I just finished my last ever Girl Scout meeting a leader and I could not be happier about it. I spent 7 years as a Girl Scout volunteer. I started as a parent volunteer, then co-leader and finally Leader of my own troop.

Girl Scouts, at its core, is an organization that promotes community service, a love of the outdoors & helps build strong female leaders. It was designed as “something for all girls.” I have witnessed first-hand the positive impact this organization can have on young girls. I have also seen how much negativity flows throughout this organization.

Chances are you have most-likely heard of the term “Soccer Moms” or maybe you’ve caught the show Dance Moms. Well, I am sad to say that those moms have nothing on a Girl Scout Mom, especially during cookie season. These “volunteers” are entitled, vicious and sadly, their mean mom ways spill right over to the girls who are looking up to them.

 Besides the mean moms and salty “council” employees, I found that the program itself is lacking. You may have seen the recent push for more outdoor badges. That is a great start but unfortunately, there is much more that needs to be added to the program to bring it both back to basics as well into this century. I found that a lot of the program was really just an extension of school. My scouts were easily bored by the Journeys and a majority of the badge work. It took a lot of time and creativity (thanks Pinterest) for me & the scouts to make what was required both fun and engaging.

 And then there is parent participation or really lack of. Parents just want an activity where they could simply drop their kid off and pick them up an hour or so later. They did not want to read emails, help in meetings and they most certainly did not want anything to do with scouts outside of our regular meeting. We’d plan a fun field trip and only get 3 girls who would actually show up. We were slated to march in a popular holiday parade (part of earning the celebrating community badge). We made our banner (also part of the badge) communicated the date of the parade multiple times and even offered a carpool. The morning of the parade came and only ONE girl showed up and my husband carried our banner down the street.

I wont waste too much time talking about the annual cookie sale. “Council” tries really hard to spin this as opportunity for the scouts to learn 5 important skills; decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics. What it is in reality is an opportunity for the Girl Scout organization to pay salaries (you should see the number of “directors” my local program has), pensions and whatever else it deems it needs and that varies by “council”. Troops by the way only see $.75 for every $4.00 box sold. “Council” sold out by incorporating Girl Scout cookies into ice cream, lip gloss, candy bars and even milk. I am not even sure where that money goes. I could talk about my distaste for this particular fundraising method all day. Bottom line, girls work very hard and only see a fraction of the profit. I’ll just leave this here if you want to read more.

 Don’t get me wrong, I am not a hater of this organization but I strongly believe that Girl Scouts needs to get back to basics, stop the emphasis of cookie sales & embrace the century we live in.