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And Popcorn starts


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Our popcorn season started today. Everyone gets all stressed and competitive about it. It amazes me see how people spend the money from popcorn. I don't get why some focus on buying the boys toys and other crap as incentives. I guess I see having the money the boys earn go towards scouting adventures like overnighters and camps.

 

What do you spend your money on?

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Our Cub scout troop did hand out toy and such. I routinelytold my son do you part but dont do it just so you can get a nerf rifle.

As we where crossing over I told the PL that I think the incentive should be functional Items that would be useful as boy scouts. Compasses, fire starters and the like. I hope she took my advice.

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In our Council we have the choice of either using the incentive prizes the company provides or an additional 3% commission. One year, when I was Cubmaster, we took the 3% and tried to do our own prizes thinking we could increase the quality a bit. It didn't work out, it's hard to buy those kind of things for anything like that cheap unless you're buying in huge bulk quantities. The Cubs actually like getting the flashlights and knives that constitute the first few levels of sales and are what most boys end up with, so we went back to prizes. In the Troop we don't push popcorn, but we allow the scouts to sell if they wish, and they get the full commission put into their individual scout account, none of them are interested in the prizes.

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Our Cub scout troop did hand out toy and such. I routinelytold my son do you part but dont do it just so you can get a nerf rifle.

As we where crossing over I told the PL that I think the incentive should be functional Items that would be useful as boy scouts. Compasses, fire starters and the like. I hope she took my advice.

PL=she ????
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Our Cub scout troop did hand out toy and such. I routinelytold my son do you part but dont do it just so you can get a nerf rifle.

As we where crossing over I told the PL that I think the incentive should be functional Items that would be useful as boy scouts. Compasses, fire starters and the like. I hope she took my advice.

Pack Leader, methinks....Took me a minute..
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The basic prizes this year in our council are all from the scout shop, so they all do have some relationship to scouting and most are outdoor-oriented. The Trails End rep at training said that they have left the prize business entirely as it wasn't a strength for them so National is in charge of prize fulfillment, something like that. The special prizes are all experiences, tickets to sports games and things like that, which I also like over more trinkets. The hokiest prize is a plastic crossbow as a bonus prize.

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The basic prizes this year in our council are all from the scout shop, so they all do have some relationship to scouting and most are outdoor-oriented. The Trails End rep at training said that they have left the prize business entirely as it wasn't a strength for them so National is in charge of prize fulfillment, something like that. The special prizes are all experiences, tickets to sports games and things like that, which I also like over more trinkets. The hokiest prize is a plastic crossbow as a bonus prize.
Actually, if the prize was a gift certificate to the Scout Shop or Scoutstuff.com; I think that would be excellent as there is a wide variety of things for almost every scouter. What Boy Scout couldn't use at least Merit Badge book and I know Cub Scouts need new things every year for uniform, handbook, etc.
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We debated commission (extra 7% for us) or prizes, and went with prizes. We don't do much with ISA for our cubs, it ends up being hokey, we mostly use it to fund the "big tickets" we can't fund otherwise, usually camping gear. Going to push the "acceptable" prizes to be the outdoors/scout stuff. Things like the Compass clip on, the Compass/Whistle/Flashlight, the Pocket Knives, are all great Scout Level gear. You have to hit the $1000 level for the prizes to all turn absurd in our Council.

 

I expect the kids to sell at least one thing to get the patch, hopefully a few more to get something to bring on hikes/campouts. I'm excited for the program, hoping to get a Scout Trailer for our Pack if we hit our sales goal, which we'll hit if the 4 families that rocked camp cards push popcorn a bit, and everyone else sells $10-$50 worth.

 

Having the prizes lets us recognize the boys that are working hard, trying to do it ourselves to control it a bit seems like a lot of extra work for no reason.

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Our Cub scout troop did hand out toy and such. I routinelytold my son do you part but dont do it just so you can get a nerf rifle.

As we where crossing over I told the PL that I think the incentive should be functional Items that would be useful as boy scouts. Compasses, fire starters and the like. I hope she took my advice.

Yep Pack Leader
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Our council switched to Walmart or Amazon gift cards last year though there were a couple prizes that could be earned at higher levels in addition to the GC. I much prefer that to the old way (though you could also get cards back then, too) though I suspect some Scouts/parents may prefer those prizes.

 

My son has always been one of the top sellers in the unit ($1,500+ avg sales) so he's able to fund his entire year of Scouting including uniform pieces with the earnings.

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The basic prizes this year in our council are all from the scout shop, so they all do have some relationship to scouting and most are outdoor-oriented. The Trails End rep at training said that they have left the prize business entirely as it wasn't a strength for them so National is in charge of prize fulfillment, something like that. The special prizes are all experiences, tickets to sports games and things like that, which I also like over more trinkets. The hokiest prize is a plastic crossbow as a bonus prize.
BSA National has nothing at all to do with popcorn sales. Those are ENTIRELY council organized, and run. Some councils do not sell popcorn at all.
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Our Pack spends the money we make on popcorn to fund our Pack program for the year. We do not charge any Pack dues at all.

 

We include the council incentives in our popcorn sale. The boys love them, so why not? We also give the top 10 sellers the opportunity to toss a "cream pie" (foam plate filled with whipped topping) at the leader of their choice. This is a highly anticipated part of our December Pack meeting!

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