dasmith4

Just to clarify, the "he" that I mention in the previous post is not the scout. It is the parent who happens to be on the Pack Committee... I just didn't want anyone to think that I was saying the scout was in charge of ordering the track or being difficult because he is not...

Thanks for the comments. I should say that any changes implemented would not happen until next year. We are already in the middle of popcorn sales and we will not make any changes to how we do it for this year... I am interested in the logistics of the process. I just have concerns about implementing the individual accounts in regards to those boys who don't have parents that are heavily involved. Sure, the individual accounts would be of more benefit to the few boys that go really above and beyond on popcorn sales. However, what about the ones whose parents don't want to push popcorn at work and don't want to give $130 per year in scout dues..? Do they just fall by the wayside because if they don't sell, we can't afford to even pay for the awards that they earned...(unless their parents are paying an exorbitant amount in dues...) The Cub Scout Pack is about the boys. That is why I feel like the funds earned by the pack should be spread across the pack. At church, if I give X amount of money which happens to be X amount more than another member and I volunteer my time for church activities and this other member doesn't, I don't expect the church to put so much of the collection plate money into my individual account to spend as I wish for the church activities I am personally interested in... The nature of goodwill and volunteerism is doing the best you can do without expecting anything in return. So, if a family knows that the Individual account system is not in place and they decide to sell $1700 worth of popcorn, (when the pack only asked that they sell $300 worth), why do they then get angry that they get nothing in return? (even though this particular boy did get a $75 prize from the pack on top of the trail's end popcorn prizes and he also received a certificate for $55 to pay for day camp in the summer, which he did take advantage of...) Plus, this particular family was one of the outspoken advocates of getting a new Pinewood Derby Track which the pack will be getting as soon as he orders it (which he also volunteered to do...). To me, the boy and the family must have been getting something out of selling $1700 of popcorn if they did it even knowing that there were no Individual Accounts in place....I suspect it was about the competition to beat another boy at selling the most (which he did by about $20...)

Sorry to put all of these specifics out there, I just get frustrated trying to maintain a balance with the outspoken naysayers in the pack and doing what I feel is right for the pack. We have an active Pack Committee and anything we implement would be voted on and approved. We don't, however, have any charter organization interaction at all. We used to be sponsored by the schools in this area, but now all packs are either chartered by churches or by the Lion's club (which is our situation...) The only involvement they have is to sign the form once a year.

As treasurer, I don't know that I have time (after all, this isn't my only job...) to get to the degree of figuring out this percentage of this goes to this and this percentage goes to Johnny and this goes to Blakie and Johnny is going to use this for this thing, so write a pack check out of the pack account and shift the money from the imaginary account back to the pack funds and Jason is going to do this next month, etc., etc. It seems like an accounting nightmare to me. Plus, I would think that if Individual Accounts are implemented, then the parents of little Jimmy are going to want a statement once a month or quarter or whatever of what has gone in and come out of his individual account. Now, multiply that by 60 scouts....What am I trying to say is... Can anyone tell me that the benefits of this type of plan to the pack as a whole outweigh the benefits of awarding the high-sellers with a prize and free day camp and are, therefore, worth the extra accounting headaches?

I was wondering if there are any Cub Scout Packs out there that allot a certain percentage of their popcorn sales profit to individual scout accounts for use in paying for things such as Pack dues, camps, etc. Specifically, my question to those who currently have this type of program in place is how exactly do you determine what percentage goes to the pack general fund and what percentage goes to the Individual Scout accounts? Further, once the money is alloted, how is it administered and how much extra work does it amount to for the treasurer? On top of those questions, what specific rules/guidelines do you post to the members of the pack for this type of program to prevent problems such as little Johnny quits the pack, where does his account go?,etc..

Our Pack has about 60 boys. I am the Treasurer and do have budget amounts set up for what we spend and expect to spend each year. (I''ve been the treasurer for a few years now...) The problem I have is that we are often faced with waiting to see what we make off of popcorn to determine what we actually get to do. We have a plan in place prior to popcorn sales, but don''t always make our goal and therefore have to cut out some of the items from out plan or require more money from the parents to keep certain things in the plan.

We did very well last year on popcorn and didn''t run into a lot of these issues. However, this year we have parents who feel like they got the shaft because their son sold $1700 of popcorn and our pack only gave them a $75 gift card and paid their day camp fees of $55. The rest of the profits went into the general fund to help pay for the new Pinewood Derby track our pack is in the process of purchasing. There were, of course, many boys who only sold around $200 worth and the parents of the ones that sold $1000 or more feel like their profit shouldn''t have to pay for the awards and things of the scouts who only sold $200 or nothing... We also have pack dues of $30 for everyone in the pack. My opinion is partially that of "A Cub Scout helps the pack go..." which means that the individual effort of a boy in the fundraising activities should be done as volunteerism to help the pack go. However, I also would like to present a plan to make a more balanced and fair system for the pack funds based on individual contribution. That is also weighted with the fact that we don''t ever want to require a child to have to come up with $150 pack dues if they don''t participate in the fundraiser...That would leave so many boys out and that would just be sad..

Suggestions?