No shows after recharter

[CNYScouter]

How does your Pack handle Cubs (families) that say that they will be rechartering but either drop right after or dont show up in September when the Pack starts meeting again?

 

In our Pack parents pay the first time registering and fundraising pays the fee after that.

 

I know that we will always have the ones that move.

 

Just this year what would have been the 2nd year WEBELOS den didnt return in September.

 

Or are a few Cubs dropping part of the cost of doing business and we should just plan on budgeting it in?

 

[Scoutfish]

"Or are a few Cubs dropping part of the cost of doing business and we should just plan on budgeting it in?"

 

NO! You let fundraising pay after the first time registering? WOW! That's pretty nice of the pack if you ask me. If they don't like the cost of buisness, you are willing to budget it in. What if a handfull would join, but don't want to pay...will that be budgeted in too in the future?

 

Not trying to sound harsh or like a jerk, but at somepoint,you have to say: "Look, we are offerening a program here. At some point you have to recognize it's value and also you have to know you have to pay that value!."

 

Now, as far as how you are set up now...if it works, that's great, but I wouldn't give too much more than that. Soon, you will be bending over backwards and paying people to show up.

 

Sometimes kids grow out of it, parents have other obligation or maybe the scouts suddenly decide to be into sports or even ( as much as we hate it) into girls and just hanging out.

Nothing worse than MAKING a scout who does not want to be involved show up!

 

Give them a call. If it's a sudden financial burden ( loss of job or whatnot) offer to help out.

 

Other than that, realize it's just a cycle of scouting: people come, people go.

 

[dg98adams]

We managed our pack this way. I think the Troop my son is in does the same way, although for most they take registration out of dues.

 

If the Scout worked on the unit fundraisers, then I believe they plan to recharter him unless hearing otherwise.

 

If the Scout is not being seen a lot (and skipping fundraisers) he probably would not get rechartered. But if he showed up at the next years meeting (Sept for Cubs, Jan. for Troop), he would get a new app & asked to complete it and likely asked to pay for it.(This message has been edited by dg98adams)

[Abel Magwitch]

In my council, Cub Scout recruiting is held at the public libraries. When potential cubs show up, they are immediately encouraged to pay their registration fees. Then they are given a list of Packs in the area to visit. There are some who are shocked to find when they visit a Pack that there are additional dues to pay. Then they never really join a Pack. But as far as council is concerned, they have another member on the books for the fiscal year.

[Twocubdad]

Your post presents two problems. The first is whether or not to automatically recharter everyone. It is healthy for a unit to annually reassess their roster and require some action on the Scout or parent's part to continue. All you need is a simple, "yes we still want to be in the pack." Personally, and regardless of fundraising, I don't think requiring the $15 registration fee is asking too much just so everyone has a little skin in the game.

 

As a practical application, in our troop we know who the active Scouts are. If they're late or forgetful with dues at recharter, we will recharter them anyway. But for a kid who shows up once every six weeks (and absent some pre-disclosed conflict like school or sports) and they don't re-up by the deadline, we drop them from the charter. We usually mail a written notification to every family, follow up with e-mails and make mutiple announcements at meetings. We don't carry dead wood. When I became Scoutmaster we had 48 boys on the roster and about 25 active. We now have 42 on the roster and I would say 40 are active.

 

The second issue is dealing with the Webelos II den. You had a whole den go AWOL? Calls should have been made in SEPTEMBER to your Webelos II den to ask what's up. Now, six months later, is too late to find out what is going on. One of my Wood Badge ticket items was to develop and present as a Roundtable topic a session on Scout retention. This was a biggie. Anyone who misses two consecutive meetings should get a call from their den leader. Anyone who misses four meetings should get a call from the Cubmaster. You need to discover and fix the problem BEFORE not attending Scouts becomes a routine. Maybe the family has a schedule conflict with their den meeting night and moving the boy to another den solves the problem. Maybe it's a transportation problem. Or maybe there is something more going on in the den the unit leaders need to know about. It's amazing the number of boys who drop out of scouting simply because no one called to tell them when den meetings restarted in the fall.

 

In our district the commissioners ask the units to do a mid-year membership inventory in September or October. It's a good practice whether or not your districts asks for it. For any boy who does not return after the summer, you should find out why. If you wait for recharter in the spring, it's too late. The boy has missed 5-6-8 months of the program year and has probably moved on to other things. Our district used to wait until after recharter to look at the "drops." The commissioners and DEs would start calling around in April, but that was a waste of time -- it was too late. Generally all they accomplished was to learn that many boys drop out of scouting really lame, solvable reasons.

[Beagle Scout]

Our pack does well in fundraising, but we still ask each Scout to pay for his own annual registration (as mentioned earlier, then there is skin in the game).

 

As for losing boys over the summer, it seems like this problem would be reduced (hopefully eliminated) by having a year-round program.

 

[ScoutNut]

My Pack also only asks for the initial registration fee. Rechartering is covered by the Pack and the Charter Org.

 

The Pack has activities all summer, so the leaders see the boys a few times before September. Once regular den meetings start up again in September the den leaders contact any no-shows from the previous year. There are usually not a lot. Every now and again a Scout will move, divorce issues will interfear, the family decides their boy needs to concentrate on school and not outside activities, etc. Most of our dens usually retain all old members, or add on a few new ones.

 

Now and then we will get a Tiger who registers and then disappears. This is usually because the family decides they can not make the commitment. We will typically keep them on the rolls if it looks like they will come back for Wolf Cubs.

 

We recharter in December, and new Scouts have paid for a full year in Aug/Sept anyway, so it is really no big deal to recharter them.

 

We have never had an entire den simply not return in September. Especially a 5th grade Webelos den looking forward to Boy Scouts. This would be a very big red flag. How many boys are you talking about? What happened to their den leader? Was there any indication of a problem from him/her? Did the den leader ever contact the CM, or CC, to let them know at least that their family would not be back?

 

 

[bear dad]

Our pack is getting ready to recharter for the first time, we started half way thru the last year. We have made several attempts to let parents know when, where, and cost.

We are charging the fee that BSA is charging $15.00 plus insurance, this both boys and adults. We are struggling with getting some boys just to pay there dues, so we can not as Pack, pay or afford to recharter everyone.

Parents have known, from when they signed up at first meeting this anual thing and would be coming up so they can not say they did not know.

 

With that said, there MIGHT be a family that is struggling,but if there son sold popcorn when we sold they could used some of that to pay for it, which about 3 out of the 4 that sold is doing.

 

Basically at this point, if they don't have there fees in by time given they will be dropped from our roster.may sound harsh,but might be only way to get there attention.I don't think there is pack out there that has not informed parents/ boys there is some sort of cost to be in scouts? personally think scouts is a lot cheaper than other things that could be involved in.

[Scoutfish]

Just the other day, I met a fellow from another pack in my district about 7 miles up the road. We introduced ourselves and started talking. We just talked whatever : this and that, and at some point, he mentioned how he was glad that Webelos was now a one year program instead of a two year program.

 

NOw, I have no idea if this is true or not. I'm a fist time ADL for a bear den.

 

But this is something to consider: THose boys may be elsewhere due to this being correct,or elsewhere because they THINK they are supposed to be. Maybe another DL had this same "knowledge " of Webelos being a 1 year deal instead of two. If the boys are 10, they can join the BOY Scouts. Could also be somebody trying to boost their troop numbers or create a new unit withing the troop.

 

What would that be called? A new patrol? That sound right?

[Scoutfish]

Our pack has dues of $36.00 a year per scout, due before recharter each year.

$18.00 is for recharter and insurance : $15.00 & $3.00

 

The other $18.00 is pack dues. That covers stuff like gear, equipment, the new PWD track we just bought, badges/patches ribbons, pins, and belt loops (only the first set per event -- parent pays for second of each event)

 

The $18.00 pack dues also pays for stuff like supplies and cleaning materials, leader training fees, etc.

 

It really sucks to not include a scout in activities, but at the same time, tell those parents to name off any other organazation that will do stuff on a weekely basis, not counting all the other feild trips, campouts etc and supply a leader/teacher for free.

 

If they name one..tell them they might be more interested in that Org or group!

[Pack212Scouter]

Scoutfish, he is incorrect. Webelos is still a two year program....or more like 18-20 months. Anyway, they can only join Boy Scouts if they are 10 1/2 with AOL (with 6 months active after Webelos badge) or having turned 11 or completed 5th grade.

[Pack212Scouter]

As for recharter, our pack recharters in January, so any scouts that don't return are already chartered through the end of the year. We just archive them in PackMaster and if they don't come back, don't recharter them the next January. If they don't show up after recharter, they have already paid dues back in September that covered recharter, so the Pack does not lose money. We do try to find out why they dropped though.

[OneHour]

In our pack, scout recharters 1 time a year (in Jan). If the cub scout sold $350 worth of popcorn in the fall, then his recharter is free! At the very first time (Rally Night), they pay prorated fee until rechartering time in January. Our motto ... "money in hand is worth more than those in the promise!"