GSWW Bakery Selected!

The Bakery Selection Task Group was convened in January to evaluate the two GSUSA-licensed cookie bakeries (ABC and Little Brownie), and to make a recommendation about which one would best serve the needs of Girl Scouts of Western Washington.

The 19-member task group was comprised of seven volunteers and girls from Southwest Washington, six volunteers and girls from Northwest Washington and six staff members from the DuPont and Seattle offices. Jennifer Do represented the GSWW board on the task group. The volunteers have experience as troop leaders, Girl Scout parents, service unit managers, and service unit cookie managers. The five teenage Girl Scout members all have impressive cookie selling histories.

The task group developed criteria upon which the bakeries would be evaluated. This criteria included:

• Price
  Payment terms and available discounts, product and incentive delivery timeline and procedures, and product return policy.
• Technology systems and support
  Online cookie management and online training.
• Client services and support
  Warehousing and delivery services, website resources for troops/girls, market research and data analysis, volunteer recognition, council fundraising support, and staff consultation and support.
• Program design
  How the bakery ensures elements of program meet the needs and motivate the interest of the audiences served, especially girls.
• Product safety and quality assurance
  Safety procedures at the factory and during transportation/storage, experience managing recalls, protocols for handling complaints.
• Product development
  Process for developing new products and identifying emerging issues in product development.
• Health and nutrition
  Current plans to address health and nutrition concerns and process for developing long-range plans.

Each bakery provided written information about each item and followed up with presentations to the task group on April 26 in Seattle. 

A Consensus Decision

After thoroughly analyzing the materials provided by the bakeries, the task group members agreed that both companies were excellent and offered competitive proposals in nearly all of the criteria above.

The task group concluded that while ABC’s proposal was significantly more expensive, the bakery included a price match guarantee that covered all payment terms of the contract, making the price exactly the same as Little Brownie’s and therefore not a distinguishing factor.

Recognizing that task group members might evaluate cookie taste based on what each individual was familiar with, an independent, blind taste test was conducted by the culinary division of the Art Institute of Seattle. The results were inconclusive since the bakeries earned very similar scores - everyone loves Girl Scout Cookies!

Ultimately, the task group identified program design and warehousing/delivery systems as the key distinguishing characteristics between the two proposals. The group came to a consensus and decided that Little Brownie will best serve the needs of Girl Scouts of Western Washington.

The Task Group agreed that the most important reasons for the decision included:

1. Program quality, design, and connection to the Girl Scout program
   
   • a fun learning goal, and
   • a service goal.

The overarching goal of Girl Scouts and the Cookie Program is to benefit girls. Little Brownie’s program quality, design, and connection to the overall Girl Scout program will do the best job of teaching girls valuable life skills that will allow them to become the leaders of tomorrow.

Little Brownie's theme for 2009 is "Imagine if…". The theme centers around environmental sustainability and encourages girls to lead change within their communities and set two goals:

The task group is excited about the potential for elements of this theme to be incorporated throughout many aspects of the GSWW program.

Age-specific program kits have been designed for every grade level, Daisy through Ambassador. These kits were created by award-winning youth educators and communication experts with input from focus group discussions with hundreds of girls nationwide (including in Western Washington) as well as Girl Scout volunteers to ensure the activities are easy and fun to execute with free or inexpensive materials readily at hand.

Little Brownie has materials – including a special order card - designed just for Daisies, who will be able to sell cookies for the first time in 2009. Recognizing that older girls often struggle to sell as many cookies as younger girls do, Little Brownie’s Cookie Entrepreneur program offers a complete business literacy program just for teens. Little Brownie supplies a range of online e-Entrepreneur tools to assist these experienced Girl Scouts in meeting bigger goals.

2. Most reliable cookie availability

With its West Coast warehouse based in Seattle, Little Brownie can maintain a significantly larger quantity and variety of cookies locally and thus provide the most reliable cookie availability.

Making a final recommendation was not easy, as both bakeries have a lot to offer, but the task group members were able to put aside their personal preferences and evaluate the bakeries based on what will be best for girls throughout Western Washington. One task group member wanted to note for the record her continued preference for ABC but that she could live with the sentiments of the task group to select Little Brownie as the baker.

Last night, the GSWW Board of Directors approved the Bakery Selection Task Group’s recommendation. The Task Group is confident that Little Brownie will provide exceptional service and make the transition to a unified GSWW Cookie Program as seamless as possible. The task group and Little Brownie recognize that there will need to be a concerted effort to highlight the reasons why Little Brownie was chosen, what they can offer GSWW, and the exciting changes in store for Girl Scouts of Western Washington. Please stay tuned for more information from GSWW and Little Brownie over the next several months!

Finally, HUGE thanks to the girls and volunteers on the Bakery Selection Task Group for their hard work and true dedication to Girl Scouts:

• Deb DeWitt – Tacoma
• Ashley Dodson – Bothell
• Michelle Edwards – Bonney Lake
• Debbie Foster – Port Orchard
• Paxten Foster – Port Orchard
• Lisa Gumke – Maple Valley
• Dorinda Jenkins – Puyallup
• Nancy McGrath – Everett
• Mary Miller – Tacoma
• Whitney Raffle – Bonney Lake
• Libby Smith – Gig Harbor
• Elisabeth Zemke – Tacoma
• Kim Zeth – Port Orchard