How do yeh handle signup and payment deadbeats?

[theysawyoucomin']

Mostly we let people walk all over us and come and go whenever the hades they please

[kraut-60]

There is Scout in my troop who has always money issues and claims his folks dont have the money to pay for annual dues or summer camp,..so for the last 2 years we covered him from the troops general fund.

 

Recently, our troop committee finance chair was at an event that this scout and his dad also attended. The committee finance chair was in the line for raffle tickets and the scout in question was in line just ahead of him...with $150 to buy raffle tickets. The scout recognized the MC and knowing he owes the troop, told the MC " I guess I should pay you for my troop dues...but I'm gonna get raffle tickets instead". This same scout at a recent meeting also was overheard telling other scouts that he just spent over $200 at the spring car show.

 

Our troop committee has sent letters to the scouts parents, but to no avail...the dad claims they are short of money.

Our decision is that this scout is on hiatus until he meets his financial obligation.

 

[CNYScouter]

Deadlines mean little any more.

 

I just got an e-mail about our council-wide camp-o-ree next weekend.

They are expecting 3,000 to 4,000 Scouts to attend.

 

The registration deadline was May 1.

Only 300 registered by this deadline.

 

This on par for almost every District and Council event we have.

If our Districts/Council followed up on their dealines we would be canceling everything.

 

 

 

 

[evmori]

Sounds like it's time for a lesson on Thrifty, kraut-60.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[acco40]

This is a related problem. We do have deadlines. But what do you do if a Scout who has not registered shows up at the church parking lot on time, money in hand, permission slip in hand and has stated that he told the patrol grubmaster he was going to go (food was purchased for him).

 

Do you let him attend the event?

[scoutingagain]

Personally, if he had indeed informed the Patrol, and there was food available for him, I would let him attend. If functionally, the outing can proceed with no impact to others, I see know problem. The troop is there to serve it's youth members. Will the boy learn more by attending the outing or will he learn his troop is a training ground for when he has to deal with the Dept. of Motor Vehicles. The membership is not there to serve the unit's beauracracy, although I'd remind him of the importance of getting his paperwork in ontime.

 

On the other hand, if the Patrol informed me, they did not have enought food for the late arrival or there was not enough room in a vehicle because they didn't think he was going on the outing because he wasn't on their list of expected attendees I would be inclined to say, sorry.

 

 

I see this situation as if I showed up at an airline counter, called ahead to tell them I wanted to get on a certain flight, but show up a little late. Say after the official time to sign in for that flight. But the flight is delayed, and if the agent would only sell me a ticket, there would be plenty of time for me to make the flight. I would be a little perturbed as a customer if the agent kept to his assigned "rule" and didn't sell me a ticket for the flight. Sure this makes his life a little more difficult but he knows he's there to serve me the customer, and in all likelyhood would sell me a ticket, as long as there was a seat available. If I was late, and he told me the flight was booked and the extra seats had been assigned to standby passengers because I was late... well that would be my problem.

 

 

SA

[Eagle76]

uz2bnowl says:

"Mostly we let people walk all over us and come and go whenever the hades they please"

 

Sorry to say, there's a bit of this in my troop, but there's more to this behavior:

 

Then we complain, but when someone suggests we do things differently, we say "That won't work, so we'll keep doing things the Way We Always Have."