Licensing Deals at the NCS

Every three years, as a part of its national governance cycle, Girl Scouting hosts the National Council Session (NCS) to discuss and vote on proposals aimed at the betterment of the organization. For 2026, there will be three proposals on the agenda. Interestingly enough, two of them cover topics that get the membership in a lather when you mess with them: membership dues and cookies. I’ve written about the one involving membership dues already. Time for me to tackle the other one.

Specifically, this proposal is about GSUSA’s licensing of its cookie flavors. The Girl Scouts of Kansas Heartland council sponsored a proposal (with quite a long title) called Preservation of Girl Scout Leadership Experience Relating to the Entrepreneurship Program. You can read the entire proposal here on GSG. To get to the point, Kansas Heartland wants to suspend any third-party food products using the likeness or branding of Girl Scout cookies during the entirety of fall product and cookie seasons for all councils. In other words, they don’t want Walmart placing Thin Mint PopTarts on the shelves while girls are selling fall product or cookies anywhere in the country. Continue reading