The Girl Scout Promise and Law

The beginning of the Girl Scout year is an excellent time to review the foundations of the organization, namely the Promise and the Law. New Daisy troops automatically do this because they are learning them for the first time and their petal project focus on the parts of the law.

After that first year, however, we don't necessarily dwell on the words and their meaning. If you've read some of my previous articles, you'll know that I believe that if you know the Promise and the Law, you know everything you need to know to be a Girl Scout. How you fulfill the promise and follow the law is an individual matter. For now, take a moment to reflect on the words as they were and as they are today.

The 1972 version is the "real" promise and law to me in that those were the decades in which I was a girl Girl Scout. The essence of what is said hasn't changed from the 1972 version, but my tongue still trips over the new words.

The Girl Scout Promise in 1912

On my honor, I will try:
To do my duty to God and my country,
To help other people at all times,
To obey the Girl Scout Laws.

The Girl Scout Laws in 1912

1. A Girl Scout's Honor Is to be Trusted
2. A Girl Scout Is Loyal
3. A Girl Scout's Duty Is to be Useful and to Help Others
4. A Girl Scout is a Friend to All, and a Sister to every other Girl Scout no matter to what Social Class she May Belong
5. A Girl Scout Is Courteous
6. A Girl Scout Keeps Herself Pure
7. A Girl Scout Is a Friend to Animals
8. A Girl Scout Obeys Orders
9. A Girl Scout is Cheerful
10. A Girl Scout is Thrifty

The Girl Scout Laws in 1920
I have found no evidence that the Promise changed in 1920

The Girl Scout Laws
1. A Girl Scout's Honor Is to be Trusted
2. A Girl Scout Is Loyal
3. A Girl Scout's Duty Is to be Useful and to Help Others
4. A Girl Scout is a Friend to All, and a Sister to every other Girl Scout
5. A Girl Scout Is Courteous
6. A Girl Scout Is a Friend to Animals
7. A Girl Scout Obeys Orders
8. A Girl Scout is Cheerful
9. A Girl Scout is Thrifty
10. A Girl Scout is Clean in Thought, Word and Deed.

The Girl Scout Promise in 1972

On my honor, I will try:
To serve God,
My country and mankind,
and to live by the Girl Scout Law

The Girl Scout Law in 1972

I will do my best:
to be honest
to be fair
to help where I am needed
to be cheerful
to be friendly and considerate
to be a sister to every Girl Scout
to respect authority
to use resources wisely
to protect and improve the world around me
to show respect for myself and others through my words and actions

The Current Girl Scout Promise

On my honor, I will try:
To serve God* and my country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law.

The Current Girl Scout Law
Adopted in 1996

I will do my best to be
honest and fair,
friendly and helpful,
considerate and caring,
courageous and strong, and
responsible for what I say and do,
and to
respect myself and others,
respect authority,
use resources wisely,
make the world a better place,
and be a sister to every Girl Scout.

* The word "God" can be interpreted in a number of ways, depending on one's spiritual beliefs. When reciting the Girl Scout Promise, it is okay to replace the word "God" with whatever word your spiritual beliefs dictate.

The History of Girl Scouting

Girl Scouting began in the United States with Juliette Gordon Low, who was born on Oct 31, 1860. After meeting the founder of the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, while on a trip to England, Juliette felt that girls in the United States deserved the same group structure.

Girl Scout historians recount the tale of a phone call made by Low in which she is believed to have said, ""I've got something for the girls of Savannah, and all of America, and all the world, and we're going to start it tonight!"

That night, March 12, 1912, Juliette's niece and namesake, Margaret Daisy Gordon, was the "first" member of the first troop in America, which began under Low's leadership in Savannah, Georgia.

Growth in the girl scouts grew at an astounding rate. In 1912, Low's troop had 18 members. By 1920 there were 70,000 girl scouts across the US. By 1930 this had grown to 200,000. The organization--Girl Scouts of the USA-- was chartered by the U.S. Congress on March 16, 1950, and by 1957, there were 3 million Girl Scouts. Today there almost 4 million Girl Scouts, and the organization remains strong.

The American Girl Scout organization belongs to a worldwide association of Girl Scouts and Guides. Over 80 countries worldwide have some sort of Girl Scout or Girl Guide organization. The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) owns and operates four world centers that are open to anyone who is a WAGGGS member.

Ding Dong! Girl Scout .... Nuts?

Did you know that Girl Scouts have a fall product sale? Cookies are generally sold around the country in the spring months. In the fall, however, girls hit the streets to sell things like calendars, Hot Cajun Crunch, Honey Roasted Peanuts, Peanut Squares, Chocolate Covered Almonds and Mint Melt-Aways, which are nothing like Thin Mints, so don't get your hopes up. Some of the items are usually packaged in holiday tins so that you can purchase items for gifts (delivery is before the holiday season begins, for that purpose.

Like the cookies, different areas of the country are supplied by different companies (Trophy Nut and Dayton Nuts are two suppliers used around the country; see the links). If Hot Cajun Crunch isn't on an order form in your area, then you're likely to see things like Deluxe Pecan Clusters, Peanut Butter Dreams, Island Fruit Mix, Peanut Brittle, Mint Trefoils (also not like Thin Mints), Honey Roasted Peanuts,  Peanut Squares, Trail Mix, Mixed Nuts, Gummi Bears, Chocolate-Covered Raisins, Chocolate-Covered Almonds, and Chocolate-Covered Pretzels. Some councils also offer QSP magazine subscriptions.

Unlike the cookie sale where there is a flat-rate for each box, the items in the fall product sale vary in price from $3 to $10. Like cookie sales, the nut/calendar/melt away sales teach the girls responsibility, goal setting, and people skills. Girls also receive incentive awards including things like participation patches, t-shirts, stuffed animals, and books.

Money earned through this sale is used by the troops to fund troop activities and by your local Girl Scout Council to fund large-scale activities and projects such as facility maintenance, equipment purchase and maintenance, financial scholarships for needy girls who want to be in Girl Scouts but can't afford dues, event fees, and/or uniform and insignia costs.

I know, I know. Girl Scout Nuts, doesn't have the same ring as Girl Scout Cookies. When that little Brownie knocks on your door, however, give her a break; it's not her fault the cookies aren't available until the spring!

The Cookie ManagerJob

Cookie sales are THE Girl Scout tradition. It's a major event that requires enormous volunteer efforts to pull off each year. At the troop level, it also requires a great deal of time and effort. An adult must attend training and coordinate all aspects of ordering and delivering for what can be hundreds of cases of cookies. Traditional troops (those with just two or three co-leaders) tend to tackle the challenge by recruiting a cookie manager/mom.
In practice, most cookie managers are moms, but grandparent and dads often serve as well.

In my troops, which are cooperative, one or two moms take on that role and do not do any other events throughout the year. Even at that, I am not sure it is a fair swap. Our cookie moms attend training and then teach or re-teach the girls cookie sale etiquette in December. In the process, it's often a good idea to focus on one of the cookie try its or badges, since they tend to focus on the exact things that need to be covered or reviewed. They also collect permission slips to sell at this point (very important to ensure financial liability is assumed by each girl's parent).

The girls sell with the help of their parents and then the cookie moms have to count and order for the troop. Their next job as cookie gurus is to pick up the troop's order and then divide it up so that each girl can collect her share. Collecting and depositing the money may seem to ensure that the cookie moms have done enough, but somewhere in the middle of delivery, the cookie moms also coordinate up to four cookie booths.

Cookie booths are when the girls, properly chaperoned, set up a table and sell cookies to the general public. The best places to do this tend to be outside grocery stores and movie rental spots. Our troop does just one cookie booth a year, and the girls seem to enjoy it a great deal. Our neighborhood cookie manager originally provided us with the right combination of cases to order to stock our cookie booth but over the years, we've come up with out own list of big sellers and order accordingly.

Not enough? Cookie moms also have to order, pick up, and distribute incentives (patches and prizes) after all the monies are turned into Council. Incentives are the easiest and most enjoyable part of the job, although it can be hard to look at the faces of those who did not sell enough to earn the treasured incentive.

Being cookie mom, in other words, is a big commitment that requires good organizational skills. It is an essential job though. Without a cookie mom, a troop cannot participate in the cookie sale.

The Basic Organizational Structure of Girl Scouts

When you're submersed in a topic, you sometimes forget that the basics as you know them are a mystery to outsiders or newcomers. Recently, I've outlined the basic structure of Girl Scouts several times. I thought it would be worthwhile to do that here as well.

The basic unit in Girl Scouts is the individual. Girls can and do join Girl Scouts independently and participate in activities and earn awards without any further organization imposed upon them. Girls who join independently are referred to as Juliettes or Independent Girl Members (IGMs).

At the next level is the organizational unit most are familiar with, which is the Girl Scout troops. Troops must have a minimum of five girls and two leaders. The maximum size of a troop is not set, but realistically once you go beyond 15 girls, the numbers become unmanageable. The number of leaders must increase as the number of girls increases; the exact ratios differ by age level as outlined in the Girl Scout Safety Points.

Troops are identified by troop numbers and can adopt a troop crest. There is no rule that states that girls must be the same age or grade level nor is there any rule that says girls in different levels of Girl Scouts cannot belong to one troop. For practical reasons though, troops are generally broken down along age lines.

Beyond the troop, most people are unaware of the organizational structure of Girl Scouts. At the next level up, there can be a fairly informal organization within your school led by a school organizer. Troops are then organized into neighborhoods. There is not set number of girls and/or troops that can be in a neighborhood. At this level, leaders tend to meet to exchange information and support large-scale programs. The neighborhood is generally led by an all-volunteer neighborhood service team. Neighborhoods have names to identify them, such as the Hilltop neighborhood in Minn-Ia-Kota Council.

Neighborhoods are organized at the next level into Councils. Your council is the first level of Girl Scouting that employs paid individuals whose job it is to support girls, leaders, troops, and neighborhoods within the Council. The Councils generally have offices for the service personnel and council shops where you can buy Girl Scout supplies. As noted previously, like neighborhoods, Councils are identified by names.

The level above Council is the national organization. The national GSUSA offices are located here:

Girl Scouts of the USA
420 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10018-2798

At the national level, a CEO is in charge of operations. There is also board of directors led by a president whose job it is to guide the movement. The board of directors is composed of 40 men and women from all over the country.

On a final note, Girl Scouts in the USA are also members of the larger World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). There are international centers located around the world that are open to all Scouts and Guides.

Round Two of the Journeys

The first round of journeys had the tag line "It's your World: Change It" and received a mixed and often-cool reaction from experienced Girl Scout leaders. The second round has the tag line "It's your Planet: Love It." The focus of these journeys is the environment. For the Daisies, the program is described as follows:

Between Earth and Sky
The flower friends take a cross-country road trip that invites Daisies to explore what sprouts up across the country as they learn how to protect what needs protecting. As Lupe and her flower friends zip along in Lupe's petal-powered car the Daisies witness some wonders and woes of nature and are on their way to earning their Clover (Use Resources Wisely), Blue Bucket, and Firefly awards.

Uh, yeah. Your guess is as good as mine as to what that's all about, particularly the "clover, blue bucket, and firefly" awards. I suspect the girls will not be building flower cars, although that's what I envision when I read this description.

The second Brownie Journey has this description:

WOW!
The Brownie friends explore the Wonders of Water and Ways of Working as a team. Brownie ELF is back for the Very Wet Elf Adventure. In real life, the Brownies might just hold their own "Green-Tea" for the Blue Planet as they earn their Love, Save, Share and Wow awards.

This reads like a white water raft trip for the girls, ending with a tea party to earn something called a "Wow award." (And, yes, I know this is more likely to be about water conservation and water cleanliness, but that's not what it says, is it?) Unfortunately, there is nothing that even approaches the level of a run through the sprinkler for the Brownies within this journey, which is unfortunate, since the major complaint I have heard about the journeys is that they require too much sitting and reading and that girls don't like the "school-like" feel of them.

The awards associated with this journey are even worse than those outlined in the Daisy description. I can just imagine pitching a "Wow award" to potential Girl Scout parents versus the "Ready, Set, Go Camping" or the "Science Wonders" try its. At least with the latter, you have a vague notion of the topic.

The Junior Journey is described as follows:

Get Moving!
Girls explore the energy inside them, the energy used in their places and spaces and the energy of getting themselves from here to there. A new comic story "Vamos Ya!" will inspire the action (walking school bus, anyone?) and Dez, the fashionista spider, is back with some wit as she tries to figure out life "off the grid." Along the way Juniors can earn Energize, Investigate, and Innovate awards!

Dez, the fashionista spider, apparently is a new Girl Scout role model. Juliette Low is rolling over in her grave as the organization appears to have been trolling the Bravo channel on television for its ideas. The award names aren't getting any better as the girls age. The idea of earning something called an "Energize" award sounds like a ridiculous waste of time.

Breathe!
Cadettes engage all five senses as they clear the air—-their own and Earth's. While measuring air quality, and acting to improve it, girls also find their flair, think about "Hair," and perhaps try an eclair. From cigarette smoking to deforestation, they get an aerial view of many issues. As girls become more Aware, they Alert others, and then Affirm their impact as they add these three uplifting awards to their collection.

The majority of my girls are Cadettes and my stomach rolled over as I read this description. Try as I might (and I did), I couldn't get the girls interested in the first journey, and I actually thought its central theme of relational aggression was well worth discussing. I can only imagine pitching "find your flair, think about hair, and perhaps try an eclair" to them and offering up an Aware award. No way, no how are they going to go for this when they have camping, archery, climbing, canoeing, and community service as alternatives.

For Senior Girl Scouts the second journey offers this program:

Sow What?
Girls investigate the food network (No, not cable--the real one that gets each piece of food to the table). As they ponder the dirt on land use around the world (corn's a big issue) girls think about who and what they can cultivate en route to earning the Harvest Award.

If any leader is lucky enough to survive to the Senior level, this is one of the best journeys available. However, unless girls are working on higher level awards, I can guarantee you that the girls are not going to waste their time earning a Harvest award. They are focused on putting things on their college applications that have meaning. It's bad enough that the Girl Scout Gold Award, which at least has a respectable name, doesn't have the respect of the Boy Scout Eagle Award, but now we want our girls to go out and earn something called a Harvest award in lieu of something more substantial sounding, like the Gold Leadership Award? No, I do not think this is progress nor do I see this as an improvement over the old program.

Last but not least, the Ambassadors second journey description is as follows:

Justice
Through the ages and across the world, people have yearned for justice. And yet justice-for Earth and all its inhabitants—continues to elude us. As Ambassadors do the math and create their own unique equation for justice, they will find that they are also networking and gathering ideas for college and careers. Ultimately they can add the Sage Award to their list of accomplishments.

This top-level journey description is so vague as to be useless. Perhaps the point is to be vague so that to truly understand the journey, troops have to purchase the books. We did that as a troop for the first journey, though, and it was an expensive waste of hard-earned dollars. My fear is that girls are going to be forced to use these new materials either as pre-requisites to the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards, but until that day, my troop won't even be glancing at these new materials anymore.

Girl Scout Cookies

Girl Scout Cookies, one of the group's biggest fundraisers, began in 1936. It only took 2 years before the group had sold a million cookies. Cookies were originally baked and "packaged" in the kitchens of the girls.

The official Girl Scout website offers this "early Girl Scout Cookie Recipe."
(recipe taken from: http://www.girlscouts.org/program/gs_cookies/cookie_history/early_years.asp)

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AN EARLY GIRL SCOUT COOKIE® RECIPE

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar plus additional amount for topping (optional)
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder

Cream butter and the cup of sugar; add well-beaten eggs, then milk, vanilla, flour, salt, and baking powder. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Roll dough, cut into trefoil shapes, and sprinkle sugar on top, if desired. Bake in a quick oven (375°) for approximately 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges begin to brown. Makes six- to seven-dozen cookies.

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Two baking companies currently produce the cookies - ABC/Interbake Foods and Little Brownie Bakers. There are always Thin Mints, Do-si-dos (the peanut butter cookie formerly known as the Savannah) and Trefoils (the "original" Girl Scout cookie). Thin mints are the most popular, taking at least 40% of the sales. The other cookie types vary, depending on what is of interest at the time. Thin Mints are the third-most popular cookie in America.


Current prices range between $4.00 and $6.00 a box. All profits from cookie sales go directly to the council in which the cookies were sold. A portion go directly to the troop that was responsible for that sale.

In addition to serving as a fundraiser, Girl Scout cookie sales teach young girls about responsibility, pride, setting and meeting goals, money-management, and communication.

If you don't want the calories but still want to help out that little girl at your door, ask her about donating some cookies; if you buy and donate, your purchase becomes tax-deductible.

On the other hand, if you can't resist eating them yourselves but are watching your waist, the Trefoils generally have the lowest calorie count per cookie. The chocolate-covered shortbread varieties have the highest. The chocolate peanut-butter patties, big surprise, have the highest fat content, and the lemon cookies have the lowest. Who are we kidding though? Just order the Thin Mints like everyone else!