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Do You Donate $$$ To Your Co?


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Your denomination must be different than a lot.  The Pastor is supposed to be spending his/her time with the spiritual life of the church, the ministry within the congregation and it's ministry in the community is supposed to be coordinated by the church board.  It's too bad the new Pastor can come in and disrupt the life of the church so quickly.  Must be a newbie to the profession, at least she acts like it.

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Ok, not the hill to die on, but I don't think there is anything wrong (or fatal, to continue the hill analogy) in asking whether there are other ways the troop and pack can support the church rather than a monetary donation. The idea of a fundraiser is not a bad one, and you might want to consider stepping up the "helping" of the CO, for example there might be Eagle projects that could be done for the church. I can think of at least three that Eagle candidates have done for the church that is our CO.

 

Regardless of the "hill" analogy, your concerns about this practice are legitimate. If there is "financial support" flowing between the CO and the unit, it is supposed to be going in the opposite direction. But an annual fundraising event, to be added to what you already do, could allow you to sidestep the issue and not take away money that should be used for the Scouting program.

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I find it strange that a church would expect a Scout troop to contribute to the church.  Of all the CO's out there, a church of all places should be aware of the purpose of non-profit fundraising.  If money is given to the general fund of the church it can be spent anyway it wishes.  However, if money is donated to a specific cause, that money is to be spent only for that cause.  There is a big ethical issue here that your church seems to either be ignoring or is oblivious to.

 

If a contributors were to make tax deductible donations to one program ministry of the church and the church spent it elsewhere?  No way is that acceptable.

 

In one of my parishes there was a piano fund for a new piano.  This collected funds up over the course of a couple of years.  Finally one of the members just went out and bought the church a new piano.  :)  Very nice, but every penny contributed to the piano fund was returned to the donors because it was not needed for the cause in which it was collected.

 

As a new pastor coming into that congregation, I would halt that process immediately and return the money designated for Scouts back to the scout program.  If that process has been going on for 25 years, then $7500 goes back to them.  

 

A little shenanigans with a CO on this might be acceptable for a few, but NEVER a church.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Our church would rather us attend to making sure things are in order for their nonprofit pre-school that uses the facility the other 5 days of the week. We do. Pastor's grateful.

 

But, when they were in financial straits, we considered throwing in from our funds for the electric. They would have none of it.

 

Frankly, a lot of our boys aren't that great with positions of responsibility. (It's not that they wont do the job, it's that they pitch in on every other job so much that you lose track of who's wearing what patch.) So, having a church who needs a scout to head up a service project is pretty handy. That way, the boy may report something specific at his board of review.

 

"So, son, how did you perform as librian?"

"Well, sir, not many pamphlets were being checked out. So, I pulled up the old carpet from a preshool room."

 

Committee scratch heads over requirments as written. -- Priceless!

Edited by qwazse
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Our church would rather us attend to making sure things are in order for their nonprofit pre-school that uses the facility the other 5 days of the week. We do. Pastor's grateful.

 

But, when they were in financial straits, we considered throwing in from our funds for the electric. They would have none of it.

 

Frankly, a lot of our boys aren't that great with positions of responsibility. (It's not that they wont do the job, it's that they pitch in on every other job so much that you lose track of who's wearing what patch.) So, having a church who needs a scout to head up a service project is pretty handy. That way, the boy report something specific at his board of review.

 

"So, son, how did you perform as librian?"

"Well, sir, not many pamphlets were being checked out. So, I pulled up the old carpet from the preshool room."

 

Committee scratch heads. -- Priceless!

 

I hope the committee knew this was an approved project and not just something the boy did because he was bored.... :)

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I hope the committee knew this was an approved project and not just something the boy did because he was bored.... :)

No reason for them to know ... There's only one space to sign for the requirement, if I recall. :p But, our advancement chair does keep on top of those things.

This lot doing any form of demolition out of sheer boredom ... Now that's funny. Their sisters, on the other hand ...

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