Dear Girl Scouts of Central Maryland,

We are deeply disturbed by the requirement of meeting a minimum sales quota for any girl who aspires to earn Girl Scout’s highest awards or pursue other fundraising efforts.

While we understand that Council programming and services provided to girls and to adult volunteers are supported by cookie sales, the emphasis on sales results defeats Girl Scout's stated goals of building girls of "courage, confidence and character."

This council-wide, top-down mandate is inconsistent with the values of Girl Scouting:

• It is not girl-led. It does not teach the valuable lessons of goal-setting and self-motivation that have been hallmarks of the cookie program.
• Girls who are not able to meet the sales requirement - regardless of the reason and regardless of whether they participated in cookie sales - will be barred from all means of raising funds and from being eligible for highest awards. This will serve ultimately to demotivate girls.
• It is not sensitive to cultural differences that may preclude a girl from participating in cookie sales due to differences in beliefs. It punishes entire troops for such sincere differences in perspective - whether it is among all members or only one.
• Equally important, this sales quota would have the greatest impact on the very populations Girl Scouts desires to empower: the girls from families burdened with too many cares, too few hours, too little money and who live in neighborhoods too dangerous for door to door cookie sales.

We urge you to do the following:

1. Allow all girls who participate in the cookie sale program at any level to be eligible for the highest awards and other fundraising, regardless of the results of her cookie sales efforts, as in years past.
2. Engage the Girl Scout volunteer community in dialogue and deliberations on this and similar policy decisions. Adopt a transparent means of making such policy decisions.
3. Reaffirm GSCM’s commitment to its girl and adult-volunteer members and to Girl Scout values by making decisions consistent with these values.

If there is a need to increase the sale of cookies, we would be willing and eager to contribute ideas that are consistent with the values that are taught in the Girl Scout program, and the values of diversity and inclusion that GSCM espouses.

Volunteers, Friends & Family of Girl Scouts of Central Maryland,

Please sign this petition to share with GSCM the impact of the new cookie sales quota policy on inclusion and diversity. If you are comfortable doing so, please include your zip code and your role in Girl Scouting in the comments to show our diversity and commitment to Girl Scouting! (ie, Jane Smith-Wang, Parent of a Cadette Girl Scout, 20759)