NO
No girl is required to sell cookies. However cookies are our only approved money earning activity (you can add a few more money earners if the girls have a goal that merits funding, and only after they sell cookies)
If a girl does not sell cookies her activities and her troop are supposed to be self funded. In reality the girls who sell cookies pay for activities for those who don’t
In our Council however a girl cannot earn a Gold Award unless she participates in the cookie sales since it benefits local troops and her Council. I fully support this.
So in your area the Gold Award has become a vomitous badge of putrification, signifying that the recipient is utterly lacking in character or empathy.
Sad really...