Re: activitiy fees

John M. Teske wrote:
>
> Our Council has a 17.5% activity fee that is tacked on to all activities for
> our scouts. The 17.5% is for intangibles and is added on after all the
> materials are paid for which is everything!
>
SNIP
>
> How does this work elsewhere?
>
Works for me.

When my district ran their latest Scouter Training course I stopped
went to Council, made 130 copies of a welcome letter to Scoutmasters and
assistant Scoutmasters on their copy machine, folded it on their folder,
stuffed them into envelopes that they paid for, and used their postage
meter to place a first class stamp equivalent on the envelopes. Council
people ran mailing labels from the database, offered me a place to work,
ran the envelopes through the postage meeter, and placed the tray of
mail where the postperson would pick it up the next day. Using the
inductry standard cost of $10 per letter sent, they GAVE me $ 1,250,
that day. Using a more realistic standard, the figure was more near
$125, for postage, copy costs, paper, and computer use. There were days
when computer time was billed by the minute, but with the advent of
personal computers this seems to have gone by the board.

The course may have taken in $400, but we provided snacks and a meal
the first day, bought training materials, and if council only charged us
$ 70 for their office support we came away very cheaply.

A well run University of Scouting or Commissioner's College costing
around $ 10 per person uses up far more in administrative expenses than
the $ 1.75 that will be realized from this activity fee, especially if
council buildings or property are used for the course.
Councils exist, in part, to give us the economy of size or numbers that
a central agency can provide. If it only costs us 17.5%, we are
probably well ahead of the costs of providing this support ourselves.
If, however, volunteers did all the writing, copying, colating, mailing,
and other support work, using their own resources, or the resources were
donated by a willing or unknowing company for which one of us worked,
then perhaps there is reason to address and possibly adjust this fee
down a bit.

Dave

To reply, remove the word, "nospam" from my return address.
*************************************************************************
* Dave Loomis *
*
* 164 Tuttle Lane * (603) 431 5342
*
* Greenland, NH 03840 * dloomis@nh.ultranet.com
*
*************************************************************************
* Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam
*
* possit materiari? *
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