Updating Troop Information!

As Troop Cookie Managers, it is very important that your correct contact information is listed in Snap. If a member of the Product Program team is trying to contact you, this is the first place they'll look.  

If you're unsure how to update your information in Snap, please review the video below.

Entering Initial Orders

Entering Initial Orders

Initial orders are due in SNAP by December 10, 2012. 

For more information on how to enter an initial order, this video tutorial will help! 

Stay Connected

Newsbytes: During the Cookie Program, any volunteer can elect to receive our Newsytes newsletter. Just visit www.gsep.org and click on the eNews sign up on the bottom of the home page. You'll be prompted to enter your email address. Make sure to check “Newsbytes: Product Program Newsletter.”

SUCM Memos: During the Cookie Program, Service Unit Cookie Managers can expect emails to come to them directly from their respective Product Program Manager. These emails will contain information that is not necessarily pertinent for anyone outside of this position. 

Facebook: GSEP Thin Mints: This is our Facebook group where you can post photographs from the 2012 Cookie Program and communicate with other volunteers! Just login to Facebook and add “GSEP Thin Mints” as a friend.

Twitter: @GSEPThinMints: Are you on Twitter? So are we! Receive updates on the Cookie Program by following @GSEPThinMints.

www.gsep.org: Find forms, links and resources for the 2012 Cookie Program under “Cookies and More.” You can also check out our “Cookie Alerts” page to find out about reorder station closings.

Council Sponsored Booth Lottery!

The Council-sponsored Cookie Booth opened today November 29th and will run until  to December 6, 2012. The actual lottery will run on December 7, 2012. Please view the Council-sponsored Cookie Booth Lottery Information Worksheet for step by step instructions and important tips.

This power point will also provide information on how to enter the booth lottery and set up your troops booths into the Cookie Booth Finder: Cookie Booth Tutorial

Also check out our Council-Sponsored Cookie Booth Lottery video to learn how to enter. Remember, the lottery is open for all troops wishing to participate!

2013 Incentive Plans

Through the Girl Scout Cookie Program, girls can earn personal incentives while raising money for their troop. Listed below are the various incentive plans offered to individual girls. Are there specific incentives that your Girl Scout hopes to earn?

Cumulative Plan—open to all Girl Scouts  
The Cumulative Plan allows individual girls to receive items such as a stuffed penguin, a yearly Girl Scout Membership voucher and other fun items for girls. These items are cumulative and are based on the number of packages sold by the individual girl (e.g. if a girl sells 300 packages of Girl Scout Cookies, then she will receive a Theme Patch, a 300+ Achievement Bar and all cumulative items up to the 300 package level). This incentive plan includes a Membership Voucher at 200 packages that will expire on October 31, 2013

Adventure Credit Plan—open to all Girl Scouts  
This plan is not cumulative and does include all patches that individual girls have earned. Adventure Credits come in the form of a voucher that can be used toward purchases in GSEP Retail Shops, GSEP Programs/Events, GSEP Summer Camps or Service Unit Neighborhood Day camps. An individual girl must sell at least 200 packages in order to be eligible to receive Adventure Credits. Adventure Credits for the 2012 Cookie Program will expire on October 31, 2013.

Older Girl Travel Plan—open to Cadettes, Seniors and Ambassadors  
This incentive plan is not cumulative, but does include all patches that individual girls have earned. Qualifying girls will still be invited to the Mystery Tour and the 500 Club Picnics. This plan enables older girls to earn travel money for troop-based programs, trips or Destinations. These monies may be banked and used within two years. Girls must sell at least 500 packages in order to be eligible to receive this incentive option. If your troop is planning to use this incentive, the following must be submitted to Susan Schmalzried by January 1, 2012 at sschmalzried@gsep.org:

• Letter of Intent 
• Number of girls attending  
• Budget  
• Additional money-earning endeavors

Older Girl Extra 5 Cents Proceed Plan—open to Cadette, Senior and Ambassador Troops  
This troop proceed plan should be voted on by the entire troop. If the entire troop elects to receive the Older Girl Proceed Plan, the troop will forego all other incentives other than the patches that the girls have earned. These girls must have a troop PGA of 160 to earn the extra $.05/pkg. Qualifying girls will still be invited to the Mystery Tour and the 500 Club Picnics.

Troop Proceeds  
There are six troop proceed levels based on the average number of packages sold by the total number of girls in the troop. This is known as the per girl average, or PGA.

1 – 129 = $.60/package

130 – 159 = $.65/package

160 – 199 = $.75/package

200 – 299 = $.75/package

200 – 299 = $..80/package 

300+ & up = $.85/package

New cookies

Girls Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania offers eight varieties of Girl Scout Cookies. Here’s this year’s line-up:

Thin Mints: Thin chocolate wafers dipped in a chocolaty coating with a burst of peppermint. 

Peanut Butter Patties®: Crispy vanilla cookies layered with real peanut butter and blanketed with a chocolaty coating.

Caramel deLites®: Vanilla cookies drenched in caramel, sprinkled with toasted coconut and drizzled with cocoa stripes. 

Peanut Butter Sandwich: Smooth peanut butter sandwiched between crunchy oatmeal cookies.

Thanks-A-Lot™: Shortbread cookies dipped in rich fudge and topped with an embossed “Thank You” message in one of five languages.

Lemonades™: Shortbread cookies with a refreshingly tangy lemon icing.

Shortbread: A traditional favorite with a buttery, light flavor.

Mango Cremes™: A coconut sandwhich cookie filled with a mango creme

New in 2013!

Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania is excited to divulge our fresh ideas for the 2013 Cookie Program.

• Price Increase
• We are raising the price of the cookies for the 2013 cookie program to $4.00/package.

• Contests and Girl Opportunities
• Look for more information to be posted about new contests and programs we are running this year: We will be continuing the  Bling Your Booth Contest and the 5=52 contest. 
• We will also be adding a new opportunity for girls to show their movie making skills with a training video made for girls, by girls! More information will be released as the Program start date approaches. 
• ACH
• This year we are moving forward with the ACH (Automated Clearing House) initiative. ACH has be launched as a council-wide project with the 2012 Nuts About Reading Program and will continue through the 2013 Cookie Program. If you have a troop that needs to fill out an ACH form, you can locate the form here. 
• District Booths: 
• District Booths will not be offered for the 2013 Cookie Program. We will still be utilizing Council Booths and Service Unit Booths. 

• New Packages
• The packages have been updated for the 2013 Cookie program! 

• New Cookie! 
• We have a new cookie in the line up for this year, Mango Cremes!

Cookie Booths

The timeframe for troops to enter their requests for a Council-sponsored Cookie Booth is from November 29 to December 6, 2012. The actual lottery will run on December 7, 2013. Please view the  Cookie Booth Lottery Power Point for step by step instructions and important tips.

Also check out our Council-Sponsored Cookie Booth Lottery video to learn how to enter. Remember, the lottery is open for all troops wishing to participate!

2013 Cookies

2013 Cookie Program!

2013 Cookie Program: What Can a Girl Do?

Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania partners with ABC Bakers for the 2013 Cookie Program. This year’s program will run from January 17 through March 3.

Each year a motivational mascot and theme are selected to unify the program’s focus and efforts.

Theme and Mascot

This year’s Cookie Program theme is What Can a Girl Do? This theme encourages girls to explore the value and benefits from participating in the Cookie Program. 

Meet this year’s mascot animal is a dolphin. Female dolphins are called cows and males are called bulls. Young dolphins are called calves. Dolphins live in schools or pods of up to 12 dolphins. They have excellent hearing and use echolocation to find the exact location of objects. Dolphins are believed to be very intelligent.  

Nuts and Candy Deliveries

Nut and Candy Deliveries

Beginning today,  Service Units will be receiving the Nut/Candy shipments. 

• To help troop pickups run smoothly, we recommend that you use each troop’s T-2 report to sort nuts/candy and incentives. 
• It is important to let your troops know when they can pick up their nut/candy items. Please print off a copy of each troop’s T-2 report to use as a receipt when troops pick up their nuts and candy and make sure they sign the T2 as proof of their pick up. Keep these T-2s with your Service Unit Nuts About Reading paperwork for one year.
• Recognitions are also being delivered this week. Some Service Units have recieved their recognitions last week. 

System Upgrades

• GSEP will be upgrading our email system over the next few weeks. We will not have email services on these specific dates:
• November 17, 2012 - November 18, 2012: Email system will be down for the entire weekend.
• November 22, 2012-November 25, 2012: Email system will be down for the entire holiday weekend. 

Cookie Alert!!

Cookie Training Alert!

 Monday and Tuesday’s SUCM training's have been cancelled in advance of the impending weather. Anyone who registered for this training will receive an email notification and a phone call/voice-mail as a courtesy.  If any member of you SU Team planned to attend this training but did not register, kindly forward this communication to them.

We deeply regret having to postpone our SUCM Training's however, we feel that due to the impending weather the postponement would be best. The product program team will announce the rescheduled training's as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Kindly,

The Product Program Team
Barb Bankert
Amanda Harrity
Jessica Menefee
Daniel Rau

Nuts About Reading Program Close

Thanks to everyone who participated and supported our 2012 Nuts About Reading Program!

If you are the Troop Nuts About Reading Manager, please be sure that you have turned in the following items to your Service Unit Nuts About Reading Manager:

•  Pay Upfront Magazine subscription forms

• Completed Address Booklets (one per girl)

• A printout of the T2 Report

• A printout of the Detailed Order Report from the QSP/Nut Online Program

Service Unit Nuts About Reading Managers should have all of their paperwork turned in to council by 10/29/12.

Facebook NAR

Girls are Reaching Their Goals Faster by Inviting Facebook Friends!

Has your Girl Scout sent out emails to friends and family yet or asked her parent(s) to invite Facebook friends?  If not, she is missing out on exciting activities that are part of the QSP/Nut Online Program.

When sending emails and/or posting to a parent’s wall in Facebook, friends and family will have the option to renew or purchase their favorite magazines and/or to make nut promises while supporting their Girl Scout.

All orders resulting from emails sent and Facebook friends track back to the Detailed Order Report.  At the end of the Nuts About Reading Program, the parent can simply login and print the “Detailed Order Report.” This report needs to be given to the Troop Nuts About Reading Manager to receive the “Online” patch and credit towards proceeds and recognitions for all subscriptions and nut promises made online by the conclusion of the program.

Click on the QSP/Nut Online Link to get started!

2012 recognitions

                     

By selling nuts, candy and magazines, girls can earn personal incentives while raising money for their troop. Listed below are incentive items for individual girls. All incentives are cumulative, giving girls an opportunity to earn each of them as they reach their goals. Are there specific incentives that your Girl Scout hopes to earn?

Magazines

• What Can a Girl Do? Patch: Earned by selling 3 magazine subscriptions.
• Zipper Case: Earned by selling 5 magazine subscriptions.
• Magazine Super Seller Patch: Earned by selling 7 subscriptions.

Nuts

• Get Connected Patch: Earned by selling 10 nut/candy items.
• Macrame Bracelet and Hair Tie Lollipop: Earned by selling 20 nut/candy items.
• Super Seller Patch: Earned by selling 30 nut/candy items.
• Small Plush Flamingo or Daisy Magnet Photo Frames: Earned by selling 40 Nut/Candy Items
• Paisley Dry Erase Wall Decals: Earned by selling 50 Nut/Candy Items

Combined Nut and Magazine Sales

• Journey Book for Age Level: Earned by selling 3 magazine subscriptions and 10 nut/candy items.
• $6 NAR Bucks OR Tap and Wrap Watch: Earned by selling $350 worth of nut/candy/magazines.
• $8 NAR Bucks OR Zen Alarm Clock: Earned by selling $450 worth of nut/candy/magazines. 
• $10 NAR Bucks Voucher OR Large Plush Flamingo or Lap Desk: Earned by selling $550 worth of nut/candy/magazines. 

     

New Products

New This Year!

We are excited to offer new features and products to the 2012 Nuts About Reading Program.

New Products:

6 oz Dark Chocolate Mint Penguins: Rich Dark Chocolate Penguins bursting with frosty mint. Price $6.00

6 oz Peanut Butter Bears: Milk Chocolate Bears with a smooth peanut butter filling. Price: $6.00 

5.1 oz Dulce De Leche: Fresh, milky caramel surrounded by smooth milk chocolate. Price: $6.00

6.5 oz Holiday School House Village Tin: This is the last of the series for this collector’s tin. This tin contains a favorite sweet and salty snack—Chocolate Covered Pretzels. Price: $8.00

6 oz Girl Scout Mailbox Tin: This is the new collectors tin for 2012. This tin contains Mint Treasures, smooth milk chocolate with a hint of mint. Price: $8.00 

9 oz Wasabi Almonds: Crunch Almonds roasted and coated with wasabi seasoning. Price: $6.00

                                                                

Digital Subscriptions 

Most of the digital magazines QSP offers will be fulfilled via the Zinio platform, which is device-neutral.  That means subscribers can access their digital content from computers, iPads, other tablet devices, mobile phones, etc. 


New Features 

ACH : ACH stands for Automated Clearing House (ACH) and is the process used for direct deposit and electronic bill payment. As GSEP is utilizing a Council-wide implementation of ACH for both Product Programs during the 2012-2013 Product Program year.
Project Thank You:  Project Thank You is new to GSEP for the Nuts About Reading Program. Customers can donate $5 to troops serving overseas to provide them with Honey Roasted Peanuts or a magazine subscription. 

Booth Sales: We are no longer encouraging booths for the Nuts About Reading Program. If your troop is planning on holding a booth at a community event, please reach out to Amanda Harrity at aharrity@gsep.org. Nuts and candy will no longer be able to be returned to council and will now be the troops responsibility. 

2012 Product Line Up

2012 Nuts About Reading: Products Offered

GSEP’s Nuts About Reading Program offers a copious assortment of nuts and candy, as well as magazines for girls to sell to raise money for troop activities. Each troop can chose their own selling time during the dates of September 17 and October 22. Outlined below are the various nut and candy items that can be sold. 

•  Whole Cashews (8 oz): A classic favorite roasted and salted with sea salt. 
•  Chocolate Covered Pretzels (7 oz): A favorite sweet and salty snack. Crunchy pretzels covered in smooth milk chocolate.
•  Mint Treasures (6 oz): Smooth chocolate with a hint of mint.
•  Whole Cashews (8 oz): A classic favorite roasted and salted to perfection.
•  Chocolate Covered Raisins (11 oz): The plumpest raisins covered in smooth milk chocolate.
•  Chocolate Covered Almonds (10 oz): Crunchy almonds cover in milk chocolate. 
•   Blueberry Pomegranate Nut Crunch (6 oz): Tasty squares of almonds, cashews, pistachios, blueberries and pomegranate. 
•  Gummi Berries (12 oz): These fat-free gummi candies are bursting in five fruit flavors.  
•   Cranberry Nut Mix (7 oz): A tasty mix peanuts, raisins, cranberries, cashews, banana chips, almonds and walnuts.   
•   Honey Roasted Peanuts (9 oz): Peanuts roasted with a touch of honey.   
•   Peanut Squares (9 oz): Peanuts coated in a delicious candy crunch.  
•  Deluxe Pecan Clusters (5.1 oz): Crunchy pecans covered in caramel and milk chocolate.
•  Pistachios (7.5 oz): Natural pistachios roasted and salted in the shell.
•   Wasabi Almonds (9 oz): Crunchy Almonds roasted and coated with wasabi seasoning.
•   Dulce De Leche (5.1 oz):  Fresh, milky caramel surrounded by smooth milk chocolate.
•    Dark Choc. Mint Penguins (6 oz): Rich dark chocolate penguins bursting with frosty mint.
•    Peanut Butter Bears (6 oz): Milk chocolate bears with a smooth peanut butter filling.