NEW BSA REGISTRATION FEE INCREASE

[Eamonn]

I have to admit that when I became aware of the increase, I thought it was "No big deal."

However, I now have a unit that is very upset, and the leaders are saying that they will not be rechartering next year due to this increase. In fact they are making plans to have all the boys join the Campfire Program !

Do I have, the only unit in the USA,with such feelings, or are there more.

I know nothing about the campfire program, and I'm not going to say a word about it.

 

[OldGreyEagle]

How much are we talking here? 10%, 100%? Any idea how much?

[Eamonn]

The fee is $7.00, at present and will go to $10.00,effective Jan. 1, 2003.

I was at one time aware of how long it has been at $7.00, but for the life of me I can't remember, I think it's something like ten years.But please don't quote me.

[yaworski]

That is a pretty hefty increase, if my math is right it's 42%. When you multiply that by all of the members, both adult and youth, that's a few million dollars.

 

On the other hand, $10 isn't too steep for belonging to an organization. Heck, for 90% of the population, if they can afford $7, they can afford $10. Yeah, I know that there are poor folks out there but I see too many of the poor standing in line to blow $20 on lottery tickets or $30 on cigarettes.

 

Our troop is eating the increase this year. We'll probably pass it on to the boys next year.

 

 

[OldGreyEagle]

So how much does it cost to join the Campfire Program and re-up that each year and buy a new uniform (?) or at the very least whats the cost of a scout uniform forever discarded and for this they would leave scouts?

 

How much is registration for Little League, Soccer, etc? How much are your Union Dues, Professional Association Membership fees, etc. 10 bucks a year? A movie and popcorn and soda is at least that and probably more in most places. Our Camporee and Klondike fees are moer than that per scout per year.

 

What am I missing?

[Bob White]

This is the first registration increase in the BSA in 14 years. I cannot think of ANYTHING that has held its cost for that long.

 

Bob

[Rooster7]

And yet another thread in which I agree with Bob White...This is getting too scarey. And more frightening, Yaworski appears to be agreeing with Bob too.

[evmori]

I agree with yaworski & Bob & Rooster7. $10 is not that much! In my Troop, if we can afford it, we pay for the adults. This doesn't happen every year.

 

Ed Mori

Scoutmaster

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Mike Long]

This is the first I've heard of this. Typical of our roundtable to keep us in the know.

 

$3 more for a year jammed full of cool scouting fun?

 

PPTTTHHHFFFF!

Please, that is nothing. You mean the parents can't say no to a pack of smokes, a beer or two, a sixer of soda or brown bag lunch once instead of fast food?

 

Even if they double the cost it is still the best value in youth programs anywhere.

[yaworski]

"In my Troop, if we can afford it, we pay for the adults."

 

My old pack paid the registration fee for all adults and 50% of all training costs. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my new troop pays 0% of anything for adults.

[Eamonn]

This question leads me to ask; "How much is our program worth ?

As someone who is involved with the Friends Of Scouting Family Campaign, I'm the lucky fellow that asks the parents of our boys,to dig deep and make a donation.

Our council is a small council with only ten-thousand members, half of them in the Learning for life program. So we in fact only have five-thousand traditional scouts.

This year the council budget went to 1.3 million dollars.(Up from 1.1 million in 2001.)

If we were to take off all the money that we get from the United Way and throw in the revenue we get from, Camping,Sales at the council sevice center,along with the money we get from the community, there would still not be enough money.

However if we were to charge a Council Registration Fee, we could do away with the family campaign, and everyone would share the cost.

I look forward to your thoughts.

[OldGreyEagle]

I dont know when you recharter, I take it since your post says the leaders dont want to recharter next year (meaning some time in 2003) that you have from now until at the very least Januaury 1, 2003 (while close, still over 60 days away) to get each family to come up with 3 more dollars. At any economic bracket, I hope that can be done.

 

If by a Council Registration Fee, you mean an additional assesment per scout at registration time, I am not sure that is Boy Scout legal, but I will leave that up to those more worthy than I. Without knowing if its "legal", I would think it would be better to spread costs over as many people as possible. When my son played Little League, every year at registration we got 2 $20.00 boxes of chocolate bars to sell. We prepaid the 40 bucks upfront and if we could sell the stuff, we did, other wise we ate it (literally). I dont know the BSA policy on forced popcorn sales, but it would be a way to spread cost over everybody, but would also give the families a way to recover the expense.

(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

[Bob White]

I have never heard of a council charging a registration fee or do I think it is allowable. I would also not want to see a required popcorn sale or other forced fundraiser.

 

The way scouting is financed is certainly not the most efficient or easiest way to raise the needed funds but easy isnt always better. The methods used by scouting have always been based on voluntary participation. I think the BSA wants people in the communities across the country to support the growth and continuation of scouting out of personal choice. They want people to donate because it is the right thing to do, not because it is the required thing to do. Another reason is that many families, especially those with multiple family members in scouting, could not afford to be members.

 

Looking at the big picture, I think there are many valuable character and citizenship lessons to be learned by youth and adults by the way we finance scouting. My parents taught my brothers and me that we are personally responsible for the quality of the communities we live in. Being allowed to choose to support scouting, whether through personal effort or personal finance or both, helps develop and exercise that responsibility.

Scouts make the choice whether to sell popcorn, a unit makes the choice to host a Friends of Scouting, An adult chooses whether to donate funds, the United Way chooses what best serves their community. Scouting continues to develop young people because the community wants to support scouting, not because they have to.

 

Bob White

 

[yaworski]

"Our council is a small council with only ten-thousand members, half of them in the Learning for life program. So we in fact only have five-thousand traditional scouts."

 

Wowzers! I didn't think that councils that small existed. We have that many Scouts in my District (soon to become two districts). I can think of a lot of benefits that could stem from a Council that small but I can see the negatives.

 

I wouldn't object to a Council fee, if it was small. I wouldn't want to be paying $7 to national, $30 to the troop and another $30 to the council. Actually, on second thought that doesn't seem so bad and would be preferable to the FOS guy pestering us.

 

 

 

[sctmom]

Have these people looked at Campfire USA? It costs $20 per year to register. They don't have the same amount of structure as BSA. I've been looking into Campfire myself. I don't see the same amount of literature and resources as BSA. I talked briefly with the head guy at the local office, he seemed to be pushing the Campfire family program --- families meet once a month for potluck dinner. Sounds great but not a replacement for Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts (if done properly). If that's what they want then they should go for it, but it is going to cost them more.

 

Our pack has in the past few years raised enough popcorn money to pay for all recharter fees for all the boys and all adults. Plus those popcorn profits help the council.