Welcome to the seventh edition of The Cookie Press for the 2024 Cookie Season!

Read on for information about Digital Cookie Registration Emails, Picking Up Additional Cookies After the Initial Order, Cookie Pre-sales Prep, Cookie Booths, Troop Cookie Responsibility Forms Due, Assisting Troops that Missed the Initial Cookie Order, and more!

In this edition:

Up Next:

Digital Cookie Registration Emails for Girl Scouts and Families
Girl Scout Cookie Rewards Mailer

What's Trending:

Picking Up Additional Cookies After the Initial Order
Cookie Pre-sales Prep

Reminders:

First-Come, First-Served Cookie Booths and Troop Secured Booth Approvals
Retail Open Houses at River Valleys Shops
Cookie Chat on January 30

For Service Unit Cookie Managers:

Troop Cookie Responsibility Forms Due February 1
Service Unit Proceeds Reminder
Assisting Troops that Missed the Initial Cookie Order

The Initial Cookie Order has been submitted to ABC Bakers! Soon all those cases of cookies will be making their way to our Delivery Agents and into your homes! Watch for more details on what to expect during cookie deliveries in a future issue of The Cookie Press. We know the hours you’ve already spent on cookies, from training and distributing supplies, to goal setting with Girl Scouts and families, and getting the Initial Order in on time in Smart Cookies. We are so grateful for you and celebrate all your efforts. Thanks for being part of the magic that is the Girl Scout Cookie Program!

Digital Cookie Registration Emails for Girl Scouts and Families

It’s the next big step toward the start of the cookie season! All currently registered River Valleys Girl Scouts will be sent their registration emails for Digital Cookie on February 1. The primary caregiver of the Girl Scout(s) will receive the registration email from email@email.girlscouts.org or noreply@girlscouts.org. Families will also receive an email from River Valleys on January 31 to prepare for online sales and reminders for the cookie season. This gives Girl Scouts and families time to explore Digital Cookie and set up their online sales sites before pre-sales and online sales begin on February 8. Using Digital Cookie to become an online Cookie Entrepreneur is as easy as 1-2-3-4! Share these helpful steps with your Girl Scouts and their parent/guardians:

Register for Digital Cookie. Look for the registration email from email@email.girlscouts.org or noreply@girlscouts.org. This email will include a link to log in to Digital Cookie. Hint: to help prevent this email from going to a junk folder, remind your families to make this email address a trusted sender now.
Set up your site. After you get logged in for the first time, take a few minutes to set your sales goal, share your cookie story, and even upload a fun picture or video! Then, click Publish. Once your Digital Cookie site is published, parents/guardians can download the Digital Cookie Mobile app from the App Store or on Google Play. The app will be functional starting on February 8, the first day of online and pre-sales. You will use the same email and password you used to set up the online account for the app. Note: this app is where Girl Scouts will take credit card payments for in-person sales and at cookie booths.
Invite your cookie customers. Explore the Customers tab where you can add your cookie customers individually or in bulk. Starting February 8, you can send those eager cookie customers a marketing email using one of the pre-made email templates provided by Digital Cookie. Plus, you can share the link to your Digital Cookie site on social media, by text, or on marketing materials.
Track Your Progress. Now that you’ve registered, set up your site, and invited your customers—it’s time to track your progress! Keep an eye on your cookie goal by tracking your sales and inventory throughout the cookie season.

Cookie Central has been updated with Digital Cookie resources. We’ve created the Digital Cookie Guide for Volunteers, and Digital Cookie Guide for Girl Scouts and Families. Both guides are filled with step-by-step instructions and videos on how to do everything from getting started with registration and login, understanding the dashboard, setting up your online sales link, and more! Plus, there’s a-lotl help resources built right into every page on the site.

River Valleys will continue to upload newly registered Girls Scouts into Digital Cookie throughout the cookie season. Any Girl Scouts not registered should complete their registration to access Digital Cookie.

Girl Scout Cookie Reward Mailer

Mail call! Watch for a special Cookie Program poster exclusively for River Valleys Girl Scouts (registered as of mid-January) to arrive starting in early February. This poster features all the fun rewards plus basic information on the cookie season just for Girl Scouts!

Picking Up Additional Cookies After the Initial Order

Now that the Initial Cookie Order deadline has passed, you may wonder where to go if you need more cookies. River Valleys features a network of Cookie Cupboards throughout our council area where troops can pick up additional cookie inventory for cookie booths and extra sales opportunities for individual Girl Scouts. Our Council Cookie Cupboards are open to all River Valleys Troops and primarily located in larger metro areas. This year, we’ll have locations in the following cities: Blaine, Columbia Heights, Apple Valley, Oakdale, Mankato, Rochester, and a yet-to-be-determined location in the West Metro, as well as Council Express Cupboards in Burnsville and Maplewood. Watch for the full scoop on the locations and hours of operation early next month here in The Cookie Press and on Cookie Central

Cookie Pre-sales Prep

Girl Scouts can participate in Cookie pre-sales beginning on February 8. Not only can girls begin sending emails and sharing their Digital Cookie online site sales links, but they can also use their order cards to record customer orders. This is a great time to either discuss pre-sales at a Troop meeting or share these important reminders with your Troop families:

Families must follow all Girl Scouts River Valleys Digital Sales & Social Media Policies which highlight how Girl Scouts can safely use social media and the internet to gain digital marketing skills. Remember that Digital Cookie sales links cannot be posted on resale sites (this means no Craigslist, eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Garage sale sites, Amazon, etc.).
Orders made through Digital Cookie online sales links for Girl Scout cookie delivery cannot be delivered to customers until Cookie Go Day, February 16.

Families must approve any online order for Girl Scout cookie delivery in Digital Cookie within five days or the order will be canceled. A reminder email will be sent to the caregiver only if they have any outstanding orders that need approval. If all orders have been approved each day, the family will not receive an email.

Customers who purchase cookies through a Girl Scout’s shipped-only link will receive a confirmation email for their order. Then, they will receive emails when the cookies are shipped and on the way. Cookies will arrive to the customer generally within 10-14 days.

Don’t forget, for a limited time, customers receive $5 off the cost of shipping for purchases of 6 packages or more when using Digital Cookie direct-ship!

Inform families of the troop preference for money collection for pre-sales made outside of Digital Cookie. Troops can instruct families to either collect at the time of the order or upon delivery.

Did you know? Girl Scouts who use their Digital Cookie online site to power their cookie sale sell more cookies. In fact, Girl Scouts that use their online site combined with in-person and booth sales sell on average 190 more packages than girls that do not engage in online cookie sales.

Pro tip: Set a deadline for families to report their pre-sales to you. This will help you decide whether you will need to visit a Cookie Cupboard to fill orders.

As pre-sales begin soon, this is a great time to remind families to complete the online Family Cookie Responsibility Form. Families must complete this form prior to receiving any cookie inventory.

First-Come, First-Served (FCFS) Cookie Booth Rounds Continue, and Troop Secured Cookie Booth Approvals

You still have two chances to score more council-secured Cookie Booths on January 31 and February 1! Here’s a look at the upcoming schedule: 

For each round of first-come, first-served booths, the selections will close at 4 pm before the following round opens. During this time frame, we will upload any new booths secured. 

Troop Secured Cookie Booth Approvals

We've started reviewing and approving Troop-Secured Booth requests. Here are a few reminders to help us in this effort:

Submit your requests as early as possible, at least 72 hours in advance
If you have any special notes for us to be aware of, include them in the booth notes or email us
The top reasons a booth request is denied is because another troop has already submitted, and been approved for, the same time slot or the location is too close to another booth. Pro tip—keep your email communications from the locations’ store managers. We may request to see this if two troops have requested the same time slot.
Planning a Lemonades Stand as a troop activity? You can enter the Lemonades Stand as a troop-secured booth. Simply enter the word "Residence" in the booth name. Any booth with the word "residence" in the name will not be visible in the Cookie Finder. The troop can then use Digital Cookie for credit card payments and distribute sales with the Smart Booth Divider in Smart Cookies.

Retail Open Houses at River Valleys Shops

Don't miss our cookie open house events that start this weekend! This Saturday join us in Brooklyn Center and Mankato from 9 AM to 1 PM. Next weekend, we'll be in St. Paul and Rochester. See you there!

Cookie Chat Begins on January 30

Join Girl Scouts River Valleys on January 30 at 6:00 pm (CST) for our next Cookie Chat in Microsoft Teams. This is an informal time for you to connect on trending topics and get answers to your questions. We’ll chat about cookie booths and cookie cupboards.

When you register, you’ll receive the meeting link so you can download the event to your personal calendar. We look forward to chatting with you!

Troop Cookie Responsibility Forms Due

With a flurry of dates and deadlines for Cookies, this is a great time to follow up with Troop Cookie Managers who have not yet completed the online Troop Cookie Responsibility Form. Forms are due February 1. If a Troop decides to participate after February 1, no problem! Inform the Troop Cookie Manager to complete the form as you arrange to provide them with their materials and training options.

Service Unit Proceeds Reminder

Service Units can earn proceeds from achieving participation goals with the Cookie Program. There are three levels this season starting at 50% participation. Check out the full details in the Service Unit Cookie Manager Guidebook. A few things to note about Service Unit Proceeds:

Service units must have completed their 2022-2023 SU Finance Report to qualify
At least one Service Unit cookie volunteer must complete all cookie training by February 1
Participation is based on the number of Girl Scouts in the SU as of January 31. Don’t worry, we’ll send you an email with your membership numbers in early February.

Assisting Troops that Missed the Initial Cookie Order

Troops that missed the initial cookie order may be looking to you for guidance on how to obtain cookies for their Girl Scouts. Troops will be able to pick up cookie inventory at a Council Cookie Cupboard starting on Cookie Go Day (February 16-how can we forget?)

For troops that use a Regional or Regional Express Cupboard, they should watch for information on their cupboard’s location/contact/hours of operation coming to the Smart Cookies dashboard before Cookie Go Day. Inform your troops on how to use a Regional Cupboard and the importance of placing a planned order for extra cookie needs each week.

Even if troops missed the initial cookie order, their Girl Scouts can still participate in online sales in Digital Cookie for both shipped cookie purchases and online orders for Girl Scout Cookie Delivery when pre-sales begin on February 8.

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