For Troop Leaders and Troop Cookie Managers

For Community-Area Product Leaders

Cookie Booths not only increase public awareness of Girl Scouts, but they are a whole lotta fun! Check out the Cookie Booth Guide for the full scoop on booths. Plus, use the Online Cookie Systems Guide to review the step-by-step instructions on how to manage booths in Smart Cookies and Digital Cookie.

The first important deadline of the cookie booth season is the cookie booth lottery. The lottery opens for selections in Smart Cookies on Wednesday, January 15. Review the list of available booth timeslots in Smart Cookies to determine your lottery choices. Do not select booths you would not want or be able to attend. You can select up to 10 timeslots and adjust those choices up until the lottery closes at 11am on January 19. Each troop that participates in the lottery will receive one lottery timeslot. The lottery will run at 12pm on that date. Find the instructions on making your lottery selections in the Online Cookie Systems Guide for Volunteers. The troop contacts in Smart Cookies will receive an email with your lottery timeslot. Each year we have a few troops that do not receive a lottery timeslot. Our staff will connect with any troop that did not receive a lottery booth to secure a timeslot before the first-come, first-served booth rounds begin.

Here are the top three updates when it comes to cookie booths: 

1. Cookie Booth Lottery and First-come, First-served (FCFS) Council-Secured Booth Schedule:  

See the current schedule for lottery and first-come, first-served (FCFS) Council-secured booths below:

For each round of first-come, first-served booths, the selections will close at 4 pm before the following round opens at 7 pm. For example, Round 1 opens at 7 pm on January 22, and closes at 4 pm on January 23.  We will upload any newly secured booths between 4pm and 7pm which will be reflected in the next round of FCFS booths. You can run the Available Booth Sales Summary Report in Smart Cookies to review all available timeslots and locations for each round. Filter the report to hone in on a specific location, if needed. The Online Cookie Systems Guide for Volunteers features the instructions on reserving a FCFS booth.

2. Council-Secured Booth Partners Status

Most of our council partners, including Cub Foods, area Malls, Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Chuck & Don’s, JoAnn, and Goodwill are excited to welcome us back again this year.

We will host cookie booths during select Minnesota Wild hockey games. These booths are added to the lottery as “premium booths.” This means Troops can only win one of these opportunities, encouraging fairness at one of our highest sales-per-hour booths.  

3. Troop-Secured Booth Requests

Is your Troop interested in setting up a booth with a business in your area? Booths that are arranged by the Troop Leader are called “Troop-secured Booths.” You can now enter your Troop-secured Cookie Booth requests in Smart Cookies.  We will review these requests before our first round of FCFS booths on January 22, with the hopes of getting as many approved before the Initial Order deadline on January 24.  After we complete the first large group of requests, you can expect your booth approval to be processed within three business days.  Find the instructions on submitting your troop-secured booth request in the Online Cookie Systems Guide for Volunteers.

Speaking of Troop-secured booths. We’ve updated our Do Not Contact List this year. New for 2025: our staff has developed a list of cookie booths that will no longer be secured by River Valleys. These businesses are now available for troop-secured booths and can be found in this new 2025 Businesses Available for Troop-Secured Booths List. Use this list to reach out to the individual stores to arrange a booth. An example of two former council-secured booth locations that can now be troop-secured include all Dunkin Donuts and GNC stores.

Troops had the opportunity to participate in our pre-order for the gluten-free Caramel Chocolate Chip cookies in Fall of 2024. We used this information to place our order for this variety with ABC Bakers. For Troops who participated in the pre-order, we’ll email you a reminder of your order the week of January 6. You must enter the cases from your gluten-free pre-order along the rest of your initial order in Smart Cookies.  Troops that did not participate in the pre-order are limited to two cases. This cookie variety is only guaranteed to be available on the initial cookie order.

If your Troop would like more than two cases of gluten-free Cookies, here’s the scoop on how to request an exception. Follow these two important steps: 

During the week of January 27 we will email you to confirm the request was successful or alert you if we cannot fill it. 

Note: For Troops who order more than two cases of Caramel Chocolate Chip cookies and did not participate in the pre-order or complete the form to report an exception, your order may be reduced to a total of two cases.   

In previous issues of The Cookie Press, we covered topics like cookie training, the Cookie Business Family Meeting, initial cookie order guidance, and much more. Need to catch up? Check out past issues of The Cookie Press on Cookie Central.

Join in one of the upcoming Winter Wellness Sessions! It’s a morning of self-care and learning on January 11 in St. Paul or January 18 in Rochester. Register your volunteer team now for the no-cost session, Boundaries, Balance, and Wellbeing with Terri Allred. Light refreshments and fun take-aways will be provided!

Thanks to the volunteers that reached out to alert us of materials shipments missing money envelopes. We have been informed by ABC Bakers the money envelopes will no longer be provided to councils in their cookie supplies. Please pass along the information to your troops if they inquire about the missing money envelopes. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Cookie Rally cookie and reward kit shipments will begin to arrive between January 15-January 24. The ACH to pay for the cookies will occur on January 10. Remember, if your Community ordered a reward kit, it must be returned to Girl Scouts River Valleys no later than March 1.

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