CSDC and Charging Extra Fees?

[Eagle92]

Ok folks, new PD here so go easy.

 

In trying to revamp the CSDC program, one thing that came into mind was having a "feast" and campfire on Friday evening/nite. Obviously the price of CSDC would include the feast for the Cubs, but do you think charging an extra $5, or whatever the cost of the meal is, for parents and siblings would be too much to ask? I know that we are having some hard times economically, we have lost 1 or 2 cubs adn that is with offering a payment plan and financial aid, so I don't want to see like we are nickle and diming folks.

 

[Basementdweller]

PD= Program Director??????

CSDC=Cub Scout Day Camp??????????

 

So what is the cost of your Day Camp and what is the program your offering?

 

If your day camp cost $5 then another $5 will be out of line. if it is $100 probably not.

 

But $5 for one meal is a bit much. What exactly are you serving? Does that change the licensing for the food?

[Eagle92]

Basement,

Yep on the abbreviations. As for costs, Camps is $55 by X date, $70 after X date up to the day of. EXCEPTION is all new TCs, i.e. Kindergartners who sign up after school ends. They get the $55 fee.

 

$5 is the estimate, we will be charging cost rounded up to the nearest half dollar.

 

never thought about licensing. Need to look into that. Our campers bring their own lunches, so I never thought about that. Going to be at NCS next weekend and learn what else I'm don't know I would think that the cooking would be OK since it's going to be foil cooking that the boys do.

[Basementdweller]

We did bag lunches, as well. how are you going to keep them cold? The inspector will ask. We have a district member that has a refrigerator trailer, we loaded all of the lunches in totes by den and loaded them into the trailer.

 

the main thing about the food is your not cooking in a kitchen and cleaning up. Basically your gonna have maybe silverware and a cup to clean with what your proposing. I think $5 for a foil meal, drink and dessert is kinda steep. We did dutch oven deserts and the boys loved it. Peach cobbler, black forest cobbler. what fun.

 

I am not sure about how many boys your planning for, but how many campfires and how big are the fires gonna be? Who is gonna start and maintain them, How are you going to mark them to tell them a part. we have used permanent markers and finger nail polish.

[Twocubdad]

No, that's not out of line.

 

One of your camp standards is to include the parents or family in at least one activity such as a picnic or campfire.

 

Do you have a budget yet? For simplicity sake, my preference would be to include the cost of the picnic in camp fee. But if you're afraid of someone taking advantage, it's reasonable to include one or two meal tickets in the base fee and sell extras for those who want/need them.

 

I don't think $5 is too much to ask, unless what you're serving is really, really cheap. Even for burgers and dogs, five bucks is a pretty reasonable meal.

 

One thing to remember is that when you start preparing and serving food, you're kicking in a whole new set of camp standards to meet, if not local health department regulations (I assume that's what basementdweller means by "licensing").

 

We had luck having an ice cream social at the end of camp. A local shop sold us ice cream at cost and even provided a pushcart-style freezer to serve out of. It was well received by the boys and families and was a pretty easy solution for the staff.

[Eagle92]

Thanks for the help folks. My goal is 80 Cubs, essentially doubling last year's numbers. DE thinks we are getting 100 since I am promoting it more than it has in the past and I am revamping the program. Biggest complaint was that it was the same old same old.

 

Goal is to have the kids do the cooking. Cobblers will be by den, and for simplicity's sake will be peach all around, unless someone has allergies.

 

Rough menu is hamburgers, hot dogs, bug juice, sun tea, chips, and cobbler. Idea is to use a pig cooker for safety. And I will have some non-meat alternatives for those who don't eat meat.

[Eagle732]

Our District's Day Camp fee is $145 per Scout and we limit it to 750 Cubs. Cost is relative to the program you have. Also we use to do a family night type cook out but it got to be too much of a hassle with the amount of people attending.

[Greaves]

Last summer, the CSDC end-of-week meal was catered by a Boy Scout troop as a fundraiser for them, and a convenience for the families. I'm guessing it was less of a headache for the camp staff, but only guessing.

 

[tdk101]

Our CSDC has a family picnic on Friday after the day ends. Each family brings their own picnic. Often what happens is some people in the den get together and buy pizza and share. Everyone gets a make your own sundae at the end - no extra fee. I guess they used to do burgers and hot dogs but it got to be too much to plan the food and cook.

 

There is some time to walk around to the program areas during dinner if the parents want to. Then they start the awards and skits around a campfire.

[Eagle92]

Greaves,

 

The Fundraiser idea for a meal is awesome! Why didn't I think about it, especially since the OA does that at the district camporee, council camporee, and district Webloree already. All profits are divied up between camperships and the council camp in our district mainenece fund. Camp could pay for the cubs and staff out of budget, parents, siblings, etc could pay. While i would like the Cubs to cook themselves, it may be easier!

 

TDK,

Plan is to have a walkabout from 4PM - 5:30. meal prep, eating, and free time would be 5:30 to 6:45.

[Eamonn]

" Going to be at NCS next weekend"

It's been a while since I was involved in NCS.

Back when I was, a lot of time was spent on the budget.

As you can imagine different Councils go about things in different ways.

You might want to go over the ideas that you have with the District Camping Committee.

 

From what I have seen most Cub Scout Day Camp budgets seem to be based on what was charged last year!! That very often becomes "What we can get away with charging"!

I have heard that some Councils expect to make money from these camps. I'm thankful that the Council I serve never has and the expectation was that we didn't lose money.

Cutting costs can be done by looking at what crafts the Little guys are going to do?

I have used the easy way out by just ordering stuff that was shipped in and taken the harder path of bugging everyone for everyday items that could be used for crafts (Pringle containers, the scoops used for washing detergent, coffee cans and the like.)

I'll bet if you do a line by line budget you could do the meal and not have to increase the cost. But if you feel that you need to add a few extra bucks? I'd make a point of presenting the idea to the District Committee first.

One thing that worked for us was a giant banana split. We used plastic pipe that was cut in half, supported with wooden holders. We used long tables but it could be placed on the ground.

My first idea was to have the Cub Scouts and siblings not use any utensils or their hands! But I relented and gave everyone a plastic spoon!

The parents seemed to get a kick out of watching their kids pigging out.

For the parents night we had made arrangements to have First Aid demonstrations, with EMT's ambulances, fire trucks and a helicopter.

The day before we had asked each family to wrap up a raw egg and mark it with their name. The helicopter took off and then threw all the packages out. Everyone the went to see if their egg had survived the drop.

We ended the evening with a camp fire.

Eamonn.

 

[Basementdweller]

$145 for day camp???? Wow

 

I will never complain again about our cost

 

We put on our day camp with a budget of $1200 for 130 boys and tag alongs. They charge 55 per youth.. hmmm.

 

 

Sounds like you have a plan.

(This message has been edited by Basementdweller)

[Twocubdad]

If it makes you feel better, Eamonn, the current syllabus calls for the session on budgeting to last just 20 minutes.

 

I hope it doesn't burst any one's bubble, but day camps are supposed to be money maker as opposed to money loosers. Councils should require camps to build in a contingency fee which, hopefully, becomes the council's profit at the end of camp. The amount will vary greatly, depending on the services, material and resources the council provides. I'm familiar with some free-standing camps where the council's percentage is as low as 10% and other camps, held on council property with the council providing food service, t-shirts and patches, and some staffing, charge 50% or more. Lots of variables.

 

I'd say your experience, Basementdweller, is outside normal ranges, to say the least.

[Eagle92]

Thanks a bunch folks.

 

Yep the camps are suppose to be a money maker for the council. BUT I for one am glad b/c I do know where that money is goign

 

After years of benign neglect, the council is using the oldest camp again for more and more activities, including my district's CSDC. Long story short some major improvements are being planned at the lcoal camp, which will benefit not only CSDC in years to come, but scouting as a whole. So I'm not concerned about where the money is going, I personally want a new bath/shower house, among other improvements.

 

As for our prices, we are in an economically hard hit area, even before the current recession, and have tried to minimize costs as much as possible. Even at $55, we still have folks who can't afford it! last year one of the council's fundraising projects was selling coupon books that inlcuded a coupon for CSDC, the summer camp, and the HA base we own. that helped tremendously.

 

Please keep the ideas coming. ALSO if anyone knows what type of prepwork I need to bring to NCS, please tell me as I still have not received my paperwork form national. Thanks in advance.

 

 

[Eamonn]

Again it's been a while!

Here in the NE-Region.

The NCS at Heritage Scout Reservation, used to start registration at about 0800.

People coming from out of state, sometimes made arrangements to arrive the night before.

Not much happened before 1000.

The weekend was very full, in part because every effort was made to try and be done by about 1100 on Sunday.

The participants were housed in huts (Houses really!)

The entire weekend was spent indoors in a classroom type setting. So no special gear was needed, just an overnight bag with uniforms of course!

People were invited to bring, patches from past daycamps, themes and theme related material from past daycamps, song sheets and copies of budgets!!

Pen, paper. (They used to hand out a nice folder full of everything you needed to know about daycamp. So a 3 hole punch comes in handy.)

If you have a small musical instrument that you can play? Your Den will love you.

Your best bet might be to contact the camp for times and what sort of accommodation you will be staying in.

If you need anything special like a special diet or a hook up for a machine at night you might want to let them know.

Twocubdad,

I was thinking back when there were two courses one for the program director and one for the daycamp director!

Happy to hear that they have it down to 20 mins!

With so many different councils doing it so differently it was kind of a waste of time!

 

Ea.