District Roundtables

[bt01 10]

How do you fund the roundtables if the Council does not give you any funds??? If they do it is minunum.

[John-in-KC 311]

What we do...

 

1) FOOD. More than a few of our Scouters come straight from work to RT. It's sad but true, life is busy these days. We sell chicken nuggets and roller tacos and.... keeps the wolf from that door.

 

2) Annual chili cookoff fundraiser. Bring a cooker of chili and your recipe. Voting is done by the $$$ in the can next to your crockpot.

 

3) We like doing a Mechanics/Autos theme each June in addition to whatever the National program that year is. We have a car show, Scouters bring their wheels. Again $$$ in the can sets the winner.

 

4) We've done outdoor gear garage sale a few times. Donate the stuff you don't want. Someone buys it (trust me on that...).

 

Our proceeds fund a door prize drawing at annual program fair.

 

We've had the SE drop by for the car show, he knows what we're doing.

[AvidSM 11]

We sell food also, soda, donuts and coffee on a table with a tin can to collect donations. We also made up a patch and sell that as well.

 

Our roundtable really does not need a lot of funding to operate. Most of what we earn goes towards our sunshine fund. All of our district evnets, Klondike, camporees, merit badge fairs, are self funded.

[Gold Winger 9]

I know that our space is donated. Photocopyings is done by council. Don't need much else.

[John-in-KC 311]

One challenge I see coming at us is RENT. That's right, RENT.

 

Not a one of the area schools anymore will let a civic group (any civic group) in for free. You want to use the facilitiy, open the checkbook... for our footprint (250 Scouters across the 3 programs) each month, we estimate we'd be paying local boards $500 a month.

 

Not acceptable.

 

Some churches are starting to charge external agencies rent. This is especially so for the "mega churches", it seems to us. 500-1000 person auditoria and the accompanying facilities again are high demand by all manner of folks, profit and non-profit.

 

Other churches are having theft issues. I don't understand the logic, but paying rent seems to keep external actors and their light fingers at bay (assuming the theft happens when the building is open).

 

Not good...

[Bob White 20]

When you don't get funds from the council you do what you have to do. You rely mostly o free services, put out a kitty to collect funds for refreshments, as volunteers to bring food, ask volunteers to bring ite,s for dorr prizes, etc.

 

What you need is aplan to get on the councils line item budget for next year, and every year after that. Its tough to get program money after the budget has been established. You need to plan in advance and get your budget needs heard and into the council budget plan for next year.

 

There are ways to accomplish this. I recommend you get someone from your Roundtable to attend Philmont Training Center to take part in the Scout Roundtable Conference. This is one of the topics they discuss.

 

 

 

[Gold Winger 9]

"Not a one of the area schools anymore will let a civic group (any civic group) in for free. You want to use the facilitiy, open the checkbook... for our footprint (250 Scouters across the 3 programs) each month, we estimate we'd be paying local boards $500 a month."

 

Look at big companies that have conference rooms. One district I know of uses a company's training rooms for roundtable. Of course it helps that the Chairman is a supporter of Scouting.

[anarchist 10]

btps,

 

you might want to check with Local VFW, American Legion, Moose lodges, Elks, Lions as well as the local chamber of Commerce...These groups frequently have large Halls and most are quite supportive of scouting...That could get you a place to meet.

 

Then you can try local business leaders to see if you can get help with supplies, copying, even snacks...

 

Local pizza places might cut you a deal on pizzas that you sell for some profit to the starving Scouters...etc...

good lick

Anarchist

[Stosh 3452]

Hospitals and businesses that have training facilities have large rent-free rooms. If your council camp is located in your district, that offers facilities.

 

Stosh

[click23 66]

One of our chartered organizations, a church, opens up their fellowship hall, and any other rooms we need, for Cub and Boy Scout roundtable and our OA chapter meeting all on the same night. The pastor there is very scout friendly and will open the doors for scout or scouter activity, basicly all distict training is held there. The DE and a few other members of the district staff have keys to the church.