Marco

First of all, I want to thank you all for your input. Your opinions and discussions have helped me through this stressful incident. Great discussions and insight. To clarify, the old scoutmaster is working with the new scoutmaster and the chair. They were the ones advising me to write the check without receipts to defer costs involved with attaining eagle. The money is not the issue because we have a pretty strong fundraiser. I know some of you asked for more details, I am leaving some things vague intentionally, because I do not want to publicly shame anyone involved. In the end I said "No receipt, no check. If you don't like it, 'fire' me." This after explaining the tax implications, the bad precedent it would set, the accounting problems, etc. It made a few people angry (and I think some still think I am being unreasonable) but in the end they agreed to submit receipts. And we are doing the right thing! Thanks so much for your time! I was really starting to doubt myself until reading your input.

If you are treasurer or leader and can throw in your advice or point to policy that answers my dilemma please do so. I have been treasurer of my son's small troop for about a year. We are fairly new to scouting. I have been told by leadership to write a check to a parent to defer costs of his eagle advancement. My understanding is we are only to reimburse such costs after receiving proof of purchase and to do otherwise counts as income. When I ask about this, I am told to just pay her because that is what has been done in the past. There is no policy that explains this. I stated 'You want someone in a leadership position to pay money about something without an understanding. I am not going to do that.' This has caused some turmoil. I am about to step down, but wondering if there are any scout, treasurer, ethical policies or opinions out there that might be helpful. I have not found "FISCAL POLICIES AND PROCEDURES FOR BSA UNITS" to be helpful. Thanks for your time.