Scouts and Fundraisers

[Gutterbird 10]

I have a few boys in my troop that will never show for fundraisers. It is always the same few scouts coming and doing all the work over and over. What we do is that for each boy that participates in a fundraiser, a portion of the profits it set aside for that boy to use to offfset his personal expsence of scouting activites or uniforms. The one that truly benefits from this are the parents. The more the boy works the less the PARENT has to pay and inversly, the less a scout works the more a PARENT pays. It seems that these few boys that never work the fundraiser still takes advantage of the new camping gear, etc. I mentioned this to the Committe Chair for resolution but her reply is that that is just the way it is. I do not buy that, each boy should help out. After all a scout is supose to be "Thrifty" How do you make a boy do his part? I have had scoumaster confrences with these boys regarding the subjuct but it goes in one ear and out the other.

Any Thoughts?

[scottteng 11]

Some pack troops have buy outs if the scout does not fund raise a certain amount then the parents must cut a check to the pack/troop. Some parents prefer this option or to pay as they go for son's scouting experience. Different families have different values.

[Gutterbird 10]

That is a good idea, but again, mom and dad will pay the bill if they do not particpate in fundraisers. I do not beleive that this teaches good work ethics and I do not beleive it follows the Scout Law of being "Thrifty". A Scout must be "Thrifty", not mom and dad. Do you think I am battling a lost cause here?(This message has been edited by Gutterbird)

[Bob White 20]

Gutter bird, The hard and the fast of it is that as Scoutmaster your role is to lead the program, and finances is the committee's role. You gave the chair your opinion and he has decided differently.

 

While I agree with you, I respect the fact that the decision is the committee chair's and not yours. I would not waste time fighting him on something that is his responsibility and not yours.

 

"I have a few boys in my troop" I know a lot of scoutmasters call it "my troop" but it realy isn't, and the scoutmaster is not in charge of everything. Focus on "your job" and let the committee chair do his.

 

BW(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[packsaddle 753]

Welcome to the forums, Gutterbird. Interesting moniker, by the way. Thrifty means a lot more than participating in fundraisers and the boy can demonstrate thrifty in many other ways in his life. I think Bob White has the best approach and it is pretty much how we handle it in this unit. The committee chair is trying to be realistic. There really is a limit to your leverage on this. We are merely thankful that we can afford such 'problems'.

[NeilLup 13]

Hello Gutterbird,

 

This topic is being discussed in another forum to which I belong and I will reiterate here what is being said there.

 

You can't teach a pig to sing. You waste your time and it annoys the pig.

 

If a parent does not believe that,at Scout age, their son should learn the financial responsibility of participating in fund raisers, etc. -- and some parents don't -- then trying to get their children to participate is like trying to teach a pig to sing. It's not going to happen in the culture of that Troop and that community.

 

Your fund raiser should have at least three objectives:

 

1) Raise money

2) Improve the citizenship, character and fitness of Troop members

3) Have fun

 

I would suggest that you concentrate on achieving those objectives with the Scouts who DO participate. If there is enough fun, the others will want to participate too. For those who don't, the committee does need to ensure that their financial obligations are met.

 

Some people like selling. Some hate it. That's why they make vanilla and chocolate.

[Beavah 205]

Yah, I'll spin this a different way, eh?

 

Are your fundraisers fun? Are the youth leaders and youth responsible for choosing 'em? For planning 'em? For executing 'em? Are your patrols strong, and do they stay patrols even for fundraisers?

 

I agree with everybody that there's a limit on what you or your CC can do here to influence parents, eh? But there's a lot your youth leaders can do to influence the boys directly. Peer pressure can be a wonderful thing. But only if the fundraiser is really the boys', so they feel right about leanin' on a lad who isn't pulling his weight in the patrol.

 

Beavah

 

[BeaverIII 10]

You alluded to a scout is Thrifty; maybe, but IMHO Helpful comes to mind first along with Trustworthy and Loyal.

 

BeaverIII

[GKlose 24]

If I may also chime in with an opinion

 

To me, it seems like I had nonstop fundraisers from the time of joining cubs all the way through high school band. By the time I was a scout, I already had a notion of what a sales pitch is and how to use it. It really wasn't difficult to sell at all, however it wasn't like I was plopped in front of a box of stuff and told to go sell it.

 

By the time I hit high school band, I had a pretty good sense of what would sell and what wouldn't, and when the band boosters group plopped a box of crap in front of us and told us to go sell it, I didn't. To me, it was a complete waste of time to try selling something that wouldn't sell. On the other hand, a year later, we were selling some amazing chocolate fudge candy bars that were relatively cheap. We were allowed to sell at school (there was no lunch period, only an official "snack time") and honestly those things sold themselves. Kids would see us carrying the boxes and would buy them.

 

With my kids now, I see endless fundraisers at school, with sports teams and with cubs. Luckily, the scout troop hasn't kicked in (yet). Personally, I think the neighborhood "sales pool" and the multiple kids selling stuff, is really saturated. It seems to never stop. As a result, my kids only participate in one or two a year.

 

So I think for fundraisers to be really successful, all this stuff has to be looked at. Are kids burnt out? Is the market saturated? Can you find a "killer app" fundraiser that will make everything else insignificant? (for example, my old scout troop started selling Christmas trees, and 30+ years later still finds it to be very successful...one fundraiser a year, for about three weeks worth of effort).

 

Guy

[frank10 12]

I dealt with this years ago since that parents were willing to foot the bill the scout account didn't affect the youth.

The solution was to come up with things that couldn't be had unless you participated. First year it was a hoodie with the troop logo on it. You could buy as many Tshirts as you wanted, but you had to earn the hoodie.

[CalicoPenn 729]

I'm curious as to what kind of fundraising you're doing? Are they fundraisers that are community oriented (pancake breakfasts, car washes, etc.)? Are they fundraisers that are sales oriented (popcorn, wreaths, etc.)? Please share.

 

It sounds as if your Committee Chair is taking a very pragmatic approach to the issue, and not letting the frustrations that he probably shares get in the way of the program.

 

The unit is already offering an incentive for participation - offsetting expenses with a portion of the profits. That just may not be enough for everyone in the unit, though. Have you folks given a thought to a non-monetary incentive? Perhaps have the adult leaders plan and execute one outing a year (with PLC agreeing to give up the planning for that one weekend, of course), open only to those Scouts who participated in at least one fundraiser per year. I'd make it a fun outing - no advancement work needed - just lots of free time for exploring, hiking, playing frisbee, etc (you get the picture). Make it an even better reward by having the adults do all the cooking and after cooking cleanup (yes, that tosses patrol method out the window - but this is a special outing). Be creative - most state parks are within delivery distance of a town (see where I'm going here yet?) - on Saturday night, just before dinner, make a big show of being woefully unprepared and uncoordinated, only to be saved by the arrival of the pizza delivery guy (imagine the look on the lads faces if you pull that off). Just a thought.

 

Calico

[ASM857 10]

In our units if a scout does not participate they need to buy out. A scout isthrifty can be shown as the grubmaster. We have some scouts that spend every penny were some that do the buyout turn money back in. As in all units it's what works for you.

 

Good Luck

YIS

Doug

[packsaddle 753]

Talking about fun...our boys have learned to exploit the sports fervor of the public by extorting large amounts of money for very short-term rental of very small pieces of property that the unit doesn't even own (parking on game days). I mean - sports fans just take leave of their senses, we could sell pieces of gravel painted with team colors and they'd go for it. Nice. And situating the little sisters on the corner to beg in ragged clothing could bring a really nice dividend as well.

It's the American economic system, love it or leave it.

[Gutterbird 10]

Thanks for all the input.

There have been some good ideas presented here. We try to have fun at all our fundraisers, in fact, we just completed a very successful fundraiser at took all the boys who participated for pizza after words. I like the hoodie and t-shirt idea's. I may go with something along that line. And as far as calling it "my troop", I did not mean that in the possessive form, I meant it as "being a part of". If anything, I consider it to be the boys troop.

Again, thanks for all the insight.

(This message has been edited by Gutterbird)

[packsaddle 753]

Gutterbird wrote..."And as far as calling it "my troop", I did not mean that in the possessive form, I meant it as "being a part of"."

I think that almost all of us understand this, so no apology needed. I try to avoid that word usage to avoid confusion of the meaning. Easier to get along that way. And it IS a good point, not to think we have personal ownership of a program that 'belongs' to someone else.

Good luck