cub scout funds transfer to boy scouts?

[mmcnulty]

I'm looking for some guidance on how to tranfer cub scout funds from popcorn sales to Webelos who are going into boy scouts? Does anyone do this? Do you subtract the expenses incurred over the year from the total commission based on each individual sale or just send along a set amount? Is this fair to those who remain - we do not keep individual cub scout accounts? What about cub scouts who move to another pack, do those same earning go with them?

[Buffalo Skipper]

I would not transfer any funds from one unit to another in this way. If the units belong to the same chartered organization, then that may be one thing, but what if a scout is transfering from one CO to another? Technically, bank accounts belong to the CO. Ar you going to transfer funds from (as an example) a pack sponsored by a Baptist church to a troop sponsored by a VFW post? But if you do one and not the other, that is not fair either.

 

I would keep Pack funds as a part of the pack, and troop funds as part of the troop. We don't worry about individual "accounts" with the pack anyway. What do you use them for?

[Eamonn]

Hi and Welcome.

This question comes up a lot.

Sadly there is no easy or right answer.

The Pack Committee needs to look at this and decide what it wants to do.

The big problem lies with "Who does the money belong too?"

It can be said (And rightly so.) That the money was raised in the name of the CO and the Pack.

This would mean that no one person should take out any funds.

 

I'm a little unsure how, if you don't keep individual accounts you will know how much each Scout has?

Not knowing this how do you determine how much to send with him?

 

Back when I was a CM our Pack Committee kept track of how much each Scout had in his account, less all the expenses and soon after he crossed over we send a check for the full amount to where ever he went. (Pack or Troop) If he quit Scouts the money went into the Pack Funds.

The Pack really is under no obligation to send any money. But in our area it has become expected that Troops will receive the cash that a Lad has in his account.

Eamonn.

[DanKroh]

mmcnulty,

 

I think that unless individual cubs get money from popcorn fundraiser for their personal use (i.e. scout bucks account, campership, etc.), you are under no obligation to send money with them to boy scouts.

 

On the other hand, if they pay a year's worth of dues, and only spend 2-3 months with the pack, then it's probably fair to send a prorated amount for that to their new troop.

 

In our pack, that is what we do; we have a set amount from the yearly dues that gets transferred to the boy's new troop. As far as popcorn sales go, we give boys who raised over $250 in popcorn sales a $50 campership, which has to be used before cross-over and can not be transferred (and they are told this up front when it is awarded), but I do know units that will transfer camperships.

[Gunny2862]

In our area I would be shocked to see a Webelos who crossed over bringing a Pack check over with him to the Troop to establish his Troop Scout Account. I'd welcome it, but I'd be shocked. Most Packs (around here) don't do Scout Accounts - everything goes to Pack operations.

 

OTOH, I do expect that any funds a Scout who transfers has in his old Troops Scout Account transfers with him. And we do send(or would if it ever happened) his Scout Account Funds with a Scout who left us to another Troop(made out to the Troop) of course.

 

But it is a decision for the Pack leadership to resolve and set as policy so everyone knows.

[gcnphkr]

The packs I've been involved with set aside the scout's popcorn earning during his last year to take with him when he crossed over. If he did not cross over then the money went to the pack general fund. This required that the amounts for each scout be recorded. If there is no record this would be difficult to do. Although, a committee could decide to transfer a set amount to the troops for the scouts that cross over. It can be a big help for a new scout. Not only will they have expenses involving uniforms, dues but will likely get hit with "Your son should plan on going to summer camp, we need a $100 deposit with the remaining $250 due by June 1".

 

There are many issues with scout accounts. For starters they do not belong to the scout or the unit but, as others have pointed out, to the chartering org. At the same time, they are usually restricted funds. That is they were donated with a stipulation that they be used by the unit. If the check is made out to Pack xxx, that should be enough to establish the restricted use. That does not mean the unit can do what they want, only those things authorized by the CO.

[DeanRx]

This is the 1st year we've done individual accounts for our cubs. One stipulation I asked for in our by-laws (if I was going to support such accounts) was: "All individual pack funds must be spent / redeemed by the scout while they are an active member in the pack. If a scout ages-out of cubs, or disenrolls in the pack, all funds in the scout's individual account revert to the pack's general fund."

 

Bottom line - they either use it or loose it.

 

If they don't use it up, then their fundraising is for the "good of the group".

 

I would ask - if you send a cubbie off to join a troop with their check from any balance remaining in their cub individual account, then WHAT do you do with a scout that either quits or ages-out and chooses not to go into Boy Scouts? Should the pack then cut them a check for the money they've earned? I doubt it. At that point it becomes "income" to the scout and must be claimed as such come tax time. Not a fun thing for the scout, nor for the unit as it runs afoul of their tax-exempt status I would think.

 

If you cash out a scout - they should claim it as income and your unit technically owes the IRS its half of the income tax on the "pay" generated by the scout's fundraising. Not a fun place to be IMHO.

 

Besides, as other posters have stated. The funds technically belong to the CO. They are just "earmarked" for the individual scout in the unit. The scout leaves, then the earmark is removed and the $$ goes into the unit'd general fund.

[Crew21_Adv]

mmcnulty,

 

Greetings!

 

You've probably heard the old quote, "Money is the root of all evil".

 

At least it is the cause of many arguments, from homes, to city councils, to congress, and even BSA Packs, Troops and Crew Committees.

 

The unit Committee and Treasurer should be good stewards of the Scout's money and should use the monies towards the benefit of the Pack (Troop or Crew). But the way that unit committees arrange and spend their budgets varies from unit to unit.

 

Some years ago, our Number 1 popcorn seller of the year (the young man did a tremendous job, with alot of parental help too, and sold about 3 thousand dollars worth)decided he wanted to move to another pack (less than a mile away) where his best friend from school participated.

 

It took a committee decision, and we rested at that, final, no more discussion. We handed a check for 1,500 to the other units treasurer. It caused a few hurt feelings in our Pack, a few committee members didn't think we should have voted on a refund or portion refund. It caused a few hurt feelings at the other Pack, they wanted the full amount of the boys efforts 3,000. And the parents were disappointed too.

 

Maybe it took about 3-4 months, well into Summer Day Camp to get over the mutual hurt feelings. But our Packs eventually became friendly and cordial again.

 

So.. You're not going to really find a roadmap or written guidance on how to distribute funds. Though, you will receive alot of advice.

 

Your pack's fund raising and dues where established for benefit of the Pack, correct? Then make the best decision that would benefit the entire pack.

 

A Scout is brave. At some point the Committee Chair may need to defend the committee's decision from criticism.

 

 

Now, on a side not. During NLE there is a topic, How Scouting is Funded, some new leaders just do not know where the money comes from or money earning project worksheets. Again it is advice, but we recommend to Cub Scout leaders to allow second-year Webelos to commit Fall fundraising events to the Pack (hey Webelos activity pins are the most expensive advancement item on the advancement report/purchase order). But we recommend any Winter-Spring fundraising by the 2nd year Webelos (i.e. Scout show ticket sales) be allotted towards the receiving Troop. Again, this is a unit committee decision. But it would certainly help offset the cost of a first year Scouter, first Summer camp experience.

 

Good Luck!

 

Scouting Forever and Venture On!

Crew21 Adv

 

[Bugs1525]

We have cub scout accounts. Ones a year we have a fundraiser that benfits each individual boy. Depends what we sell but for example if we sell Pizza's and the profit is 5.00 then each one you sell you get 4.00 in your account and the 1.00 goes to the pack. All of our popcorn sales goes to the pack. The treasurer keeps track fo this and the money only leaves one of two ways. If you transfer then if the new pack has individual accounts then we send a check to that pack for your account. If you graduate to the Troop then we send the check to the troop to go in to your individual troop account. As a cub we allow you to use this money for anything cub scout related....scout store, camping/hiking gear, any pack/den field trips that are not funded by the pack, summer camp anything like that. You just buy or pay and then the pack will reimburse you. And it works almost the same way in the Troop however, they have a minimum that they will pay out at one time.

 

Hope that makes sense and helps!!

 

Terri

[DeanRx]

For those that send scouts off to a Troop with check in hand or those that transfer the cub's individual account to another pack....

 

HOW ? Do you handle a cub that either drops out, or ages out of Webelos and chooses not to go on to Boy Scouts? It does happen you know...

 

I'm surprised you haven't been faced with an outbound scout (and parents) with their hand out expecting the Pack to cut them a check. After all you pay out for a scout's transfer... why not their 'severance' package?

 

While I understand the BIG earners to want to have some personal funds to direct towards their camp fees, etc... fund-raising is to "make the pack go..." - part of being a scout is raising funds to support your UNIT and the funds belong to the UNIT, not to you.

 

If you were to ever transfer churches, do you go to the pastor and ask for your donations back to take with you to your new congregation? To me - its the same concept.

[Bugs1525]

Okay in our pack if one of our boys drops out the money goes into the pack account. We do our normal popcorn sale and we have a pack bake auction as well and that is for our pack. Then we sell in the spring and that goes to the boys accounts except a 1.00 or so goes to the pack. However, we are starting to make it that if you do not sell papcorn then you will not get as much in your scout account as the ones that sell popcorn. That way we do not have some boys only selling in the spring for themselves.

 

Hope that makes sense!

[ScoutMomSD]

with girl scouts the funds only transfer if the group dissolves and the funds go to the new "troop".

 

We do not have a Boy Scout troop that is made only of our "graduates" and there is no way in heck with what we do as a pack I would ever propose sending money out. If they move out of state AND to another Cub Scout pack that MAY be a different issue.

[rjscout]

I guess part of the idea of transferring any money would be how the fundraiser was setup. We told our scouts that anything over $300 of popcorn sales, a percentage of the additional sales would go into a camping fund. We have some Webelos who are crossing over with some $$ in that fund/account, so we are talking of giving them Scout Bucks that can be used for camping with the Troop or at the Scout Shop. Those who are not crossing over will not get the funds.

[kbandit]

When my youngest was in cubs we got into selling the magnetic ribbons. We got in on the "ground floor" so to speak and sold thousands at $5 ea. Cost was 1.25 pack got 2. scout got 1.75. There were approx 25 in pack. We had scout accounts with $500-600 in accounts. It followed the scouts into boy scouts or was put into general cub fund for those who did not cross-over. Checks were made out to BS troops.

 

To the original post:Your committee needs to setup the guidelines on funding for individual accounts (Webelos). As for transferring monies to a different cub pack I would only consider any unused portion of the dues paid.

 

One way to set up Webelos accounts is Webelos sell $XXX.XX you will get $XX.XX into an account to use for scout related expenses (receipts req) or it will tranfer to troop or go into pack funds. Anything over X amount goes to pack.

 

Our troop sells wreaths in the fall and invite Webelos who are going to join our troop to participate for part of proceeds going to scout account. I am going to venture not alot of troops do this. We believe popcorn sales should benifit the pack the webelos are a member of at that time.

 

Your committee needs to get a written policy (agreement) regarding any of this and it must apply to all. I would stronly suggest that only Webelos have accounts. Everything else would be pack funds.

 

What your pack decides to do is what will work best for your pack.

 

 

[Twocubdad]

As I say my prayers tonight I will thank God in Heaven we don't do individual Scout accounts.(This message has been edited by Twocubdad)