wendyscout

I appreciate your honest input. It validates the concerns many of us have. The committee chair has appointed two of her friends to the committee (advancement chair and general member) - and those friends support whatever the CC wants. When the CC asked the committee to provide $200 to the cubs, they were outraged that I asked for cub parents or at least their cub leader or committee chair to come to introduce themselves to us before we committed $ to them. The CC's friend was outraged and lectured me on how boys in the boys and girls club don't have any money and can't do this without financial support. The rest of us (SM, ASMs, me, the treasurer) disagree when we are up for a battle. The COR only sees good in everyone (which is sometimes good, sometimes dangerous), and won't replace her. I'm helping the treasurer with our budget closeout from 2013, and see some questionable or vague spending - not a huge amount, but enough to raise my antennae. So I was hoping I had an easier way for us to decline than to go through the battle with her. Thanks again for your help - I'll probably be back with more questions along our path!

The Pack is under a differen CO - the Boys and Girls Club. It was not initiated by the parents; it was 'sold' by our CC. I thought scout organizations couldn't solicit for donations?

The CO just doesn't have the bandwidth to start a cub pack. The CC went to the Boys and Girls Club across the street and sold the idea to them. Same troop number, different CO. She thinks it will be a feeder pack, but we already have a pack in the community with no troop - which we could simply court. Seems like a lot of work to start a whole new pack, especially when there are no parents initiating it. The Troop CC says she is an advisor, but when she asked for the donation, she was the one who spoke for the group. Only one other person was there from the pack - a past Troop scout, who she recruited on a temporary basis. He's about 20 y.o., and she kept dismissing him (he's only here til Jan - he's temporary as we find someone to lead the pack) when I tried to ask him questions. Even he didn't seem confident that starting this pack is a good idea. But she's an authority figure to him, and he couldn't say no. For Venture, she started that too, and we're not sure what her real position is. We don't see any real evidence of anyone else being involved in that either. I thought maybe I had found a polite way to avoid funding these groups, at least until we can see if they have substance or not.

The Pack is with a different CO. Does that change the answer? The Venture Crew is in our CO. The background is that our Committee Chair is trying to start the Cub Pack and the Venture Crew. However, many on the committee are not on board. Some are also concerned that she's been using Troop money and making promises to these groups without going through the Committee first. We want to strengthen our own Troop, which is in desperate need of focus and basic infrastructure. We're concerned that her attention and time with the Cub and Venture are distracting her attention and ours - as she uses committee agendas to discuss Cub and Venture needs, often above Troop needs. And now she also wants us to spend Troop money supporting them. When she asked for $ for the Cub pack, there was no indication that there is any parent involvement or real interest, and she reacted very defensively when asked. We definitely would like to see them grow, but believe that they need to be committed themselves, and that we can provide more help if we're strong ourselves. Any input?

Can a BSA Troop donate money to a Cub Pack? Can the Cub Pack accept the funds? Same for a Venture Crew...can they accept donations from the Troop?