Scribblings

The dreaded fundraisers

I hate fundraisers.

One thing I really don?t like about back-to-school is that the kids come home with these packets with catalogs and order sheets for crap they are supposed to sell. Usually it?s wrapping paper. Kids are instructed not to sell door-to-door and that?s good. It?s just not safe anymore. Well, the issue becomes how many friends and family do we have so that the kid doesn?t look bad? Other parents take the stuff to work with them and do all the selling. Well?not everyone is working any more. :P

I wish they?d just tell us how much they need for the PTA or the playground fund or whatever. I?d much rather just write a check than try to coerce family into buying something they wouldn?t normally otherwise except that it?ll get points and a prize for the kid.

It?s bad enough the schools do this.

The Girl Scouts not only have the kids sell cookies, now they are apparently teaching hard sell tactics!

TB forwarded this article to me. It was online at Grand Forks Herald Online :

"BUSINESS: One sweet sales strategy
Girl Scouts prepare hard sell for cookie season

MINNEAPOLIS - Cookie season is only a few weeks away and some Girl Scouts are being trained not to take no for an answer this year.
To prepare for the two-month season, which begins Jan. 17, a few dozen scouts gathered Sunday at a church in Plymouth for the second annual cookie-sale workshop.
Sales, marketing advice
It was a full day of marketing and sales advice for the young salespeople.
"You're going to hear a lot of 'no's,'" warned workshop lecturer Bre-Anna Petrowske. "I would just keep on truckin'."
Petrowske, of Forest Lake, is a senior at the Center for Sales Innovation at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul.
The scouts, mostly teenagers, learned about "the surly customer," the one who just won't say yes, and the best response to the customers who say they've already bought.
Cookie sellers were coached to appeal to people's patriotism: You don't have to eat the cookies, you can donate them to troops overseas.
And they covered the easy ones, too, such as those who say they don't have enough money.
The scouts need all the help they can get. Long gone are the days when the cookies sold for 25 cents a box. That was back in the early years of the cookie sale, which has been a mostly annual event since 1917. This year's price bump to $3.50 a box is the first increase in five years.
The cookie sales cover Girl Scout programs (about 55 percent to 60 percent of proceeds), the baker (23 percent), the troop (13 percent to 17 percent) and awards (5 percent), according to the Girl Scout Council of Greater Minneapolis.
The sales are limited to a couple of months to keep the cookies popular, said Susan George, product sales director for the Girl Scout Council. "If people could get them all the time, they wouldn't," she said.
The top seller for the Minneapolis Girl Scout Council last year sold 2,050 boxes. That's more than $6,000 worth of cookies. The seller, identified only as Danielle, still found time to encourage others.
"She wrote a letter to the other girls to not give up hope," said Rosi Hewitt of Coon Rapids, whose daughter is a Girl Scout.
Sweets for soldiers
The program last year offered customers a twist: They could buy cookies for members of the armed forces serving overseas. The purchase is tax deductible, and last year it was wildly popular, George said.
This year the Girl Scouts will take orders for the troops, the Children's Home Society of Minneapolis, Sharing & Caring Hands and Second Harvest Heartland food bank, she said.
"The troops were like, overwhelmed," she said.?

This just pisses me off to no end. The Boy Scouts don?t run around selling in order to raise money to pay the salaries and whatnot of staff. I think the Boy Scouts is an all volunteer organization.

The troops don?t make much from the boxes of cookies they?re forced to sell. Yes, forced. The troops have to take a specified minimum amount based on how many kids are in the troop. The girls have been really ambivalent about joining the Scouts and every time they have an event or need volunteers, the leaders call me and ask if the girls want to come for the meetings. The most recent call was because the troop would have to take extra cookies for Heidi and Kristin and if they girls weren?t going to join the troop then they?d be saddled with all these extra cookies.

Lovely.

So I told the troop leader to just take the girls? names off the roster. I don?t want to deal with cookies, especially if the girls aren?t sure they want to stay with scouting.

I remember the competition during cookie sale drives when the girls were active in troops in New York and Maryland. What a pain! There?s always at least one girl whose parents know a million people who place a million orders on her form. The girl wins all these prizes and the other girls are left feeling ? let down. Terrific way for Girl Scouts to feel, eh?

I think all of these organizations are a rip-off waste of time. What you have to pay back far exceeds the pittance you get for the troop or the school.

Why don?t they just ask us for straight out donations? That would be tax deductible too.

And the idea of teenage Girl Scouts appealing to the patriotism of customers just stinks! I guess it?s okay if they put it on a sign to their booth so that people going into a store can make that choice themselves. But if I?m saying ?no? to cookies, I don?t want to be chased down and asked to donate the cookies to the troops.

Last year, I was walking into Acme and there was a booth with Girl Scouts ? they looked to be about middle school age. Anyway, when they asked if I wanted cookies I answered politely that I was trying to lose weight ? and they went digging around for the lower fat/sugar cookies!

I don?t like that.

But then, I never did have much patience for sales people.

Saturday 8:

1. when was the last time you purchased a piece of furniture for your home/apartment/room?

I think that would be the new entertainment center for our living room, bought within the last 10 days

2. what was it?

Um, see #1 heh heh

3. in the past 8 years, i've not had to buy any furniture myself ... relatives have died or moved and i've acquired pieces for birthdays. do you have a lot of 'other people's furniture' at your place?

Not anymore. I used to have a lot of other people?s stuff but when I married TB we both thought it would be good to just start over with all our own stuff.

4. when looking at furniture, do you go for the look, or for the deal?

It?s a little of both. We know what style and color we like so it?s also a matter of it being on sale. If it?s not on sale and we have the money and we need it, we just go ahead and buy it.

5. do you have a bad furniture shopping experience to relate? if not, do you have a good one?

The only ?bad? experience was being ignored by the sales people at Ashley Furniture. It was almost closing time when we went in and it was pretty obvious that the sales people wanted us to just get out. We just looked around and left quickly.

On the other hand, we had a great experience with House of Furniture. We arrived right at closing time. It?s not that we are habitually late or anything, it just so happened on these two occasions we stopped on spur-of-the-moment impulse and didn?t know it was closing time at either place. Well, the man there greeted us, asked what we were interested in, showed us several pieces and then told us to browse as long as we like.

We were really impressed with that as well as the quality of the furniture and so we ordered half the stuff we wanted from House of Furniture.

The people at Gordon Furniture were also helpful and we ordered from them too.

On the other hand again, we did not buy anything from Ashley Furniture.

6. if money was no object, what decorating style would you put up?

I always liked the traditional or colonial style. For the kitchen/family room I?ve always loved the country styel.

7. are you naturally a decorator, or would you rather pay someone to come in and decide everything for you (given you have the cash on hand to hire them)?

I am no natural decorator but I do know what I like so TB and I can choose for ourselves. We have pretty good taste.

8. do you watch any redecorating shows ... surprise by design, trading spaces/family, changing rooms, while you were out, clean sweep? why or why not?

No, I'm not into that and would be bored.