Make a profit on training?

[BadenP]

Bottomline it depends on who your SE is(I had 3 different SE's) when I was a DE we were all expected to clear at least 25% profit from every district activity, except in the case of rare unexpected situations or expenses.

[NealOnWheels]

When I was a District Training Chairman back in the 90's our council did not charge anything for basic leader training. To me that is fulfilling the council's obligation to support the units. After all, in the Friends of Scouting sales pitch they said that training is one of the things your donation pays for. Our council, at least, made good on that claim.

 

The council office would make all the photocopies you needed provided you gave them a two week notice. The DE would bring the photocopies back from the office.

 

The council provided their camps for free. Including cabins. Just make sure reservations are made well in advance.

 

The council provided training cards and trained strips at no cost.

 

Anything invovling food participants were asked to bring it.

 

Resource materials were provided on loan from the council store. If a participant saw something they wanted they could pay for it and take it with them. What better place to sell something that someone learns about in training. Immediate gratification.

 

I guess the council still made a profit by having training as an extension of the store.

 

 

[Tokala]

West Central Florida Council budgets training events to have "excess revenue". That's Council speak for profit. General rule was 10-15% contingency. If a course director doesn't bring in the contingency there is no reprecussions. When I ran JLT/NYLTC I would take some of my "excess revenue" and purchase new equipment for the camp/training such as coolers, igloos, chef kits, stoves, etc. It was something that wasn't permitted, but I tend to push the limits sometimes!

 

Our budgeting has become more realistic lately. We have evaluated what it costs to open a builing or use a building for an event. Instead of budgeting a contingency, we now actually build the cost for the building into the event. That money gets deposited into a camp use fee and goes to maintaining/operating the camps. We always heard how expensive it was to run the 2 camps, but all those contingency funds were never divided between camp use and program revenue. Now we do and it's allows for us to demonstrate to the general Council membership how the monies are used.

[Eagle732]

"Well I can tell you, running the BSA is not cheap. Yeah you got to pay pro's salaries. But I can tell you from expereince, it doesn't cut it. I know folks who left BSA to go to the private sector, and with their KSAs from working with the BSA they have doubled, and in one case tripled, their salary."

 

Yea, lots of jobs out there that don't pay people what they deserve such as teachers, firefighters, police officers, etc. People take these jobs because they want to help others, not for the money.

[Eagle92]

'732,

 

I agree there are professions that don't pay as they should. I think I can safely add military to your list. But I'd also add being a DE. a friend calculated how much we got paid per hour, and it was in the $2-$3 per hour range.

 

But other factors to play a part in scouting. Camps is #1. Office is another. Supplies, program, etc etc.

 

And yes I came aboard to help others, not for the money. The hours are horrible, and the stress can be overwhelming. It puts a lot of stress on marriages. My wife of 2 months, who knew exactly what my job entailed prior to our marirage, gave me an ultimatum: her or the job. One of my coworkers was on wife #3, 2 of my co-workers got divorces, and 2 had "nervous breakdowns." Very high stress, at least under my SE and DFS.

[Eagle732]

Yes, military too! And if we had to pay these people what they were worth we couldn't afford it!