100 Box Challenge!

In life and in business you need to have “some big hairy audacious goals...,” Jim Collins, in from Good to Great.  
 
If you don’t have a goal, you don’t know where you are going and then the path you take will be incidental…
 
Goals are so important to all of us in life. Goals provide a measurement. Having goals allows us to experience success, to fail and be disappointed, to try again (and again) and to persevere. These are skills that will benefit a child throughout their school years, in their relationships with family and friends, in their career and throughout every aspect of their life. Without goals it will be hard for a child to know if he or she has succeeded or just coasted to the next stop in the road.
 
So, this year for my “big hairy audacious goal” (BHAG) I am challenging all of the Girl Scouts in Nassau County to raise the bar and meet the challenge to have a Council-wide average of selling 100 boxes per girl for this year’s Girl Scout Cookie Program. (The national average is 135 boxes per girl; in our Council, the average has been 64 boxes per girl for the past several years.) To work, Collins says that a BHAG has to be clear, compelling and one that people can understand right away -- it is galvanizing and creates team spirit…I hope my BHAG inspires our girls!
 
You may be asking, why is the national average so much higher than Nassau County? Well that’s because in other parts of the country parents have recognized that Girl Scouting is a great program value – in terms of what their daughters learn and achieve. And it is a financial value because girls and families can learn and earn, without taxing a family’s resources.
 
The Girl Scout Cookie Program helps to level the playing field and allows each girl to be part of the fun. Of course, other youth service programs have some scholarships available or funding for those kids most in need (as does GSNC), but in Girl Scouting, every girl and every family has the opportunity to learn and earn. Because the per capita income in Nassau County is among the nation’s highest, perhaps families here have not felt the need to be as involved in the Cookie Program and have been more willing or able to pay for trips and activities. However, with recent economic changes it is more important than ever that each girl and her family recognize the value of learn and earn.
 
So I urge every Girl Scout and her family in Nassau County to take the 100 Box Challenge!

And for those girls who have met or exceeded the 100 box goal in the past, we urge each of you to set your goals higher than before.  Share with your sister Girl Scouts the techniques that you have used to be successful.  And tell us your stories of how the money your Troop has earned has been used!
 
P.S. As a bonus for Troops – Troops that meet the 100 box average will earn an extra two-cents per box towards their goals!