I think traditionally you start your first year of Brownies doing the My Cookie Customers badge, but all of our badges so far had been triangles that faced up, so I wanted to get some variety on the vests/sashes and do a badge that faced down. So we started with the Cookie Decision Maker badge. (The requirements for both badges are very similar anyway, so I don't think it really matters.) I chose to do this badge in January because that is when our cookie season started.
Here's what we did to earn this badge:
1. Get to know your Girl Scout cookie business
This was the first cookie season for some of the girls in my troop, so I needed to introduce the cookies to them and give a refresher course on the cookies to the other girls. To do this, I had them call out the names of the cookies they could remember, and I wrote them down on a whiteboard (which was provided in our meeting room at the library). Then, we did a flashcard quiz to see how many cookie flavors they could identify just by looking at the cookies. Then we played a game of cookie bingo.
2. Decide on your giving goal
I broke things down into three main areas where we could spend our cookie (and fall product program) money: troop needs (badges, supplies), community service, and fun stuff.
Since the troop is supposed to be girl-led, I gave them options to vote on for the community service and fun stuff. It was blind voting, just like how adults vote in real elections. So each girl got a chance to place paper strips into the paper bag labeled with the community service activity and fun activity that she wanted to do.
In the end, the girls voted to donate supplies to an animal shelter, have a Girl Scouts Build-A-Bear party, and go camping.
3. Build your team
We talked about different jobs that each girl could have at a cookie booth, as well as what a cookie booth was, since we had never done a cookie booth before.
4. Practice handling money and tracking sales
Then we roleplayed doing different jobs at a cookie booth. Some girls were "hype girls", getting customers to come to the booth. Other girls handled the money and made change. And other girls pretended to hand out the cookies that I was buying. I tried to create different customer scenarios, such as someone asking how much two boxes of cookies cost, someone saying that they couldn't eat the cookies (ask them to donate to local heroes instead!), and someone asking for change for a $20.
5. Show your cookie spirit
We did a cookie photo shoot using some props that I had made out of empty cookie boxes from last year.
Before the meeting ended, I reminded them of safety tips for selling cookies door to door:
- Always bring a parent with you
- Never sell at night
- Don't enter anyone's house or car
- Only give your first name
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