Re: Contingency fee

I don't know how you all set up your budget. In the past when I have built
budgets we allowed an extra 20% for a number of items. I think we excluded
food, but that may have been on a case by case basis. I also believe that
certain events (basic training perhaps) were exempted from the policy. I
think the bottom line issue is how much does it cost to run your council and
where is the money coming from. While one might call the 20% profit on an
event by event basis, at least when we built the budget, we did not include
a prorata share of liability insurance, staff time, and the like. Call it
overhead if you want rather than contingency, but for many events the cost
of materials and food are not the real cost. I am not sure how big or
extensive an event you are running. It seems to me that the facility and
energy fees you quote are substantial, but again, the $$ to keep the camp up
has to come from somewhere. If adequate $$ to appropriately staff and pay
for council overhead are coming from fundraising and sustaining enrollment,
perhaps this is a policy that should be revisited. Ultimately, I would think
that this is a volunteer controlled decision and the Executive Board or the
President could do something about it. Having been fed the line by a DE that
we have to build this in and given no good explanation, I understand that
some resentment can develop. It was only later when I was faced with the
actual council budget and an operating shortfall that I understood the
issues. There has to be a balance between paying for the actual cost of an
event and pricing it out of the reach of scouts and scouters. If the true
cost of events becomes too high, then sponsorship might be necessary.

Of course, if there is a perception in your council that the Administrative
volunteers aren't real volunteers, and that money spent on professionals,
offices and council staff are wasted, I am not sure that a rational approach
will do anything about it.

|-----Original Message-----
|From: Clakley@aol.com [mailto:Clakley@aol.com]
|Sent: Saturday, May 01, 1999 11:52 PM
|To: SCOUTS-L@LISTSERVE.TCU.EDU
|Subject: Contingency on Scouting Events
|
|
|I recently posted a note concerning whether other councils
|"required" a 20%
|contingency as does the East Texas Area Council. Volunteer
|scouters here are
|having a terrible time accepting this amount.
snip

We already pay $300 for the use of the camp,
|plus $400 for
|an electricity charge. Are any other councils using "deceptive"
|practices to
|make more money off of events than just the contingency funds?
|

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