Who Pays for Belt loops in your pack?

[tdk101]

Tonight I learned that the our Pack will no longer pay for beltloops earned by the boys. This decision is based on the pack's limited finances.

 

My son likes to earn beltloops and takes a great deal of pride earning (and wearing) awards that not everyone else has. I believe this feeling is shared by a number of the boys in the den and feel strongly that anything helps motitivate the boys to stay in scouting should be encouraged. That leaves me with 2 options either use our den dues to to pay for the beltloops or ask the parents to pay for their son's beltloops.

 

Just out of curiosity does your Pack pay for beltloops or do the parents?

[infoscouter]

Our pack pays for them. They are part of the program and so we budget for them. I know of packs who will not pay for a second (or subsequent) beltloop, but we even pay for those.

[AnniePoo]

Our pack pays for them.

[dawnydiesel]

The parents pay for the loops for their boys in our pack.

[Gold Winger]

My son's pack paid for the loops. If you earned it twice and really wanted a second loop, mom or dad could spring for it. Never heard of mom or dad buying a second loop.

 

 

[Bob White]

The pack paid for them.

 

But if your pack doesn't raise enough money then they have to cut something out of the budget. How much do they spend on belt loops a year? What would you prefer they cut from the budget instead?

 

One way to remedy this is in how you fulfill your buidget. How many belt loops on average does a scout earn a year and how many additional boxes of popcorn would each Cub have to sell to afford it.

 

Let's say if on average each cub earned 6 belt loops a year, thats $9.54 per scout or less than the commission from just 2 15-pack boxes of microwave popcorn.

 

Would it be possible for the pack to continue paying for the awards and simply raise the popcorn goal by two boxes per scout?

 

As a cubmaster, the committee chair, advancement chair, and pack treasurer and I sat down and decised what we wanted to pay for fopr the Dens and pack each year. It basically came down to everythig but the uniform shirt, pants, hat, and belt. We set a goal of $250 per Scout in popcorn sales. They ended up selling much more than that. But at the $250 average we could purchase awards, their next rank handbook, next next neckerchief and their next year of membership.

 

With the additional money we bought a full library of program resources for each den, Den Flags, paid for adult training, and even for a portion of Day camp for every Cub.

 

So you might ask the Pack committe how, rather than cut the aawrds, what would the pack need to do to raise the funds to afford the awards?

 

[Venividi]

We made the same change that you did - pack had paid for the belt loops - until there became a concerted effort to collect them. As the belt loops were pricey, the pack treasury didnt have enough funds to pay for them. Committee discussed several ideas - like an additional fund raiser, cutting funding for other things. Committee decided to not fund belt loops. Parents would have to purchase them. It wasnt a problem; parents understood.

 

 

[DeanRx]

Our pack pays for Belt loops and ALL other awards earned by the scouts. We even pay for the neckerchief and slide for the next rank when they "cross-over" in the spring.

 

We look at these things as 'program' costs and budget accordingly.

 

How much does your pack charge in annual dues? How much fundraising does the pack do? These two things will greatly influence what is and is not included at 'no cost'. Otherwise, packs that run tight on funds often have to institute an ala carte type attitude towards buying things throughout the year....

 

In addition to the awards, neckerchief and slide, our pack also includes the Boys Life subscription, pays for ALL pinewood kits, Space Derby kits, and Raingutter Regatta kits as well as all trophies associated w/ each event.

 

Then again - we have an annual pack dues of $80 per scout and expect everyone to participate in popcorn fundraising or "buy-out" their scout's portion.

 

We make it known at the start of the year... this is what we are budgeting for, this is how much we have and this is what we need to earn to make this year's program a reality. If we sell more, then great - we can do more stuff. IF we sell less, then we have to make some tough choices about what to keep and what to cut.

 

If you feel your son's pack is short-changing the boys by not having belt loops included in the pack budget, then I'd say you have found an area in which you can help out the pack.

 

Get involved with the annual planning (assuming there is some done and its not just made up as you go...), then get involved with the budgeting to meet your program goals.

 

Finally - get involved (or offer to start) the fund-raising so that your pack DOES have the $$ needed to include the extras like belt loops with asking the parents to pony-up for them all the time.

 

Best of luck...

 

DeanRx

[raisinemright]

Our pack will buy the first loop or pin earned by the scout. He's on the hook for subsequent ones.

 

We started that policy after dropping nearly $500 on awards one month for a pack of about 30 scouts. Many of them were re-earned loops.

 

If boys are earning too many loops, encourage them to work on pins which show much higher accomplishment.

 

 

[kretzb]

Our Pack purchases all awards for the cub scouts. If a belt loop or pin is earned a second time, the parents are asked to provide this.

 

Boys that cross over to the next rank are provided a handbook, neckerchief, slide and belt buckle for their new rank.

 

We recently raised Pack dues from 45 to $55. We usually do very well in popcorn sales, approx $16,000 per year.

[Karen_216]

Pack pays for these and all awards but only get a loop/pin once from the pack. We also have a pay per event policy for all activities . Our dues are 30.00 per scout and includes BoysLife if you've already subscribed in the past.

We earned about 3500.00 from popcorn last year. Have about 40-50 in the pack. We spend around 1500.00 year on awards. If you haven't sold popcorn in the past start doing it. you dont have to do the whole program just od the forms or just so the shown sells. We had 2000 at start of this year.

Any money helps. we also do a vending booth at pinewood that subsidizes the pinewood awards and cars.

Also a scout auction- each boy brings in an item they no longer want and bids start at 25 cents and go up to whatever parent allows. We use this money for charity but if we get it would add almost 400.00 to the pack.

I also a new parenttold committee her old pack did a dessert "raffle" each meeting. Each boy who wanted a dessert paid for a tickt and then they selected the winners each meeitng . (I brought up raffles are frowned upon) but if each boy gets something it's not really a raffle- we're doing in the form of silent auction at December den meeting.

Local packs all work differently. Ask your committe how they came up with this and to see the budget. Some packs only pay for 1st Belt loo/pin and then each parent bpyas for any others earned. by the time your son is Bears/ webelos he may be belt looped out- My son does not have many left and cant; fit his belt and he's only a Bear.

[mkarlinm]

The parents pay for the belt loops/pins. Some boys earned 2-3 a month and some boys do not care if they earn any. We have not been lucky with popcirn sales but it may be looking up this year. our dues are $80 a year ,since no one sold popcorn last year accept for my son, but all the money goes back to the scout accept for $10 which we keep for pack meeting supplies and pack supplies. If for some reason we do well in popcorn sales we will be able to supply things this year that we have not been able to for the last three years my son has been involved with this pack.

[gcan]

Our pack pays. Once. IMO what does a kid need 5 fishing BL's for,lol?

 

SOunds like your pack is having financial issues. You could increase den dues at this point, or if you haven't collected registration yet raise that by $10 or so. Or maybe do some addition fundraisers, or more show-n-sells with your popcorn?

Cutting out belt loops altogether doesn't sound like a good idea, though. Remember, these are little boys that like to show off thier cub scout bling! Besides, kids are natural collectors.

 

JMHO...

[Knight]

Two words:

 

Popcorn sales

[NJCubScouter]

When I was last there, our pack's policy was to pay for two belt loops/pins per boy per year, after that the parents were supposed to pay. I don't think the subject of "repeat" loops/pins ever came up, but it would not have mattered in light of the overall policy.

 

However, I agree with BobWhite and others about the best way to handle the situation, and that is basically what my old pack did. We had sold popcorn for years, but not well enough, and not enough kids sold it. We seemed to end every school year "in the red" (there was some money in the bank, but leaders who had purchased things for the pack would hold on to the receipts until dues were collected in the fall and they could be reimbursed.) The year I became Assistant Cubmaster, we decided to make a more concerted effort on the popcorn sales, do a show-and-sell for the first time, jump through all the various other little hoops that the council imposed in order to get the highest possible percentage of the proceeds, etc. (Our first show-and-sell was a surreal experience, as it happened to take place four days after 9/11, but that is a story for another time.)

 

The bottom line is that after two years of this, the pack was basically swimming in cash, was able to do some of the things Bob mentioned, and started to put away money for a new Pinewood Derby track. By that time my son and I were more-or-less out the door, but I suspect that the pack did start to pay for the belt loops and pins without the two-item limit.(This message has been edited by njcubscouter)