None of These are Like the Other
Experiences as a Leader 5 Comments 
badges we don't need no stinkin badges, gsusa
When I first started as a leader back in the fall of 2010, the new program centered around Journeys and an entirely new set of badges had just rolled out. Last year when I was cleaning out my badge inventory, I noticed that badges cost $1.50 my first few years when I checked the price tag. The cost creeped up to $2.00 and then to $2.50 along the way. A few years later, there were some complaints about the badges being made in China, so GSUSA brought production back to the United States. The cost rose to $3 per badge, and there was a distinguishable difference between the Chinese and USA badges. Some of the embroidered designs looked distorted. The merrow edging (the embroidered border) on the Chinese badges was thicker and bled all the way to the edge of the badge. The USA badges have a small border of fabric at the edging.
Recently, a friend of mine sent me a picture of three badges including the new Cadette STEM Career Exploration Badge that her daughter recently received at an event. The first one is the newest STEM badge, the second one is from a USA vendor, and the third is a China-made badge.
Um, there’s kind of a big issue here – no pun intended. I can let the difference in the merrow edging slide, but the size difference is not acceptable. My friend didn’t purchase it from our local council store otherwise I’m sure she’d take it back.
I posted this picture in the GS History and Archive Community Facebook group and asked if issues with quality control have always been the case through the years, and some answered yes. So I can’t get my feathers TOO ruffled, although it frankly is disappointing that the Made in the USA badges are of less quality and I’m assuming more expensive if that was the reason they went up in cost 50 cents when the switchover happened. It’s also disappointing that badges doubled in price in a little over 5 years.
Sigh. Well, if anybody in GSUSA Quality Control happens to read this, you may want to do some follow-up to shore this up. My OCD will go haywire if the badges are different sizes when I put them on my daughters’ vests.
Addendum: Speaking of OCD, right after I published this post, I noticed that I wrote “None are” instead of “None is” in the title. I looked up the correct usage, and while “none is” is preferred, there are cases where you can use “none are.” But I am too lazy to keep reading to find out what those cases are at this point, so Mrs. Neal, my 9th grade English teacher, can just take 10 points off this blog post.
Quality Control in the same sentence of GSUSA. Ten points off just for that my dear. Reality baby, reality!
Yeah, I know….
I tried to sew on three cadette badges across a sash…(not my kid’s, I know better than to use the sash)…they don’t fit three across. How ridiculous is it that they don’t even contemplate how their own stuff works together!
For years, the lack of quality control has been evident. The images showing “how” awards and such are to be placed on a uniform that appear in the guides, online, etc. have no basis in reality as to the actual sizes of the sash/vest and the badges/journeys. It’s easy to make something look nice and “fit” on an image but not so much in real life. My daughter put her cadette badges on the back of the sash in a rather unconventional manner so they would all fit. The ambassador and senior badges don’t really fit three wide either (the regular sized ones, not the oversized ones shown in the image above).
Made in America needs to upgrade! GS Adventurers from GSVSC purchased bandanas from England to use for International travel. The USA bandanas cost more and are not similar to other WAGGGS countries.