What items are in your budget?

[Eamonn]

Back when I was CM,the Pack was chartered by our R/C Church. Many of the families had children attending the R/C School.

The school wasn't shy about fund raising. (When I dropped OJ off on his first day, I came home with candy bars and tickets to sell, each family was expected to sell so many.)

Our Pack Families were burnt out with fund raising events and many were happy to not fund raise and just write a check.

This left the Pack Committee with the task of deciding what events the pack would pay for and not pay for.

We at that time included.

Rechartering and Insurance.

Advancement Patches /Beads and the like.

Handbooks.

Blue and gold banquet expenses.

Pine-wood Derby expenses. (The kit and the trophies)

Day camp.

Cub Scout Olympics.

The Pack Picnic.

The Fishing Derby.

We didn't include:

The trip to the baseball game.

Resident camps.

Uniforms.

 

Because of cost we did end up having to limit the number of Belt Loops we paid for. Some the the Dens went wild with these things!

So what do you include?

Eamonn.

[IM_Kathy]

when my son was in cubs and I was a leader there...

 

our pack covered following costs:

 

expences for monthly pack meeting except lock-in and camp-out (we charged enough to cover the food)

 

rank patches, beads, and arrow points

 

pinewood car and rank book

 

dens decided on own if they were going to do the beltloops and pay for those out of den dues (they decided on this because of the high cost and ease of earning them)

 

parents paid for:

 

registration and boys life and $5.00 pack dues to help cover all the pack activities.

 

if B&G was catered then they paid for meal tickets

 

uniform, neckerchief and slide

 

the rest of summer camp (% of fudraising was put in scout acccount to use for summer camp)

 

for fundraising we did the popcorn sale and then also did an annual cake auction

 

[Novice_Cubmaster]

Our pack does about the same things as Eamonn's except Day Camp.

 

Day Camp quality / experiences varied too much, plus our families' summertime plans & expenses are all over the place.

 

NC

[DenZero]

I didn't see recruiting expenses in your list. For each new boy who comes to check out the pack we spend about $50 on recruiting and publicity.

 

[DeanRx]

$50 per kid on publicity ? What?

 

This is Cub Scouts, not trying to land a new business client. What on EARTH are you spending $50 / kid on?

 

$50 total on flyers and gadgets (pencils, welcome packets etc...) for a round-up, but nowhere near $50 per boy.

 

These are kids that haven't even joined yet? How does your active scout parents feel about spending the packs hard earned fund-raising dollars on people not yet in the organization? You must be in a very up-scale area if you are really spending this much on recruitment.

[DeanRx]

Our Pack Budget covers the following:

 

All recharter / insurance expenses.

 

All rank, patches, belt loops, pins earned in the year.

 

All additional trophies, plagues, and medals - pinewood and other derby winners.

 

Scout handbook, necherchief and slide for all that cross-over.

 

All kits for our 3 derbies (Pinewood, Space, Raingutter).

 

Meal and room rental for B&G

 

Room rental for any other large event durring the year (i.e. Pinewood)

 

We subsidize the cost of pack family campouts, but also charge a nominal fee ($15 per person) to offset food and to limit the number of no-show sign-ups.

 

We also have concessions (pizza and drink) at our larger events (i.e. Pinewood) and charge a small fee for food. Not even break even, but again keeps the waste to a minimum. I think we sold a slice and a drink for $2 this year.

 

Day Camp and Resident camp are NOT INCLUDED and are paid for by the individual scout's family.

 

***************************************************************************

 

We charge $80 in dues per year - this includes Boys Life.

We only do one fundraiser (Popcorn sales)- you either help sell, or we provide a "buy-out" amount to the parents. If they'd rather just write the check - we're happy to take it.

A portion of individual popcorn sales (10%)goes into a personal account per scout that can be spent on ANY scout related activity (i.e. off-set camp dues, buy new camping gear, replace a lost handbook, etc...) IF the scout ages out of cubs w/out spending their personal account, funds are rolled into the pack's general fund.

 

We have an opportunity fund set aside to offset the $80 dues if a family is truely in financial need. Determination is made by CC, CM and that scout's DL to keep it confidential. Any scout that receives money via opportunity fund MUST participate in Popcorn "show-n-sell".

 

We sell a LOT of popcorn to make all this happen. We just make it known up front to both scouts and parents... if we don't sell, then we have to make some hard choices about what NOT to have in our program this year. Either that, or we move to a "pay-per-event" system. So far, the majority of parents aren't too keen on the nickle and dime you "pay-per-event" idea, so we fundraise. I'm glad too, b/c keeping track of WHO has or hasn't paid would be a nightmare for the treasurer.

 

We have right around 55 scouts active in the pack - if that matters.

[Eamonn]

Have to admit to having never heard of a Pack making Recruiting Expenses a budget item. (Not saying it's a bad idea! Just that it's new to me!)

 

In our area we tend to rely on the Council to pay for all the expenses that are incurred from recruiting.

I know some Councils spend a lot, paying for things like lunch boxes with a Pine Wood car kit inside.

But so far trying to get our Executive Board to spend money like this? Just hasn't happened.

We tend to fall back on flyer's send to the schools and billboards that are donated.

Some units do put notices in local papers about when they are hosting open houses, but as far as I know, no unit spends any real money.

Ea.

[DenZero]

To clarify about high recruiting expenses, our pack is small and struggling. We get a lot of help from the district; otherwise, our expenses would be higher. Our publicity costs are high because the response rate is so low. Fortunately, our pack has a good balance in the treasury from popcorn sales in years past. We could spend it on providing lots of freebies for the boys in the pack, but I dont think it would be fair to the former Cub Scouts who sold popcorn to support the pack. We believe the best thing to do with the packs funds is to spend it trying to build the pack back up. Saving the pack would be a good legacy for the popcorn sellers of the past. For this reason, we spend more on recruiting and publicity than anything else.

[DenZero]

To clarify a bit further, our small struggling pack has spent the money from this years fundraiser directly on activities for the boys. To keep dues low, we are operating with a negative cash flow. We can engage in deficit spending this year because of surpluses in the past. All of the active boys in the pack have a parent on the committee, and all decisions are by consensus. This is probably the last year of operation for the pack, though we might try one last recruiting drive.

[ScoutNut]

I still do not understand how you can spend so much on recruiting and publicity.

 

Councils print out recruiting fliers for units for free.

 

Most newspapers will put in community announcements for free.

 

Printing up stickers to put on every boy to remind them of Round-Up comes out to pennies per boy.

 

Councils can often supply trinket give-aways for recruiting Boy Talks, at no charge to the unit.

 

Snacks, refreshments, and even an activity at Round-Up would only come out to a few dollars per boy, if that.

 

None of these expenses come even close to $50 per boy. What the heck are you spend that kind of money on?

[DenZero]

ScoutNut,

 

Im not saying that a normal pack would need to spend anywhere near that much per recruit. The response to our recruiting attemps has been very poor. Our pack is in a desperate situation.

 

We're not talking a huge amount of money. Over the past 2 years weve made signs and posters, done mailings of large packets that took multiple stamps, given away pinewood derby and raingutter regatta kits, rented booths at community festivals, provides snacks at recruiting events and lots of other stuff. During this period, we recruited 6 new boys. The other pack in the area has probably spent nearly that much, but as they are much much larger, they have more boys to spread the cost over. As a small pack, we cant use word of mouth, and need to resort to other means of publicity. We are chosing to spend our reserves on recruiting as part of a last ditch effort to save the pack.

 

[cubbingcarol]

Not meaning to sound like a smarta#@ but why don't you just buy the boys. You know what I mean, pay the parents the $50 and I bet you'll get more boys then you know what to do with! Heck, give me $50 and I'll transfer my 2 sons registrations to your pack. Woo-hoo I'll have $100!!

[DeanRx]

DenZero-

 

At the risk of being seen as ruse - might I suggest that the answer to your enrollment issues is not throwing money at it. You have 6 cubs right now, if I read the post correctly.

 

I'd suggest spending $50 (one time outlay of funds) to put together a fun, action packed, game (outdoors if possible) for one of the pack meetings. Hold it in a public park if possible to give yourself some free community publicity. Hold it on a Sunday afternoon (so families with cub aged kids will likey be at the park).

 

Then the kicker... USE word of mouth !! Your challenge to your scouts should be for each of them to invite and bring a minimum of ONE non-scout friend to the event. Bringing TWO is even better. Don't call it an "open house" or "round-up" even if that is what it is.... call it a "Fun Fair" or something catchy. Engage the prospective scouts and parents with a good time, then just happen to have some welcome packets and enrollment forms with you to have the good folks fill out if their son had a good time at the event.

 

If you get every scout to bring one friend that joins - there you've doubled your Pack size.

 

Best of luck - I hope it works out for you guys.

 

YiS,

 

DeanRx

[gcan]

As the treasurer for our pack, our budget includes:

-one big ON trip (zoo sleepover, ect)

-all campouts

-all awards (but only once- IE ONE fishing BL, not one per year)

-recruiting supplies

-B-n-G

-pack meeting stuff (fees, materials, ect)

-rechartering

-Boy's Life

-and basically anything pack related.

 

Now, we only pay for the Cub for trips, B-n-G, extra stuff, parents and siblings pay thier own way (ex: we figure out the cost pp. for a campout and do chagre non-scouts that price). And we often do more than one expensive trip, but only the one following the popcorn sale is paid for (as an incentive to sell- sometimes parents need immediate gratification too).

 

We raise money thru registration fees ($40), popcorn, and when we start running low we throw in another fundraiser to bulk up the coffer. And dens do thier own fundraising too, for thier 'special' trips.