Girl Scout calls for boycott of cookies...

[mockingbird]

Towards the end of my time in Girl Scouts is when they really overhauled the uniforms. I think the explanation was girls thought they looked too dorky, so they tried making them more fashionable. Ok, so the culottes my mom got for my cadette/senior uniform were pretty bad, but my god. I remember them changing the colors to khaki also from blue. I agree, there's nothing to be ashamed of when wearing your uniform! I wore my Brownie one to school on meeting days and I never got picked on or anything.

A year after I became a Brownie, they redid the uniforms almost completely. So the brown jumper and knee socks with the silly orange flashers on them had to go! I looked on the website, and it looks like the Brownie uniform hasn't changed much from when they switched that (the blue shirt and brown skirt) and that was 1994.

Yeah, my issue is more with the older girls. They still have it for Brownies and Daisies. I wouldn't be against updating it either (I just missed the culottes thank goodness) but I loved wearing the uniform. I also liked the casual options, like with Brownies I had a brown skort and a yellow Brownies t-shirt that counted as a uniform. There was something similar for Juniors, too. I had a school uniform, but we were allowed to wear Scouting uniforms on meeting days, so I loved that I got to sneak in a t-shirt. LOL Even as a Cadette/Senior I liked wearing the uniform, especially for official things. I was a representative for my service unit at council meetings, so I felt like a uniform would be appropriate there.

(Edit: Just remembered I also had an old Brownie uniform from someone's mom, so I would place it around the 70s. It was a brown jumper with a very pretty Brownie-pattern blouse. Someone donated it to me because it didn't fit their daughter. I LOVED that uniform; it felt so grown up!)

I have hope that their level of organization (or lack of) varies by region. I talked to someone who grew up in a Las Vegas council and they seemed to have it together there. My council lost my paperwork twice (once for my Gold Award, and once when I worked for them) and decided to blame it on me and punish me for it. I completely lost respect for them after these incidents, even though I was able to reconcile everything.

[desertvixen]

I think the explanation was girls thought they looked too dorky, so they tried making them more fashionable. Ok, so the culottes my mom got for my cadette/senior uniform were pretty bad, but my god. I remember them changing the colors to khaki also from blue. I agree, there's nothing to be ashamed of when wearing your uniform! I wore my Brownie one to school on meeting days and I never got picked on or anything.

A lot of it just seems to be our older girls around here - like at the Veterans' Day parade the various troops marched in, Juniors and Cadettes were leaving the route to grab candy that people were throwing - especially annoying because we were trying to keep the Daisies and Brownies on track.

Never wore the culottes, but did wear the skirt. The striped shirts could have gone, though.

The important thing is that she's excited about doing it. I am hoping for a better organizational level in Colorado Springs, however, and more of a chance to be active with some of the older girls - I have not the patience that a Daisy leader needs!

The MV has some cute Daisies stuff (a long-sleeved tee and a short-sleeve one that she generally wears on meeting days under her vest).

[dairyfreelife]

The girls are not allowed to go door to door by themselves. They are told that a parent or older sibling needs to go with them. Many girls simply sell the cookies to members of their church. Others have their parents take the order form to work. Some of the troops are starting to do away with door to door selling. Instead, they sell them in front of shops.

When I did Brownie Scouts, they did door to door sales, but you were NOT allowed to do it on your own. You had to have an adult. I think they are doing away with that though because of the concerns for safety. My dad had people at work buy them. We did some stands and that has increased as I have seen some troops with sports teams car-washing. I guess they were tag-teaming.

I can't eat the cookies because I have a milk allergy (bad one) and am intolerant to egg. But I would might buy some if I see any sales and give them away as gifts just to support the GSUSA.

[emmiedahl]

Our troop does not do door-to-door sales, it is absolutely forbidden in our GS council. The girls and parents set up a stand outside the exit of a grocery store (with their permission of course) and sell them there. We usually sell several hundred dollars worth of cookies in a few hours. It is much more efficient and safer.

Our troop does not even do uniforms. The GS have a lot of cute t-shirts, so the girls wear that with their sash or vest. We are all poor in my troop, though. We buy the bare minimum and try to save cookie money for activities and summer camp.

[m0drnmoonlight]

Yeah, my issue is more with the older girls. They still have it for Brownies and Daisies. I wouldn't be against updating it either (I just missed the culottes thank goodness) but I loved wearing the uniform. I also liked the casual options, like with Brownies I had a brown skort and a yellow Brownies t-shirt that counted as a uniform. There was something similar for Juniors, too. I had a school uniform, but we were allowed to wear Scouting uniforms on meeting days, so I loved that I got to sneak in a t-shirt. LOL Even as a Cadette/Senior I liked wearing the uniform, especially for official things. I was a representative for my service unit at council meetings, so I felt like a uniform would be appropriate there.

(Edit: Just remembered I also had an old Brownie uniform from someone's mom, so I would place it around the 70s. It was a brown jumper with a very pretty Brownie-pattern blouse. Someone donated it to me because it didn't fit their daughter. I LOVED that uniform; it felt so grown up!)

I have hope that their level of organization (or lack of) varies by region. I talked to someone who grew up in a Las Vegas council and they seemed to have it together there. My council lost my paperwork twice (once for my Gold Award, and once when I worked for them) and decided to blame it on me and punish me for it. I completely lost respect for them after these incidents, even though I was able to reconcile everything.

That's the Brownie uniform I started out with, the blouse and jumper and the orange tie! They changed it to what it is now, the blue shirt and brown skirt with a white tie. As you got older, the uniform became a "wear for important stuff/awards ceremonies" things, but the culottes still bugged me LOL.

It really does vary by region. The association I live in was decent, but when I went to college and met fellow Girl Scouts from other areas (we were in the music sorority/honor society together and part of our service was teaching Girl Scouts about music), I learned that some were a lot more dedicated and did more stuff!

[mockingbird]

Our troop does not even do uniforms. The GS have a lot of cute t-shirts, so the girls wear that with their sash or vest. We are all poor in my troop, though. We buy the bare minimum and try to save cookie money for activities and summer camp.

The only girls who had the full uniform in my troop were usually the ones who did stuff outside the troop. I was the leader's daughter and didn't even have the Cadette uniform until I went on a national trip and it was "strongly recommended" for a formal dinner. I think more girls did as Brownies, maybe so they could get out of wearing the school uniform. LOL. It's still not as big in my hometown for most of the girls, but I did like having it available.

[snarkbillie]

Our troop does not even do uniforms. The GS have a lot of cute t-shirts, so the girls wear that with their sash or vest. We are all poor in my troop, though. We buy the bare minimum and try to save cookie money for activities and summer camp.

This is what we do as well. Our leader does have a few of the dress uniforms though and we share them when needed for photo-ops. My daughter had to borrow one from another girl in our council though because she's so tall, but it worked out. A lot of us don't have money for the uniform so we wear slacks and a special t-shirt and a sash or vest. We get almost all our money for activities through cookie sales. Rarely I have $5 here or there to pay for something, but it's usually not too bad. I like that girls can participate in all the activities in our group even if their parents aren't flush with cash. I've popped $10 in before so two little girls could go to council-wide when their parents were between checks. We work together and support each other. I think it's good for the girls to see that.

[Mama Mia]

I remember being a very little girl and looking at the picture in the front of my Brownie handbook that had a drawing of each of the levels in their uniform - I would dream about someday being a Cadet because they looked Sooo glamorous with their stockings and pumps.

Never made it past first year of Juniors, and the uniforms changed right around then.. oh well.

[Terrie]

I'm another one who never made it past early Juniors. We moved and I HATED the troop in my new neighborhood. It didn't help that as the new girl, some of the other girls bullied me. There was also the fact that the new troop didn't do very much. I think in the year I was there, I didn't earn a single merit badge.

As an overall group, GS is very good, but so much depends on what happens at the troop level, and that varies dramatically.

[prairiemuffin]

Re: Girl Scout calls for boycott of cookies...

I remember being a very little girl and looking at the picture in the front of my Brownie handbook that had a drawing of each of the levels in their uniform - I would dream about someday being a Cadet because they looked Sooo glamorous with their stockings and pumps

Me too! Me too! I really wish I would've kept my GS handbook, would love to look at it again.

This brought back memories: didn't have the whole uniform, but I did have the shirt, tie, and (of course) sash.

http://www.smithsonianlegacies.si.edu/o ... cfm?ID=225

[darkplumaged]

I loved wearing my Brownie uniform to school on meeting days! This was in the early 80s, and I had the full ensemble: white blouse with brown stripes, jumper, pants, beanie (!), tie and sash, orange turtleneck for colder days, and a brown cardigan (I think). I can't imagine kids now wearing something like that, not even an updated version.

[alba]

One of my friends is from Vancouver, though, and tried Girl Guides for a while but they seemed to think she was the spawn of Satan for once pretending to be a vampire when a scab bled by smearing a tiny bit of blood on her neck, and she left, not sure if she was asked to or not. She claims it was super Christian and homemaker-y and that she wasn't accepted because she wasn't raised Christian. Could've just been her troop though. Or her area.

That's definitely not standard for the Girl Guides of Canada. We did crafts, camping, practical stuff, games, etc. It was great!

[stacyf]

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/say-no-to-girl-scout-cookies

Just had this posted on my FB page encouraging me not to buy Girl Scout Cookies. Just another idiot who seems to not know what she is talking about. She really shows the stupid when she refers to the transgendered Girl Scout as a cross dresser, the ignorance runs deep.