Haven't ranted in a while
Since I'm caught up with school work and have a relative lull (about 12 hours before I have to go crazy again), I thought I'd throw this out for you all. The Wife sent me the original link. It concerns an article about how the Girl Scouts stopped an enterprising young lady from selling Girl Scout cookies on line. The referenced article is below:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/188714
Basically it boils down to this: The Girl Scouts of America prohibits online sales as "unfair" and selling cookies should be a "face to face activity". Mind you, all this girl did was create a you tube video and set up an online form, stating she would only take local orders so she could personally deliver the cookies "face to face". And check out in the article the requirements to get the equivalent of the merit badge for techology. All you need to do is visit 3 websites and send an email.
My big beef with the Girl Scouts comes from my experience with Boy Scouts. Boy Scouts camp, learn to cook for themselves, tie knots, first aid, and generally learn how to be self sufficient and ready for any situation. Solid life skills. The Girl Scouts? Well, perhaps a real world example tells it best. Maverick's old cub scout den leader has a daughter in Girl Scouts. He suggested to the den mom that he could help out, maybe organize a camping trip or overnight, or some such type of activity. He was told rather rudely, "This isn't the Boy Scouts".
As an organization, the Boy Scouts of America are somewhat loose. Troops are allowed to basically put together their own program and don't need to even take funding from the local council if they choose not to. As long as they pay their charter fee, they're free to do as they like as long as advancement follows the Boy Scout rules. The Girl Scouts, on the other hand, give the local troops no automomy whatsoever. Boy Scouts get a large percentage of the sales (about 30% goes back to the scouts). Girl Scout troops, on the other hand, get about 50 cents on a $3 box. Half of that goes to the NATIONAL Girl Scout organziation. Some additional goes to the local councils. In the Boy Scout world, about 70% of popcorn sales stay local (between the troop and local council) and very little goes to the national council. Moreover, Girl Scouts earn things like teddy bears for selling a lot of boxes where Boy Scouts actually earn MONEY, as in camp dollars, for selling popcorn. They can use this money to go to summer camp or shop at the scout store for supplies, or if they want earn cool prizes including gift cards to Wal-Mart and such.
Basically, the majority of the fundraising the Girl Scouts do goes to keeping the Girl Scouts running instead of making a better experience for the scout. I kind of wonder just what the Girl Scouts are teaching our young women. How to be good wives and homemakers? Good thing I don't have daughters. I might have to rebel against this notion of "girls can't" and teach them to be ninja assasins or something.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/188714
Basically it boils down to this: The Girl Scouts of America prohibits online sales as "unfair" and selling cookies should be a "face to face activity". Mind you, all this girl did was create a you tube video and set up an online form, stating she would only take local orders so she could personally deliver the cookies "face to face". And check out in the article the requirements to get the equivalent of the merit badge for techology. All you need to do is visit 3 websites and send an email.
My big beef with the Girl Scouts comes from my experience with Boy Scouts. Boy Scouts camp, learn to cook for themselves, tie knots, first aid, and generally learn how to be self sufficient and ready for any situation. Solid life skills. The Girl Scouts? Well, perhaps a real world example tells it best. Maverick's old cub scout den leader has a daughter in Girl Scouts. He suggested to the den mom that he could help out, maybe organize a camping trip or overnight, or some such type of activity. He was told rather rudely, "This isn't the Boy Scouts".
As an organization, the Boy Scouts of America are somewhat loose. Troops are allowed to basically put together their own program and don't need to even take funding from the local council if they choose not to. As long as they pay their charter fee, they're free to do as they like as long as advancement follows the Boy Scout rules. The Girl Scouts, on the other hand, give the local troops no automomy whatsoever. Boy Scouts get a large percentage of the sales (about 30% goes back to the scouts). Girl Scout troops, on the other hand, get about 50 cents on a $3 box. Half of that goes to the NATIONAL Girl Scout organziation. Some additional goes to the local councils. In the Boy Scout world, about 70% of popcorn sales stay local (between the troop and local council) and very little goes to the national council. Moreover, Girl Scouts earn things like teddy bears for selling a lot of boxes where Boy Scouts actually earn MONEY, as in camp dollars, for selling popcorn. They can use this money to go to summer camp or shop at the scout store for supplies, or if they want earn cool prizes including gift cards to Wal-Mart and such.
Basically, the majority of the fundraising the Girl Scouts do goes to keeping the Girl Scouts running instead of making a better experience for the scout. I kind of wonder just what the Girl Scouts are teaching our young women. How to be good wives and homemakers? Good thing I don't have daughters. I might have to rebel against this notion of "girls can't" and teach them to be ninja assasins or something.
Comments