So, yesterday I had some Girl Scout Drama erupt! Same time frame as last year when everything went and hit the fan! Last year my Co Leader Embezzled all of the cookie money from our cookie sales. It was between 1400-1600 dollars she took last year and was writing checks out to "Cash" and had also held 2 checks from the checkbook that she had not cashed. So, it was a big huge mess. And it was a very stressful time of year last year when that was all going down. My uncle was dying of Pancreatic Cancer and I was newly pregnant after having suffered 2 miscarriages. I did not want to lose another pregnancy because of some ridiculous person stealing all of our cookie money.
So, yesterday I get an email from one of my girl scout mothers stating that she is putting her daughters in to a home school troop. Ok... if that is where you want to be, then go. BUT... the kicker is that she is pulling them from our troop because I was unfair to her daughters (She has 2 in the troop) because I gave them a 30.00 gift card to build a bear when the other girls in the troop who ATTENDED the build a bear workshop got 40.00. Well... That is part of the experience. IF you attend the event, you get more money... if you do not, you end up with a gift card for less than the girls who went... sounds completely unfair doesnt it??? It is the way many of the troops do it and the way I was advised to do it LAST year when we finally had some money to do it. Part of being a girl scout is being a participant in activities that go on. So, really in all reality it isnt unfair. Now... We had a total of 12 hours of cookie booth time where 7 of the 9 girls in the troop stood outside of Hollywood Video, Stop and Shop, Walmart and the commissary. The 2 girls who did NOT attend ANY of the cookie booths are the 2 whose mother I received the email from stating that her girls would no longer be in my troop. Her email ALSO stated that her daughters worked EQUALLY As hard as all the other girls in the troop with their cookie sales. UMMMMM.... in all reality... NO they did NOT.... in their COMBINED cookie sales as sisters... they sold a whopping total of 92 boxes.... NOT EVEN 100 boxes COMBINED.. I had to take extras from another girl who had reached her highest goal in sales and move the boxes over to ensure that one of the sisters got the 1st prize level!!!!!!!!!! SO tell me how EQUALLY hard that girl worked...
In total our troop sold 1252 boxes of cookies. We get 75 cents per box of cookies sold. We could also earn a gift of caring badge for getting donation boxes of cookies that we sent to the USS Whirlwind. We got I think 21 boxes in donation or something. So, for having 9 girls, we had at least one box of cookies per girl as gift of caring. We made all but 1 of these gift of caring sales at the cookie booths. ONE girl (NOT one of the sisters whose mother is complaining) got her initial gift of caring boxes on her pre-order. YET.. these sisters will receive a patch for gift of caring despite NOT ever sitting at a cookie booth where these cookies were sold!
Here is the rundown for our cookie numbers... now remember, some of the cookies were moved around to ensure the girls could reach the next prize level (ITS ALL ABOUT THE CRUMMY PRIZES!) ...
Girl #1 125
Girl #2 200
Girl #3 50
Girl #4 200
Girl #5 111
Girl #6 200
Girl #7 57
Girl #8 100
Girl #9 209
I am sure you can tell which girls I am talking about by that list. AND just think, I moved cookies around to ensure that Girl #3 could at least reach 50 boxes in total sales! I think our girls did AWESOME regardless.
I spoke with our service unit manager last night at our leader meeting about the issues that came up yesterday and she agreed 100% with what I did as their troop will be doing the same thing next week. The girls who attend get more money and the girls who do not, get a gift card for a lesser amount. HER girls are all going to be attending the Camporee at 6 flags. That is 100.00 per girl and the service unit manager's daughter sold enough cookies for EVERY one of the 7 girls in their troop to attend the event (2 nights) AND the leaders! GO GIRL!
I am just really upset that I am trying to do a good thing and be a volunteer and make this the best experience I can right now and I get handed a plate of steaming poo... There are 4 girls (including the sisters) in our troop who hardly EVER attend meetings and events. We have gone to Koto Japanese Steakhouse, Limited Too, Build a Bear, Spring Dance etc. and these girls NEVER show up! AND our weekly meetings, they are never there. I TOOK these girls in to the troop and told the service unit our limit for the number of girls we could take on was 10 girls. THESE 4 girls NEVER show up and have taken the spot in our troop of 4 girls who would GLADLY participate yet sit on a waiting list because there is nobody to step up and be leaders. If they think they can do it better, THEN DO IT.... Really... I am here to help the girls out.. help them be involved. I didnt even want to take on being a leader this year after my co leader last year had embezzled all the money.... BUT MY DAUGHTER's would have been sitting on a waiting list. NOW the same problem is going to arise for next year. There isnt anyone to be leaders in the area. SOME parents are staying as Brownie leaders even though their daughter is going up to Junior level. AND that mother is awaiting a Kidney transplant at some point. AND she works full time as a school nurse. AND I AM COMPLAINING?!?! She has an awesome group of parents though. Every single one of them is involved in their troop. I only managed to get one awesome parent to volunteer with our troop despite handing out endless adult applications and covering the registration fees! So, basically they are trying to sucker me in to being a leader next year. I dont mind being a leader until it turns up I have all of these no shows and difficult parents who do nothing but complain! And it frustrates me and my husband asks me if it is even WORTH it.... I dont know... I am rambling now... who ever would have thought that being a leader would be so difficult. I AM A VOLUNTEER.... IF you think you can do a better job... then do it!
I just dont want to leave the girls hanging who are active members... SO... I DO have a troop for them for next year... My girls and the one other girl. The others, I dont think so. I can not take the chance of having them take the spot of more girls on a waiting list. (SO DONT WORRY ERICA!) Grr.... What a long vent... GO GIRL SCOUTS!
Clutter Rehab is back new and improved!
4 weeks ago
2 comments:
Ugh Erin I totally feel your pain as a girl scout leader of a tough troop with a few parents who you just want to smack around. As a matter of fact after dealing with similar issues (although my parents are complaining that we didn't spend last years cookie money because I was pregnant and their girls were so upset blah blah blah so they want to tell me how to spend the money) I have decided it's truly not worth it. I do it for my girls as it is, but with PTA and three kids this is just too much. It would be different if the parents were more supportive. But sadly they are not. I just got a phone call today from one of my problem parents. I saw her number come up and I said nope I'm not going to answer it. She can leave a message. I've got too much going on right now to deal with her complaining. So Joe answers the phone and tells her I'm not home. So she tells him to have me call her back to discuss some Brownie issues. Ugh, do you know this woman hasn't paid a single cent in dues this year. And she has two daughters in the troop as well who like your girls did not sell enough cookies. As a matter of fact between the two of them they sold 52 boxes of cookies. The mother told me to let them share the prizes. Ummmm, I can't do that. The lowest prize was a patch how can they share that? So I too fudged the numbers to give their girls something. They are still going to have to share one prize, but at least they'll each have their own patch. But anyways, I can only imagine what this mom is upset about now. We've missed two weeks of meetings, but it's not my fault. The school doesn't have a night janitor so they get subs and last week they didn't open the door for us even though I told them we'd be there. This week I had canceled because I was told there wouldn't be a janitor, but there ended up being one. Well, I was going to meet, but then things got too busy so I just said it's too much. So if this woman is calling to complain about not meeting then she's got problems. I can't meet if there's no one at the school to open the door for us. I haven't told anyone, but my coleader that I'm not doing this again next year. My coleader won't do it without me so I don't think there's going to be a troop next year, but if this mother starts with me I plan on telling her look I'm a volunteer and if you think you can do a better job the troop is all yours next year because I am done after this year. It was a tough choice because I'd hate for my girls to be without a troop, but really the girls are awful this year and the parents are worse. I'm dreading girl scouts and I think some of the girls are too so it's just not fair to the girls if I dread doing it.
Yikes, I was starting to worry! I'll do what I can to help out. If you need a co-leader, let me know. For what it's worth, I think you are doing a GREAT job!
Post a Comment