From: Roman J. Smith (Roman.J.Smith.13@ND.EDU)
Date: Thu May 18 2000 - 06:32:59 CDT
Anita H. wrote:
>Perhaps the "paid dues = active" rule was meant to go along with the
>BSA-preferred style of paying dues WEEKLY. It's hard to pay your dues
>every week and not show up!
This is bit of a "foreign" concept in our troop. How many troops really
charge the scouts dues. Why do you do it?
When I was a DL in cubs we charged 50 cents per week. That income seemed
really close to the actually out-of-pocket expenses that I would spend each
month for supplies. I think that in any month, I never varied beyond $2
plus or minus.
But our troop has two fund raisers each year which the scouts are expected
to participate in. We charge $10 for each campout. Some campouts we make
a profit on, we loss some money on a few, but seem to nearly break even on
most. With those fees and the fund raisers we seem to increase our surplus
by a small amount each year. We have been able for years to even pay for
each scouts's subscription to Boy's Life from the income.
I hear that some troops get the sponsor to pay some or all of the recharter
fees. We have never had any problem paying those fees from the troop
account.
So why do they need the scouts to pay dues? If it is just to "teach
responsibility" that seems out of line with units being thrifty. We have
no real expenses that are tied to our troop meetings per se, except for
maybe some twine occasionally. I it costs nothing to run a meeting, I see
no need to charge the scouts for coming.
What am I missing here?
YiS
-----------------------------------
Roman J. Smith, SM Troop 505 / CM, Ship 505
roman.j.smith.13@nd.edu http://www.nd.edu/~rsmith1/RJSBSA.htm
-I used to be an Owl
