Well, the new year kind of got off to a rough start for me with some medical issues. But I think I’m back to normal and I’ve been so busy with Girl Scouts, I don’t have time to feel ill anyway.
Back in December, I got an email from our service unit asking for the name of our troop cookie manager and how many boxes we were going to order. Well, my co-leader had to back out her position because of other obligations at work. So, I guess I’m the cookie manager. That didn’t stress me out as much as putting in an initial order. I had no data on how the troop did last year in sales. I had NO CLUE what kind of sellers I would have. And people, you have to understand that handling this kind of information is what I do for a living all day! I use historical data to make decisions about future performance. Not having any data to back up my decision reduces me to making a wild guess and that just causes me stress. You just DO NOT make up numbers in my world. You don’t take action without sound information to back you up.
The service unit held an event where individual girls [parents] could pick up a palate of cookies before they were delivered to the troop. They got ten cases of a pre-determined variety and didn’t get to choose. So, I made an assumption that what they were giving out was an average amount for a girl to sell and I ordered our troop cookies in a similar ratio.
Last Monday, I picked up the cases of cookies from the service unit and planned to bring them to the troop meeting the next day. One of the girls lives near me, so I dropped hers off on my way home. That would save me some space in the car the next day when I had to bring the rest to the meeting.
So let me tell you about this little girl. She is the sweetest most innocent precious little girl I know. She has dark puppy dog eyes with lovely batting eyelashes. Pair all that up with her adorable little Brownie uniform and beanie hat and you are left to do her bidding. You are devoid of any self control and she controls your mind. Well, on Tuesday morning, she put on her uniform and went around her daddy’s office and SOLD OUT all the cookies I gave her. ON THE FIRST DAY. I got an email from her mom asking for more cookies. I was ASTOUNDED!
That night when I was divvying up the rest of the cases among my girls, I had one girl show up that I didn’t think was going to sell. She hadn’t been to my cookie information and permission slip meeting, so I didn’t order any cookies for her. So, one of the dads said to give her his cookies because they’ll be ordering a lot more cases later. Her grandma told me that last year they sold 335 boxes!
I’ve been back to the cookie cupboard twice to get more cookies for my girls. They’re amazing and I was quite unprepared for their selling power.
Chloe’s school attendance has been spotty since Thanksgiving. I think she’s figured out that if she gets bored, she can complain of a headache and get sent to the nurse who takes her temperature and finds it to be in the 100’s and sends her home. When we get Chloe home, her headache and pseudo-fever is gone, and she’s totally fine. Walter’s mom thinks we need to take her to the doctor, but I refuse to waste my money on a discipline problem. I’ve argued that my pediatrician doesn’t consider 100.5 to be a fever and Chloe can work up to that just by jumping around a few times. But the school’s policy is that kids have to be fever free (i.e. less than 100°F) for 24 hours before returning to school, so she has to stay home the whole next day.
So, she pulled this stunt last week and came home feeling fine. And since she couldn’t go to school the next day, Walter’s mom took her around to sell cookies. Walter and I have sold a bunch of boxes to coworkers. Our old neighbors supported us too. On Saturday, I loaded up our little red wagon and walked a small portion of our new neighborhood. We made out like bandits, but still haven’t sold HALF of what the other top sellers in my troop have done.
If any of you want some cookies, please call me. Oh, and if you don’t want cookies, our troop is participating in a program that sends Girl Scout cookies to the military. You can sponsor a box of cookies for the troops at the same cost as a regular box ($3.50) but the program takes care of all the shipping. Please ask me about this if you’re interested because I’ve been told by someone who has been a recipient of these that it was a very welcomed taste of home.
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