Last year - new girl scout leader, 6 girls, 5 involved parents. Parents not super impressed with the way things went & two parents step in to be additional leaders this year. As progress is being made in training and understanding the girl scout way....red flags started popping up everywhere!!
Last year:
Year started with $219 - girls earned $944 in cookie sales - girls had about 8 meetings, with all being dollar tree type crafts - year ended with $203. Starting to see a problem?
Request was made for the original leader to bring the statements to the two new leaders so that we could figure out how to budget for this year. After a million and one excuses why she couldn't - she finally did provide.
Below is the activity that was pulled from those statements and the receipts we were able to obtain (from Wal-mart - the rest we have not received yet).
As you can see - before we even had a first meeting - this leader was buying personal items.
All total - there is almost $700 in non-troop related purchases. (no highlighting are assumed troop related, although there are still some questionable ones, like the Hungry Hobo -- all the parents were to supply food for the end of year event....but I guess if you are the leader, you just have the troop supply your portion. She openly admitted that she "accidentally" used the troop debit card for the chili's and hannah andersson purchases.
So -- what happened with this leader that for many other reasons was not a good role model for the girls?
So far she has had to pay restitution of $346, and is supposed to pay another $125 and the rest we are going to "forgive". At first she was even going to be allowed to remain a leader, as long as she got her name off the account and didn't deal with the money. I kid you not!!
Thankfully - it was determined that she will no longer be a leader, but no charges will be filed of any kind. So -- if she moves onto another girl scout council, or to her church, or to any other organization - there will be no record of this bad behavior!
The so called leader has given many many colorful excuses - "her husband is legally blind and didn't know the difference between the cards" - her husband works, drives and is no more legally blind than I am!
"she's not good with numbers, it's not her thing" -- another HUGE reason not be in a leadership role - especially when you are not even going to take the accountability for your actions and determine why the girls earned $944 but there is less money in the account then it started with...
and the kicker - for whatever reason, the new leaders are not getting the support from the leader mentor - who for whatever reason is protecting this now previous leader. All I can say is - WOW! what possible story (stories) could have been told that excuses that type of bad behavior??
And we are not supposed to mention this to the girls or the parents, we are supposed to say, "XXX is very busy, so she decided she would no longer have the time to be a leader". That it is no one's business what happened. I beg to differ -- if she left being a leader for some personal reason - it is no one's business. But she left being a leader because she STOLE from the girls she was entrusted to take care of!!
What type of lesson are we teaching here??? We are a small school - all the parents already know - guaranteed! The girls have probably overheard more than they should. Wouldn't a simple, "XXX made some mistakes last year and has now decided it would be best to not be the leader this year. She is very sorry, but she is making up for it and we are going to have a great year. It is important as girl scouts that we forgive others and treat all adults with the respect they deserve."
And what are we teaching this ex-leader? Here is a good start - bring on the crocodile tears, blame everything on everyone else and keep weaving the tales -- you can find someone with a tender heart that you can lie and deceive that will keep you out of trouble!!
I am not that tender heart - I've seen too many times when people have lied and gotten away with it! I am much more the cynic than believer. And these type of examples just make it worse!!
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