We do have Girl Scout (GS) cookies here in the Netherlands. This week, I've thought of my service unit and all the troops at Corpus Christi since I know that cookies will be delivered at any time - if you haven't received them already. We're not involved with GS cookies this year - except for buying and eating them. Although JA is helping out in a Junior troop, we missed the paperwork session so she didn't get in the loop to sell. She really missed doing it; she's been selling since she was a 2nd grade Brownie and even had the distinction of selling 500 boxes three years in a row. Little Brownie Bakers supplies the cookies for Overseas GS in the North Atlantic, just like GSCNC does.
Here's how cookies work in The Hague Neighborhood:
Back in October, I think it was, the Neighborhood Chair and the Neighborhood Cookie Manager got together to figure out how many cookie boxes to order and what kind. With two new cookies out, the Lemon Chalet Cremes and No Sugar Chocolate Chips, they had their task cut out for them. They ordered 5000 boxes of which none where Trefoils or No Sugar Chocolate Chips.
Cookies are shipped by the military to a base and then volunteer parents drive to pick them up. Fortunately, this year the shipment was sent to Rotterdam - about a half hour drive depending on traffic. The exact day to collect them was unknown. We had a 24 hour window to pick up the cookies once notified of delivery in order to minimize theft. Plus, there isn't much warehouse space for cookie storage.
Once the word came that the cookies were in, around 22 January, the parents drove down to pick them up. The cases were counted and distributed to the troops according to how many girls were in each troop. There are around 50 girls (excluding Daisies) in the Neighborhood.
Each troop determined how many cases were given to each girl to sell and what the troop may retain for additional booth sales. A cookie patch is available but no individudal incentives based on the number of boxes sold.
The girls are not allowed to sell door-to-door but friends and neighbors they know can be approached. They call people they know. Parents who work with American colleagues take boxes into the office. Booth sales at school or church are allowed. The cost per box is 2,50 euro (about $3.70). The Neighborhood keeps one euro per box (remember that the Neighborhood functions like a Council.) The Neighborhood keeps a percentage for Neighborhood expenses, the Daisies get some and the rest is prorated to the troops according to the number of girls in the troop.
GS cookies are a welcome taste of home here where Americans are far from home (and watch the Superbowl starting at Midnight.) It seems as soon as an American hears that they are available, they hunt them down.
The booth location par excellence is at ASH especially this year when the Cafeteria has a "healthy food" policy which means cookies and sweets are few and far between. After school, the boxes disappear off the table to students and parents just as soon as they are put on the table. Leaders who were worried about whether or not they had too many boxes to sell were running out of favorite kinds. Trefoils were asked for repeatedly. They were not ordered because it was thought there are enough shortbread-style cookies in the Dutch stores. Trefoil lovers are a loyal bunch.
The Saturday after cookie pick up, a Solo-Ensemble Festival was held with students from International Schools coming to participate. One of the leaders wisely set up booths all day. Some girls sold out their allotment of cookies during that day. Participants and parents were seen clutching boxes of cookies as they looked for a way to store them until they went home on their respective buses.
Now, a month after the cookies arrived, there are still a few cookie boxes around. ER bought some at a booth yesterday (Thursday, 21 February). Several of her friends before play rehearsal craved a snack so they each bought a differend kind of cookie and shared them with each other. They go fast.
We have our small home stash to enjoy a little at a time. Nothing says "home" like a box of GS cookies. Terry likes All Abouts. Mary Ann loves thin mints. Everyone loves Tag-a-longs.
