic (forget the AC, internet, computer carts, etc...) and stay true to the GSA focus.
- My son is in Boy Scouts and has just earned First Class. The way their handbook is organized is so much easier. Their approach makes more sense to me than the Girl Scout journeys. I think through earning badges, etc. the girls are getting more out of the experience than the Journeys. In all honesty, my girls don't like the Journeys.
- The Journeys are awful. The girls hate them and I've yet to come across a leader who was successful in using them the way they were intended to be used. The badge re-design is even worse. My girls are Juniors and really...pink and purple badges? Plus you took out all the amazing/great badges and gave us touchy-feely ones like independence and smart shopper. I feel like the girls aren't getting the same Girl Scouting experience as I did. And I feel like the lack of quality programing is why we have such a horrible retention rate once girls hit Juniors/Cadettes.
- The girls want to learn a variety of things. They have wide interests, the journeys do not cover them. They are filled with political agendas, They make me sick and make the girls yawn..
- Girl Scouts is more than sports. More than religious instruction and more than academic excelllence. Girl Scouts provides a will rounded safe, supportive environment for girls to try, fail and try again with training team facilitators.
- I wanted her to be in an "All-girl" environment. Girls and women need each other, we need to have those close bonds.
- Girl Scouts keeps totally changing and frustrating my troop. They are in high school now and have seen several book changes. they were interested in the gold award but not if it means doing 2 journeys. they don't like the journeys never did and were told they have to do them to attain a gold award. All elected not to go for the gold because of this. So they want more outdoor badges not tied to a journey. Environmental, wilderness, camping
- I think the cookie program is good at teaching financial literacy but perhaps other programs can be added too.
- While I am disappointed in some of the changes to Girl Scouting, I have been a Girl Scout parent/leader for 11 years now and I continue to believe that Girl Scouts provides girls with wonderful learning opportunities and adventures that they otherwise would not have access to!
- ALL MY GIRLS HATE the girl guide and DESPISE the journeys (we've done 3) BECAUSE ITS TOO MUCH LIKE SCHOOL!!!! They are burned out by the end of the day to go research careers and do in-depth reading and talking. They want to DO FUN things like experiments & STEM, teaching games, sewing, art, and all the cool things found on Pinterest---but the problem is there is no time for fun, when we have to fit in a Journey (that takes 6-10 meetings to do it right), a take action project, cookie sales, booth sales, fall product, World Thinking Day, Investitures, leadership opportunities, service opportunities, badges that take 4 meetings/field trips to complete. The leaders are getting burned out and the girls are feeling it because there's so many hoops to jump through!
- I understand the need for selling cookies, but the reality is Daisy and Brownies are just learning about money in school, it is unrealistic to expect them to make change at a cookie booth sale. As far as setting their own goals, its fine, but the reality there is the parents are collecting the money and that's about where that ends. When they are older they may get something out of it, but that's where we are losing girls too.
- The changes in the requirements for the Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards have diminished the program. In the past the girls truly had leadership responsibilities and very specific service requirements. I see participation in every aspect of Scouting in decline since there is no incentive for leaders or girls to take on these challenges. They also had badge requirements which again gave them the opportunity to be exposed to new interests. For other programming, there are less choices for older girls in our council and those that we have gone to were not very interesting. The cost of travel opportunities with GS are also cost prohibitive. You can plan your own trips for at least half the cost.
- Programming is not based around our badge book and supposedly 70% of the cookie money stays in the area for programming. I have yet to see this. Where is all our cookie money? If I sell $6000 of Girl Scout Cookies and only keep $1000 we expect to not pay for any programming and if we do we should certainly earn a badge at the end of it.
- Girls want to do the things they heard their moms talk about when they were in GS. They want to learn the skills that badges taught.
- Journeys are way out there. Each badge could be a "journey" let's say painting badge girls would discover all about painting tools painters visit museums etc then connect with how art can change motivate and create action then take action by painting a mural about graffiti affects a community or take action on creating a art workshop to help compensate the loss of art in school. Or make schools realize arts importance etc Every badge could be a journey
- Again, from the point of view of both a girl and a leader, we miss the wide variety of badges. Yes, theoretically the new program allows us to "go anywhere," but as a leader, the structure of the badges allowed me to introduce my girls to topics I knew nothing about. The new structure assumes knowledge of the leader and/or access to a wide variety of resources and experts on topics.
- I like the areas that teach my daughter to make the world a better place & not just for my daughter, but others around her.
- I would like to see the return of Badges relating to domestic activities, defined outdoor skills, more variety for arts and crafts.
- In the old badge books the girls had the opportunities to learn a wide variety of stuff. They get slammed at school with STEM stuff and I don't think it needs to bee a major factor of focus for Girl Scouts.
- we were one of the test councils for the literacy program and it sucked. You needed people who know finance to develop it. The person who did it, had not enough activities for the kids and not the correct age group. I love GS, but the program has been watered down. the journeys is boring and girls feels it's homework. Currently there are NO outdoor journey programs. In order for girls to get outdoors, keep fit, we need outdoor programming I am lucky our council has lots of outdoor programs, but girls want to earn badges and there are none. you do need people who have outdoor experience to develop great programs.
- The cookie sales have become to much. One of my good friends compared it to running a small business. No matter what is said about cookies being a girl run program-the leaders are still the ones who keep the books, arrange the sales, take the kids to booth sales, all the rest of it.
- How much financial literacy the girls learn depends on the troop leaders. Goal setting, adjusting and resetting is critical. Plus, handling the cash and learning how the numbers work from the sales needs to be taught to the girls and many troop parents take care of all of that.
- Journeys: There are so many problems with Journeys. If they are indeed the intended that the girls should discover, connect, and take action, why is there a Leaders guide. Both the girl book and the leader guides for the journeys are not organized well. I know they were supposed to aid new leaders, but they are just not doing that. Most new leaders that I talk to start with badges because they are "doable". Journeys are hard to do with multi-level troops and they simply take too long. Girls are not interested in one topic for 6-8 sessions. Cookie program: I know GSUSA sees it as a financial literacy program, but I simply don't (this is my 18th year as a leader). In my area anyway, parents seem to "sell" more cookies than girls. Booths are the way that my girls make the connection to financial literacy, but unfortunately the cookie sale is at the coldest time of the year for GSEM so we don't take full advantage of it. Badges: Councils should work to provide opportunities for troops to participate in specific badges activities.
- Having lead troops, i find that most leaders do not have enough training in ways to use their group of parents effectively. Parents need to understand that GS is not a babysitting service and that they, the parents, need to step up and help. A pair of leaders cannot be expected to cover all areas of program effectively and need to learn the skills of networking parents. All adults need to be able to say "i don't know" and learn how to let girls actually make decisions -- and let them fail when thy make the wrong one or forget something important. Safety should be the foremost concern, not making girls happy!
- I joined Girl Scouting because I wanted my daughter and I to have something that we could do together. I wanted to make lots of beautiful childhood memories. Cub Scouting did that for me and my brothers. I expect Girl Scouting to do that for me and my daughter.
- cookie program is great if cookie mgr/leaders teach the girls to set goals and let them have a say in how the profit is going to be spent
- My daughter is a 3rd generation Scout. She loves camp best.
- I think cookie sales is particularly beneficial for the younger girls.
- the cookie program is great and everyone everywhere can hardly wait for them to come out, I think we will never be as successful with anything as we are with cookies, however we need some other methods of learning about business and finances, if cookies were available throughout the year for a girl scout troop tto sell at their leisure --- or some other fundraising it would be better,also the nut/mag program is still new but I think the timing is not so great cause all the school sells things the same time we sell nuts/mags
- With the current "financial issues" resulting in the selling of camp properties across the US, is GS a good example of financial Literacy?
- Let’s not forget that the girls are looking for fun, friendship, and life experiences. Don’t try to turn this into “School”.
- We really need to step it up in what we are offering the older girls.
- I have actually been disappointed that there is not more outdoor activities. Most Girl Scouts don't seem to camp unless in a cabin setting with structured activities all day. At least that is the way our Service Unit works.
- The journey stories are horribly long, redundant, boring for the girls and too many "she said, she said" sentences. Just write a short story. The journey books do not coincide easily with the Girls guide or leader journey books. I am a college graduate and I cannot make sense if how to set up a meeting. The books have WAY TOO MANY IDEAS AND OPTIONS. Take a lesson from Boy scouts. One book-easy for leaders to follow! I hate, hate, hate the materials. I understand you want to leave options open for individualized paths but in the process you create so much ambiguity and its confusing. SIMPLIFY! You will save millions on printing costs too. Further, stop the use of all the stupid acronyms. I'm an outsider to Girl Scouts trying to be my daughter's troop leader. I don't know what any of them are. I feel like an outsider trying to infiltrate a gang and I don't know the secret passwords. STEM, NTSW, CLT, SWAPS, what the crap?
- The cookie program for learning literacy is only as good as the parents make it. Too many of my parents take over the money handling, do the talking for the girls at booths, etc instead of letting the girls do it. I've told the parents and girls many times over the years that the girls should do it but they insist on doing it for them. The adults spend more effort on cookie sales than the girls because they want to brag that their 'daughters' sold the most. I would love to see other program in place to teach financial literacy so we can do more in troop meetings.
- Enough with mandatory participation in fundraising. Girls should sell cookies but the reality is a huge percentage is done by the parents which teaches the girls nothing. GSGLA requires participation in both their product sales before a troop is allowed to do other fundraising. My girls learned more through their first workshop than they had in the 7 years of cookie sales prior. 2) Program should be scouting emphasis - instead it's money and training. Leaders should be encouraged to get up and go & get the girls outside - do things different from school -no homework - no journeys (not girl led).
- I feel that you need to support the leaders and SU managers more. You have a "BILLION" rules for everything, but when a leader is breaking the rules there are never any consequences and that is really frustrating. In an organization like Girl Scouts the girls should be modeling what the adults are doing, When you have rouge leaders and other volunteers that don't follow our guidelines it sets a very bad example for the girls. Yes, we are volunteers but we can and should dismiss those that are not leading or behaving in the Girl Scout way!!
- I would love to see a Financial Literacy program NOT bases off of Cookies. In fact, I have taught my troop all about finances, including checking accounts, savings accounts, interest, mortgages. You would be surprised at how many girls do not even have a savings account. (Our girls are 12 and 50% didn't know about these concepts.)
- When I started my troops, as a parent I wanted my girls to be exposed to variety of events and topics for exploration that they might not have the opportunity to encounter without girl scouts.
- Girl Scouts needs to keep their camps, and ease the restrictions for trips, fundrasining, etc...
- My Cadette troop does not like Journeys! The girls feel like the books are just more school homework. They preferred the old program and try-it badges. They prefer spending more time doing, going, and exploring, and less time reading, writing and researching.
- My daughter is a graduating Senior in High School. We have seen two changes in the program since we started. I think both the 2B and the Journeys do nothing to add to the program and the organized and thoughtful way that badges and awards were set up previously with all the prerequisites set out.
- I wanted my daughter's to be involved primarily for the community service aspects. It is important for children to see others giving back and realize from an early age how important it is. It also gives them an opportunity to do something a diverse group of girls in their community. It is another group of friends outside of their regular group, which is a great thing especially as they get older.
- The girls just want fun. They don't want to do more school work. GS should be a place where girls aren't judged as they are in school. Girls scouts should be fun
- The financial literacy skills don't need to be taught each year, yet there is such an emphasis on cookies. It is off-putting. Some girls (or more accurately, their parents) take it too far. In our service unit we emphasized deciding how the girls wanted to spend their money before setting the cookie goal. Why spend 3 weekends outside a grocery store when 1 will provide sufficient funding for their stated goal?
- Each girl does 90% of the work in selling Girl Scout Cookies, out in the cold, during cold and flu season. They get a miniscule amount of the profits. This is not business skills, it is child labor. If you license an official baker in each state, you would reduce shipping costs and the girls could get a greater share of the profits.
- Looking at the list above, I'm realizing that my goals are very different than what the organization is emphasizing. Could it be that we've arrived at the point that we need a radical reorganization to devolve back to the service unit level (as an awkward but apt comparison, I think of the way AA is organized).
- My daughter joined primarily to participate in camps and outdoor activities. They were certainly the highlight of my girl scouting experience as well.
- There are 2 ways to use troop money from cookies/magazines/nuts & candies. Some troops set a goal or trip to attain and save all their money from year to year until they can go. We never had consistency in our troop and so I felt the money we made that year should be spent on those girls who earned it that year. Whatever we made, we planned a trip around it. I would say my co-leader and I were the major planners without a lot of input from the girls because they had no interest or their parents always did everything for them, so they weren't used to thinking on their own or having an opinion.
- What's really sad is that there are 46 STEM facilitators around the US who have been trained by NASA and supported by GSUSA who received a $3 Million contract from NASA to facilitate this program to help councils deliver the STEM program and it is pretty safe to say most of us are under utilized. I haven't done a program in 2 years now because the council I am in right now is scared to death of STEM. LOL! There was MAJOR money spent on this program over a 10 year period. All the STEM trainers are dedicated seasoned GS volunteers. Many are educators, scientist, etc. the top in their field. It's crazy! They surely are not using their own resources wisely.
- Council programs are to expensive. Service Unit programs are geared towards Daisy and Brownies and tend to leave the older girls out and then complain that older girls are leaving scouts. There is not much to interest a High School student that is affordable in Girl Scouts.
- I am old school Girl Scouts. I look at the Journeys and badges and tweak them to my area or the girl's interest. They are a guide and not follow the book exactly. I think a lot of people forget that. They also seem to think that if it isn't in the book you can't do it. Maybe that is a training aspect that needs to be changed?
- GSUSA has veered so incredibly far from what Juliette Low intended Girl Scouting to be (an organization to teach girls skills for life with an emphasis on service to others and the outdoors). They are once again trying to bring others in at a complete disregard to what the members they already have want. And they are trying to bring them in by offering a program heavy in things that the girls can get many other places (STEM, computers). The outdoor program is not something they can get anywhere.
- As with everything, the program can only be as strong as the volunteers who provide the materials. If they aren't sold on it, if they don't want to spend the time to do a great job, then the girls will be receiving so-so program. For example, if the leaders don't actually work the cookie program so the girls understand that their efforts directly affect their troop's activities and allow the parents to just write checks to cover everything, then it doesn't really matter how great the cookie program is. Maybe I am jaded because of my location, but the volunteers now have less time to give and want the easiest route to get the girls the highest recognitions with the least amount of effort.
- With the current state of the program I would not sign my daughter up for Girl Scouts (I do not have a daughter).
- I expected her to get a sense of the value of providing service to others, the opportunity to create and participate in service projects as well as see the results of those projects. I expected her to be exposed to a wide variety of activities and opportunities. I hoped that this high level exposure would help her find her passion in life.
- Many of the old badges should be returned to the program. Having only 20 or so badges to choose from makes the opportunities more limited for the girls. The current handbook format is fairly useless for the girls. The older versions had a lot of great resource information and material for the girls to read and suggestions for activities to explore on their own. These were great in encouraging girls to explore their interests and giving perspective on the greater world around them. The Girl Scout Rainbow used to mean something. It stood for areas the girls should explore to be balanced people. Bring that back. Bring back the real resources for the girls. Expecting leaders to just "know" or to find thing for themselves puts a lot on new leaders. It makes them feel overwhelmed and unsupported and leads to burnout.
- The Award programs should allow girls to serve GS for the Bronze and Silver awards. This allows them to transition into leadership while ensuring their audience has been somewhat vetted -- as opposed to offering something to the general public. This also improves the amount of local programming offered to GS, and it shows younger Scouts examples of things THEY can do when they get older and advance thru Scouting. It helps make GS fun and cool and attractive. By the Gold level, require girls to move away from GS toward a wider population, but allow the younger girls to offer programs to GS as part of their Bronze and Silver projects.
- I was a troop leader at the cadette level for 10 years. In that time my troop grew to over 40 girls. We camped monthly. Our highlight of camping each year was traveling to Enumclaw, Washington to compete in a Boy Scout Jamboree. We did well against the boys, which my girls LOVED. We also did extensive travel to camping/bicycling the San Juan Islands, Victoria Canada, Our Cabana, and Our Chalet. My girls stayed in scouting because it continued to be challenging and stimulating. We NEVER did an over-night in a shopping mall!
- Girls are too focused in getting either prizes or money for their troop during cookie sales. I don't believe any girl learns about finances or leadership, rather learning to be unnecessarily competitive. Having an updated required badge to learn these skills every year could help.
- I do wish that the Gold Award could receive the same cache as the Eagle Scout. Most parents and certainly the general public are unaware of it. But I'm not sure how to solve this problem. Maybe some kind of ad campaign using a combination of traditional and social media????
- With camps closing it is harder to get a camp site and Council keeps raising the cost. A winter weekend is $250 for the building. Tent units are $60. In the 90's they cost $12.50 a weekend.
- Regarding the above question on promoting financial literacy with cookie sales, I think there has been some deterioration there too. From the beginning, our troop opted to get more money per box (I think it was an extra five cents) by completing some related required financial literacy tasks rather than getting a bunch of prizes. That option was eliminated later, such that we were forced to take the prizes, which for our troop was a step in the wrong direction. Also, girls used to get A LOT more camp credit per box, and there weren't cutoff points such that you had to sell a multiple of some number to earn any money. Somehow Little Cloud Council managed to function by giving out a lot more camp credit and by offering very low cost council events. I wish the merged councils could have learned from this approach and imitated it, rather than dropping the fun, low-cost council events, lowering camp credit from cookie sales, and eliminating the option of getting more troop funds from cookie sales rather than prizes. Thank you for your time!
- Your facilities have all the necessary equipment to teach all of these things. The new programs may seem useful but things like Self-esteem come with learning skills. And if the girl wants to learn outdoor skills than she should get them from Girl Scouts.
- We like selling cookies, but we would like more healthy options. I'm not sure what it is like other places, but Califorians are health conscience. I do like booth sales with the girls and I love seeing their math improve. Another issue we are having is more and more locations are not letting Girl Scout set up booths. I'd love some help with the major retailers such as Target and try to encourage them to open up to us. Fresh and Easy is another one, but I'm not sure if they are a national store. We have a lot of girls in our service unit in a small area with not a lot of places to set up booths.
- I feel that we need to offer more information to the public about the Awards and scholarships that are available to Gold Award recipients. I would like to see more organized opportunities for service to our communities.
- I see my friend's son in boy scouts seems to do a lot more bc they have access to more stuff and cheaper. a lot of our workshops are expensive and fall short of what they could be. as a leader it is hard to do it all alone and cheap.
- I am aware that Girl Scouts are a tradition but so unhealthy and one if the reasons that I dropped out of being a scout leader. And if asp is selling paper magazines it's time to start selling apps .....if things change I would consider coming back. Loved my ears as a scout leader except for selling cookies........
- What I wanted for my daughter is not what we got. In our State, our opportunities are far different than in others - I look at what is offered in other areas and realize we are in the w r o n g place. We pay our council for every little thing, and get nothing back. The leader/volunteer training is haphazard, and we have to pay to get that! The events are poorly planned and offer little real education. I've been to events (that we pay for) that the coordinators have put in so little planning that they just wing it and try to make it look good. They hand out earned badges like candy, no one really does the work required. The GSUSA is not even a part of our vocabulary. Our council is a "Good ole boy" network and if you are not "in" ... the opportunities are even slimmer. And - the employees have no oversight! The left hand never knows what the right hand is doing so misinformation is common - and the new Director is so busy with major fundraising she has NO IDEA what goes on at the Service Unit level, or troop level. In this area, if you aren't someone, you're no one. There is no opportunity to give input and if you do try to give honest feedback, the volunteers and staff who are firmly entrenched in their positions take offense and then you're really off the "A" list ... The spoils go to those who hold the reins in this place... and the reigning royalty are unwilling to assist those of us who could be a threat to their slice of the pie. And cookies? NO COOKIE TRAINING! Except that found on line. Don't turn in all your money? As long as the Council gets their portion - it's considered a troop problem. It's astonishing how much money that should be going to the Girl Scout troop ends up lining individual pockets. Again, no one cares. It's a shame.
- Financial literacy has NEVER been a concern and it is one of the most disliked parts of the program by both myself and my daughter.
- Cookies are great, but they should not be the sole focus of girl scouting. The girls seem to benefit very little from the work they do (getting very little of the profits, seeing their camps deteriorate and being sold away) while the corporation gets most of the money and publicity. Expecting kids to do all the work to keep the corporation going is exploitative.
- The journey programs are not bad but they lack activities to make them interesting and outdoor or fun elements. for example in the sow food one a home garden would be a great way to learn about healthy foods everyone needs to kill a tomato plant at some point in their life.
- The girls need more hands on activities, more options for badges. The girls do the journeys because they have to in order to earn other awards, but they don't seem to like them. They said the journeys were boring and too much like homework. They sit in desks all week long filling out worksheets and discussing or listening to an adult talk at school. They want to do something more "hands on" at our meeting, something ore active. I have even known girls who quit girl scouting after being members for several years because they disliked the journeys so much. Our older girls are so busy; if we want to keep them, we have to offer them something they can't get elsewhere. Journeys are not it. When given the choice, my girls still pick badges and activities from the old badge book even if we can't purchase the actual badge anymore.
- My husband and I felt that the values in the Girl Scout Promise and Law was the most important reason for Girl Scouting. In addition, the team building process found in troop program was critical to our daughter's success. I feel strongly that the self determination of troop program- letting a group of girls determine their own activities using the democratic process- insures the girls' success. Most of the girls in the troop already receive a strong STEM program in school, but very little exposure to team building or outdoor ed. One of Girl Scoutings' troop strength- found in the Bronze, Silver and Gold Award processes- is the help that girls receive to build on their individual strengths and weaknesses. I don't see that school or their other activities provide this at all to girls- and it's so essential to their life choices.
- need more varied programs for older girls & need more affordable programs in general (especially though for older girls) Cookie program - whoever decided that the GIRLS should shoulder the burden of guessing how many boxes they can sell obviously has deeper pockets than me! It is an unreasonable thing to do to troops & I believe preorders should be allowed - it has worked for 100 YEARS, why change it now???
- My child is intelligent. She gets her STEM activities in school. GSUSA is not an educational organization. Forget STEM, except to incorporate learning opportunities in recreational activities.
- I want my daughters to experience camping. We do not do this as a family but I feel that every child should experience a night away in the tent and what to do in the outdoors. Great skills and memories happen there. I am not a fan of the new program but I run it because i choose to be a leader. I think we are losing girls and those that stay do not really do the journeys.
- The cookie program used to be a good way to earn money for activities, such as going to camp. Today the % of that is low and there are more effective methods to utilize to make money for such activities.
- I don't think anyone signs up for Girl Scouts so their kid could learn about money from selling cookies. The idea comes later but I can't imagine that's an incentive at all. When you ask any room full of daisies or brownies what their favorite part of gs is, more than half will tell you camping
- Ask to see every survey that your volunteers have answered questions about programming and also the national surveys. Understand what staff and board are hearing before you decide how to address this issue.
- Teaching girls how to better themselves and respect others.
- Go back and get rid of the Journeys. focus on what was in place and work on making that better. baby steps.
- Financial literacy is important but the cookie sale lands on the parents to do a lot of the selling. I have no problem with selling cookies but I wouldn't hold it out there as a financial literacy program. Should be other opportunities (badges etc.) to learn about starting your own business, writing checks, bank accounts, investments, insurance, taxes and other skills needed to navigate through financial issues as a young adult. The Journeys are too time consuming and too much like homework. Requirements and forms for Silver and Gold awards keep changing. No communication to volunteers or girls in the process. The Gold Award "global impact" requirements are so vague it's ridiculous. My daughter gave up because she found the process so frustrating.
- I would like my daughter to have more hands on opportunities and also more service projects. They do a few every year but not nearly enough.
- The whole basis of Take Action Projects is, or at least can be, all in the wording of a project. TAPs just make it more into a semantics game to get a project approved than it's sometimes worth. Want to make tie blankets for a Bronze project? Go back to just being Service Projects! There are some AWESOME service projects out there that require leadership but may not be "Sustainable." Of course, just making a book of how you ran a program (so someone else could do it again) counts as sustainable in some areas. Journey-in-a-Day program defeats the entire purpose of a Journey, but in many cases, it's the only way it gets done so the Girls can move on to working on Bronze/Silver/Gold. The girls feel it's a waste of their time. They feel the books are teaching the same things they are getting at school. In fact, in Cadette and older girls, I've heard them saying that Girl Scouts is just more homework and lectures. The Journey adult guides defeat the entire goal of older girls being able to lead their own meetings. I know many leaders who have trouble with the lesson plans in those books. I personally spent MANY hours reworking Journeys and talking to friends who are teachers about appropriate alternative activities. The girl books for Journeys....the Brownie Quest requires WAY too much writing for that age group on way too small of lines. The books don't follow the order of the lesson plan. The cookie program.....there needs to be a way to handle siblings. A troop like mine (5 girls total. 2 sets of sisters, both of whom also have another sister in another troop) has a HUGE issue with the PGSA (per girl selling average) which affects the rate the troop earns money and the prizes the girls get, including Cookie Dough. I realize this is a Council issue, not National. With the economy where it is, camp is just too expensive for many families. The day camps are a 2.5 hour bus ride each day for a week (each direction!) -- if bussing is even available this year. Now the COuncil is looking for volunteers to run day camps closer to areas not served by them. Well, why do volunteers in rural areas need to run the camps when in the city, staff will run them? I realize we don't have the numbers of girls in a concentrated area and it's ALL ABOUT THE NUMBERS, but that doesn't make it "Fair." It's certainly not equal.
- Most of the leaders I know think that the "financial literacy" aspect of the cookie program is just so much window dressing. We know GS/USA and the councils need the money and that's fine, just don't pretend it's a benefit to the girls to go out and earn it.
- My daughter has gone to camp every year but will probably not go this year due to the changes in cookie dough! It seems the Council is getting greedy with the money raised form selling cookies. The troop earns only 45 cents per box, and now in order to earn cookie dough not even equivalent to what it was last year they must also elect not to take a prize. Last year my daughter earned $325 in cookie dough, this year in order to do that she would have to give up prizes and sell more cookies than she did last year.
- Learning about money is important but I feel there are too many leaves/badges about money. Its about the girls. They need more badge options, like before. I am not sure why Daisies now sell cookies. That changed while I was resting from the 15 years I was a leader. the last time.
- cookie program rewards should take into consideration the demographics in the troops city/town. A scout in a metropolitan area has significantly more opportunities to meet/exceed goals than scouts in rural or less populated areas. It's not a fair scale at this time.
- Financial would be better emphasized at an older age in my opinion. Too much emphasis on things they don't understand for Brownies and Daisies.
- My girls (3) became scouts for many reasons. Least of all was Leadership and Financial Literacy. We loved all the new activities we tried, and if we liked them learn to master over the years. They loved the science badges (which for the most part seem to have gone away), outdoor activity and badges (not many left) and just the chance to try new things (camping, horses, art, crafts, cooking, etc.). The new program limits these choices for the girls. There is a lot of research in the older girl badges and they don't necessarily want to do research. They want to be hands on and learn. These choices help them to become well rounded. Not everyone wants to be a leader. Out of my own three girls, one wants to lead at everything, one is in the middle and the last likes to do but not to be pointed out for things. They are all different and GS has impacted their lives positively. It does help them to be all of the above but it doesn't need to be the focus. By doing, teamwork and such, it will become part of them.
- My daughter loves camp, and is very sad that her camp is getting sold. I am as well, I grew up camping there. If money is the issue, increase dues or increase the price of cookies. The camps MUST stay. If you're putting it up to vote, I believe our organization has already decided. The camps should stay. I cannot believe that you bunch of bigots believe yourselves to be empowered to sell off this land that has belonged to Girl Scouts for generations. You have no right, the people disagree with you, and why would you want to sell them in the first place?
- My troop would never do the journeys if it wasn't required for the Bronze Award, etc. They aren't very fun and they take a lot of time to do. They would much rather do the different badges like they use to have.
- I think that the cookie program is a good way for the younger scouts to be introduced to financial literacy, but for the older girls (middle school on up) it would be helpful to have some sort of program that introduces them too real-world financial literacy where they learn about bank accounts, credit cards, loans, and so on that is emphasized more than the cookie program as really learning about finances.
- I was looking for a well rounded program to help my daughter grow while not being confined to a classroom. When there were no leaders available and she was placed on a waiting list I stepped up to be the leader.
- I found out that we can work on the badges from home so we will try it.
- My 16 year old has her bronze and silver but the gold has been hard. With all of her High School Activities and the changes. Communication from council has been poor since she was at a stage when "rules changed" TOO MUCH CHANGE.
- We have found the girl scout council trips are really overly expensive.
- I love that GSUSA is so willing to respond to the changing needs and wants of the girls that they/we serve. I wish there was a better way to deliver and use that in my location. I just often feel removed from what is happening.
- Everyone has heard of Boy Scouts Eagle Scout award, but no one has heard of the Girl Scout Gold Award. I think the two awards should be equally prestigious and monumental. There should be more to the award than a journey and a project.
- I want my 3 granddaughters to have the many options that Girl Scouts provide. Each is special and unique. If they have a circle of friends, and a safe place to meet, they will be able to discover, connect and take action on whatever interests them. I don't know what that is and could not choose from the list above. But, I know that a strong leadership skill will help her speak for herself, speak-up for others and form good values that will last her lifetime.
- So disappointed in the trendy direction it is going. Practically worthless
- Forget cookies. The troops don't make anything off them. The only thing it's teaching is dislike for wealthy CEOs.
- The financial skills learned by girls involved in cookie sales is directly impacted by the talents, knowledge and expertise practiced by the leader.
- My daughter was a 12 year Scout and I was her leader. She graduated in 2011 right before the Journey program really took off. She is now helping me with my other troop but she says if she had been a girl during Journeys that she's not certain she would have stayed in or she would not have completed her Gold Award because none of the Journeys were to her interest. Her Silver Award project was actually to work with other girls in her troop to lead a camp that gave them excellent leadership skills and focused on all Council Own Badges for the activities. This was a very well received camp and the girls had a lot of fun planning that camp. I have since heard that one of the girls in the troop is now using those camp leadership/development skills with a job that she just accepted (she is now in college). Her Aunt relayed to me that she was so grateful that we had done the camps and she had learned how to organize and develop the camp activities because this is what she will be doing in her job (which is not associated with GS).
- I think they emphasis and push to sell cookies need to back off. Let the girls have fun being girls and don't push the cookie sales. If the council needs more money then they need to find alternative ways to get it...like getting rid of the pension issue and cutting back on some of the salaries.
- Again, I think girls will learn financial literacy when they have to come up with the fundraiser. I would rather have just cookie sales and then TROOP LED fundraisers, then Magnuts. Magnuts take too much time from troop activities. Love outdoor camping, but there are not enough programs that teach the basics of camping. Usually there are 1 or 2 a summer. I think there should be more offered, and be year round. Why are there just trainings for volunteers? Why can't volunteers and girls learn together? Let the Girls decide the activities, not Journeys . Paper work has got to get better for Traveling. 5) I think there should be more of an emphasis on service projects. Help leaders find safe service projects. Create large service projects through the organization that a troop can join. Girls love helping out, but many times troop leaders don't know where to start because they have never volunteered in the community before either.
- I don't see how the cookie program teaches "Financial Literacy". We just ask them to sell so we can do more things. They are not really interested in the "literacy" part of it.
- The cookie program is excellent for financial skills, the challenge is getting parents to realize everything their girls can learn from the program.
- G scouting allows girls to develop at their own pace, it's very dependent on the leader to give the proper direction, that being said, leaders should be educated and coached more, or at least given the more opportunities to meet and greet.
- My daughter is not selling cookies this year, and we actually have literature to pass out to parents whose daughters are selling. I have also looked into starting an American Heritage Girls in our community due to the overwhelming support from our community against Girl Scouts.
- I signed my daughter up because I wanted to share with her the program I knew. Unfortunately, it's hard to compare the programs any more, there are very few similarities. It seems like certain areas of council get lots of program options while others get little or no offerings. Closing the camp near us will leave no council presence within an hour's drive. While I understand that an hour doesn't seem like a lot, it is when you have to arrange for transportation & pay for gas, find sitters for small children, or drive into unfamiliar areas regularly to get to programs, trainings, or other events.
- They need to get back to their roots, not following one path of morality but open to all views!
- Too much emphasis on cookies. All we get done in January through March is cookies!
- I believe the girls should have fun, while learning. However, with the new badges/Journeys, the girls get bored. I believe the new badges/Journeys will hurt membership numbers, if they haven't already.
- The girls work WAY to hard for VERY little reward with both the cookie and Nut sale. They only earn 19% ($0.76) for every box they sell. They were told that this is because the councils use it to build programs for them. Yet they don't see anything like that.
- Service unit websites are difficult to use and the posted forms do not open on every computer program. Makes it difficult for Mac users to print necessary forms. So e safety guidelines are vague or confusing and when council is asked you get multiple different answers. Cookie sales should be divided as 50% goes to troop and 25% to council and 25% to baker.
- Once again, paid employees always seem to have a different focus than the volunteers, families, and girls themselves.
- We make scouts what the girls want with a group of 6 other troops .... to heck with council and GSUSA. The girls tell us their interests and we find a way to make that happen.
- There should be more ready made badge activity kits and ideas available. The girls aren't going to magically know how to do things. We have to show them what to do before we can let them loose to lead. More specific badge instruction, while still allowing for leeway to customize, would be more helpful.
- The cookie program used to be, in part, about teaching girls to manage money, customer service, etc. Now that we have "direct sales", it feels like it's all about making money for the Council and very little to do with the girls. Troops are being pushed to buy cookies before a single box has been spoken for and then they have to rely on parents to figure out how to re-sell them and hope to goodness that they can! Not all of us want to do cookie booths! It feels like a pyramid scheme. I understand why our council does it, though, since they get little to no money from GSUSA!
- Camping and outdoor skills are important to Girl Scouting
- When a council is consolidated, outlining areas get overlooked for programming.
- My daughter really wanted something more like the Boy Scouts, but for girls. She wants to be outside, and do high adventure activities, and service projects. She wants this to be fun, not an extension of school.
- In regard to the Cookie program & financial literacy. That's a bonus, but should not in my opinion be the focus. More valuable features include working with the public & organizing their orders & products. We don't need a different financial literacy program -- the girls don't need this. They do not need the financial well-being of the GS organization to be their focus.
- We are a scouting family. My husband and son are Eagle Scouts; I was a Girl Scout; my daughter is working on her Silver. I WANT to continue to believe in this program but I am beginning to feel that GS USA is leaving us -- the leaders AND the girls -- behind for what they feel are greener pastures. I feel as though GSUSA has lost touch with what Girl Scouting was intended to be. I truly believe that there needs to be more emphasis on keeping the members who want to belong even if that means admitting mistakes and returning to the basics of Girl Scouting: badges, life skills, outdoor experiences. Use your resources wisely!! More training for adults; better support of leaders by Council; better promotion of what Council as to offer to the girls.
- Go back to basics. Don't try to push every environmental and social cause. Provide skills and opportunities to develop our young women into productive citizens rather than agendas and indoctrination.
- There is too much emphasis on the "new agenda" of scouting. My girls are doing this as an extra curricular activity. I add as much learning as I can, but too much of it is academic. There are more financial literacy badges at each level than makes sense. Some of us make the world a better place doing things other than starting our own business. There should be more balance.
- I am not aware of any environmental programs being promoted through Girl Scouts in our area.
- I feel that they have overdeveloped the Financial Literacy Program. It should be repaired and more focus moved onto other programs. Especially outdoor and STEM activities! Do girl scouts even do survivalist activities and jamborees anymore? I lived for camping trips and competition when I was a Girl Scout!
- leadership is a big concern for me for my girl scout. I learned about leadership in girl scouts and it helped me immensely dealing with an absent father and a mentally ill mother. I learned how to solve problems and to be eco friendly and to do things that children my age never had the training to do.
- Get rid of the reward trinkets for the cookie sales program, please. It is not good for the girls' on going internal motivation.
- Presentation of our colors/flags.
- The cookie program is good, and classic, but girls don't even sell their own cookies anymore. I refuse to buy cookies from girls who can't tell me their troop number or why they are selling cookies in the first place. They should be schooled in that. Most of the time the parents bring the forms to work and do the selling. I sold my OWN cookies, door to door.
- I hear from most the girls I meet that the Journeys are boring - too limited and paper/bool/computer based. The name "Journeys" is not specific enough. In contemporaneous usage a 'journey' can be purely mental, whereas a 'badge' or certificate indicates a certain skill level achieved - a mastery of some content. It's good enough for the Boy Scouts and implies some parity between boys and girls by having the same terminology. If the name change is an attempt to differentiate the GS it is unnecessary in that context. In the realm of STEM it places the GS in competition with EVERY SCHOOL in the world. That is being taught everywhere! Computer skill are being taught everywhere. Camping is UNIQUE to the GS and what differentiates it from every other program.
- I'd love to the the Destination program advertised more. By the time I learned about all the amazing places I could travel with Girl Scouting, I was too old for the program! It provides such amazing once-in-a-lifetime adventures for the girls, I want them all to have the opportunity to try it out!
- When I've visited cookie booths the parents are usually doing all the work, or the parents aren't helping the girls with the product. I think the cookie sales are great for girls to learn, but the leaders/parents don't seem to know enough about why (financial literacy) the cookies are being sold. If there was a curriculum to go along with the cookie sales, the girls can learn more about the reason why they are selling them. It's not just to earn prizes.
- In May, I moved to (location removed) and have been looking for ways to become involved with (council removed). In the past, I participated in Girl Scouts through travel, camp, GLO, Gold Award, and interning at my home council, Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana. GSK offers a gamut of activities ranging from business leadership to cake decorating and digital training. However, (council removed) is lacking regular and quality programs. The website does not have enough information about programs or a calendar of events, and the events calendar I got when I stopped by the office lists VERY few activities or events throughout the year. It seems like there might be some opportunities to volunteer at one of the two main camps, but it's not clear how and in what capacity I can volunteer in the off-season. I offered to organize some programs in my area around the journeys, but it seems the council is mainly interested in Girl Scout Week in March and getting volunteers to start troops. (council removed) is a small council, but I think they can attract more members and volunteers by offering more frequent programs and clear ways of how volunteers can get involved or lead them.
- being a scout for 8 yrs now with my daughter, as much as it is about being a scout, it is more about the friendship we have evolved into with our troop. we are great together and have all helped and encouraged each other through some very big stepping stones and challenges. We are together learning, dreaming, talking, and sharing. Its my opinion that our years together as a troop has changed all our lives for the better. I can't begin to explain how it makes them feel, knowing the have this safe judgement free zone to come too. In the early years it was more about the crafts. the projects. now it is more about their worlds, dealing, sharing, and being strong , together.
- The cookie program is iconic and vital and is a renewable resource, the girls enjoy it and learn far more from it than simply financial literacy. While other programs should be developed, they should not be intended to detract from or replace the iconic cookie program that teaches entrepreneurial innovation, critical thinking skills, and leadership. Now, if we could only come up with a program to address adult bullying in Girl Scouts we would improve leaps and bounds.
- Again, the fictional story components of the Journey's really need to be eliminated! Journeys should focus solely on the concepts of the journey with curriculum that can be suggested for interactive activities for both individual scouts & groups.
- we do have other financial literacy programs outside of cookies. I do believe that we need more advertising about GS's and not just when cookies are around.
- Less areas for programming and go back to a few- 1. Personal Life Skills ( cooking/housekeeping/sewing/finances/ personal care) 2. Outdoor Life Skills- ( gardening/ ecology/ sustainability/ camp craft) 3. Cultural and Civic Awareness- Government/ Civics/ Other cultures
- The number of badges have shrunk too much. And I don't like how the older badges have been split up when one could originally earn anything between Cadette and Ambassador. Both of my troops (for my two daughters, five years apart) wanted to earn badges all the way through 12th grade, where they're tired of being expected to lead all the time and just want to have a little fun after working so hard on prepping for and completing college applications. And my younger troop (now 12th graders) simply hate the Journeys. They complain it's too much like homework. Too much talking, researching, and not enough doing. And not enough variety in the subjects.
- girl scouts needs to host programs within the counsel to help with teaching the children science, mechanics, financial literacy, and the basics of camping (i.e.; 'pre camping).
- I've been a troop leader for over 10 years. I find the Journeys too difficult to run with my troop. The girls are resistent and despite the leader materials, I am not a trained teacher and find the programs hard to administer. We're happier (leader, co-leader, girls) working on badges, BUT there are so few badges available that appeal to the girls now. Finding programming for everyone has been difficult the last few years. We find we're looking toward making up our own programming and focusing only on earning the Silver and Gold Award. We will only do Journeys because they are required for these awards and we will adjust them to suit our needs.
- What is wrong with Girl Scouts earning badges? The basis of scouting for branding purposes and scouting purposes in everyone's mind is earning badges and doing community service. People have visions of scouts with badge sashes and badges up and down the sash doing service projects throughout their community everyday. That's the iconic image. That's what everyone associates with scouting. So why change it? One of my troops graduated from high school last year. Throughout their scouting career there have been three separate programming tracks for the cadets and upper levels of Scouting. Initially there was the simple badges and the level awards. Then came the studio 2B with the charm program and questionnaire booklets - Which was really nothing more than an attempt to get urban girls who were not interested in scouting to like the charms and want to participate because now scouting really wasn't about badges and service which is what Scouting should be about. The girls who are interested in scouting didn't like the questionnaire booklets or the charms and felt they were like a health class questionnaire and new girls didn't come to Scouting because they just were not interested in the first place. And the level programming - bronze silver and gold awards - incorporated a few of the studio 2B books and the traditional badges and service projects. Then came the journey program. In its first year when I had to do one with my older troop there weren't even any mandatory badges associated with the journeys. It was just do these questionnaires and a take action project. And I know that people hate to use the word mandatory badges or X amount of hours required for a service project because they feel it will either keep kids out of scouting or because they feel it's too difficult and kids won't try to attempt it But all people (young and old) need requirements and expectations to achieve and succeed. This is Girl Scouts - we shouldn't have to apologize for that. Without mandatory badges people will probably not bother to do them. So now in order to earn the silver award a girl needs to do only one journey and then her silver award project. For the gold award it's two journeys if you don't have the silver or one journey with the silver and her gold award project. If you were an underachiever you could actually do it without even earning a single Girl Scout badge at the upper levels. And now in phase 2 of the journey system they have scrapped almost every traditional Girl Scout badge and replaced them with a few new badges that correspond With the journeys. But both my troops have completed their journeys before those were added And I'm not sure but I believe that the badges are still not mandatory. So now you can be a Girl Scout and earn the highest awards without ever really earning any badges. And why did we have badges in the first place? So girls could learn about new areas and gain expertise in something completely different from what they normally do in a short amount time. The journey badges will take as much time as the journey which is practically a full year of Scouting. This doesn't really allow for other badges to be earned and of course there's no required reason for anyone to earn the extra badges. The badge system allowed girls who had an interest in a different area than that the rest of their troop to work on something on their own. Now all the badges are linked into whatever journey they are working on so it's all basically the same topic all year. Badges were useful for planning activities - We would take horseback riding trips to work on a horseback riding badge; We would go to the ballet to work on the dance badge; We would go camping to work on outdoor skills. Sometimes the girls in my troop would vote for separate badges and we worked on three different badges at the same time so everyone got to work on what they were interested in. And what about the traditional Girl Scout badges? I think they were called Girl Scout Lore and Girl Scout traditions? Shouldn't those be mandatory no matter how many times we change the program? Girls need to know the history of scouting, what it stands for and why they've chosen to be scouts. I absolutely hate the new program. I think all children do better with a list of mandatory expectations and they should be a little difficult. The major awards should still require a minimum of 20 hours of leadership, a certain number of badges Including several mandatory badges Like those for Girl Scout traditions, US history, government, some outdoors skills and global awareness along with several fun badges of the scouts own interest and choosing. If everyone had the same required badges that they need to work on we could host programming events where scouts could work on these together - It would be fun, different and promote unity. I think Girl Scouting should stop apologizing for being Girl Scouting. It's not easy, there are standards and requirements. It's about the outdoors, service, leadership, pride in our country and girls working together to succeed. Why do we keep trying to water it down to make it appeal to the broader masses? It's not for everyone and it shouldn't be-it's special like the girls who pursue it. And by saying Scouting is not for everyone I'm not saying Scouting is exclusive or restrictive I'm saying that Scouting is for girls who want to work to make themselves and the world a better place. Work is not easy but there's nothing wrong with it. We shouldn't try to make scouting easier just to get more girls into it - what's the point? And I'm guessing the point actually is money. We want to get as many girls into scouting and councils have been realigned so that grants could be applied for and marketing deals made where we could say 35,000 girls can be reached if you work with this council. I think instead of going for quantity of members we should emphasize quality of programming. I think that the real problem with Girl Scouts Is that we keep changing it. Did you ever notice that you can't define or explain the Girl Scout Gold Award without referencing the Boy Scout Eagle award? But you can talk about the Eagle Award all day long without ever once mentioning the Gold award and everyone will know what you're talking about. That's because the Eagle award has not changed it's name nor has it changed its basic requirements throughout the years. If you do a little research you'll see there's been at least six or seven different names for Girl Scout's highest award. Personally I think they should've stuck with one of the originals -the Golden Eaglet. It would have created that direct correlation to the Eagle award and cemented what the award means the mind of the American public and worldwide. I also think we should have a program similar to the Eagle with the required badges, leadership and service as I have already discussed. Finally I think we should launch a huge campaign to emphasize Girl Scouting's quality programming and the Gold award. I think it should be something like 50,000 girls ( or whatever the real number of gold award recipients is ), x amount of community service hours (Adding up all the service hours for either all the gold award project in one year or all the gold award projects ever), x amount of cities (Where girls have completed gold award projects), x amount of states, x amount of countries, x amount of college scholarships, x amount of people helped, - One award:The Gold award. That's should be the tag line- One Award: the Gold Award. Then you could expand it - X amount of girls in scouting X amount of badges earned, x amount of lessons learned - One Award the Gold Award. Or X amount of girls, x amount of Judges (who are gold award recipients), x amount of police officers, x amount of Governors, senators and congressmen, x amount of CEOs - One Award: the Gold Award. Instead of trying to ruin scouting by watering it down and making it less than it should be; why not show how great scouting is and make more people want to be a part of it? You know how the Boy Scouts are bogged down in that gay vs straight debate? Girl Scouts welcome leaders and scouts of all sexual orientation. Why aren't we screaming that from the rooftops? All the people like Steven Spielberg who distanced themselves from Boy Scouts and prominent celebrity figures who rail against Boy Scouts for their stand on homosexuality should be applauding and awarding credit (if not cash support ) to Girl Scouting. We should show how welcoming and accepting Girl Scouting is. It's probably the most politically correct youth organization out there. Why aren't we emphasizing that? If we promoted Girl Scouting's true values, it's unique programming, it's community service value and it's welcoming attributes we wouldn't need to keep destroying our programming to try to make it more acceptable to kids who are just not interested. Those same un-interested kids would then see the value of scouting and come to scouting for what it has to offer not for what it's eliminated from its programming to make it easier. People inherently know scouting has traditions, regulations and expectations. Why try to shrink from that? Why not show the good those same traditions, regulations and expectations can create?
- The Gold Award program is poorly run. My daughter was told to submit her program without meeting with anyone on council to discuss it. Took too long for a response. Changed the rules midstream. Very disappointing.
- We are Juniors this year and have been together since first year daisies. We have done at least one journey every year. The girls find the journey program boring. I have learned to use the journey as a guide and meet each of the requirements along the way while hitting some of their other interests as well. I like the framework as a tool but the repetitive nature of the journeys gets old after a while for the girls. We earned our summit as Brownies and some of the girls like the idea of doing it again as Juniors but I need to find a way to keep them interested along the way. I don't find that many of the interest patches tie in very smoothly with the journeys. I miss the wider variety of Interest Badges that used to be available. The girls have voiced this as well. I feel we are too limited with options to peak their curiosity.
- Journeys were in it's infancy when I retired, but I can tell you that the leaders and girls were not so happy about it. I was the receptionist and in all the years I worked there I got to know a lot of our volunteers. I recently met one of the leaders and when I asked how was her troop doing, her reply was that they left Girl Scouting because the girls did not want to do journeys.
- I have very mixed feelings about the Journey's overall. I understand that the prepackaged curriculum may be helpful to inexperienced leaders, but I find them difficult for the following reasons: 1. For a troop that meets less than weekly, one Journey takes up too much of the year's meeting time 2. The per girl cost of program materials (comic book plus fancy patches) is just too high. I believe that troop costs should be within the range of the least-affluent in my community, and don't like expensive program materials 3. I'm sorry, but many of the journeys just get boring....I'm firmly convinced that the Journey that we did in 5th grade was the reason that our troop didn't transition to Middle School successfully. It just wasn't that exciting, took up many of our meetings, and left the Girls less engaged with Scouting than they had been in years less focused on Journeys 4. So, instead of taking half of the troop into middle school as we had hoped, we ended up finding a troop that could take in the couple of most committed girls, and closed down a troop that had been together since Daisys.
- I like that the journeys are aimed at developing leadership skills. I like that there are general themes that are consistent with each level. I have lead my troop through three Daisy journeys, 2 brownie journeys, and am currently going through the third journey. I do not like the Girl's book that go along with the journey programming. The books seem manufactured to include specific elements are not written well. The stories take a long time to read and do not interest the girls. Troops in my area generally meet once a month for a meeting and once for an outing. Suggested meeting plans that involve 10 sessions take more than 1 school year to complete and do not leave time for other girl scout traditions -- like ceremonies, thinking day, JL's birthday.... plus it is very hard to keep the continuity and interest for an entire year. So far, my favorite journeys have been the environmental ones because the subject matter is more tangible.
- to bad the badges can not be part of the purchasing of the program books. Cost, cost, cost, cost
- Some of the Journeys are interesting and inspiring for the girls to participate in. However, some of the requirements or some of the perceived requirements are difficult or the girls find them boring or repetitive. I have tried offering several Brownie and Junior Journeys… The Senior and Ambassador Journeys i think are good...although they sometimes seem like bookwork. I think it is hard for adult volunteers to get a total handle on the Journey. We have girls miss meetings and then how do they make up the work that was done at the meeting...especially if it was discussion etc.
- I don't like the Journeys at all. Neither do my girls. They are programmed enough in school. They come to Girl Scouts to have fun, bond with girls, and learn a thing or two about practical everyday life. They do not want more book learning, or lesson plans, or anything of the sort. So, we don't DO Journeys.
- As a teacher I see troops meeting in our school - it is nothing but an arts and crafts program. Leaders are always looking for the "easiest" way to accomplish anything: bring sandwiches rather than cook at one night camping trips, buy pre-made "projects," create T shirts rather than wear uniforms or at least badge sashes, etc.
- I want to talk about journeys. The Juniors and Cadettes that I advise find the Journey overwhelming and too long. They like the badges which they feel provide more opportunities for girl leadership and are more 'digestible'. They get to choose the badges, decide how to fulfill the requirements and then provide the programming to each other.
- Outdoor journey would be OK if it actually teaches outdoor skills (camping skills, nature activities such as plant identification, tracking animals, storm preparedness etc.), instead of TALKING about the Outdoors. Would be much better off either revamping the Sign Awards (from Juniors) or creating a set of core badges which need to be done to earn higher awards. You want girls doing things like honing public speaking/communication skills if they are doing higher awards. For troops which meet bi-weekly, journeys are difficult to get through. Between the fall product and cookie sales, other obligations to things like Juliette Low's Birthday, Thinking Day and GS Sunday, troops have a lot going on. Journeys are best done when you can keep up the continuity. when you have to keep stopping to do something else, you lose momentum - girls lose interest in finishing. Badges are much easier to complete in shorter bursts. Given the time limits which girls and leaders have, I think earning a series of badges would be better. it is also easier for girls to make up badge activities on their own if they miss meetings. The Girl Scout program has lost too much of it's mentoring. As Girls get older, they are more likely to be part of multi-level troops, so there should be mentoring happening within the troop. The Boy Scout model is really better, where they have the older boys teaching younger ones within the same troop, once they've mastered something themselves. Their program is designed with reciprocity: the younger ones learn something which they need for advancement and the older ones complete the mentoring which they need for their advancement. There really isn't any requirement for older girls to help younger ones with anything...not even within their own troops. I would much rather have the girls spend time learning how to run programs and learning skills to earn badges than wasting their time on journeys. If they are learning how to run programs, they are learning leadership. If this is built into the program for advancement, then you will also remove some of the burden from adults, The girls will run a program as part of their requirements. It's also a great way to get younger girls to remain in GS...because they get to see older ones facilitating and will hopefully aspire to do the same. We used to run "Jump into Juniors" as a way for Juniors to finish Junior Aide. Now it's harder for girls to do this, because they are spending so much time on the journey that they can't spend troop time on badges or organizing an event for younger girls. Journeys don't teach the girls anything they need to learn to do higher awards. My own experience w/ journeys is that too much time is spent on stuff the girls already know. I know a few groups of girls who have done the aMuse journey and all the girls learned in the process is what is a stereotype. In my community, most if not all girls are aware that they can grow up to be whatever they want....because they've already seen girls/women doing all kinds of things. They also have tons of opportunities to play youth sports. So, journeys neither teach skills to make the girls competent at something, they don't introduce them to new things, and they aren't fun. Nothing from the journey prepares them to earn Bronze, Silver or Gold. So why exactly are we doing them?
- On Journeys - my real opinion is that they are confusingly written for something that is supposed to make leading easier, and there is way too much required reading. The ideas behind them are generally good. We are about to do our 2nd Journey (aMUSE), so I can let you know more later. They were interested in Brownie Quest, but the project dragged on. The main reason an Outdoor Journey would be helpful is because a Journey is required for doing the Awards, so it would be good to have another option for those who don't like the other options and esp want to be outside. If Journeys weren't required for the Awards, the Outdoor Journey wouldn't be needed, in my opinion.
- What would be the point of that? Journeys SUCK!! Just because they would be outdoors doesn't mean the journey would've palatable or enjoyable in ANY way!
- The Journeys are too much like classroom work. Kids go to school all day - going to Girl Scouts to have *another* teaching session isn't at all fun for them. I agree with the goals of Journeys - discover, connect, take action. I just think there has to be a better, more streamlined way to get the girls into doing service projects. 10 weeks takes a LOT away from badge work, outside activity, etc.
- I am currently living in rural Chile. There is a clear necessity for a Girl Scout troop here, but I am not sure how to begin. (Namely for self esteem building!)
- There needs to be much more comfort with the Journeys and allowing them to be girl-led rather than girl-driven....We need to allow girls to learn from the process rather than the achievement of goals. And we need to allow girls to learn from mistakes -- by first allowing them to make them then to learn from those mistakes. Where else are they safe enough to make those mistakes?
- Above it asks about the journeys. My girls do not enjoy the journeys, so we do them in a modified way to keep the girls interest. If we are going to continue journies, then yes, an outdoor journey needs to be written. My girls enjoy working on the "old" badges. They like the activity, the exploring new activities. They do not enjoy sitting and reading the stories.
- Comment is on the next question. Cookie program is very effective is leaders use all the badge and patch programs with it. I don't see much of that happening.
- There is hardly any programming here that is economically feasible. The programming that is here does not earn a complete badge...if I have to pay for programming I would like the girls to earn a badge at the end of it. Also, the programming I have attended they have never even seen new badge requirements.
- The Journeys are a nice concept, but they just don't work. They are very much like school. When did the mission of Girl Scouting point us to supplementing schoolwork? I thought we were supposed to be building leaders - young women of courage, confidence and character. They require too much time to be spent on a specific topic. If this topic does not arouse the passion of the entire troop it is possible (likely) that the troop will lose members. Why should they come to meeting after meeting that is about something that they don't care about? With badge work it was easier to make compromises. Girls would be willing to work on a badge that wasn't their first choice because they knew that the badge of their choice would be worked on soon.
- I only use the leader books as a general guide. I pull a couple of activities from each "session", to enforce the ideas being presented. The plans are tool drawn out. For a 5-6 chapter story, the sessions should span 1 meeting per chapter. the leader books should have a listing of suggested activities to choose from for each area, but not be laid out as lesson plans. It's too overwhelming for most leaders to spend 3-4 hours sifting through it all to find what works for her girls. Also, All of the badges for a level should be included in the handbook/badgebook. Having 3 add-on packets for 5 more badges each, is frustrating. Not having them all in the badge book to start with is absurd. Calling the binder an handbook is ridiculous. There aren't enough resources in the binder, and it's not got the content to be a handbook. Put it all together and sell it as a unit. Add in the full GS program, and it will be useful.
- I am curious about the #s of girls who achieve the Gold Award versus the number of boys in Boy Scouts who achieve Eagle Scout. It seems that Eagle Scout is more frequently earned even though the requirements are more numerous. Also, when I took my troop to a Gold Award presentation at Council, the presenter had been a Girl Scout only through the age of 10 and no Gold Award GS were present. Poor showing.
- re: programming. Our council cancels programs and runs them with low numbers regularly.
- I would like to know why GS keeps CHANGING the program! - Journeys add another layer of complexity to tying all of the troop activities together. They are long & complicated, even the name implies long and complicated! The names SOUND daunting - "It's your world - Change It". Really? Change the World?? When an adult has to: a. keep it interesting and upbeat, b. help the girls individually decide what they want to accomplish and how they can do it. c. help the troop decide what they want to accomplish and how they can do it. d. tie in badges to those objectives for short term gains, e. tie in annual/council wide/historic activities into those objectives, f. tie in troop advancement to those objective for long term gains, g. and if a girl wants to add a bronze/silver/gold project??
- RE: "How do you feel about the Journeys program" I put excellent -- though I feel that this was the "first time" for this whole new way of programming & I would expect some changes would happen for the next release. RE: "Outdoor Journey" development -- I'd like to see environmental education options/ideas woven into all Journeys, Girl's Guide, and other curriculum/resources GS officer. I wouldn't see Outdoor as something separate, it's another PART of how we do what we do (same things with STEM-science, technology, engineering, math AND global awareness AND financial literacy AND teamwork. RE: all that being said, I think we have to look at 1. How much money it costs to operate camps and 2. How many girls want to GO to camp. Research from several outside entities shows that participation in camp is on the decline. Wouldn't it be cool if there was a site like girlscoutcookies.org called girlscoutcamp.org where GS throughout the nation would encourage more girls to try it -- that would free up some council resources to recruit more girls to participate.
- I would like to see our council be competitive with other councils in other areas or states with the amount of "council own" badges and badge work related to our area. I believe we only have 2 for each level. I would like to see a food bank badge lime that of San Diego council and other skills or knowledge badges that relate to our high and low deserts.