Girl Scout Cookies

[cyure]

I’m a lifetime member of the Girl Scouts (my mom used to work for them and signed me up before they discontinued that as an option) and there was an event recently where basic auto maintenance was taught (I didn’t go). I wish stuff like that had been around when I was younger, but it’s because of the Girl Scouts that I got to try out stuff like winter camping. I do think it would be neat if there was some sort of opportunity for kids to earn badges (there are a zillion STEM badges for GSUSA, I don’t know about the other scout org, but I’d guess so?) in cooperation with Scout Motors. It could easily be with anyone, but there’s some shared stated interest in being good stewards of the planet and whatnot. Worse things could be done. I’m sure it’s been discussed already. It doesn’t even have to be a scouting thing so much as a “your youth group can come do these kinds of activities with a person who knows how to do programming/outreach stuff designed for kids and young adults.”

That’s a great idea. It doesn’t have to be officially affiliated with any group. One year when my son was about 12 we participated in the Young Eagles program. Not affiliated with Scouting at all. It’s private pilots who donate their time and planes and each kid got to go for about a 20 minute flight from one of the local small airports. Sit in the cockpit with the headphones on and the whole bit. my son said the pilot let him “take over flying”. He loved it. And at the end they got certificates and their picture taken. If they could have a program there for kids what a great way to give back to the community and also generate interest and good feelings about the brand.

 

[THil08]

And if I remember correctly I believe they are planning to work with the high school that’s a street away from the factory.

 

[J Alynn]

I’m a lifetime member of the Girl Scouts (my mom used to work for them and signed me up before they discontinued that as an option) and there was an event recently where basic auto maintenance was taught (I didn’t go). I wish stuff like that had been around when I was younger, but it’s because of the Girl Scouts that I got to try out stuff like winter camping. I do think it would be neat if there was some sort of opportunity for kids to earn badges (there are a zillion STEM badges for GSUSA, I don’t know about the other scout org, but I’d guess so?) in cooperation with Scout Motors. It could easily be with anyone, but there’s some shared stated interest in being good stewards of the planet and whatnot. Worse things could be done. I’m sure it’s been discussed already. It doesn’t even have to be a scouting thing so much as a “your youth group can come do these kinds of activities with a person who knows how to do programming/outreach stuff designed for kids and young adults.”

I agree wholeheartedly. STE(A)M needs to continue growing with young women

 

[THil08]

I’m guessing cookies are out?

 

[J Alynn]

Had another thought about Scouts of America. Thinking about Eagle Scouts (do Girl Scouts have an equivalent? ) what if Scout had an annual 3-5 days Eagle Scout conference and incorporated a lot of badge experience opportunities and set it in a forum where the E scouts that come, prepare ahead of time with insights for Scout vehicle advancements and at the end a top producing Eagle Scout is given a Scout on a two year lease to drive and like us on the forum-they could keep in communication about their ideas. This could also be done as a STE(a)M program event. They could use the training center. What a great way to connect with young thinkers and having them on the radar for future employment? Just a thought.

 

[cyure]

Had another thought about Scouts of America. Thinking about Eagle Scouts (do Girl Scouts have an equivalent? ) what if Scout had an annual 3-5 days Eagle Scout conference and incorporated a lot of badge experience opportunities and set it in a forum where the E scouts that come, prepare ahead of time with insights for Scout vehicle advancements and at the end a top producing Eagle Scout is given a Scout on a two year lease to drive and like us on the forum-they could keep in communication about their ideas. This could also be done as a STE(a)M program event. They could use the training center. What a great way to connect with young thinkers and having them on the radar for future employment? Just a thought.

Yes Girl Scouts do have a program like that. I’m just not sure what it’s called. Girls can also be a part of Boy Scouts and then after Boy Scout there’s a program called Venture Scouts that goes to age 20. The only issue I see is that those Scouts are going to be young and really new drivers if they are driving at all.

My son is an Eagle Scout. We would have jumped at the chance to do something like that.

Venture Scouts might be one to partner with too. They tend to be older kids and do the high adventure Scout trips. I was amazed at all the Scout trips my son went on. He went all over the country, into Canada to Northern Tier Bissett, to Sea Base Bahamas and learned to sail and sailed all around those little islands in the Bahamas. He flew in a glider plane, a sea plane, went with a private pilot in a Cessna, went dog sledding. I mean you name it he did it.

Scout could be the vehicle that goes on the high adventure trips with a Scout troop.

 

[cyure]

In the 3 years before my son got his Eagle he did 180 nights of camping. What if Scout gave a Terra or Traveler to a troop and it went on all of their adventures.

And that 180 night was just that, overnight trips. There were also tons of day trips.

 

[THil08]

Had another thought about Scouts of America. Thinking about Eagle Scouts (do Girl Scouts have an equivalent? ) what if Scout had an annual 3-5 days Eagle Scout conference and incorporated a lot of badge experience opportunities and set it in a forum where the E scouts that come, prepare ahead of time with insights for Scout vehicle advancements and at the end a top producing Eagle Scout is given a Scout on a two year lease to drive and like us on the forum-they could keep in communication about their ideas. This could also be done as a STE(a)M program event. They could use the training center. What a great way to connect with young thinkers and having them on the radar for future employment? Just a thought.

It’s called the Girl Scout Gold Award.

 

[Mousehunter]

Personally, I would advise against it. Both groups have become politicized-especially on the national level. The politicization of both groups have had them both be disbanded locally- with Heritage Girls and Trail Life replacing them for a while. I know EV's have a history of being politicized - but I would much prefer Scout to be a 50 states vehicle rather than one with hard political ties one way or another.

 

[Scoutsie]

Personally, I would advise against it. Both groups have become politicized-especially on the national level. The politicization of both groups have had them both be disbanded locally- with Heritage Girls and Trail Life replacing them for a while. I know EV's have a history of being politicized - but I would much prefer Scout to be a 50 states vehicle rather than one with hard political ties one way or another.

I guarantee you that this is why both orgs are probably especially desperate to find kids who still want to be members of each organization, not to mention the adults who want to support those kids. Parents wrongly associate scouting with an agenda that they think is there that is probably not what they think it is.

It was hard to get kids/adults to sign up when I was a kid (it was my mom’s job to find both and it was a difficult job with the local GS council putting crazy amounts of pressure on their service unit leaders—like they were traveling encyclopedia salespeople—with hard quotas to meet and it was all their fault if they didn’t find enough kids/adults who wanted to participate, not that culture was changing and youth scouting wasn’t changing to meet the moment) and I can only imagine how hard it is now in 2025. Keep politics out of it. These organizations give kids a chance to try things out that they might never have a chance to do otherwise, like kids in urban areas who might never go camping. They give kids a lot of great skills and activities and opportunities for growth and leadership. I got to be on local cable access talking about origami (also going off the rails and eventually getting kicked off for being a rascal), did an entrepreneur program where I made money selling Girl Scout cookies as a business with other girls in our council, did primitive winter camping against Boy Scouts, made a newsletter, designed the council’s holiday card, made my own scrunchies, won like fifty design contests, went camping a zillion times, and learned how to use Microsoft Office because of the Girl Scouts. I don’t know what underlying political agenda was there. If it was a liberal agenda, I was originally registered as a Republican when I turned 18 in Massachusetts, so it sounds like they really dug in deep.

Eff politics. Screw politics. Scouting needs to be seen for what it is, and that’s for what it gives to kids: opportunities. I treasure all of those memories. Scouting was awesome.

 

[cyure]

I guarantee you that this is why both orgs are probably especially desperate to find kids who still want to be members of each organization, not to mention the adults who want to support those kids. Parents wrongly associate scouting with an agenda that they think is there that is probably not what they think it is.

It was hard to get kids/adults to sign up when I was a kid (it was my mom’s job to find both and it was a difficult job with the local GS council putting crazy amounts of pressure on their service unit leaders—like they were traveling encyclopedia salespeople—with hard quotas to meet and it was all their fault if they didn’t find enough kids/adults who wanted to participate, not that culture was changing and youth scouting wasn’t changing to meet the moment) and I can only imagine how hard it is now in 2025. Keep politics out of it. These organizations give kids a chance to try things out that they might never have a chance to do otherwise, like kids in urban areas who might never go camping. They give kids a lot of great skills and activities and opportunities for growth and leadership. I got to be on local cable access talking about origami (also going off the rails and eventually getting kicked off for being a rascal), did an entrepreneur program where I made money selling Girl Scout cookies as a business with other girls in our council, did primitive winter camping against Boy Scouts, made a newsletter, designed the council’s holiday card, made my own scrunchies, won like fifty design contests, went camping a zillion times, and learned how to use Microsoft Office because of the Girl Scouts. Eff politics. Screw politics. Scouting needs to be seen for what it is, and that’s for what it gives to kids: opportunities. I treasure all of those memories. Scouting was awesome.

I was never a Scout myself but as an Eagle Scout mom I wholeheartedly agree. The experiences my son had were amazing. One small example. When my son went for his first job interview he came out to the car and I asked him how it went. He pulled out a pad of paper to read me the notes he had taken. I never told him to take a notepad and a pen. He learned that in scouting. Paper and pen were part of the uniform for Scout Master Conferences when you went up in rank. I just want kids to be able to have fun experiences and learn. That’s it.

 

[cyure]

My son at 11, in the cockpit of a plane. He got to go up with a private pilot and learn about flying. That was through Scouts.

 

[Mousehunter]

I understand. There is simply too much stuff for the kids to do today. Our kids were doing different after school groups almost every evening out of the week. Virtually every other kid is the same. Add to that, each one of those other things want to be all consuming in and of themselves. My daughters current activity demands a minimum of 3 evenings a week to be able to compete-then competitions will start taking up weekends.

We were involved in Scouting when we lived in the city. I can not say much good about it. Was more involved when we moved rural, and the local troops were better (they were family oriented and did not push any politics). Others might complain. Weekly actives were still separated, but virtually every local camp out was both girl and boys troops - mostly because the parents had kids involved in both. But it simply seems less important rural. It is already the normal lifestyle. I guess that is why we (our town) gave it up. Why bother when we can make a few phone calls and schedule a camping trip with our kids and their friends. We have tanks to fish, can camp anytime we want (either local, or go to state parks), go to ranches (we are moving to our ranch hopefully next year) and ride horses-but it is hard sometimes to get the kids to appreciate the lifestyle. But we get them to live it now, and quite often when they have kids, they come back to do the same.

 

[Cranky Canuck]

They could also partner with Scouts Canada. I'm sure they'd be interested in some sort of sponsorship or partnership. As a non-profit Scouts always needs money and Scout Motors could get some brand goodwill out of it. Just throwing it out there, could be a good partnership.

 

[THil08]

If scout wants to do a partnership and be ballsy they should partner with the NRA and FFA

 

[R1TVT]

Not sure a new OEM would want to take-up a partisan partnership effort that would result in alienating half of its potential addressable market.

 

[J Alynn]

Not sure a new OEM would want to take-up a partisan partnership effort that would result in alienating half of its potential addressable market.

100% agree. I believe in the right to own a gun but tying into NRA would be political suicide for a major auto manufacturer

 

[THil08]

100% agree. I believe in the right to own a gun but tying into NRA would be political suicide for a major auto manufacturer

But they did decide to tie into an auto manufacturer with a rough history when they first were becoming a manufacturer in the 1930s. But its probably better off than trying to join the big 3. Or Tesla or Rivian.