Trouble at the Bottom of a Box

Cookie Time!  The most wonderful time of the year for most of the world.  A time where Girl Scouts go door to door or can be seen in front of stores and other locations, selling those delectable, delicious cookies.  However, it isn't always a fairy tale ending.

Yesterday, there was a story on the news about a Girl Scout Troop who was scammed into placing an order for 6000 boxes of cookies, to a tune of $24,000.  If I remember correctly about the details of the situation, this order was place via email and I don't believe it was by any one that any of the troop members knew.  When they discovered this was a scam, it was too late, as the boxes had arrived and the money must be collected.  The community went into a flurry of activity to recoup the loss that had befallen upon these girls.

While I feel bad that these girls came into this situation, I cannot help but feel as though a leader should have been suspicious from the start.  I was a Girl Scout for ten years.  I started when I was a last year Brownie.  If I would have tried to take an order of that magnitude from someone I didn't know, my leaders (and my mom, who was a Girl Scout leader) would jump all over me.  The rules to cookie selling were very simple:

• Never sell cookies by yourself, go with a buddy
• Always sell to people you know and trust

That was basically it.  Mind you, email wasn't as wide spread as it is today.  But I can assure you that we were not suppose to take orders from people we or our families did not know, with the exception of a booth sale where the money was presented up front.  My mind is blown that the leader didn't flag this at all!  Where were the adults in this situation?  I mean, you get an email for 6000 boxes of cookies and that doesn't seem the least bit odd?

I am certain the girls (and adults) learned a valuable lesson about business and how to conduct it.  I feel sorry for them that the troop is now responsible for this money for the cookies that were fraudulently ordered.  I am ashamed the adults didn't look into this further.  This is not the Girl Scouts I knew.

But everything is changing so rapidly these days.  My mom tells me she refuses to buy cookies at a booth sale when adults are selling the cookies, not the girls.  Come on, girls!  This is suppose to be for you!  I HAD to sell the cookies, my leaders and parents were not doing it for me.  That money is for your troop or the prizes for individual cookie sales are for you.  Wouldn't you be more proud of earning that if you can take ownership of the sales?

The world keeps spinning and my head begins to swim.  I may not completely understand what happens and why it happens, but life happens.  We should learn from it and enjoy it as much as we can.  So, with Spring on the horizon, I hope you enjoy a thing called, "La Vie."