Does your pack charge fees / dues?

[ShutterbugMom]

Historically, our cub scout pack has never charged any sort of dues, and was able to completely function off fundraisers. Our charter organization is kind enough to pay the recharter fees each year.

 

However, since the fee went up last year, the CO amount has not been able to cover the fees. Normally, this would not be a problem, but we are having a huge problem with fundraising also.

 

We plan to start charging a set amount at recharter each year. Part of this is due to the fact that kids get re-chartered and then disappear. For example, 4 kids in our pack were at the 12/2 meeting, and very active, were rechartered, and haven't been heard from since.

 

Anyway, we totally up the cost and for re-chartering (just the part not covered the CO), and everything else normally covered by the pack (Pinewood Derby cars, scarf and slide, all the awards, Blue and Gold, etc) it is nearly $100 / scout.

 

I really hate to charge that much, and of course we plan to let them pay their fees with fundraising. Is this a good idea, or should we charge perhaps, just $35 at recharter, and push the fund raising much more.

 

Thanks for any insight you might have!

 

Thanks!

[mashmaster]

We charge pack dues of $53 per scout unless they sell $250 in popcorn.

 

 

[resqman]

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Most packs have fundraisers and use the money to defray the costs to the scouts. Lots of different ways to apply the money to the various scouts or activities. A scout "earns" a portion of the fund raising money based on time spent fundraising vs money collected. If a family members participate they can "earn" X hours wage to apply to scout account. Yeah, much discussion about scout accounts...

Some packs buy all/some of the awards, patches, etc. from fundraising. Some only buy a certain amount and the scout buys the rest. I have heard of packs only buying up to X number of belt loops per scout due to budget. More than X earned and the scout family pays for the "overage".

Most packs require the scout to pay for the re-charter fees. That way they have a stake in the pack and are more likely to participate.

All activities cost money. If a scout joined a sports team, band, marshal arts program or any other activity there is a fee. Scouting is no different. $35-$50 a year is cheap for what most scouts get from the program.

Likely your pack families will complain because there was No fee now there is Some fee. Recommend Pack leadership make a presentation at the Pack meeting explaining the CO funded everything in the past and cannot now. As a result, the families will have to either pay out of pocket and/or participate in fundraising. Alternately the program can be cut back. Having a large visual of the budget to display so people understand where the money is being spent will help them to be OK with the change.

If they see that $35 goes to council for re-charting, $15 is spent on Pinewood Derby, $20 is spent on Blue & Gold, $10 on Awards, and $20 spent on Den craft supplies, they can better accept the difference between $0 and $100. Maybe they will surprised at how much you are able to do for so little.

Most dens charges dues while some get an allowance from the Pack budget. Some parents like paying Den fees because they feel their money is going to their son instead of general funding. Others prefer paying one time to the Pack and letting the pack handle the distribution. What ever works. I know I spent at least $5 per den meeting and we met 3 times a month. I collected den fees but undercharged and funded about half out my pocket. But that was my choice.

Our Pack held a raffle each Pack meeting. Someone went to the Dollar store and spent about $10 bucks buying stuff. Tickets were sold to the scouts for $1 or 3 tickets for $2 or some other ratio I don't recall. At end of meeting ticket numbers were called out and prizes awarded. We had 50-60 scouts in the pack and always sold way more than 10 tickets to cover cost of prizes. You will have to adjust according to the pack size.

There are as many ways to collect fees and spend money as their are Packs. Your pack is going through a change and there will be complaints no matter what specific details you finally decide upon because it is not the same as before. Oh well.

 

 

[qwazse]

Thinking in retrospect having brought kids up in several styles of financial management....

 

Personally, I would rather see a fee with a thumbnail budget up front. (Exactly what you outlined above.) I'd be glad to pay that, Then, I'd be more than happy to fundraise to help defray costs for who can't afford it.

[SeattlePioneer]

Our Pack charges $84/year in dues, free with $300 in pocorn sales. Sell more than $300 and you get 20% of the additional sales as a SDcout Account.

 

 

For those joining in the spring and fall, we charge $7/month times the number of remaining months in the year. We make a point of making it possible for those recruited in the fall (September) to participate in the popcorn sale and get a free membership.

[Chisos]

We've charged $50/yr, just enough cover recharter, PWD cars, Space Derby rockets, and (most) awards. Big events like campouts, B&G, etc. are "pay as you go" and we budget/charge for them to more or less break even. We haven't done popcorn in several years, but have done some other small fundraisers for general Pack expenses. I'm wondering, though, if our low up-front cost and pay as you go model is reducing participation, especially later in the year.

[Daped01]

After we complete our budget, combined with how much money we have leftover from the previous year, we set the average cost of what it will take to fund the year for every scout, the budget includes every scout going to winter camp, cub resident camp, and day camp. (rarely do we get more than 6-7 scouts to attend camps) Any scout selling whatever that average ends up being or more in popcorn sales, earns a free trip to camp (not free, but paid for by the pack). the last couple years that number has been $500-$600. What is leftover (from those not going to camp, etc) is what we use for our recharter fees.

 

We have a hard time getting some parents to pay the $24 registration fees to offset our budget, but so far it hasn't been a negative issue.

[Faith]

We've tried a few different methods. This year, we've did the following: Scouts sell popcorn in the beginning. If they sell over $250, 10% goes in their scout account (not trying to open that can of worms in here but yes we have them and they help a lot with re-charter.)

As far as dues go, each scout is asked to pay $45 a year (they can do $5 a month from Sept - May.) Den keeps half, pack keeps half.

On the den level, I've been able to buy all the materials for our scouts for this year for all den meets, along with having enough left over to cover our end of the year party. We also use it throughout the year for scouts who may not have been able to afford things like a PWD car or other 'extras'.

On a pack level, it pays for all their awards and helps some with smaller events (cubmobile race, etc.)

 

 

[fred johnson]

You'll see just about anything you can imagine as an answer to your post. Packs are everywhere on this.

 

Our pack charges $50 dues. The thought is we want families to have skin in the game for whether they are members or not. The $50 saves us money because then we know who we are rechartering and those that we are not rechartering.

 

The rest is fundraising. The pack tries to do as many FREE things as a pack as possible even if it costs the pack $1000 as a pack (parties, events, camp outs, etc). Parents only have to pay extra for council camps.

 

Our annual cost is about $150 per scout. So, we finances the rest with one fundraiser. After that fundraiser, we add or remove things from the schedule and plans based on how much the pack earned.

[fred johnson]

To increase your fundraising, add a few prizes.

 

... sleeping bag, tent and a big prize of something like a Wii or a Nintendo 3DS or a...

 

[Stosh]

Isn't there something basically wrong with conning young people into selling merchandize with a reward system attached. Every good thing a boy does in scouting shouldn't need to have a potential reward attached. Kinda defeats the whole mantra of "Do a Good Turn daily."

 

My ASM thought it would be a good idea to offer weekly prizes to the boys who sold the most popcorn. They were really nice prizes and everyone of them was won by the ASM's grandson who was in the troop. That went over like a lead balloon.

 

Instead of personal rewards, I have found that getting the boys to work on a common goal for the group works a lot better. This year's popcorn sale... what are we going to do with the money? Then let the boys work it out.

 

We've become a society of people who will only focus on, "What's in it for me? Show me the money!"

 

Stosh

[fred johnson]

Isn't there something basically wrong with conning young people into selling merchandize with a reward system attached.

 

Yeah, it seems wrong. But when we added prizes, our fundraising tripled. Boys want to compete. They want bragging rights and the parents buy into it. It's really no different than BSA and their prize packages for selling popcorn. Goals are good, but young kids don't remember it and the parents won't get hounded by it.

[SeattlePioneer]

<>

 

 

I don't think so.

 

"A Scout is thrifty." And according to BSA that means (in part) that a Scout pays his own way.

 

For our packs, boys (families) that sell $300 in popcorn get a pack membership for the next year that would otherwise be $84 out of the family;s pocket.

 

So boys who sell popcorn can pay their own way. I think that's a good practice.

 

 

[fred johnson]

... We've become a society of people who will only focus on' date=' "What's in it for me? Show me the money!" ... [/quote']

 

Agreed. We each emphasize different things at different times. I like to address the "What's in it for me?" when we're all working together setting up, tearing down or doing some activity. We all work to get the job done until the job is done. We don't stop just because we think "we've done our fair share". So sometimes that means older scouts do more or help the younger scouts get their stuff done too.

 

As for financing, I'm just glad when we succeed and have enough to offer a good program. Especially in cub scouts. Cub Scout financing is much different than Boy Scout financing. The progams run different and have different money needs.

[Loomans]

~~

Our Pack held a raffle each Pack meeting. Someone went to the Dollar store and spent about $10 bucks buying stuff. Tickets were sold to the scouts for $1 or 3 tickets for $2 or some other ratio I don't recall. At end of meeting ticket numbers were called out and prizes awarded. We had 50-60 scouts in the pack and always sold way more than 10 tickets to cover cost of prizes. You will have to adjust according to the pack size.

 

Certainly not to pick on you, resqman, but I wanted to point out for anyone reading this topic that raffles are specifically mentioned in the BSA Fundraising Policies and Procedures Manual as not permitted:

 

Gambling

Rules and Regulations of the Boy Scouts of America, Article XI, Section 1, Clause 1:

(e) Gambling. Any fundraising project designated to benefit chartered organization units,

districts, local council, or on a national basis which involves games of chance, lotteries, sale

of raffle tickets, bingo, or could be construed as a gambling activity, is not permitted.

 

We also found that our charter organization also did not permit gambling on their premises.