OFFICIAL Fail

It will be a few days until I completely recover from our service unit’s City Slickers camp.  I plan on reviewing it at some point in the near future and sharing the various projects, field trips, and patches/badges we earned.  In the meantime, here’s something that happened right before the camp:

The other day I visited the GSUSA OFFICIAL Online Store to purchase a copy of Outdoor Education in Girl Scouting (excellent book BTW – I highly recommend it).  As always, I look around to see if there’s anything else I can add to the cart since shipping can be steep.  Plus you can never have enough Girl Scout items – contrary to what my husband thinks. 

I then remembered that there’s a new OFFICIAL white polo out that is supposedly part of the non-business adult uniform.  I don’t know this for sure, and there’s no go-to source that I know of that explains all of these OFFICIAL things, so don’t quote me on this.  For what it’s worth, it’s probably best for everyone if you just don’t quote me on anything.

Anyway, I spotted a new product!  The OFFICIAL Adult Pin Lanyard!  According to the description, it is “designed exclusively for Girl Scout Adults to proudly display their pins in style. Green ribbon lanyard with attached tan leatherette Girl Scout Profiles embossed emblem.”  I thought this was a great idea!   It’s no OFFICIAL scarf, but what is? According to the only adult insignia placement guide I could find, you’re only supposed to display the last pin that you earned underneath the ID pin (that no one owns except for me ’cause I’m a GS nerd).   Well forget that!  Ain’t no way I’m not showing off my Gold Award!  I’m wearing all those other ones too!  So what ends up happening is that volunteers wear every single pin and award they’ve ever earned and look like Five-Star Generals because of all of the pins displayed across their chests.

The new OFFICIAL Pin Lanyard solves this problem by putting all of these pins on the lanyard, and then instead of a Five-Star General, you can look like an Olympic Gold Medalist!  But seriously, I think it’s a great idea.  A little cheesy?  Yeah, but so are some other GS things.  It’s part of the territory in my opinion.  But wait, what’s the price?  Fifteen dollars?  Whaaa?

But out of curiosity and the fact that I wasn’t adding on any additional shipping costs, I ordered one.  I figured I could return it inexpensively if I changed my mind.

It arrived!  I opened the package with great anticipation!

I don’t even know what to say.  I will spare you the shocking details.  I didn’t take a picture of it, because I immediately put it back in the envelope to return it.   I had flashbacks of when I was a little kid and ordered one of those products advertised in comic books that supposedly gave you superpowers.  Then when you get it, it’s just a crackerjack prize.  Needless to say, it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be at all.  Just save your money and buy 100 green lanyards off of Amazon for a little over half the price and give them out at your service unit leader meeting as a thank you gift.

I posted about the OFFICIAL Lanyard in the GS Gab and our UNOFFICIAL Council Leaders Facebook groups.  Here’s how the conversation went in our Leaders group:

When it was time to return the OFFICIAL Lanyard, the directions state that you should include the packing list along with the return slip.  You are provided four different codes to explain why you are returning the item.  None of them sufficed, so I made up my own:

Hopefully I get my refund.

Addendum 8/2/16:  I got my refund.

If I don’t post any updates for a while, then you know the Girl Scout Mafia got to me.  Again.  While wearing their OFFICIAL scarves, of course.  I wonder if they’ve upgraded to the new vintage design?  I hope they don’t mess up the UNOFFICIAL Lanyard I make with one of the 100 green lanyards I’m getting off Amazon.

In other news, OMG THERE’S BEEN A RUN ON OFFICIAL SCARVES!!!  Could I have started a craze?  GET YOURS NOW FROM YOUR LOCAL COUNCIL STORE BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!!