swampy

I've been a Popcorn Kernal for 7 years and counting. Its the major fundraiser for our troop and its done well by us. We also do wreaths, Tom Wat, Rada and flower bulbs too. For all of you with the deadline disease. Question: Do you want the kids to sell popcorn or meet deadlines? That is what i told our concil poohbahs at the kick-off meeting. The key here is flexibility on the councils part. They tried to get hard line this year and thankfully they have backed off. I've learned a few things along the way. Those kids who are truly motivated to sell will do so year after year. They like making the money and watching their scholarship grow with Trail's end. The rest of the boys will only sell if the parents want their kids to pay their own way through scouting. Most of the time the parents wind up footing the scouting bill. We have put our foot down though on families who want camperships because they don't have the money. If they didn't make a good effort to raise funds there won't be any camperships for them. BTW I go out to the community to raise funds for that purpose too. The best motivator though for the kids is to have a specific goal for the troop to work towards. For example, a trip that the troop wants to take would require X amount. Make that the goal and the kids will work more diligently toward it. IMHO.

Just starting reading this thread so here's my take. We're talking troop politics here so this is tricky. Your Scoutmaster I hope is great with kids because he sure ain't much when it comes to ASM's. Did you consider what the relationship is with that UC relevant to the current SM or Chartered Organization? I get that you are desperate here but if it were me I would not have left a voicemail. It's better to talk w/him or meet him for a cup of coffee to feel him out on this. I would still do this. I bet he will give advice but I don't think he's going to clean up this mess for you. The overarching question here is whatdoes all this mean to the kids themselves. You mention that your scout is happy and made a lot of friends in the Troop. My fear for you and him is if this thing blows up it could put a real damper on those relationships and his scouting career. Is this person salvagable? Maybe you ought to take a break yourself from it to give yourself time to think and step away from it a bit. This may give you a fresh perspective. If however this isn't possible then it has to be the committee and CC that needs to direct the scoutmaster to tell his ASM's what is expected of them and what their role is. He may rankle a few feelings but it has to be done. The committee chair and the committee run the troop. Good Luck!

Thanks guys, nice to be here!

Just wanted to say hello and thanks for having me. I'm an assistant scoumaster with our Troop and having a blast. I was a cubmaster before that.