COOKIE TIME: SCOUTS PREPARE TO POUND PAVEMENT AGAIN

Less than 24 hours before they could officially begin making sales calls, members of Girl Scout Troop 268 were setting goals and preparing to entice relatives and friends with a slick direct mail campaign to ask a simple question: Got Cookies?

"It's a presale letter they'll send to family members and friends to let them know Girl Scout cookie time is here and we're going to be trying to sell them lots of cookies," said Troop 268 leader Vicki Zickfield.

Girl Scouts will take cookie orders today. The cookies cost $3 a box, and Scouts will take orders until Jan. 28.

Cookie orders will be delivered and booth sales will be held March 1 through March 16.

Members are honor-bound not to sell before 3 p.m.

A portion of each box sold goes to the troops, and members decide how to spend it. Zickfield's troop plans to add its proceeds to the troop's bank account, which will be allowed to build for the next five years. When the members -- third-graders at Trinity Lutheran School -- complete the eighth grade, the savings will go for a group trip to Disney World.

The annual cookie sale is an important fund raiser for the local Otahki Council, which serves 3,895 girls and 998 adults in 11 counties in Missouri and Illinois. Cookie sales revenue helps fund program and camp costs.

Last year's top cookie seller, Ashley Stevens, sold 1,008 boxes, but members this year will try to sell 95 boxes. Jerica Moore, 10, doubts she can sell as many as Stevens, but she is aiming a little higher than the 95-box goal.

"I think it's reasonable," said Moore, who hopes to sell 120 boxes of cookies.

"There are no new cookie varieties this year, but Otahki Council communications director Laura Hinkebein anticipates a good year for Animal Treasures, a variety that debuted last year. Other cookie varieties are Thin Mints, Shortbread, Caramel deLites, Peanut Butter Sandwich, Lemon Pastry Cremes (reduced fat), Peanut Butter Patties, and Upside-Downs Frosted Oatmeal.

Hinkebein said the cookie sale is a good skill builder for members, who learn skills in handling money, planning projects, budgeting funds and networking,