Eamonn 61 Posted October 13, 2002 Author Share Posted October 13, 2002 In answer to the observation by Yaworski,about the size of the council. We are in a Wood Badge cluster, with five other coucils and of the six we have the largest membership. How long this will be economically viable,is yet to be seen. Link to post Share on other sites
sctmom 11 Posted October 14, 2002 Share Posted October 14, 2002 About Council sizes --- I doubt if our council has 10,000 members. Most of our council is very rural. The council covers 8 counties. I think I live in the most populated of those 8 counties and we have about 28,000 kids in K-12 grades. Some of the other counties may have 3,000 school age kids. Just in our county, if you figure half the kids are boys, we have about 14,000 to pull from. I don't think we even get 5% of the kids to join. Our county is part of a district with another county. I heard we have 500 volunteers in our district. I was shocked the number is that high. Link to post Share on other sites
yaworski 10 Posted October 14, 2002 Share Posted October 14, 2002 "We are in a Wood Badge cluster, with five other coucils and of the six we have the largest membership." What's a "Wood Badge Cluster"? Is your small council split into even smaller districts? I guess that I'm fortunate to be where I am and spoiled by being here. Link to post Share on other sites
Eamonn 61 Posted October 14, 2002 Author Share Posted October 14, 2002 In answer to the question, raised by Yawosski, 'What is a Wood Badge Cluster?" This is a group of small councils that have come together to provide Wood Badge training. I have been very lucky over the years to have been involved with a very large council /county in the UK,and now like Sctmom,I'm here in a rural council. Both have there advantages and disadvantages.And while I question the economic viability,I now think that being small is the better of the two. I really like the fact that even as a District Chairman,I know most of the boys in the District by name. I get to meet all of our cub scouts,and can follow their movements in our great program,from cubs all the way to Eagle Scout. Also I look at how the rural councils, do in recruiting and we have a greater percentage of the available youth then the big Metro councils do. This might be because there is less for the boys to do, then might be the case in the inner city. However,as a kid who grew up in down town London,when I was a teenager the choice was Boy Scouts or the Boys Club,the only thing that the boys club offered was boxing. My thinking was that I could join the scouts and go camping or have someone beat the heck out of me. Needless to say I opted for the Scouts. Link to post Share on other sites
Twocubdad 665 Posted October 15, 2002 Share Posted October 15, 2002 I don't object to the size of the increase, only the timing. The first mention I heard of it was about a month ago -- well after we set our budget and dues levels and after we had already begun collecting dues. In otherwords, after we were too far along to make any adjustment to accommodate the increase. We'll just have to eat the increase out of the general Pack funds. The increase had to be in the works for months and months. Would it have been too much for them to announce it in the spring? I'm sure the bureaucrats in Irving thinking a September announcement is well in advance of the beginning of recharter in January, but in the real world most units are doing their budgeting and planning in the summer. Link to post Share on other sites
Bob White 20 Posted October 15, 2002 Share Posted October 15, 2002 That's really a local problem Twocubdad, and not of national's doing. National released this news several months ago to the councils. It has not been a secret. You are probably hearing more talk about it now becasuse units chartering the first of the year when this takes effect are just getting their charter kits. I know our District roundtables announced it in the Spring when handing out the Annual Program Planning kits. Bob White Link to post Share on other sites
OldGreyEagle 5 Posted October 15, 2002 Share Posted October 15, 2002 So between now and the first of the year, a unit charges $1.50 more for an activity than was planned. They do this twice and they have it. I dont see this as a real problem, perhaps a communication problem on the local level, but as far as covering the expense, it is virtually nothing Link to post Share on other sites
sctmom 11 Posted October 15, 2002 Share Posted October 15, 2002 I heard about the increase months ago. Actually I think I heard about it on another scouting disucssion board. Link to post Share on other sites
NJCubScouter 1389 Posted October 15, 2002 Share Posted October 15, 2002 I heard about this a few months ago, I am not sure whether it was online or from one of the handouts at Roundtable. Personally I think $10 a year ($13 counting the insurance fee, I don't know if that is increasing also, and I'm not sure whether that fee is council or national, I just know it gets added on for new registrants and at re-charter time) is quite reasonable to be a member of a national organization that provides the services, structure and national facilities that the BSA does. What I also had heard is that the Boys Life subscription fee was increasing, but I have not seen any mention of that on here or anywhere else recently. I forget exactly what the increase was, but it seemed very substantial, like from the current $9 to maybe $15. I am sure printing costs have gone up, but that would be a 66 percent increase if my recollection is accurate. In my pack we do not have a subscription for everyone, each family decides if they want to pay the $9, and I know for sure that this is not going to increase sales. I don't think any of our families will bat an eye at the $10 registration fee, they are used to things increasing. (Of course it helps that our annual pack dues went DOWN by $10 this year, which resulted from our very successful popcorn sale last year, and we also paid the re-charter fees out of the popcorn money as well. Our 2002 sale ends tomorrow and we are all holding our breath, as we would like to continue this trend.) Link to post Share on other sites
Compass 10 Posted October 16, 2002 Share Posted October 16, 2002 Like you say, Eamonn, the increase doesn't seem to be that big a deal. Makes you wonder if there are other issues that are bothering that troop, and that this is their 'final straw.' Link to post Share on other sites
Bob White 20 Posted October 16, 2002 Share Posted October 16, 2002 $3 for insurance? Are you sure? It was my understanding that councils are now paying for insurance, I know ours does and so do the councils that adjoin us. Even before they did, the cost was never more than $1.25. Is this something your troop is doing on their own NJ? As far as Boys Life, I have not heard any mention of a price increase. It wouldn't bother me if they did, at $9 I think it is one of the best values as far as publications go. Link to post Share on other sites
NJCubScouter 1389 Posted October 16, 2002 Share Posted October 16, 2002 Yes Bob, $3 for insurance, and it's council-wide, not something from my pack. Council will not accept a new scout application, new leader application or recharter package without the $7 fee plus the $3 insurance fee. For new applications other than at recharter time, the $3 is pro-rated just like the registration fee. For boys signing up in September, for example, the parents pay $6.30 -- $4.20 for registration and $2.10 for insurance. (That's the month I know by heart, since I end up being impromptu registrar at School Night for Scouting when we get our new Tigers.) Then add $5.25 if you order Boys Life in September, pro-rated from the $9. This is documented on my council's website. See http://www.ppbsa.org Once at the home page, put your cursor over "Just for Parents" at the left, and a menu will pop up, choose any of the top 4 program options (Tigers, Cubs, Webelos, Scouts) and on the bottom of each program page is a list of fees, including the $3 insurance fee. Link to post Share on other sites
acco40 95 Posted October 16, 2002 Share Posted October 16, 2002 My council does not charge units an insurance fee. When viewed as a $3.00 increase, the first increase in many, many years, the increased cost seems minimal. When viewed as a whooping 42.8% increase from one year to the next (do the math, from a $3 increase from a base of $7) it looks rather large. My take, it is a bargain for $10.00. What would you rather give your son, five years of scouting experience for $50 or the "Shoot once, kill once" video game for the same price? Link to post Share on other sites
ScoutNut 147 Posted October 16, 2002 Share Posted October 16, 2002 My council does not charge insurance fees either. I feel the increase to $10 isn't a bad deal considering it has held the same for so long. I found out about the increase in late Spring or early Summer. My council had a notice on their website and I did read about it on a Scouting forum. My council also included notification and a spreadsheet for pro-rating the new cost in our August unit start-up packets. In my Pack and Troop the ones to be hit with the increase will be the brand new members next year and our Charter Org. Our Charter Organization pays for all re-charter expenses. Adult and boy members only need to pay the national registration fee once in their scouting career. Our Charter Org picks it up after that, so we really have no cause to complain at all! P.S. For those of you with ties to GSUSA, they are voting this month, at their National Convention, on weather or not to increase their national registration fee to $10 a year also! Link to post Share on other sites
evmori 11 Posted October 17, 2002 Share Posted October 17, 2002 My council pays for nothing. The colunteers do. We pay for our own insurance. But the cost is minimal. It seems the people who think the $3 increase is a lot have other issues & this is just a way out for them. Ed Mori Scoutmaster Troop 1 1 Peter 4:10 Link to post Share on other sites
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