How many Boy Scouts selling Popcorn have Fill It Up in mind?

[Joni4TA]

Out of 18 boys in our Troop - we've had ONE BOY fill up his Popcorn order form this year! (so far that's all that's been reported anyway)

 

In our Council, after a boy fills up his trails end popcorn order sheet (take order), he gets his name in the hat, and they are doing weekly drawings for items like 19" TVs, mountain bikes and iPods.

 

I thought this would be a better motivator than some (most) of the prizes Trails End has to offer. That's not to say that the prizes aren't decent, but it's been my experience at Boy Scout level, that the boys are less interested in the prizes offered and more interested in the commission/Scout bucks they can earn instead.

 

1 boy out of 18 has sold 25 lines items off the order form! Just 1! I am giving that kid Kudos, no doubt - just curious how many other Boy Scouts out there are that interested in the Fill It Up campaign??

 

 

[gwd-scouter]

Out of nine Scouts, all but two sold some level of popcorn and only one filled his order form. The promotion for fill it up in our Council is a day at Clemson University meeting the coaches, players, participating in clinics, really cool hat, and other stuff. Very fun and eagerly anticipated by those that attended last year - the first year. The one Scout in our troop that filled his form did so last year as a Cub and loved the day at Clemson. In our District, we had many many more Cubs fill the form than we had even come close at the Boy Scout level.

[Lisabob]

Our troop is participating in the popcorn sale for the first time in 10+ years, so I'm not sure if it is because we're fairly out of the loop on this or what, but as far as I can tell, there is practically no promotion of the "fill it up" campaign going on, besides what's printed right on the order form. And none of the boys seem to give a hoot about it.

 

Now, if we could arrange for the boys to meet local Mega-U athletes, well that *might* draw their attention. Cool promo, gwd.

[hotdesk]

I turned 18 2 years ago. I lead my troop in popcorn sales every year that we participated. I earned "Scout Dollars". The only prize that our troop offered (we didn't work with Trail Ends regarding their incentives, instead kept more of the money) was the Council Prize. The Council prize was based on dollar amounts and at $1300 gave you a choice between a $200 Savings Bond or a free week at camp.

 

From my personal experiences the following holds true

 

1.Scouts are not motivated to sell popcorn.

2.Most of the sales come from parents when the sell to coworkers

3.Another large part of the sales come from immediate and extended family members. Scouts do not think about calling them on their own. The are encouraged by parents.

4. The final, small, part come from, probably, a single day when scouts hit up a couple of their nearby neighbors.

 

So in our troop we have started to encourage scouts to sell popcorn. We offer incentives during the saling period, besides just "Scout Dollars". They may be for one or more of the following things:

 

1. Sale popcorn to at least 3 teachers

2. Sale at least $250.00

3. Ask your pastor or the pastor of our Chartered Organization

4. Ask our Chartered Organization Represenative

5. or other simliar things

 

We promise the scouts a prize. One week we'll pick an incentive, guarentee a prize, and the following check it and give them the prize. It gets them to bring their popcorn sheets and therefore popcorn stays on their mind. Most are willing to sell for our incentives.

 

Something else we do before we start selling is talk over how to properly sale (presentations and things to bring) and things not to do. It's an interactive discussion.

 

I don't know if this gets scouts to actually fill their order form (I'm not the troop's popcorn kernal, just the person that offers the incentives). The sales at least have gone up.

[Gonzo1]

My son has consistently out sold nearly all others. He has sold over $2,500 worth 2 years in a row, he really likes the bragging rights of being number 1. He was Number 1 in the unit twice, number 5 in district and number 13 in council.

 

Our troop has a system where the portion that goes back to the troop, it all goes into an account for the scout.

 

 

[Joni4TA]

We don't do the Trails End prizes either. They were cool when the boys were cubbies, but it seems like by the time the boys get into Troop level age, they already have all the stuff - same as the prizes - and it's not such a hot incentive anymore.

 

With Popcorn sales, the Troop splits the commission 50/50 with the Scout getting half, based on the amount of hours they sold popcorn during show & sell/deliver. And then they get their Take Order commission as well.

 

Our Council this year are the ones that are doing this Fill it Up promo with the bike, iPod and color TV. Trails End Fill it Up Program is giving out a patch and a certificate if you mail them a copy of the filled order form as well. I am glad there are least those incentives because our Troop would not be able to afford even an extra $1 for additional incentive!

 

Our Troop also does two bake sales per year and all the sales profit from that are divided by scout hour worked, and go straight to Scout accounts to defer the cost of summer camp.

 

I guess my biggest problem with how we are doing this fundraising, is that the Troop almost never has any money! And the boys' don't WANT to sell Popcorn, they don't WANT to bake cookies, cupcakes and muffins, and they also don't seem to WANT to do anything else! I am tempted to let them have exactly what they DO seem to want, which is a whole bunch of NOTHING - and a as a result, a DEVOID outdoor program! I wonder sometimes if that would wake these kids up to the fact that it's THEIR Troop - and they have to own it and run it, lock, stock and barrel!

 

I guess I need to find out what they ARE motivated to sell - because as it sits right now, it seems like that would be a great big ZERO - nothing!

 

Parents are frankly tired of being nickel & dimed to death - we charge them for recharter/registration, boys life, a flat rate for each camping trip they attend, extra $5 for groceries from camping trips, any additional costs the parents are asked for money, then again there are the dues - $1 per meeting. It's ridiculous! I am a parent and I am tired of it and yet I understand WHY we need to do this. If we didn't constantly go to the parents for money, we would have none..... oh wait, we already DON'T have any!

 

The boys are about to get their PLC together and do the annual plan with the SM. I think I am going to be talking to the SPL in depth about some of this stuff and see if he can't effect some discussion in his PLC about our inherent lack of motivation to earn money for the unit. They can't go on thinking money either grows on trees or that it's just sitting around in their parents' wallets/purses either!

 

Their program won't be so fun if there's no way to pay for it!

[hotdesk]

Scouts, as students and memembers of other organizations, already have tons of fundraisers where they are expected to sell!!! We as adults overuse fundraisers that sell something, because they are easier for us to coordinate. Scouts use popcorns, elementary school PTOs use wrapping paper, Student Council sells multiple things.

 

We need to think of other things that we can do. Our troop has 2 fundraisers that go into the general troop account. These are 1. cartridge recycling and 2. canopy rentals. The adults seem to organize these two and therefore we are okay with 100% of the proceeds going into the troop's fund.

 

There are other fundraisers that we do where we try to avoid selling simply a product. We do a Spaghett Dinner and Pancake Breakfast. We have sold water during a summer parade. We have tried other things where instead of selling another product that parents don't want we sell items or services that people desire.

 

Those scouts that are active in our outdoor program become active in our fundraisers because they are not required to sell. The simply have to work an hour or two and that's that. Money that was raised during the event goes into their scout accounts.

[highcountry]

All our council is offering to fill up the form is a patch. Not much incentive and we have the same scenario that many others see, Cubs love to sell popcorn and scouts don't, also popcorn is an easy sell for the cubs generally and harder for the scouts to do. We had no one fill it up but we did do much better thasn last years sale. We are in a rural area so door to door sales are a more considerable task than the suburbs. Of the 13 boys in our troop that bothered with popcorn this year, my 2 sons were the ONLY ones that had sales other than parents, relatives and people at the parents work as sales.

[JeffD]

our unit had about 30 scouts who sold popcorn and 6 filled it up and 1 sold 24

 

this was our first year selling popcorn and i think it went fairly well

 

 

[raisinemright]

We had a few boys fill thier forms up but Council rejected them. They said the forms were incomplete because they didn't have addresses and phone numbers on them. That's insane. Addresses are for the scouts with orders so they can be sure to deliver it correctly. They don't need Grandma's address.

 

 

[Lisabob]

See what they do with this one:

 

Grandma: 123 Street, My Town, USA 12345 (Phone: 678-901-2345)

 

Yep, I'd be sorely tempted to resubmit the dang forms with that same info in all the "missing" lines, and I'd also be sending copies to my DE and SE. Idiotic, on their part!

 

JeffD, congrats! Glad to hear things went well for your pack.

[raisinemright]

That's a great idea. I'll ask our popcorn chair to just make up a bunch of addresses and fill them out.

 

BTW, we've got lots, and I do mean LOTS of popcorn left over. Did I mention LOTS and LOTS of it. The popcorn chair made a tremendous clerical blunder and overordered LOTS of popcorn. If any of y'all need to fill in some orders of Trails End PM me and we'll see if we can work something out.

[Knight]

As Cub Scouts, my sons were very dtermined to fill up a page each every year. As Boy Scouts, the enthusiasm may not be as strong.

 

The patch was not as much motivation as seeing the form fill up - and going for the next level of the Walmart gift card.

[Sephrina]

If popcorn sales are anything like Girl Scout cookie sales, it gets harder for the boys to sell as they get older. It is much easier to turn down a teen than a seven year old. We actually had a Cadette girl told once by an adult that they only order from Brownies.

[hotdesk]

In my troop I was always one of the top salespeople. At the beginning of my scout experience the brunt of the sales were on me. As I got older I stopped trying to sale as much (I simply didn't care) and my dad started selling more (my dad also became the Scoutmaster toward the end of my scouting experience as a scout).

 

My order form almost always had what I called the person by (ie: Grandma and Grandpa). I have lived in IL and used to sale a bunch of popcorn to my family in Michigan. For these people the only address I only ever put was Michigan.