Long time lurker, finally coming out of hiding because as I sit here and plan our annual planning meeting that will take place tomorrow, I'm stumped over how to make these rising registration costs work. When fees were raised after we had already collected registration two years ago, we ate those costs. We still had something of a rainy day fund so this past year, we used that fund to pay registration for all of our cubs who wanted to continue with whatever COVID programming we could provide. We are not broke-broke but we no longer have a high reserve that we can fall back on as we have in the past. This makes me feel more conservative with our approach to registration, but our pack leadership doesn't regret that decision at all. Our numbers stayed very steady and we were able to provide solid programming to our scouts!
We have always charged our scouts pretty much exactly what we have to turn around and give right back to National/council and then fundraised for our programming and unit expenses. We have had a $100 minimum fundraising goal for each scout with the option to buy out (just pay the $100) if your family doesn't want to fundraise. We also do not charge our volunteers to volunteer. Our pack covers that cost, which is also rising.
Not sure if this link will work, but here is a form we've used in the past to figure out where our money is going and how much to charge. The $125 cost in the registration line is just me playing with numbers. It's not quite enough to cover costs. It will, however, give you an idea of what we include in registration cost. Please let me know if you see things that we could move around or numbers that don't look quite right. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ecIF5EpSxeUSm_yLyAYq0bbrRIe_qDEqHcwDoUV2ZHA/edit?usp=sharing
That is just some background to lead to my question: with all prices going up, how much are your cub packs charging per scout? The last time we charged registration (2019), we charged $70 for all new and returning scouts. If my math is correct, we will need to at least double that price to make ends meet. It seems like such a drastic change that I can only see people that were on the fence dropping and new families seeing it as too much. I have been leading this cub pack for many years and this is the first time I've really felt concerned for its future.
Cub Registration Cost Thoughts/Advice?
in Open Discussion - Program
Posted
Long time lurker, finally coming out of hiding because as I sit here and plan our annual planning meeting that will take place tomorrow, I'm stumped over how to make these rising registration costs work. When fees were raised after we had already collected registration two years ago, we ate those costs. We still had something of a rainy day fund so this past year, we used that fund to pay registration for all of our cubs who wanted to continue with whatever COVID programming we could provide. We are not broke-broke but we no longer have a high reserve that we can fall back on as we have in the past. This makes me feel more conservative with our approach to registration, but our pack leadership doesn't regret that decision at all. Our numbers stayed very steady and we were able to provide solid programming to our scouts!
We have always charged our scouts pretty much exactly what we have to turn around and give right back to National/council and then fundraised for our programming and unit expenses. We have had a $100 minimum fundraising goal for each scout with the option to buy out (just pay the $100) if your family doesn't want to fundraise. We also do not charge our volunteers to volunteer. Our pack covers that cost, which is also rising.
Not sure if this link will work, but here is a form we've used in the past to figure out where our money is going and how much to charge. The $125 cost in the registration line is just me playing with numbers. It's not quite enough to cover costs. It will, however, give you an idea of what we include in registration cost. Please let me know if you see things that we could move around or numbers that don't look quite right. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ecIF5EpSxeUSm_yLyAYq0bbrRIe_qDEqHcwDoUV2ZHA/edit?usp=sharing
That is just some background to lead to my question: with all prices going up, how much are your cub packs charging per scout? The last time we charged registration (2019), we charged $70 for all new and returning scouts. If my math is correct, we will need to at least double that price to make ends meet. It seems like such a drastic change that I can only see people that were on the fence dropping and new families seeing it as too much. I have been leading this cub pack for many years and this is the first time I've really felt concerned for its future.