CChairMom

One of our den leaders, in the pack for 2 years, is insisting that his son earn popcorn prizes for booth sales because that's how his old pack did it.  Our pack has never worked this way.  Booth sales, which are run by the pack as a whole (pack leaders set up, bring inventory, arrange location), have always been used to calculate each participating Scout's contribution, so that they can earn the ability to "pie a leader".  They don't get individual sales credit for booth sales, and they don't earn prizes.  He apparently missed this info last year and this year, and is being really difficult about it. When we pointed out the difference in effort involved in door-to-door sales vs. booth sales, he said he didn't care.

How does your pack handle booth sales?  Do you keep a sales sheet, gather customers' addresses and orders, and track them as individual sales for each scout?  How does that work, if there are multiple scouts at the booth?  Can you submit for prizes for booth sales?

If you, like us, track as an overall sales number and reward each scout based on the hours they contributed, what do they earn?  We just give fun stuff that the kids enjoy (being able to smush a whipped cream pie into a leader's face) but I've heard that other packs give each scout a percentage of sales to be used for summer camp, etc.  

Thanks for any ideas you can offer!

We're also in New England so have to pay that separate Adventure Card fee.  Frustrating. This year, we lowered our dues from $99 to $65 because the three other packs in town are charging around $70.  We're a small pack and needed more scouts and felt that reducing the fees would help.  We're fortunate to have good popcorn sales so we're able to swing it even though the dues are less than our actual Council costs (and don't cover books, awards, etc.)

It concerns me that pack parents are refusing to sell popcorn.  Popcorn sales are much more than a fundraiser. They help teach the Scouts practical skills, teamwork, supporting others (since, in our pack, the funds raised aren't tracked to individual Scouts, they go into the general fund), how to talk to adults at booth sales and door-to-door sales, and more.  And, yes, the popcorn is clearly not a good value ($20 for something that costs $2 at the grocery store) but it's not about the popcorn or the value, it's about fundraising for a non-profit and supporting a good program for kids. At our booth sales, half the people coming to the table just hand us donations.  They're not interested in the popcorn but like to support scouts.

Maybe it's time to revisit popcorn sales and help pack parents understand the goals of the program.  If they're not willing to sell, dues should be higher.  One of the packs in town didn't do popcorn sales and they handled it by charging much higher dues. (I believe they have since folded though.)