VISTA Agenda

February 24, 2010

• 7 p.m. - Call to Order
• Flag Ceremony, Pledge and Promise
• Council Activity and updates -  Special Cookie Information from Council
• Manager Report - Beth
• Registration - Kathie
  • Troop Openings
  • Forms: The Girl Scouts GCNWI site has lots of different forms on-line (click here to visit)
• Cookies - Meredith
• Finance
  • Reminders: ALL financials for the troops were due June 30, 2009.
  • Bank Forms are due (Click here for the form)
• Communications and Web
  • VISTA Newsletter - please sign up to receive yours!  To change your options, follow the sign-up procedure.
  • Information on the web changes almost daily, please check the site.
  • Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana site:  http://www.girlscoutsgcnwi.org/
  • Special Girl Scout Program link: https://www.girlscoutspw.org/program/search.php
• Large Events
  1. American Carnival
  2. CPA & First Aid
• Service Opportunities
  • PADS
  • Pop-top Tabs (Jackie Kroc)
  • Flags for Ashley (flags to be retired)
• 7:30 - 8 p.m. - Breakout Sessions
• Announcements
  1. Next Team Meeting - March 2nd at 7:00 p.m.
  2. Next VISTA Meeting - March 17th at 7:00 p.m. at Woodland Middle School

Adjourn - Thank you for coming!!!

Vista meeting minutes, February 24 2010

OPENING ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Pledge of Allegiance, Girl Scout Pledge
• Ashley Gauthier announced her retired flag project. She is still collecting flags for this project.

COUNCIL NEWS (Beth Dancy)

• The Panorama is discontinued and should be replaced with Council Essentials and Volunteer Essentials. See Kathi Rutkowski if you need a copy.
• Our Vista funding is based partially on spring registration numbers, so please reregister this spring.
• MEGS (Most Extraordinary Girl Scout) program: This is Council's patch program. It is open to all levels. Download the packet from Council at http://www.girlscoutsgcnwi.org/goshopping/uniquelyours/. Must complete by June 30, 2010. Rocker patches are available for progressive years.
• Town Hall Meeting at Vernon Hills Regional Service Center on match 4, 12010 from 7 pm to 9 pm. Go and voice your opinion. The September Town Hall meeting notes are available in the Cluster Meeting Notes (in your mailboxes). For more details, see http://www.girlscoutsgcnwi.org/justforvolunteers/newsandupdates/.
• District Delegate needed  submit application by April 23, 2010 (http://www.girlscoutsgcnwi.org/justforvolunteers/newsandupdates/councilgovernance/)
• Safety Awards: Juniors and above can also earn these awards by fulfiling requirements in the Safety Wise Handbook. 3/4" round Goldtone Pin. (http://shopgirlscouts.com/selection.taf?listing_id=3685&product_id=09042)
• Girl Scout Sunday is March 7. See patch at http://www.shopgirlscouts.com/selection.taf?listing_id=4286&product_id=188771
• Quilt Festival  free tours. Contact Beth Dancy for more details.
• Laura Ingalls Wilder play at Governors State University. See details in the Program Resource Guide (link at http://www.girlscoutsgcnwi.org/justforgirls/getinvolved/)
• Chicago Sky tickets  See http://www.wnba.com/sky/tickets/group.html

REGISTRATION NEWS

• Need more leaders! Please tell your friends about the rewarding and fun volunteer opportunities available when you are a Girl Scout leader. Make a difference in the lives of over 100 girls who want to be Girl Scouts but have no adults to lead them.
• Thank you for being a leader. You are making a difference. Tell your friends!
• Please turn in your Bank Finance Forms to Margie Ayers. Forms are available from Margie.
• Tax exempt letters for IL, WI, and IN can be found in Council Essentials booklet.

CPR/FIRST AID TRAINING

• March 4 and March 16. Must attend whole class. See calendar for details (http://www.ilcrossroads.org/vistas/13/calendar/)
• Card sent around for Mickey, the custodian. Mickey is in the hospital. We appreciate all his hard work and wish him a very speedy recovery.

EVENTS

• Tasting Tea: 22 troops had booths. Thank you for Haiti contributions and Juliette Lowe fund contributions. Patches are in your mailbox.
• Carnival: March 13. Registration due tonight.
•  Junior LockIn: May 1. Look for eblast from Michelle Orante. A question was raised that Cadettes who would have been Juniors before the level change really miss being able to participate in the Junior LockIn. Beth responded that Cadettes cannot participate in the Junior LockIn if they are registered as Cadettes, but that if anyone would like to coordinate a Cadette LockIn, that would be great! Also, Cadettes can help with the Junior LockIn to get service hours.
•  Father/Daughter Dance: Jennifer Cusick is chairing this event. Thanks Jennifer! Please contact her if you want to help with this event. We need more people to make this happen.
• PADS: All set for the year. Thanks, Cynthia!
• Dashboard Road Safety Patch Program. See Beth Dancy for details.

FIELD TRIPS

• If you are traveling anywhere with your troop outside of your normal troop meeting location, please let Beth Dancy know.

SERVICE PROJECTS

• Poptops: Jackie Kroc is collecting pop can tops. You can put them in a gallon zip bag. Girls get a coupon for a free order of fries and leaders get a coupon for a free value meal, redeemable at Gurnee McDonalds.
• St Jude's ranch cards will be sent tomorrow.

COOKIES

• There is a cute patch for first time cookie sellers at the Vernon Hills Regional Service Center shop.
• 2/16 cookie pickup went well. 6768 cases picked up (down 878 from last year). 35 volunteers. 82,476 packages sold. 900 out of 978 girls sold cookies.
• Meredith apologized for the loss of Sam's Club site sales. Only Fri night is available. Thank you Sarah and Michelle for working on this issue. If you are signed up for a Sam's Club site sale, you should have received an email and phone call.
• Special thank you to volunteers Dawn Clark (and her whole family!), Laura Olson (provided paper goods) and Michelle (donated Subway sandwiches).

COOKIE QUALITY ISSUES

•  Lemon Chalet Cremes: Little Brownie Baker representative (Lynn) explained that there is now an icon on the Little Brownie Baker Web site that links to a statement from the company (http://www.littlebrowniebakers.com/cookies/news_lcc.html).
•  This is a voluntary withdrawal NOT a recall. There are no safety issues. Cookies are safe to eat. This is a quality issue.
•  Customers can call 800 # on the box for information about replacements or exchanges (coupon for a Kellogg product).
•  Bring bad boxes to Vernon Hills Regional Service Center and they will swap packages.
•  Lynn explained that the issue started in Indiana as a flavor issue. Then mold was suspected. When a Girl Scout volunteered called Kellogg to ask about the mold, the Kellogg employee mistakenly said it was in fact mold. This is not true and it was a mistake on the part of Kellogg. They now suspect it was the food grade lubricant affecting the color, taste and smell. The oil apparently broke down. Lot #s of affected cookies are on the Little Brownie Baker web site.
•  A person commented that customers have received empty boxes, damage boxes, and missing cookies in boxes. What happens next year when customers remember these bad experiences? Answer from Kathy (Council rep): We have a 3 year contract with Little Brownie Baker and customers should call 800# if they problems. These are not new issues and we can't expect it to be perfect, but we can do the Girl Scout thing and make it right.
•  Lynn said they are treating this as an isolated incident.
•  Julie Somogyi will have a statement available soon on the Council Web site.
•  Complaints in general are less than .003% for Girl Scout Cookies. There is in general high customer satisfaction.
•  Girl Scouts should replace any damaged cookies that customers bring to site sales for free.
•  Meredith will accept damaged cookies for replacement ONLY if you include name, reason, contact information, troop #.
•  ThanksALot: Many comments that customers want this cookie. What do we tell these customers? Kathy's response: "I'm sorry, but we don't have it. We do have this great cookie called Thank U Berry Munch that makes an awesome thank you gift and it's delicious."
•  Tell customers to vote for their favorites at the Little Brownie Baker Web site (http://www.littlebrowniebakers.com/cookies/cookies_history.html)
•  Bottom 3 cookies account for 3% of sales.

- Meeting Adjourned -