Girl Scouts are thinking about the future

I was a Brownie and a Girl Scout.  My Mom headed up the Brownie troop.  I remember going on a camping journey and making our own pads to sit on as part of a project before sitting around the campfire having hot dogs and s’mores.  When we moved, I joined the Girl Scouts as a way to meet new kids but in the end, I stopped going.

One of the things that I loved about the experience is getting those badges.  To me, it was all about completing goals to obtain a badge.  So when it came time to sell the cookies, I was happy to go door to door.  That is a positive experience for a young girl, it teaches you to be entrepreneurial. That is really what each badge does regardless of the challenge.

I just learned this fun fact that $860 million (yes million) Girl Scout cookies are sold every year.  Oreos are the only cookie that outperforms.  Keep in mind that Oreos sell all year and Girl Scout cookies are compressed into a 3-month sale cycle.  Girl Scouts have been budgeting, selling and distributing these for 102 years.  Girls these days are using Square, Powerpoint charts, and Excel spreadsheets to know how many they sold of each cookie.  Data-driven girls!

Currently, the Girl Scouts are focusing on four things; entrepreneurship, outdoor and life skills and STEM.  They want girls to become makers, not users.  Another fun fact, 50% of female business leaders were Girl Scouts.  Their tagline is Building Girls of Courage, Confidence and Character.

Any smart organization should be taking this time to think about the future.  It is a pivotal time and in order for the Girl Scouts to be here another 102 years, they need to start thinking about what the future needs to usher a different generation of young women into adulthood and I happen to know, they are doing just that.

Comments (Archived):

  1. Ella Dyer

    As always, an excellent point about the all-year sales….Ella (yes, lucky me!) our oldest granddaughter, is a Girl Scout and I can attest first hand how important this organization has been for her and her friends (Lord knows Grandma has sat through more than a few of these tasks to make certain these important badges are earned!). Thanks for the uplifting post. Happy Summer.

  2. Kirsten Lambertsen

    When women lead 🙂 It would be interesting to learn how they’re doing on their diversity metrics. I understand that’s been a challenge for them.

    1. Gotham Gal

      Great question. I don’t know

  3. LE

    I always thought it unfortunate that there was not a well know achievement awarded with girl scouts similar to ‘Eagle Scout’ with boy scouts. In fact before I wrote this comment I did a search and confirmed that I had never heard of the ‘Gold Award’. (Not even a good name actually). This is very unfortunate. It would have been a nice ‘brand’ to attach the the achievement as so many have done with ‘Eagle Scout’.

    1. Gotham Gal

      for sure!