January Meeting

Heather planned our January meeting. The girls earned the "Meet My Customer" badge and a goal setting patch for all of their hard work.

Some of the girls made fantastic posters to use when selling cookies at booth sales. Heather then split them into groups and had them work on their selling technique. We went over safety issues (always have an adult with you, don't give our personal information to strangers, etc.) and discussed ways to boost sales.

They learned how to greet their customers, answer questions about products, make suggestions, and handle money. Many of the girls were pros at this but several of them offered up good suggestions to the group.

Heather then gave the girls their individual sales from last year and asked them to set goals for individual selling and booth sales this year. We also talked about the Troop to Troop program and asked them to consider mentioning to customers as well.

They all did a great job! If your daughter came home with lofty goals, it may have had something to do with the new American Girl Doll certificates they can earn. :)

Finally, we talked about our booth sales. Heather managed to get us some of the best-of-the-best! If the girls want to drive up their sales, they'll have plenty of chances to do it.

The troop goal is to sell 3000 boxes! That's a lot! But if these girls can't sell cookies, no one can.

Lily M, Lexi, Kjirstin, and Gabby practicing booth sales skills. 

Lily S and Lily M trying to create interest in sales!

Sarah and Madelyn work on making change and answering questions.

 Amy and Lily S trying to convince Sophia, Lexi and Sarah to buy cookies.

Sophia and Lexi work on asking challenging questions for Amy and Lily S to answer.

Sarah and her sign! Everyone was impressed by her colors.

Lily M shows off her sign. We all loved the print outs of the cookies. 

Lily M and Gabby answer questions.

Kjirstin and Sydnee make change. 

Syndee and Madelyn pay for their cookies. 

Admiring Lily's sign.

I think they were working on their "business" faces to increase sales. :) 

Kjirstin, Lily M, Gabby, Sydnee, and Madelyn having some fun before snack. 

Gabby, Lily M, Sydnee and Madelyn take a break from goal setting. 

Troop Photo

(Lily S, Lily M, Lexi, Amy, Sophia, Gabby, Kijrstin, Sydnee, Sarah, and Madelyn)

Aaaand, we cannot end a meeting without a crazy face photo. 

Lots of Updates and Information!

Hi everyone,

Heather and I are trying not to overload everyone with emails and information but we have a very busy two months ahead. I will do my best to include as much of the information as possible in this email to avoid bombarding you (and I'll apologize in advance if I still need to!). 

Here is a list of upcoming events:

Feb 1st (our crazy day!)

Heather, Clark, Christie, and Cheryl are working to unload cookies from the truck and get them to Heather's house. Any other volunteers (girls, families) are certainly welcome. Just let Heather know if you plan to help. She plans to be there by 7am but said helpers could join her by 8am.

The Iowa Woman's Basketball Girl Scout's Day officially starts at 11am. There are several events planned between the start time and tip off which is at 2pm. (See below.) We have several scouts who also play basketball and they just found out there is a Regina basketball tournament that same weekend. The schedule/times have not been released yet. Donna and Mark Santillian plan to attend the Iowa game and have kindly offered to meet the girls who are there early. I am happy to bring the rest of the girls to Carver Hawkeye when the Regina tournament is over. If your daughter is scheduled to attend the Iowa game, could you please contact me with her plans so we can make sure everyone gets where they need to be?

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

11:00 am Doors Open and Troops check in

11:30 am Troops should be seated for pregame activities in sections F, G, and H

11:40 am Coaches’ Welcome

11:50 am Game Instructions by basketball staff – 3 point placards, cheers/ 

 chants for the day

12:00 pm Cheer clinic (Girl Scouts will stay in their seats for this)

12:20 pm Registration for prizes, fun zone, poster-making

12:30 pm Doors open to public

2:00 pm Iowa vs. Nebraska

Cookie Sales/Goal Setting

First, I cannot thank Heather enough for being the Cookie Mom again. It is a ton of work and she's managed to put our troop in a really good position to be successful. Heather ran our last troop meeting and talked the girls through goal setting, safety concerns, successful selling strategies, and rewards. We set up small group exercises focused on giving girls experience with selling and thinking through what customers might ask them. It was very successful and they all earned a Meet My Customer badge. 

Your daughter should have come home with a goal setting sheet. Each of them was asked to think about how many boxes they want to sell individually and at booths. Some were quite ambitious! If you did not see the sheet, let me know and I'll email you the number of boxes your daughter wants to sell. They earned a Goal Setting patch for this. There will be a chart in Mrs. Foley's room that is updated each week so the girls can track their progress. 

The rewards have changed this year for sales over 500. The most exciting change is that they can now earn gift certificates for American Girl! That created quite a buzz in the scout room! If you do not have a rewards sheet, let one of us know so we can get it to you. 

We are continuing the Troop to Troop program this year. We had great success with this last year. Customers can buy boxes of cookies that are then sent overseas to the active duty military. As a bonus, we earn 75 cents/box as a troop (compared to the usual 50 cents/box). Please consider having your daughter ask customers about this.

Cookie Pick Up and Booth Sales

Heather and Clark are storing the 3,000 boxes of cookies for us. Cookies can be picked up any time after they are sorted on Feb 1st. However, sales do not start until Feb 8th. Please, please, please do not have your daughters sell them before then. 

To pick up the cookies, please either email or call Heather to set up a time. Phone: 319-331-0480

Heather also managed to set up some great booth sales for us, which is not an easy feat! (I picture her as a "cookie mom" version of a Black Friday shopper who camps out three days in advance to get an amazing deal on a 60 inch TV.) 

When girls sell at booth sales, they get a percentage of the total cookie sales for the time they were there. For instance, if four girls sell 100 boxes in one hour, they get credit for 25 boxes each. It's a great way to beef up their numbers. 

The booth sales are as follows:

(Sat) February 8th Fareway (Commerce Drive) 10-5
 (Sun) February 9th St. Patrick 10 am mass
(Sat) February 15th Hy-Vee Drugstore 1-5
(Sun) February 16th Stuff Etc. (Coralville) 11-5
(Thurs) February 20th Theisens 3-6
(Sat) February 22nd 10-2 Fareway (Mormon Trek)
(Sun) February 23rd 11-3 Hyvee WaterFront
(Sat) March 1st Hyvee 1st Ave 10-2
(Sun) March 2nd Walmart (Iowa City) 10-6
(Sat) March 8th Walmart (Coralville) 9-1

If your daughter plans to participate (any amount of time is fine!), please let Heather or myself know. She and I will do our best to be at as many booths as possible. Donna S has also offered to help. If any other parents are willing to pitch in, we'd be very grateful.

Some of the booths are inside but we are usually stationed just inside a door. Please make sure your daughter dresses for the weather. It is best to have two parents at each booth so we can take turns bringing girls inside as needed. If we only have one parent, we will make sure to send girls in pairs. Hand warmers worked well last year. 

End of Cookie Sales Party!

The girls will be ready for a well-deserved party after cookie sales are done. We asked the troop to brainstorm for ideas. Several options were discussed including: a Saturday morning movie at a theater, ice skating, pottery painting, pizza party, etc. If anyone has ideas, we'd love to hear them. 

Make Up Overnight

We are still working on this. The scouts only plan a handful of these events in the entire area so they are hard to come by. If all else fails, we can always have a pizza/movie/game night at our house and have the girls camp out overnight here. I will keep working on this and would plan for sometime in April or May. 

Camp

Truly, the hit of our year so far was our troop's overnight weekend camp at Camp Conestoga last summer. The camp catalog comes out sometime in the coming week and Heather and I will work on possible dates asap. Girls can attend week long camps on their own, so if you are interested, let one of us know so we can get you the information. 

For this summer, we will shoot for another troop weekend camp. Heather and I will be there for sure. Other parents are welcome to join us as well. Ali Comer helped us last year. We do all of the activities as a group and have some additional help from the great camp counselors. There is plenty of singing, campfires, hiking, arts/crafts, and fun. This year, they are old enough to do some additional activities like archery. 

The girls who attended last year should have received a note from one of the camp counselors along with a $15 camp credit. That's a nice perk!

Again, my apologies for the information overload! Hopefully this information will get us through March at least. It's been challenging to find time but I do have some photos to put up on our blog and will (try!) to do it soon. 

Mary 

Service Project and Cookie Baking Bonanza!

Service Project and Cookie Baking Bonanza!

With overwhelming enthusiasm, our troop chose to making Christmas cookies and spread some cheer to others in the community. Today, they spent 5 hours making it happen! It's amazing to see a group of girls who are not only supportive of one another, but who work very hard toward a common goal. 

First, the girls could not have done all of this without the generous help of their parents. We had all of the ingredients, sprinkles, and decorations imaginable. In addition, we had amazing help from Claire Schnoebelen, Val Schnoebelen, and Heather Feller. Somehow, our troop is going to have to adopt Claire as one of our own. She managed to keep the girls on task when mixing dough, rolling cookie balls, and eating lunch. Hopefully our payment (in the form of cookies) showed our thanks! After all of that, she and Val stayed late and made sure every inch of the kitchen was cleaned up while the girls delivered their cookies. Thank you so much!

Our day started very quickly. The girls got to work unwrapping Hershey's Kisses and sorting M&Ms. 

Amy and Lily M

Once that was done, Heather showed part of the group how to melt the chocolate and make her peppermint chocolate candy and chocolate dipped pretzels. What a hit! 

 Madelyn, Lily M, Sydnee, and Gabby crushing candy canes

 Lexi and Gabby

Val helped the girls get started with the cookie dough. There was lots of measuring and math being done! When our girls get to fractions, they should be pros! 

 Val, Sophia, Sydnee, and Sarah

 Then things started to get a little crazy. We had the most enormous sprinkle station ever. The girls used it to their advantage and decorated every inch of those Spritz cookies. 

 Sydnee and Amy

 Sophia (our Sprinkle Sorter Extraordinaire!)

The rest of the morning became a big blur of whirring mixers, flour spills, measuring cups clanging, and lots of laughter. The girls worked incredibly hard and rarely wanted to take a break. They were anxious to help and didn't mind being asked to sweep or clean. Lily S even reminded the adults that Girl Scouts leave things cleaner than they found them. :) 

 Lexi, Lily M, Gabby

 Sarah's sugar cookie

 Sydnee and Lexi showing off theirs too

 Sarah back at work

 Lily and Gabby working on a recipe

 Santa's helper and a BIG plate of cookies!

 It doesn't look to chaotic but it was busy!

 Lily the expert icing maker

Here's an excellent example of their hard work and leadership. When the last of the cookies were waiting to go into the oven, all of the girls decided (without adult intervention) to start the dishes. They quickly formed a line and mapped out their own duties. They had that place sparkling in no time. 

 Lily S, Lexi, Madelyn

 Sydnee, Lexi, Madelyn, Sophia

The Schnoebelen's and Fellers were generous enough to order pizza for the girls for lunch. Thanks also to the Morarend's for the drinks. It was a great break for everyone. 

 Amy, Sophia, Claire, Sarah, Lexi, Lily S

 Madelyn and Lily M

 Sydnee, Gabby, and Madelyn

 Lily M

After lunch and clean up, it was time to pick our boxes and fill them up. Each girl brought home two boxes. We asked that they give away at least one of the boxes. They were asked to think of someone they know who might need a little extra cheer. Almost every one of them knew immediately who they would choose (an elderly neighbor, a grandma, a couple who doesn't have plans for Christmas). A few of the girls even decided they would give away both of their boxes. Such generous spirits! 

 Lexi putting her name on her box

 Lily S, Lily M, Madelyn and Amy

 Liliy M, Madelyn, Amy and Sydnee

 Sophia

 Heather and our favorite newest honorary troop member, Claire

 Sydnee, Madelyn, Val and Amy

 Gabby and Sydnee working on those last minute cookies

 Sophia wrapping her box

The troop decided to leave a box of cookies for Fr. Rudy and (Heather, help me with her name!) another one of the integral parts of the service community at St. Pats who came to visit us. We also went to visit the church secretary. The girls surprised her with a completely unplanned rendition of Silent Night. 

We then headed to the Fire Department to thank them for their service. We were greeted by two fire fighters who seemed genuinely touched. Sophia explained that we were a Brownie troop who baked cookies to thank them for their service. The girls sang another song for them as well. 

Our last stop was the Ronald McDonald House. Our timing was perfect as they were putting up Christmas decorations and decorating their tree. They sang a (very long but perfect!) version of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer before heading back to St. Pats. 

 Sarah, Lily S, Sydnee, Amy, Gabby, Lily M, Madelyn, Sophia

 Lily M, Madelyn, Sophia

 Lily S, Sydnee, Amy

 Lily S, Sydnee, Lexi, Amy

 Amy, Lily M, Madelyn, Sophia

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Gabby, Sophia, Lexi, Sarah, Amy, Lily M, Madelyn, Sydnee, Lily S

Again, many thanks to all who contributed and made this so successful for the girls. It was great to see their strong sense of service and their dedication to themselves and others. I'm sure I can speak for Heather as well when I say this group of girls continues to surprise us with their teamwork, respect, enthusiasm, resourcefulness, and kindness. If these girls are indicative of our future, we will be in excellent hands. Thank you again for sharing them with us.