Individual Unit Accounts

[Scouting4Ever]

We are starting Individual Unit Accounts this year with this round of popcorn sales. What suggestions, tips, hints do you have in executing the accounts and making sure that everything is on the up and up. Hoe do you do yours? Is it a reimbursement type account, do you write checks for the kids, how does it work where you do it?

 

Thanks in advance for the conversation, I appreciate it.

[Scoutfish]

We call them pass accounts. I have no idea why, just that we do.

 

So, anyways,. when our scouts sell popcorn, they get 20% of the sale. You figure that Trail's End get's 33%. The Council gets 33%,and 33% goes to the pack.

 

We give the scout their 20% out of our 33%. NOT 20% of the 33%- but their 20% comes out of the 33% the pack gets.

 

When we hold our annual BBQ chicken dinners ( 90% of pack funding comes from this) we give the scouts 15% towards pass accounts for individual sales of tickets.

 

Now, this is not actual cash money per se, but "On paper" money. We do not write checks to the scouts. It stays seperate on paper only, but in reality is in the general fund.

 

The scouts can use money they have in their accounts to pay for recharter, camping,council camping, trips, supplies, non pack provided equipment, uniforms, etc.

 

When a scout crosses over to BOY Scouts, any un-used money will either go to the next year Tigers or back to the pack. We let them know this every year and will constantly tell the 2nd year Webelos that they better "Use it or lose it".

 

But we never give them actual cash. They participate to help the pack or council, not make money. The pass accounts are basically incentives that can be used towards the scouting experience.

[bear dad]

We started last year, and we had only a few boys that sold. We tried to encourage selling of it, to offset boys expenses.

We basically broke it down this way, all boys who sold got a small amount on a gift card to scout shop, wal mart it was a reward for selling, a percent went to pack and the rest went to a account. They could use it for anything scouting related. Clothes, dues, trips ,

if scout needed boots for example , he would need to turn in a reciept for a check to be issued. We do not give checks or cash out.

My son sold enough to pay for all his scouting last year including camp and still has some left over.

 

[Pack212Scouter]

Our unit has run "Scout accounts" for many years. Basically it we run ours as a charge account. 25% of gross popcorn sales goes into their account and 50% of camp card sales (all of our portion of camp cards). They can then use this account to pay for anything that can be paid for through the pack, pack campouts, derby kits, council camps, B&G, etc. It has worked out really well. The boys that help the Pack Go get something out of it in appreciation. They also get the joy of "paying for themselves". Finally, it has alowed us to accurately predict event attendance because campouts are paid for, even if it is Scout account. We also found that if people "pay" for something, they are much more likely to make the effort to attend than if it is just a "free" event.

 

If they are a multi-child family, it is administered as one shared account. If a boy bridges to Boy Scouts and leaves a brother in the Pack, he can take his "percentage" with him. Also if a boy goes to a Troop or another Pack, he can take it there as long as he is staying in Scouting. If they drop, the money goes to the scholarship fund.(This message has been edited by pack212scouter)