At the very first girl scout meeting of the year, I was volunteered to be cookie mom for the troop this year. I thought, "Sure! That should be fun!" I agreed to the request and here we are. We took our cookie orders and at the end of January we had four corners of our dining room looking just like the one above. We have cookies!
Long story short: the cookie part of this has been spectacular. My cookies vs dollars is balanced to the penny. Problem is, I've met with one or two parents who see things differently from me (and they are good friends.) It's been an interesting experience and it's absorbed a ton of time. More time than I imagined - again, I expected to spend time with the cookies and the money, but I didn't realize how much time I'd be dedicating to the parents, and in turn our service unit leader (who has commented to me that I've handled the situation as well as possible, and we just have to deal with difficult people sometimes.)
Anyway, cookies will be all over and done with in another 3 weeks (THREE WEEKS!?!?) and I'm hoping to get back to blogging like I used to. I've decided that I'm going to focus my volunteer efforts in the future at the school, the Church and with animal rescues, etc. In short, I'm sticking with the organizations that have a history of saying, "Thanks for your time." The sad thing is, most of the parents do say thanks, but you understand all about bad apples spoiling the experience.
This isn't just me, either. I've talked with other mom's of leadership in our troop and they've noted the same issue: One parent in particular who does not volunteer her time has a tendency to bully and intimidate those who do.
Have you ever heard of "Frontier Girls?" or "American Heritage Girls?" They are alternatives to Girl Scouts that focus more on love of God and love of country than traditional Girl Scouts. I'm considering talking to some of the like-minded Christian moms in the group, just to see what people think. Faith loves Girl Scouts, so I'd hate to take her out of it, but if the troop as a whole continues to have problems I like knowing we have other options.
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