Cookie Program Extended to March 17

In support of all of our troops affected by the recent winter weather, we will be extending the Girl Scout Cookie Program by one week. GSMH Service Center cupboards will be open until Friday, March 15 for troops that are in need of cookies for directs sales and booths. Some community cupboards may need to close prior to March 17, so please check their availability prior to pick up.

All final paperwork is due to your Service Unit Product Program Manager by March 20. Also, recognition orders are due in SNAP by March 20--this means that all cookies owned by the troop will need to be allocated to girls by this date as well. For troops participating in the ACH pilot program, the GSMH Finance department will ACH the final remaining balance due to the council from the troop account on March 22. We have created a revised deadline sheet and posted it at  girlscoutsmoheartland.org/cookie-extension for your convenience.

Additionally, if you have unsold cookies after March 17, you may continue to sell those until April 14. Please note: selling during this time period does not change any of the paperwork or finance deadlines (girlscoutsmoheartland.org/cookie-extension). The time between March 18 and April 14 has been provided for those troops who may not have been able to sell all of their cookies prior to March 17 and want to recoup their troop proceeds.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact your Product Program Specialist. 

Sign Up for the Believe in Girls 5K!    

You don't have to be a great runner to participate in the Believe in Girls 5K! Register online at girlscoutsmoheartland.org/5k/ and just do your best. All proceeds benefit Girl Scouts of the Missouri Heartland. The event takes place at 8:00 a.m. Saturday, April 6 in Springfield. The flat route starts at Missouri State University Campus, Lot 24 (1034 East Grand). Prizes will be awarded for winners in female and male youth, adult, and master categories. The course is USATF certified. 

Skip the Paperwork! Register Online Beginning Soon!

2013 Girls Scouts of the USA Centennial Silver Dollar

On Sale Now

Girl Scouts of the USA announces that the long-awaited 2013 Girl Scouts of the USA Centennial Silver Dollar went on sale to the public February 28 at noon (EST).

The coin is available at $55.95 for uncirculated and $59.95 for proof quality. Orders placed prior to 5 p.m. March 29 will receive a special introductory pricing of $50.95 for uncirculated and $54.95 for proof quality.

The commemorative coin honoring 100 years of Girl Scouting was designed and produced by the United States Mint as one of two commemorative coin programs this year. It will be available through the United States Mint at 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468) and on its website. It will feature three Girl Scouts on the obverse (heads) side and the iconic organization's trefoil logo on the reverse (tails) side.

Printing the Volunteer Connections e-Newsletter

We hope you enjoy the Volunteer Connections and get a wealth of information and ideas from this regular publication. This newsletter is designed to be viewed on the computer screen with the goal of being "green" and using our resources wisely. However, we recognize that there are occasions in which you may need to print the newsletter. The emailing service we use to send our many newsletter recipients their copy, unfortunately, does not have a "printer friendly" option. So, here are some tips for doing so while saving as much ink and paper as possible.

Printing the Volunteer Connections as an original email can sometimes cause a lot of extra, unneeded text to be printed. Instead of printing the newsletter right from your email program, click the link at the top of the message body that says: "Having trouble viewing this email? Click here." This will open the newsletter into your web browser, which will eliminate printing the email "header" information, and often reformat the images to look nicer. This alone should improve the appearance of the printed newsletter and save on paper.

From here, the options for what you can do to make the printing more efficient are as many and as restrictive as there are types of printers. Different printers have different settings--check your printer settings or preferences for some of these options:

• Print double-sides pages
• Do not insert blank pages
• Use less/conserve ink; and, use black ink only
• Print text only--no images
• Turn off header/footer information

Don't forget that at the bottom of each Volunteer Connections there is a "forward this email" link which allows you to easily send the newsletter to other people, without sending additional, cluttered email header information to each person. This may be another option you can use to share the newsletter while also conserving resources.