First They Came For The Girl Scouts

One brave, vocal mom is standing up for what’s right in the pages of the New York Times and making a case for the Girl Scouts.

Lately I hear parents putting down the Girl Scouts and the cookie program. Some don’t like their children selling an unhealthy product; others complain that they’ve been on waiting lists for a troop forever. The Bloggess recently challenged the organization to explain how it spends its (hefty) cut of the cookie money, in a post that begins, “I was never a big fan of Girl Scouts …”

I am a big fan of Girl Scouts, despite the organization’s problems with falling membership and low funds. I am a fan despite the zillions of forms I have to fill out, despite the overabundant rules, and even despite the fact that some customers will pay $11.25 in shipping and handling for one box of cookies through the new online cookie sale.

There are good reasons and bad reasons to feel iffy about the Scouts. A deeply ingrained distrust of uniforms and any who wear them? Fine! An argument that cookies are a “sometimes food” and blah blah blah obesity epidemic? Stupid. Not being interested in paying three times the cost of the box for shipping and handling of said box? Understandable! Not having seen the heart-expanding Shelley Long movie Troop Beverly Hills? Unconscionable.

The Bloggess, in the post referenced above, does take legitimate issue with the insane shipping-and-handling costs associated with the new Internet sales of Girl Scout Cookies:

The digital cookie sales that will allow girl scouts to sell online starting this year: From what I’ve read online, if my daughter sells a box of cookies to her nana online, her nana will be charged $4 for the cookies and $11.25 for shipping. So of the $15+ sale for one box of cookies my daughters troop will see about 60 cents. Is that right? Was that the most competitive shipping price available? Were there other bids? …

I hate to be nit-picky but it seems like an extremely questionable business model and my daughter has been taught by the Girl Scouts to ask questions when you think something is wrong, and to make good financial decisions, so that’s why we’re asking you for a real response so we can make a decision on whether her time is best spent selling cookies, or doing something with a greater return to her community.

The TL;DR answer from the Girl Scouts has a lot to do with pensions and hoo boy are pensions boring, especially to those of us who can never expect to benefit from them.

The main issues remain unresolved, though. Why should anything as light and delicious as one box of Thin Mints cost $12 to send through the mails? Are we buying it its own pony? How sad is it that the Girl Scouts, a 100-year-old institution, is in decline, in part because today’s moms are too damn busy to volunteer to be troop leaders? At the same time, though, is an institution that depends on overstressed and overburdened helicopter parents to do yet more unpaid work on behalf of their children even sustainable?

Are better work/life balance and family friendly policies the answer? (Yes. Always yes.)

Does America no longer prioritize civic responsibility and leadership??? And/or are the Girl Scouts an archaic organization that turns children into Ayn Randian capitalist automatons?

Are you who are you are — an upright, financially aware citizen who reads the Billfold — because of the Scouts?

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