COOKIE BOOTHS

Despite being doubled-booked with a cute Brownie troop (Thursday), driving rain (Saturday) and bone-chilling cold (Sunday), our cookie booths were a success.  We have now officially "Sold Out" of cookies!  Thanks to everyone's hard work, we should clear over $1200 profit once we pay the council the $6330 we owe for the cost of the cookies. 

Cookie Money is due at the next regular meeting on March 17, 7-10 PM at St. Bede's. Don't forget: turn in cash (or one check from scout family) only. The troop cannot accept checks from your friends and neighbors.

THE REVOLVING DOOR CAMPING TRIP: Misty Mountain, March 3-5, 2000

Well, we never quite knew who was going to be there for meals, but it was still a great trip. On Sunday everyone climbed to the heights or rode horses as they chose. Saturday we managed to have three meetings around considerable turtle time, having to pack early, and still squeezing in a short dance party.

Saturday morning Evelyn taught us all how to make hemp necklaces that are really pretty, and we worked on possibilities for a Panda Badge Silver Award Project. At noon we cooked our chicken noodle soup on backpacking stoves, and heard about backpacking from Mrs. Unger and Mrs. Gargiullo. In the late afternoon we talked about troop finances, the kinds of camping trips we'd like next year, and the financial realities of taking an international trip as seniors.

Math maniac Afua wore out a pencil figuring the cost of camping trips and what we would imagine the cost of international trips to be. We did a lot of reality checking, but the best we can imagine is that it would cost no less than $1500 per girl or adult to go to Mexico, and $2500 each to go to Switzerland. Evelyn is researching the current data on La Cabana, and Christina G. on Our Chalet. Anybody else who wants to research another idea is welcome to present it to the troop.

We talked about fund raising, and figured that even if we were lucky enough to raise $500 at each fundraiser, it would still take 45 fundraisers to raise $1500 for each of fifteen girls. We only have four years left before our girls start graduating from high school. That's a fundraiser every month for the next four years. Whew!

The girls want to take camping trips, and since a trip like this one actually costs about $50 per girl, they want to use some of their cookie money to do a fancy camping trip once a year. They really like just having time to hang out together, and would like to simplify one or two other camping trips a year. They are willing to learn about backpacking because knowing about primitive camping gives them more options for both camping trips and travel.

We think that next year we'd like to come to Misty Mountain again in February (not March!). Sometime between now and then we'd like to come up for the day and try more of the Challenge Tower. We'd like to do a fall camping trip to Falcon's Nest at Scout Haven, and we'd like to do a semi-backpacking trip in the spring. We'll take steps towards backpacking when we go to Falcon's Nest by packing as if we were going backpacking and bringing one backpacking style meal of the individual's choice.

PARENT AND GIRL MEETING MARCH 17

Don't forget: Cookie Money is due at the next regular meeting on March 17, 7-10 PM at St. Bede's. Please turn in cash (or one check from scout family) only. The troop cannot accept checks from your friends and neighbors.

Because the girls really want to try to raise money for a trip to the Girl Scout center La Cabana in Mexico or maybe even to try for Our Chalet in Switzerland, we'd like to get some input from parents. We plan to have a meeting of parents and girls at 7:30 PM. There are a number of issues. If parents and girls can talk about these things before the meeting, maybe we can reach a consensus.

1. Are parents willing to pay part of the cost? How much over four years?
2. If we do fund raising, Girl Scout rules forbid us to keep separate accounts for each girl. How do we then make sure that each girl puts in her fair share of work?
3. If we do fund raisers, what kind should we do? Should we do them in the summer? If parents prefer to pay more and do less fund raising, should some girls not have to help with any of the fund raising?
4. If we do fund raisers in the summer, what about girls who have family travel plans, jobs, Wider Ops, summer camp, and so forth. If a few girls are doing all the work, how do we treat everyone fairly?
5. Should we just try to sell lots of cookies? We usually make about $1000 from our cookie sales. Is it realistic to think that we could do better?
6. Before we can do any other kind of fund raising, the Girl Scouts require that we participate in both the cookie sale and the calendar sale. Is there a parent who will help with the calendar sale next fall?
7. Is there a parent who is willing to be in charge of fund raising?
8. Is there a parent who would like to plan the trip? Should we use a travel agent?
9. How many parents will want to go with us on the trip?
10. Will the Council help us? Will the Juliette Low Fund help us? Are there any other possibilities for grant money?

As you see there are many questions. We don't have to answer all of them on March 17. Probably every parent would like to see our girls take such a trip. If we can make this a girl project, they will get infinitely more out of it than if we hand it to them all tied up with a bow. They still need us, though, to help them figure it out.

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