Jamboree Fund Raising

[Eamonn]

I think that I may have upset some of the parents who have Scouts attending the next National Jamboree.

As a Council Jamboree committee, we have in the past and are again offering Fund Raisers for the youth participants. Last Jamboree we had two frozen pizza kit sales and three pie sales. These are presented to the participants as take it or leave it. Some of the Scouts raised more then enough then to cover all the Jamboree costs, some didn't sell anything. The choice was theirs.

I was very lucky in that Her Who Must Be Obeyed likes this sort of thing. It isn't a whole lot of work. We hand out order forms, the Scouts get the orders and return a copy of the form. She phones in the order, they deliver to my house. Parents pick up the pies /pizzas and we are done.On the morning of our Jamboree troop meeting a Scouts mother calls me and says that she thinks that a spaghetti dinner would be a good idea. I am in a rush to get to work so I ask her to bring it up at the meeting.

I mull over the idea and the more I think of it the more I don't like it. Mainly because the Scouts are from different communities some as far away as the West Virgina boarder and even if we managed to hold this dinner in the middle we would still have people traveling 45 miles. I know that there is not a spaghetti dinner that I know of that I would drive 45 miles for.

Near the end of our meeting this Lady does her pitch for the spaghetti dinner. I don't say a word. But the young lad who is the 3rd ASM voices his opinion which is along the same lines as mine,(Bright Lad!!)

I explain to the parents that the last thing I want to do is fund raising and that I'm happy doing what we have done. There are a few comments that state how unhappy some people are selling food to their relatives. I inform them that they don't have to partake in the fund raising but if they want they can form there own little committee and make suggestions to me. I want to ensure that what they do is for the benefit of all the participants.

I kind of got the feeling that this wasn't what they wanted to hear.

Eamonn

[Twocubdad]

Why not suggest that they have their own spaghetti dinner in their community for the nearby Scouts who want to participate?

[FScouter]

It sounds like you don't want to be dragged into a big fundraising effort, which is very understandable. Ideas are cheap, but who's going to do the work? A spaghetti dinner can work, and be a good thing. Is the mom with the idea willing to head up the Spaghetti Dinner committee? There's the answer.

[Eamonn]

Apart from me having to be involved with something which I happen to think is a lot of hard work for not a very big return. ( The Pizza Kits make $5.25 per kit.) My big problem is that the troop is made up with Scouts from two districts. While the Mom who thinks this is such a good idea might be able to get a church hall near her and sell a lot of tickets to people in her neighborhood. What about the Lad who lives 40 miles away. The people in his neighborhood are not going to travel that far.

Then of course there is the time. As things are the time involved is minimal. What they want to do will take up the most part of a day.

I'm also a little unsure of how the profits from a spaghetti dinner get divided. Do those who do all the work get a bigger cut then say the Scout who sells the most tickets, but doesn't have his parents help out cooking and clearing up?

The idea of having a dinner in each community is not a bad one but when you break the troop down into community groups I don't think that you have the numbers to sell enough tickets to make it worth while. I do know that I have no intention of becoming the Spaghetti Dinner King.

I don't have the right accent.

The more I think about this the more I see that the problem is with me.

I don't want to get involved in a lot of Fund Raising. My feeling being that you (The Parent) knew the price tag on the event when you signed your son up. We offer the Fund Raising opportunities that we offer and you can take it or leave it.

If the parents decide that they want to do more that is OK, as long as whatever they do does not discriminate against any Scout in the troop.

Eamonn

[FScouter]

In our troop we have some adults that actually enjoy the fundraising dinner thing. They like the organizing, cooking, serving, and socializing. I tell them to go for it! (As long as they can make a profit.)

 

The boys that choose to sell tickets get a cut, and the boys that work get a cut. If the dinner location is too far away for some boys, they can sell the pizzas. It's part of the "earn your own way" idea.