Somebody please tell me like it really is for Girl Scouts...

[tmsmalley]

My 5 year old dd brought home a flyer for Girl Scouts yesterday. She's just started Kindy and is about to turn 6 in a few weeks. Part of me would like to sign her up, I even surfed their website a few weeks ago thinking about it, but the rest of me is wondering what exactly I'd be getting into. My brother was a Sea Scout (overgrown Boy Scouts with boats) for many, many years, even did the adult leader thing and I participated in some of their events as a chaperone, but I'm not especially familiar with Girl Scouts and how they work at the young ages.

So, I know a lot varies depending on the troop and the person in charge, but what would I be getting into cost-wise, time-wise and hassle-wise? Am I going to be stuck buying 85 boxes of Thin Mints? Worse yet (those Thin Mints are gooood), am I going to be stuck standing outside some grocery store pushing the things on other people who only want to get home before their toddlers implode?

Tess

[rebate_queen]

If you're not planning on being a leader, then you can have as little time commitment as you want, although it is nice to get help (speaking as a co-leader myself). There is a $12 registration that has to be paid to the national girl scouts and that money your troop will never see (that amount is up from $10 last year).

You don't have to buy a certain number of cookies, but the more cookies sold, the more money that goes to the troop. We are a new troop, we had part of last year (the new year starts Oct 1 and we started in March of 09) and we have just started this year. Keep in mind there will be costs associated with a new troop though. We had a $10 start-up fee so we could have some money to buy supplies for meetings and stuff. Then we have been having parents pay for a portion of any activities we have been doing because we don't have enough troop funds to pay for everyone. We are having a fundraiser right now though, and we just did a yard sale, so after Christmas we are hoping that the troop money will cover activites. Hope that helps, if you have any other questions let me know.