<p>Believe it or not, a big reason I bought my Honda Fit was because it could fit a huge number of cookie cartons. I wasn’t the Cookie Cupboard person, but I was the booth coordinator for our troop for a couple of years, so I was transporting cartons and cartons of cookies.</p>
<p>Through Scouts, our church, and working with adults in various capacities, DD has learned that drama doesn’t end in middle school or high school, but that many adults engage in as much drama as growing girls and that adults do not necessarily follow through on what they say they will do. I suppose that she optimistically thought that all the undependable kids she knows miraculously turned into responsible adults. Of course, many do. And then there’s the others, LOL.</p>
<p>Any Girl Scout troop is only as good as the leader. I was a GS through elementary school and it worked out fine. D2 joined a troop that her best friend’s (at the time) mom was leading. It worked OK for the first couple of years when the girls were still young enough to do as they were told. When they started expressing opinions things got ugly at times. </p>
<p>There were many control issues, the most famous being the vest/sash. D2 was willing to wear hers when they were out as a troop, doing a booth sale for cookies, etc. One of the moms wanted to require them to wear them to regular meetings which were held at her house. The leader backed up this idea. D2 said that was fine, if that was the requirement she would no longer be a member. No problem. It could not be left at that, there had to be huge arguments about why she was ashamed to be a Girl Scout. By this time it was on her college apps and she didn’t want this vindictive leader contacting her schools and telling them to cross off GS from her ECs but she never wore her sash again.</p>
<p>D2 graduated and never looked back. They had a party for the girl a year ahead of her when she graduated, not for D2. They offered to buy her lifetime membership as they did for the first girl, which was a nice gesture, but no one was surprised when she said no thank you. That summer they had a professional group portrait made without telling D2. The other grad was in the picture. </p>
<p>For us GS was a mess of girl games and continuous sniping and gossiping among the moms.</p>
<p>^^^ Wow - scary leader. She should have been grateful that most of a troop of high school-aged scouts was willing to wear the vest or sash, even in a private home. One of my troops had a cohort of middle school girls who didn’t want to wear them at parades. Didn’t want to die on that particular hill, so we let it go. In fact, we let the troop go once it became obvious that most of the girls enjoyed each other’s company but not particularly being Girl Scouts. It seems pretty controlling to me to make what the girls wore a condition of hosting a meeting. I’d consider myself lucky if they all showed up and left the place in the same condition they found it.</p>
<p>dragonmom shared her worst moment as a troop leader in post 60, and mine is engraved in memory. We were at a service unit activity with lots of games and competitions. One of the girls in our troop (all were 11-12 years old) won the whole shebang and was awarded a GS sweatshirt. Every girl but one in the troop was thrilled for her. That one, however, actually stole the prize and hid it. When it was discovered, she had the most awe-inspiring tantrum I have ever seen - screaming, slapping at anyone who tried to approach her, eventually dropping to the ground and drumming her heels. It got the attention of all 300 people there, while my co-leader and I looked at each other wondering what the hell to do now. Wasn’t covered in the Leader’s manual or any of those monthly meetings.</p>
<p>By that time I was hugely burnt out on scouting so my sainted co-leader dealt with the mom, who was embarrassed and tried to minimize how inappropriate the behavior was but did agree that the girl should take a time out of GS for a while.</p>
<p>D wears her troop sweatshirt all the time, troop polo as required. Formal uniform with vest only when mandated. Fortunately, it’s not often. The Leader loves the polos (theya re royal blue, easy to see the girls in a crowd). Same polos have been used for 15 years or more, so they are well known in town and in the Council. </p>
<p>Frankly, those vests/sashes are expensive and very pricey to replace once all the insignia is on them. Best to wear them for formal occassions, booth sales, etc only. Wear a troop shirt the rest of the time. As for troop meetings, they come in whatever…including sweats and wet hair (swim practice). That they are at the meeting is far more important than what they wear to the meeting. Could be why the troop has been around for so long, and why we have 36 high school girls as members.</p>
<p>I moved from Taiwan to WI when I was twelve. My 6th grade teacher thought it would be a great idea for me to join GS in order to make some friends. I went to 2 meetings. I have already been in the country for few months, so I understood enough what was said at the meetings. The leader told us that for fun we would go camping in the winter (in WI when it’s -30), we were advised to buy sleeping bags which could withstand the cold. We would meet on a regular basis (at such young age, I already knew I hated meetings) to do arts and craft. I thought to myself, what was fun about sleeping outside when I had a comfortable bed at home?</p>
<p>I was GS from brownies to cadet. Our troop had 3 leaders who were all friends. We designed our own badges, wore uniforms for ceremonies only, went camping all the time. We earned every outdoor badge available. Played lots of games and just generally had fun and learned stuff along the way. We sold cookies but it wasn’t a huge priority. In fact, one troop leader had a son who (when little) was an unofficial member of our troop and his sister in turn was an unofficial boy scout.<br>
My D was a girl scout for a short time but the rules and emphasis on cookie sellling was too much.</p>