Nut/Candy and Magazine Sale // Fall 2017 Sale

Welcome to the 2017 Fall Sale Program!

This year the sale runs from September 25th until November 1st. Here are some important dates:

September 25th - Online Early Sales Begin

October 2nd - Sale Starts

November 1st - Troop Leader must enter all sales into the system and select rewards earned by each girl. (Only orders not already entered)

November 16th-18th - Troop Leader will pick up orders (date and time is selected when orders are entered)

December 5th - All money must be deposited and available for council withdrawal

How much do we get for each Nut/Candy and Magazine? The troop itself earns 95 cents per candy and nut item and $1.50 per magazine subscription. 

Online Order System

www.gsnutsandmags.com/gssem

Nut & Candy Sale

Troops earn 95 cents for every nut and candy item sold

In-Person Orders: You have received one nut/candy order card. It lists all products available this year. It also has color pictures of the various rewards available and the levels at which the girls can earn them. Girls should use these cards to record in-person orders from family and friends.

Online Orders: Girls can send emails to friends and family asking them to order candy, nuts and magazines online. Parents can go to www.gsnutsandmags.com/gssem site. Then follow instructions on the sire with their daughter to create their own webpage and send emails. 

Customers can either order directly from Trophy Nut and have items shipped them for a fee, or may choose to have the item delivered by the girl, and pay cash/check upon delivery. Online sales will automatically show up in your troop's online account. Included in your packet was the Online Order Information Sheet. You should follow the instructions to begin taking online orders. 

Picking Up Orders: A date will be set for parents to pick up orders, once they are delivered to the Troop Leader. We will be receiving orders on either November 16th, 17th, or 18th, which means that scheduled pick-up will most likely be the following week. 

Magazine Sale

• Troops earn $1.50 for every magazine subscription sold
• All magazine orders are online
• Girls can send emails to friends and family to purchase a new or renew a current subscription
• Parents will get emails notifying them of purchases

Rewards and Patches

Girls earn rewards and patches based on the number of candy/nut items sold and the number of magazine subscriptions sold. Specific information about the patches and recognition is on the candy and nut Order Card.

Make sure that you go online and have your girl create her Avatar. They will earn this patch when they send 12 emails during the fall sale AND have an initial cookie program order of 180+ boxes. 

I hope that this answers some of the questions that people may have had. If you have any further questions please feel free to e-mail me or post on the Facebook page. 

Meeting #2 // October 5th, 2017

This meeting we decided to split the group up into Daisies, Brownies, and Juniors, so as not to overwhelm the new/younger girls with all the people. So, there will be 3 different sets of activities. Feel free to skip to your Girl Scouts age group to find out what we did. Also, if you scroll all the way to the bottom there will be reminders,  information, and sneak peaks of what we will be doing this Thursday, the 19th.

We began the meeting like we always will, by reciting the Girl Scout Promise and Law.

Daisies: We will be working on earning the center of the Daisy Flower first. The daisies began by reading "Pinkalicious: Pinkie Promise" by Victoria Kann. We discussed what a "pinky promise" is and if it is good to break a promise. We also discussed what to do if you break a promise. We then moved on to a coloring page by TwistyNoodle.com that had an outline of the flower petal that will be on their vest/tunic once the complete all the petals. The colored in the center of the flower with the blue color. They also traced their names on the sheet below the flower. These will go in their Daisy scrapbooks and they will color each petal as we work on them. After this they finished by gluing flowers with letters on them to spell out honor into a garden (one of our important words in the Girl Scout Promise), and then coloring it. 

Brownies: The Brownies started out with the Juniors on a tour of the church kitchen. We will be working on our Snack and Money Manager badges, so this was perfect for them to see the different areas of a prep station. From there they were shown different types of candy and candy bars and were told how much sugar (in tsp/Tbsp) were in it and together they put those amounts into cups and compared them to the actual candy (Step #1). It's amazing how much sugar kids (and adults) don't realize are in our everyday sweets. After that they were able to work together to make an energy snack, No Bake Monster Energy Balls (Step #4). They didn't have enough time to roll them so they could take them home, but they will be able to take them home at the next meeting. They all got to take home a spatula to remember what they made and to use to make something else.

Juniors: The Juniors also started out with a tour of the kitchen(Step #1). They are going to be working on their Simple Meals and Business Owner badges. Next they brain stormed together different business that they could create themselves out of things that they loved to do or had a passion for (Step #1). From here they filled out the Guide to Writing a Business Plan by BizKids.com (Steps #2).

We ended our meeting in the friendship circle. Each girl crosses their arms and holds the girls hand next to them. Then one by one they make a wish and squeeze the hand of the girl to their left, which signals that girl to make a wish and so on and so on, until we are back at the beginning. It's all done in silence (at least that's the goal ;) ). I hope that all the girls had a good time and I can't wait to see them again this week to celebrate Halloween and Girl Scout founder Juliette Gordon Lowe's birthday.

REMINDERS:

• Dues MUST be turned in to this week's meeting, unless you have discussed with me an alternative, they are $40 for the year. 
• We also need all Girl Health and History forms turned in at the beginning of this week's meeting. 
• I will be posting a separate post about Nut/Candy and Magazine orders later today. It will be linked here.

NEXT MEETING INFORMATION:

• All girls may wear their costumes to the meeting (don't worry if you haven't bought one yet or weren't planning on it...throw on a witch hat or draw on a cat face)
• We will be frosting cookies at the meeting, if your Girl Scout has any allergies PLEASE notify me immediately. 

Meeting #1 // September 21st, 2017

Hello! Happy Weekend!

I can't express in words how excited I was to see so many girls and parents attend the meeting on Thursday. The new Girl Scout year is always exciting, but it was extra exciting to see so many new faces and returning girls. 

I wanted to make sure that even if you couldn't make it on Thursday or you were just so overwhelmed by the information (sorry about that) and are not sure if you got everything that I put it in a place that you can pull it whenever you need to. 

The first item that I handed out was the Agenda for the meeting. This went over what we would cover in the meeting, including the Girl Scout Membership Fee, $25, as well as the Troop dues, $40. The Membership Fee goes straight to council, so we don't see any of that money, it covers insurance as well as financial aid, and events that council may put on. The Troop dues is what helps us to get started in the year, including crafts, badges, and some field trips. The Agenda also had a possible events sheet on the second page, that I would love everyone to fill out and turn back in at the next meeting, if you didn't do so at the end of the last. 

The second item that we discussed was the Important Dates and Events for the Year. Although, this may seem overwhelming, really all you need to focus on currently are the meeting dates. The meeting dates are every other Thursday, beginning with the Parent Meeting on September 21st. Which means that the next meeting will be Ocotber 5th, at 6:00-7:30 pm. We always meet in the basement of Good Shepard Lutheran Church, unless otherwise states ahead of time (ex. field trips, council events, camp), which is across from Strawberry Fields on 23 Mile Rd. 

I also handed out the Meet My Daughter sheet. Since we have so many new girls I really want to make sure we get to know all about them. Since a lot of times the girls are hard to get to talk at first it's very helpful to know what works and what doesn't with each girl and what makes them special. 

Lastly, we discussed how to sign up and what to buy for your Girl Scout. If you need to sign up still, either I can do it for you if you fill out the Girl Scout Membership Form and give me the $25 fee, or you can go to the Girl Scout Main Page and scroll down to Join Today to sign up and join. If you are interested in being an Adult Member you can also sign up and join or I can do it for you with the 
Adult Membership Form and fee. 

I have also attached below the different tunic/vest/sash options and where to place your insignia. 

I hope that this little post has helped you with what we discussed. In the future I will post what we did at each meeting so that you can be a part of our meetings, along with your daughter. If there is any questions or anything else you would like to see here, please let me know. 

Important Parent Information

**IMPORTANT**

In an effort to reduce the number of emails sent, parents will be responsible for checking the HOME PAGE or FACEBOOK PAGE weekly to read the following:

• ANNOUNCEMENTS - which will feature all Troop News, Troop Accomplishments, and Field Trip Updates.
• CALENDAR - which will list the troop meeting activities, feature Petals and Badges, and includes a BE PREPARED section which lists what the girls and parents need to have ready or bring to that troop meeting.  Special items needed are in addition to the standard items (listed below) that each girl should bring to every meeting.  Please understand that Badges or patches may not be earned IF special items your daughter needs to have at a troop meeting are forgotten at home.
• PLEASE REMEMBER...You are ALWAYS welcome to email me at any time!

**A New Blog Post Goes Up EVERY Friday...So Please Check It Out!!!**

TROOP MEETINGS 
WHEN: EVERY OTHER Thursday (unless otherwise noted) 
TIME: 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. We begin promptly at 6:00 p.m. 
WHERE: Good Shepard Lutheran Church, Basement

**GIRLS MUST BRING THE FOLLOWING TO EVERY TROOP MEETING: Tunic/Vest/Sash, Bag with Guide to Girl Scouting Book, Water Bottle

TROOP DUES 
For the 2017-2018 year, dues will be $40.00/girl.  Field Trips are not included in this fee and will be on a “pay-as-you-go” basis.  The dues will be collected at the first troop meeting on Thursday, October 5th, 2017.  Cash is fine or checks should be made out to: GSSEM Troop 71596.

SNACKS 
Due to various dietary restrictions, we will no longer be providing or expecting families to provide a troop snack.  If you would like your daughter to have a snack during troop meetings, please provide a simple (non-messy) snack which can be eaten while working on activities.

BATHROOM BREAKS 
Please have your daughter use the bathroom prior to coming to the troop meetings.  It will really help cut down on the number of breaks/distractions during our meetings.  Thank you in advance for your help!

FIELD TRIPS 
All field trips are on a PAY-AS-YOU-GO BASIS. Forms will be handed out at the troop meeting the week of the field trip and MUST be returned on the day of the field trip...no exceptions.  Field Trip fees are collected before the event.  **ALL field trips are limited to the registered girls in our troop and trip chaperones, unless otherwise noted.

WE NEED YOU! 
Last year we noticed just how excited the girls were to have a parent chaperone a field trip or help us out at a special event or troop meeting.  This year we would like parents to become more involved with the troop.  We are not asking that you plan an activity.  What we are asking is that you each volunteer to help at one troop meeting during the 2017-2018 troop year! A sign up sheet will be posted before the next meeting.