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Well said, Mom2M!</p>
<p>I always went door to door with my kids, and most people were glad to see us. My youngest always told me I talked too long at the houses, but that was our chance to catch up with the neighbors. The scouts just finished taking orders around here, and the cookies arrive toward the end of Feb. $3.50 a box, troop gets 55¢ per box.</p>
<p>I remember last year going to pick up the orders in my sub-compact; I fit them all on the passenger seat. (The girls were Jrs in HS.) In front of me was caravan of 5 SUVs for one troop. I think the girls were Brownies!</p>
<p>BTDT for cookies, cookie chair, leader, cookie cupboard (where the cookies are stored for the store weeks) Here girls sell door to door (but very few girls do) then sell in front of grocery stores for 3 weeks. Most troops do 1 or 2 days… our cadette troop (35 girls) did 16 at their peak. I bow down to that cookie chair. </p>
<p>I buy from my old troop and any girl that comes to my door, even when I had my own girl. This year I am looking forward to shipping cookies off to college.</p>
<p>Like Mom2M, I am a service unit cookie manager, so handle the orders for a large number of troops. We take delivery from an 18-wheeler as well. One of the things I like about G.S. fundraising is how open they try to be. The book given to every troop leader has a detailed break-down of how the profits are distributed (How the Cookie Crumbles), right down to 2 cents for the service unit, 56 cents to the troop, 20 cents to capital budget, etc. For our council, the price has been $3.50 per box for the past six years and there is one less cookie per box this year compared to last year in order to hold the price. Girls are encouraged to communicate this information to customers.</p>
<p>No troop should ever be stuck with cookies even if they totally misjudged their booth sale needs. The philosophy in this council is that somebody somewhere can sell those cookies. The troops just need to communicate up the chain and they will be redistributed. (We have been told that purchase of GS cookies cannot be counted as a charitable donation for tax purposes because you are receiving a product in exchange for your donation.)</p>
<p>In our area, girls are allowed to take orders door to door, but must use a buddy system. We have a lot of kids still going door to door in our neighborhood for various organizations, such as the high school band members and boy scout popcorn.</p>
<p>For our council, order taking began on Jan. 14 and ends March 29. We will be placing initial orders shortly and take delivery for those orders on March 3, so booth sales will begin after March 3. The girls do very much appreciate the community support and in my experience troops are good and careful stewards of the resulant funds.</p>
<p>I don’t have any girls (only two sons). I wouldn’t give the significant volunteer time I do to the Girl Scouts if it weren’t an organization I believed in and love, so admit a strong bias. (Kind of like an analyst admitting he owns the stock on which he has a “buy” recommendation.)</p>
<p>The cookies you buy to eat yourself are not a tax deduction. The cookies you buy that are sent to other organizations–in our area Helping Our Troops (military personnel) and Second Harvest (food bank) are a tax deduction–you pay, the charity receives the cookies.</p>
<p>And we redistribute cookies as needed…but troops need to talk to us so we know there is a problem…of course there is the year DD was told to put on her uniform to go sell another troop’s cookies—uniform was in the washer (oops). She wore her vest and a St Pat’s Day tshirt as it was St Pat’s Day. Sold those cookies by the case! As Su Cookie Mgr I spend a lot of time with new troops to be sure they understand Booth Sales, Cookie Cupboards, etc Fortunately the computer order system helps me monitor the whole thing!</p>