Tiger Foot

Hello Everyone... Sorry to bring an old post back to life, but I wanted to share an update, and maybe crow a bit. It started out as a slog, but our 2017-2018 program year wound up great. We did lose scouts when we decided to raise dues. I expected that, but I think it was okay. It cleaned out a lot of the people who were really using us as a babysitting service. I feel a little bad to say it, but people find tome and money for the things that are important to them. And scouting just wasn't important to the families that left. But most families, when they saw a budget and a breakdown of what we spend per scout each year, and where it goes... and how it still leaves us short if we only ran on dues, were more than receptive. We had great turn outs and effort for all our fundraising this year. So much so that we are gifting an AED to our local camp, buy the next years neckerchief slide for all scouts, cover the fee for all the adult volunteers going to resident camp this summer, AND, we almost have enough for a new PWD Track. It was amazing to watch the remaining parents go from disinterested to engaged as the year progressed. I stopped all the blah blah at meeting starts... Instead we did a few quick jokes or a skit and then broke into dens. Including the pledge, Oath, Law, and a joke or two, we'd be into dens meetings in 5-10 minutes max. Kids LOVED it. We did have some snafu's as parents had to retrain themselves a bit. All info went out via the facebook page and scoutbook. But eventually it was all good. Now when people say they missed something, they also tell me 'I forgot to check my email'. Awesome. I know you guys said not to worry about JTE, but it turns out that if you focus on running an engaging and active pack... JTE takes care of itself anyway. We hit gold without even thinking about it. And I was kind of amazed. I sat down one morning with lots of coffee and one of my ACMs. We were prepared to take all day to fill out the paperwork. Hah! I'm not sure what was so hard about it... we were done in an hour. We actually had to wait a while for council to get its ducks in a row to finish it. Even with the big drop in membership, getting our leaders trained, and getting kids to more activities more than off set it. I've got a whole list of great stuff we managed to do. And I have to thank you all again here for the great advice. I didn't take all of it, but I took most of it, and it worked... It worked so well, that I'm actually stepping down and leaving the pack! One of the ACMs and myself are restarting a pack that went defunct several years ago in our own town. We'll pull a few kids and leaders with us, but everyone is on board. We've had more parents step up and take on various leadership roles so we won't be leaving gaping holes. They have great systems and people in place now, and even though there's always more that can be done... it's a strong, committed team with supportive engaged parents! So I'm headed to a new pack with my sons and their friends. I'm excited that we'll be doing service projects and activities in our town, for their friends, families, and neighbors. And the town is super excited too. The masonic lodge is sponsoring us. The American Legion has already asked us to march in their parades and help place flags around town and on local graves next year. The town manager wants us to march in the fall festival and sell popcorn and meat sticks afterwards. The Masons are giving us the entire 3rd floor of their building. The principal at the elementary school, the town, the legion, and the fire department have all offered space as well. I look around and see near endless opportunities for service projects. And I'm really hoping that by having a pack right in town again, more would be scouts will be able to join us. What started off as a mountain of problems has become an embarrassment of riches, LOL. Now we'll have two solid packs in our district! Even better... I'm just going to be the ACM in my new pack, and my former ACM is taking over as cubmaster. And 2 of the other leaders coming with us are also joining us us for some more training: We're all 'headed back to Gillwill' this summer! Scouter life is good! Thank you thank you thank you all for your advice and encouragement!

Does anyone have an excel spreadsheet they would be willing to share? Google has turned up the pack budget one from BSA, but that's all I've found. A search here found mention of several, but I didn't see anything I could download. Thanks again.

Thanks for the advice everyone and quick responses. I've sent an email to the rest of the pack committee that basically follows Qwazse's advice... have an official meeting, make an official motion and then vote to accept a 'starting balance' that we received from previous leadership. Also an outline of stuff to cover and put in place for future financial accountability and transparency. If the rest of the gang isn't on board, then I'll follow the advice to move on. At that point, I don't know what else I could do since it would be clear I'm the only one with this level of discomfort concerning the issue.

As sure as I can be I guess. We've been able to reconcile all the large deposits with fundraising activities. I would think if there was an extra $700 or whatever in the account, we'd be over not short- we'd be asking, hey, where did this extra $700 come from, not why are we short money. I also think the old CM would have informed me or the CC of that when I started pushing about these financial issues and it was revealed that he spent pack money sending his own sons and his friends sons to camp, right?

Yes, I've spoken with him on numerous occasions... phone, email, facebook chats, face to face, and we've held several meetings of the new pack committee. 'Concerns' might be too strong a word. I think he is a really good guy and has been working very hard to try and recoup at least some of this money and solve this issue. But I also seem to be getting information piecemeal from him... each new answer comes in an email that also reveals a new issue. So, yes, I'm confident he's trying to fix it, but I'm not confident I'm getting all the details, and if that's the case I would guess it's because he's trying to preserve his relationship with the old CM, which I understand. Just makes me wonder how many more landmines are waiting to be discovered I guess.

Yes, we had 16 kids attend camp last year, and 4 leaders. Yes, other scouts would have attended if the pack had offset some or all of the cost. No, that option was not made available to the whole pack.

I don't know if that meets anyone's definition of stealing, but it certainly doesn't seem right. It would be one thing if the leadership had come together and said hey, we're going to sponsor some kids to go to camp. But nothing remotely close to that happened. Instead the CM used pack funds to send his own sons to camp, and the sons of his friend to camp, completely on his own. If parents did know that was how their money was being spent, I don't think they would be happy. I'm sure many of their boys could have used some financial help to attend camp as well.

I'm sorry to be vague. About $200 of the missing funds was spent on resident camp fees for the outgoing cub masters two sons last summer. Another $520 was spent on resident camp fees for the AOL den leaders two sons to go to resident camp last summer. There are no committee meeting notes from last year and there really was no committee last year. That doesn't account for everything that's missing, but it is a large chunk of it.

The charter org is and has been very hands off. The COR is an elderly vet with health issues who really hasn't done more than sign off on applications that I'm aware of. I've only met him, very briefly, once, at our Charter organizations facility. At this point, I think he is house bound. The current committee chair was our cubmaster previous to the one I was replacing. He took the CC position after turning over CM to the guy I am now replacing. As CC he was very hands off, almost no involvement until I had the blowout I detailed in a previous post. At that point he stepped back in/up, and I've been pressuring him about dues and financial stuff ever since. The CC and the CM I'm replacing have a relationship outside scouts, but I'm really hoping that isn't affecting his decision making... They are in a fraternal organization together. Edit- The pack treasurer is also brand new. She is the one who first brought the discrepancies to my attention.

Hello all, I've been gobbling up all your advice from my previous posts and trying to implement it. Now I'm afraid I've uncovered an even more serious situation, and would welcome more advice. I'll try and keep it brief and drama free. It appears our accounts are short by a little less than a thousand dollars. I know some of this money has been spent inappropriately by the CM I have now replaced. I was not aware of how much it was, where it came from, what it was spent on, or that the decision to disburse it was made only by him until yesterday... a day after I officially took over as the new CM. I feel I am now on the hook for this, as the new, incoming CM. I think the right thing to do is the bring the records I have, the information I'm sure of, and my suspicions about the rest to our council, with our committee chair in tow and see where it goes. And I think if the CC disagrees r refuses, I should resign and go to council anyway. Someone needs to be made aware of these missing funds, and aware of how at least some of them were spent and by who. I know that's not a lot of detail, but I'd appreciate your advice.

Is there any official training for new pack trainers other than the pack committee videos? I have a leader who wants to do this. I know I'd like him to attend pow wows, round table and whatever else is offered... but is there anything specific to being/becoming a pack trainer he should try and take? More generally... If you have a pack trainer, what kinds of things does this leader do for your pack? For example... would they pretty much run recruiting activities from top to bottom? Or maybe just help get the new Den Leaders you find through training? Something in between? I know, it probably depends. But I'd love to hear your ideas and thoughts, what works for you. Thanks!

Very nice!

I can't thank you all enough. I was feeling pretty beat down when I posted this. Not at all sure I wanted to take this on, ready to move on. It's so nice to be able to get objective, outside, helpful and encouraging advice and experience. Thank you.

That's fantastic advice Eagledad. Right now Den leaders are doing everything. We are are exhausted. My wife and I were saying the same thing this morning so I'm glad to see you say it and confirm our thoughts. The sad thing is, we really don't even do actual pack meetings like you all are describing. Dens all meet in the same building, same time each week, and we wind up having a mini pack meeting each week... which is really just the CM rambling for about 20 to 30 minutes of the hour we all meet. It's no wonder we've morphed into a drop and run pack. Even with my prodding, the most I've even reigned him in by is maybe 10-15 minutes. Pack meetings (party, family fun night?) have to be during pack time, if we have parent volunteers to run it. Dens need to get their Den meeting time back, and Den leaders get to be Den leaders again. Thanks for distilling 20 years of wisdom for me!

CalicoPenn, that's mostly correct... his wife and daughter were kinda sorta doing it. He decided to provide the option for paying dues monthly (another unilateral, un-communicated decision) and now we know we have folks who are behind, but they also did not keep/give receipts for the dues they did collect, so... it's a pickle. He also decided he wanted to put Scout account balances online, but we stopped that one before it got very far. I'm really, really glad the woman we tapped agreed. She is meeting with the former treasurer tonight I think to start getting a handle on it.