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The council folks suggested a "Juliet" status. That means no troop accepts you. Great self-esteem builder there, let me tell you.
What does that mean? I guess things have changed since I was a girl scout...
While I admire your willingness to "fight" a wrong (assuming there truly is a wrong), at this point, I would find another troop for your daughter regardless. You are not going to enjoy your interactions with the other parents after this and you are setting her up in a nasty situation. It will negate any good she gets out of being in Girl Scouts!
What does that mean? I guess things have changed since I was a girl scout...
While I admire your willingness to "fight" a wrong (assuming there truly is a wrong), at this point, I would find another troop for your daughter regardless. You are not going to enjoy your interactions with the other parents after this and you are setting her up in a nasty situation. It will negate any good she gets out of being in Girl Scouts!
Exactly!
Know when to pick your battles, and remember you can win the battle and lose the war!
I agree you don't want to fight a battle and leave your child to endure the repercussions. Sometimes it's just better to find a situation where you ARE welcome, rather than forcing one where you are not. Of course it's wrong. Of course it isn't your fault. But you don't want to muddy the water to the point you make basic school participation a struggle as well. Good luck to you. You sound like an amazing father. Focus on your daughter, not your sense of justice. I'd check with some churches at this point.
Last edited by Rabbitwarren; 09-26-2011 at 07:59 PM..
Reason: Typo. Ugh.
The Secret Society of the Girl Scouts Skull and Bones Society will rise up and reek (or wreak) a most horrid vengeance.
We were wondering if we would find a box of Thin Mints burning in our front yard, one night.
Do we all really realize just how stupid this is?
Either way, we could leave her with a cross-town troop. Not her school, long trip and cannot do the cross town school related activities. Weeee. Great sense of belonging there.
Or we could dump Girl Scouts altogether since collectively they seem to act as a pack of total retards. But I do not think they really all are. Problem seems to be like they tolerate some retards in their management positions.
Went by 4H tonight, and she seemed to like that.
So we do risk offending a local pack of princess wannabees? If that is even what the problem is? Could be locals here are just stupid. Never account to malice what can first be attributed to dumb.
Either way, I will apply my curious crowbar to the condition and we will sort it out.
But for the "better not mess with it" folks -- Do you folks really all live in fear of the make believe?
The kids I see being harmed are not so much ours. At home, our kids pretty much have a wall-to-wall love environment. She can quit school anytime she likes and we do home school far better than any public or private school we have looked at. And we have looked. She is just doing school to have the kid experience and hang out with kid friends. Completely her choice.
The kids being harmed are not the ones with a roving jackass of a father, like me. Those other kids who are in the thousands per year are kids who are told to just told sign up, never being accepted, and left out. Total negligence on the part of Girl Scouts, Inc.
So I will go up through the mess from their stinking butthole and out their brains, let our daughter document and publish that, and shame the Girl Scout Corporation, Inc. -- the ones that Hire Keeblers Corporation to make their Cookies, use little kids/child labor as a sales force, and import their cheap trinkets from China with their name on it -- to behave decent and take care of the kids who come to them.
Not that big of deal. Just a typical weasel US Transnational Corporation. They all behave the same because they all went to the same business school.
So I already know which way the tree is going to fall. Just deciding on which chainsaw to use.
Hell, you don't even know the backstory on why the local troop can't or won't accomodate your daughter. You're just ASSuming they have a personal vendetta against you and your daughter. Shoot first, ask questions later????
And who told you that you can't or shouldn't contact the local troop leaders? I've never heard of that, in either Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts. That doesn't even make any sense. How can you possibly commit to a given troop without being able to ensure that the leadership is able to offer the type and quality of Scouting program you're looking for?
You've been offered a lot of good advice in this thread, from people who've been to this rodeo many more times than you, yet you seem intent on ignoring all of it. So be it. Given your last tirade, my new advice is to forget about Girl Scouts altogether for your kid, and move on to 4-H or something else. It's clear your family will never be able to put your anger aside on this issue.
Here's one last bit I encourage you to take to heart. Even if you think the rest of us are all fools and cowards, you'll have a hard time disrespecting this particular poster.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Philip T
Never account to malice what can first be attributed to dumb.
Hell, you don't even know the backstory on why the local troop can't or won't accomodate your daughter.
That is true if it is secret. First the Service Unit said lack of leaders. I pointed out that could not be the case, as we bring our own spare. Then it became they did not know and/or could not say.
So I am letting the school sort that through to start. They get paid to do this sort of stuff and I am happy to let them.
Quote:
You're just ASSuming they have a personal vendetta against you and your daughter.
No, I do not think so at all. The troop does not even know us, nor do I know them. Why would THAT point to any sort of vendetta? Are we even having the same conversation?
Like you quoted of me in the response above, I just think the Service Unit is kind of dumb or maybe kind of lazy, or maybe both. I am not finding malice, anywhere.
Quote:
Shoot first, ask questions later????
And who told you that you can't or shouldn't contact the local troop leaders? I've never heard of that, in either Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts. That doesn't even make any sense.
ahhhh. I see. You are po-ed because I cautioned that any sort of harassment of the local troop leaders was in direct violation of the Service Unit's direction.
I am sorry, but you were giving very bad advice in that regard, and since other folks will likely be tracking along on this thread, I am sort of obliged to point out it is bad advice. Nothing personal. Just accept correction and move on.
Quote:
How can you possibly commit to a given troop without being able to ensure that the leadership is able to offer the type and quality of Scouting program you're looking for?
We are talking about ANY program in the local school. Pretty simple we are -- not a problem with being "selective."
Quote:
You've been offered a lot of good advice in this thread, from people who've been to this rodeo many more times than you, yet you seem intent on ignoring all of it.
No.
Yours was specifically bad about harassing volunteer leaders.
Get over it.
As for the rest, I am grateful for folks' interest and various insights.
Quote:
So be it. Given your last tirade, my new advice is to forget about Girl Scouts altogether for your kid, and move on to 4-H or something else. It's clear your family will never be able to put your anger aside on this issue.
No anger on my side. I see this kind of goofy stuff in all sorts of ways almost weekly, on some sort of project clean-up, but it is never clear if I am dealing with:
1. Dumb, or
2. Lazy, or
3. Crooked.
I joke that I usually find Dumb, Lazy, Crooks.
But in this case I see nothing pointing toward Crooks. That is a good thing. Only leaves Dumb and Lazy. That is my early take on the situation.
It just seems that some service units tend to be kind of Dumb and Lazy on getting kids in troops. How hard can THAT be? The kids want to be there. The parents are supportive. Troops and locations exist. Leaders and volunteers exist. They just are doing a sorry job of putting that together.
The Service Units are just being goof-offs on getting the job done.
Like others have observed, the Boy Scouts seem to pull this off with no problems. If the Service Units really cannot figure out how to do the job, at least they could just copy the Boy Scouts' homework.
Quote:
Here's one last bit I encourage you to take to heart. Even if you think the rest of us are all fools and cowards, you'll have a hard time disrespecting this particular poster.
Naw, I think most the folks here are pretty sensible and have given their own and larger viewpoints. I am grateful for that.
Telling you that some particular slice of advice you wish to promote is some bad advice -- it is not about you, princess. And no disrespect in that either.
Folks read through these threads, and need to see all sides, and need to find good courses of action.
You are po-ed because I cautioned that any sort of harassment of the local troop leaders was in direct violation of the Service Unit's direction.
...
I am sorry, but you were giving very bad advice in that regard, and since other folks will likely be tracking along on this thread, I am sort of obliged to point out it is bad advice. Nothing personal. Just accept correction and move on.
...
Yours was specifically bad about harassing volunteer leaders. Get over it.
...
Telling you that some particular slice of advice you wish to promote is some bad advice -- it is not about you, princess. And no disrespect in that either.
I never advocated "harassing" the volunteer leaders - just inquiring about the possibility of joining.
You seem awfully certain about this mythical "rule" forbidding contact between potential GS parents and leaders. You have a cite to go with that, or just what some bozo told you in passing? Since you've already made the case that the paid leader is a screw-up and giving you inconsistent information, why are you so sure she was giving you correct information on this particular issue?
As soon as we get ONE SINGLE actual former leader to come on here and confirm that parents are forbidden from contacting GS leaders, I'll concede the point. Heck, your wife should be able to confirm that point. Was she not allowed to speak with the parents of potential Girl Scouts? Seriously???
---
As far as you helping out others down the line, I beg ta diffa.
Option 1: Follow your advice and deal solely with the paid GS leaders. Net result - kid very possibly not in Girl Scouts, as you are experiencing.
Option 2: Follow my advice and make contact with troop leaders directly. Net result - kid likely in Girl Scouts, assuming space is available.
Hmmm... what to choose, what to choose???
---
Quote:
Like others have observed, the Boy Scouts seem to pull this off with no problems. If the Service Units really cannot figure out how to do the job, at least they could just copy the Boy Scouts' homework.
I'll tell you how the Boy Scouts do it - they let the troops themselves (and their volunteer leaders) do the recruiting, and the paid council staff stay the hell out of the way. As you yourself observed with your son, you dealt directly with the volunteers running the local pack. There might have been a council guy collecting the paperwork in the back, but probably not even that.
Of course, since (according to you and/or the GS leader you've been dealing with), there's no way for parents to make contact with the local volunteers, I guess that won't work for the Girl Scouts.
---
Why am I so insistent that I'm right and you're wrong on the issue of contacting local volunteer leaders? Here's why:
Let me share a tale from my time with the Cub Scouts. One of our leaders got a call from an irate parent. She had signed her kid up at the council office and had been assigned to our pack. She was all po'ed because we hadn't contacted them in 3 months.
Well, you can guess what actually had happened - the council cashed their check, put the kid on our roll (which we only see once a year), and never told us a thing. If she would have just instead made contact with ANY of the many leaders in our pack, we could have gotten her kid hooked up from Day 1.
IMO, "take out the middleman" is NEVER "bad advice".
Based on that past experience of mine, and your opinion of the paid leader's "challenges", I'd give you even-money odds that the troop leaders at your school aren't even aware that someone from the school wants to join. Yet here you are, ripping them a new one with the principal.
Plus, once she turns 14, she can join a Venturing Crew in the BSA.
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Given your last tirade, my new advice is to forget about Girl Scouts altogether for your kid, and move on to 4-H or something else. It's clear your family will never be able to put your anger aside on this issue.
