(Cash collections) The Girl Scouts Councils around the United States rely principally on annual cookie sales for the income to support their activities. In 1993, the San Francisco Council found itself with record levels of bounced checks from cookie customers. Bad checks for 1993 amounted to $35,000, as compared to only $21,000 for 1992. Other California Councils experienced similar increases in rubber checks.

Communication Activities

[SOURCE: Dan Reed, “Cookie Buyers Stiff Girl Scouts,” The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune (April 18, 1993), p. A-15. © The Times-Picayune Publishing Corporation.]

a. How could the Girl Scouts Councils protect themselves against the possi¬ bility of receiving bad checks?

b. The Girl Scouts organization seemed to be surprised by the level of bad checks received in 1993. How could the Councils improve their planning process to predict the amount of bad checks that will be received in a given year?LO1