Seems like a lot for entering cub scouts

[jackmessick]

I am a Scoutmaster, so don't know a lot about Cub Scouts.

 

However, a co-worker of mine mentioned that his two boys are entering Tigers. At the first Pack night, the parents were informed that there was an annual fee, including registration, of $40.00 per boy, plus they would have to buy uniforms, and finally, the boys were given Popcorn ordering sheets to raise even more money.

 

So, maybe not the best time to fling that at people brand new to Cub Scouts (all they do is raise money?). But the $40.00 fee per boy seems like an awful lot. There is no guarantee that this will be the end of paying for things such as the Pinewood Derby. So I am just trying to find out if that is pretty normal for Packs to charge that much up front for registration, or should they find a different Pack?

 

jam

[Cubmaster Jerry]

The simple answer to your question is "it depends". It depends on what that $40 is paying for. If those boys joined my Pack, they would find a similar situation. We charge $41.50 for annual Pack dues. This does not include uniforms, den dues, fees for outings, and belt loops. But it DOES include nearly everything else - registration, boys life, book, rank badges, arrow points, Webelos pins, totems, Webelos colors, approx 8 activity patches, & PWD car. Parents also don't pay for (or bring food for) B&G or Crossover meals and we don't charge a PWD entry fee.

 

Also, keep in mind, that (in our case) half of that $41.50 fee we don't even see because it goes to Council for Registration and Boys life. That leaves about $20 annually per boy for us to run a program on and pay for all that stuff listed above. We supplement that $20 with two fund raisers - one in the fall and one in the spring. We depend on our fund raisers to bring in approx. $45 per boy per year.

 

I will agree that it is a lot up front for new scouts, almost $100. But after that it is a relatively minimal cost for an annual program.

 

Jerry

[theysawyoucomin']

Jack it is alot to handover at one time.

But let me see if I can tell you how we soften the blow.

 

Last year we had a great Pack year. We collect 5 cent bottles to fund our pack.In NY we have a bottle deposit law.

 

Here is a letter that went home to parents about what a boy in our Pack gets for his $50 reg. fee.

 

 

 

The Pack Committee had a discussion concerning money. Money is a horrible topic, however, our society uses it as a medium of exchange for goods and services. This led us to the following question:

 

What does a boy get when his parents pay his $50 yearly fee in Pack 253?

>$10 den startup (Den Leaders recved $100 dollars for materials,tools,etc. at the beginning of the year)

$12 total for a PW derby car, Rocket, and Raingutter regatta boat(coming soon)

$40 allowance for Boston Trip($25 gas card or paid bus fare. Aquarium fee)

$6 Parking fee at Thatcher Park

+\- $15 in advancement patches, belt loops, and pins

$5.50 blue and gold dinner meal.

$5 for Merdwin the Mediocre(silly magic for blue and gold dinner)

$8 for Pack Tee Shirt(hopefully he has it by the time you read this)

$9 for BSA national registration

$1 for national insurance

$12 for Boys Life magazine. (I hope you read it too!)

Total $_______________. I wish my stocks were doing as well!

 

We dont ask you to sell anything door to door. We do ask for help sorting bottles and at the yearly food booth for garage sale day.

 

In the past money has also come from Kiwanis and some from Key Bank. Food booth Donations also came from Hannaford.

 

Please consider how your family values Scouting and compare it to other activities your children may be involved in.

Thank You.

 

 

So you see a boy actually does very well in our Pack. Your mileage may vary. When a boy shows up to sort bottles he also gets a $10 certficate to the Scout Store.

Can be used for a Boy Scout shirt for Webelos, gear, Summer Camp, whatever the boy wishes. My son bought a Kelty backpack. About half came from bottles.

 

Also please note that any money your unit sends to Council does not go to council programs. MOST ALL OF THAT GOES TO NATIONAL.

That's why we also gave to the yearly F.O.S. drive. We will probably give more.

 

 

Those are the tangibles. You are a scout master and do not need to hear the intangibles.

 

My son plays travel soccer, takes swimming lessons, plays little league baseball, CYO basketball, and does Scouts.

 

Soccer is over $300 dollars a year.

YMCA dues $840/yr plus $40 for 6 lessons.

CYO is more than $50.

Baseball is about $100 bucks. Plus fundraisers.

I'm not saving for retirement right now but my kids are active in Sports and other things. My daughter has her Silver GSA award and does other activities. They can't say they did not have opportunities to experience things.

 

 

Scouting has the best R.O.I. if you look at only tangibles.

Intangibles., Well, You know what I'll say.

 

I usta be an Owl, a good ole owl too.

 

Thank you for reading this long post

[jens3sons]

Dear Jack,

 

Three years ago, a boy signed up, and his father was the Tiger cub leader, and they bawked about immediately selling popcorn. I (the CC)I let the situation be, and they didn't sell a dime of popcorn. However the next year, this same man became the Cubmaster! I knew I was going to need to "change his mind". I came up with a great saying! "Everyone knows Girl Scouts sell cookies...we sell popcorn!" Then I go on to tell the parents that I am sorry, but our ONLY fund raiser for the year comes right when they are joining. I ask them to keep it simple, to please go to one table sale (as they WILL need to be part of one next year and it is good to see how it works), and to please sell to family, and maybe a couple close neighbors. It has worked like a charm! Also, I tell the parents that the Tiger cubs sell the best at the table sales, as it is hard for someone to "pass up" those cute little Tigers in their uniforms! Just yesterday, my Tigers sold $330 in just 2 hours! My older son's den sold $140 more, but it took us twice as long! Just remember...Girls Scouts sell cookies, we sell popcorn! ;-)

[resqman]

Our pack just raised our fees from $35 to $45. We ask the boys to sell popcorn. Last year we asked explained that if every boy sold $285, all Pack activities would be paid. This year we are shooting for a goal of $390 sales per boy.

 

While many people complain about the high cost of a scout uniform, compare the cost to a typical sports team uniform. Often the uniform is worn for 3 years. Most of the badges can be reused as they move up thru cubs, webelos, and boy scouts.

 

My sons soccer uniform cost more than a scout uniform. Your fees are reasonable.

[Bob White]

Whether the $40 is a lot really depends on how it is being used. Did the Pack say hwat the money was spent on? Popcorn being kicked off at the meeting is a matter of timing more than anything else. It is not unusual for the September pack Meeting to include Popcorn kickoff, if they waited a month for the next meeting the boys would lose a lot of selling opportunities, and a successful popcorn sales helps reduce the cost of scouting to the families while helping the Pack to deliver a better program for the boys.

 

 

So all in all what happened wasn't that unusual but it could have been received better with a little more explanation on the Pack's part.

 

BW

[madkins007]

A lot of it is the presentation.

 

We pointed out, up front, that this was IT for pack charges (except for uniforming, summer camp, and other things on our list). 1/2 due today, and the other half due by such and such a date.

 

We also shared that they could sell popcorn and other fundraisers to help offset the cost of summer camp and the next year's dues.

 

$40 is a LOT of money if there is still a lot of other costs involved, not much at all if it is the last real fee.

 

[evmori]

Was the use of the $40 explained? If not, it should have been. Can it be paid over time or does it have to be paid in a lump sum?

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Prairie_Scouter]

As a couple of folks have said, it is largely a matter of presentation.

 

Our pack charges about 30 bucks per year. 20 of that we do not keep, in that it covers registration and Boy's Life. The remainder pays for their PWD car and their Scout book for the next year. The popcorn sale pays for everything else, ie, segments, activity patches, etc., etc. Some years, when sales are good, we use part of the proceeds to, say, offset part of the cost of some Pack activity, like baseball night, or something like that. Varies from year to year. We spend a good deal of time explaining this to the parents. Cub Scouts is really a good deal compared to a lot of other activities.

 

We have a bigger jump in fees when it comes to Boy Scouts, but that another thread for another time

[EagleInKY]

Adding to the host of dittos. It's all in how it's explained. It may be reasonable, and it may not be. It just depends.

 

Our pack annual costs sounds similar to Jerry's. However, at Roundup, we don't ask as much. This is mainly due to the fact that it only covers from Sept to Jan. We'll hit them for the full fee in January. We've had debates about shifting everything to a Sept-Aug year. We'd still have to recharter in January, though. So it may get confusing if we did that.

[OneHour]

In our pack, the anual pack fee is about $40; however, at the rally night we pro-rated the fee through rechartering time in February (or 5 months worth). In addtion to registration and Boys Life, our pack pays for meeting place rental (local school cafeteria). Our charter org does not have large enough place to handle 100 scouts + parents. It also pays for pinewood derby kits as well as awards and advancement pins and badges. We have two fund-raisers to supplement the pack fees. This moneys go to pay pack campouts, pack activities such as bike rally, pinewood awards/trophies, B&G subsidies, Christmas parties, etc. with moneys left over, we pay the local magician or mad-scientist to come in and entertain the boys at one pack meeting. We also use the reserves to pay for pack t-shirt and charge the cub or parents at cost of the t-shirts. Overall, we have about $500 reserve to transfer to next year as seed moneys.

 

If there is no fund-raisers, either 1) the pack fees go up or 2) we simply won't do a lot of what we had planned.

 

So $40 is not bad. Again ... as mentioned above ... it depends!

 

The treasurer and cc should be able to come up with the breakdown of the costs for the Pack as well as the revenue to offset the costs. Our Pack revisit our fee every year and adjust them up or down as necessary or needed.

 

1Hour