Who gets donations?

[Lizsanch]

I am the committee chair of a cub scout pack. We are currently running a fundraiser where we sell tickets to an Applebees breakfast. We then keep a certain percentage of the ticket price and help out with serving at the breakfast. Today, three scout families were selling breakfast tickets outside of a grocery store. In addition to whatever tickets they sold, they also collected over $100 in donations. This fundraiser was being done to help boys earn enough money to go to camp. Our pack policy has always been that whatever money is collected as donations goes directly into the pack accounts, not into any individual boys accounts. The treasurer and I both feel that this is the way that it should be done, but the parents of the boys who were selling tickets claim that all the money received as donations should go directly into the accounts of the boys who collected it.

How would you handle this situation? Thanks in advance!

[5yearscouter]

since ALL the money brought into the pack actually belongs to the pack to be used for all the boys,

and since donations especially are usually given with the idea that they are helping boys in a cub scout pack go to camp,

all the donation money should go to the cub scout pack directly.

 

now if you want to give part of it or all of it to a scout account, I understand wanting to do that, but did the people donating, really think they were donating to an individual, or to the group as a whole?

 

if you want to give all or part, or any of those kinds of changes to prior pack policy, you should really get a consensus of your leaders/committee and not have it be 1 or 2 people's idea only.

 

[SeattlePioneer]

The pack policy should be followed until and unless it is changed.

 

You could offer the unhappy parent an opportunity to sell the pack committee on a policy change I suppose.

 

What incentives do the Cub Scouts have to sell tickets?

[moosetracker]

We had a similar policy. I agree pack policy should be followed, unless the committee wishes to review the policy with the parent coming into the committee meeting to discuss why it does not apply.

 

Perhaps if they were selling the tickets with a large sign that stated "Send ME to camp", they may have an issue.. If the sign stated "Send Our troop to camp", perhaps it should be equally divided into all boys accounts.. But, if there was no sign, I agree, the donation was not intended to go to the individual scout, but to the unit.

[SSScout]

Moose has the right idea.

If the boys had signs reading and if they were accosting people saying, "HELP SEND ME TO CAMP" then they rightfully keep the money (but I doubt if the store management would allow that in front of their store or on their property).

If the signs read "HELP SUPPORT CUB PACK XYZ" then the pack general fund receives the donations and any sales of the ticket books. AND the store is happy and allows the Pack to come back next year.

 

And then the Pack committee has a discussion about what it means to be following the Law of the Pack.

 

Do you have some official By-Laws, or act on consensus, or tradition?

Encourage the family in question to "do the right thing".

[Basementdweller]

We sell at the store fronts regularly.......

 

Here is what your going to see......

 

The new parents will turning all of the donations with the sales money......Then they will discover that that money is going into the general Pack Fund for group utilization. those donations will Stop or decrease significantly.

 

I am willing to bet this will be the last time these three parents will turn in donations.

 

Short of having a Pack officer at the fundraising table for the entire event no way to track it.

 

 

I have seen this and we do not permit store front sales with out a Registered Pack Leader present.

[SeattlePioneer]

Unfortunately, Basement's is probably the voice of experience.

[BSA24]

Agree with Basement. The Cubmaster, the Treasurer, the Committee Chair should be present any time the pack is fundraising. It's not a good idea to put newly recruited parents in charge of an event without any supervision or oversight whether fundraising or not.

 

Just asking a parent to chair the B&G can lead to chaos if you "over delegate" by simply describing last year's B&G and don't have any meetings with them about it and dump it on them.

 

At work, if you were to give someone a project, you would require them to report in to you weekly as to its progress. In a scout unit, the biggest thing that goes wrong is when people are assigned responsibility for something, and then the unit leader or CC doesn't follow up with them weekly as to how they are doing with their tasks.

 

In this case, if a pack leader had been in front of the store with them, the families would have asked him there on the spot where the money goes, and he could have told them, "We are fundraising for the pack. It all goes to the pack. The committee will vote on how to disperse it."

[Lizsanch]

Wow, thanks for so many responses! The treasurer was present at the sale. She actually told the parents that the donation money would go into the pack account, and would come in handy to cover a $90 invalid check that a family had used to pay dues. This had them really upset because they said that the donators gave the money that it would help boys go to camp. Well, any money that goes into the general account does help boys, even if it is used to cover a bounced check. The parents actually yelled at the treasurer... In front of the store... In uniform. Ugh. She called me later crying about it.

The boys do get most of the breakfast ticket price for their accounts.

Also, I agree... They weren't fundraising on their own...no sign saying 'send ME to camp'.

A discussion about the pack law might be in order, as well as things you DON'T do while in public, in uniform.

[SeattlePioneer]

>

 

 

That sounds fair. I'm very much in favor of families having the opportunity to earn the costs associated with Scouting rather than having that an out of pocket family expense.

 

Wow --- that's VERY BAD behavior by the parents! I'd be looking for a way to make it clear to the parents that nothing like that will happen again.

 

 

Off hand, I'd seriously consider booting those families out of the program.

[Lizsanch]

We actually have a lot of oopportunities for the boys to earn their camp money.

Unfortunately, besides the treasurer and myself, these parents are most of our involved parents and are the leaders of two of our dens.

Situation is very discouraging.

 

[moosetracker]

I would be fine with it going to the unit account to pay for awards & events etc for all the boys I would also be upset if told it would be to pay for one parents bounced check.. Then you are saying it is not going to your boy, it is going to that boy who has untrustworthy parents.. It would have been much better had your treasure not earmarked the money for that purpose.

 

If it was for membership fees, then I would still push for the money from the parents who owed it.. If they do not rectify the error (in cash, as I am sure the bounced check cost the pack) Then anything that boy earns should go to pay for what he owes the pack, and not to his scout account for camp.

[kari_cardi]

I think the treasurer overstepped boundaries to make this decision. A more diplomatic approach and better procedure would be to bring the issue to the leadership committee for discussion and a group decision. Doing so even now would help mend relations with the den leaders. They have an opinion, no reason why it shouldn't be heard. Invite them to the next meeting and make a final decision then.

 

I do think that the donations should go to the pack, but I'm not a fan of individual scout accounts anyway.

[5yearscouter]

Well since the treasurer said the donations were going to cover a bounced check, you might want to smooth over that little ruffle.

 

something like while you try to collect on the bounced check, the donation amount would be able to cover other expenses of the pack so the boys never notice that kind of blip. and that yes, the money will be spend on helping all the boys go to camp. and then show what the pack is spending on the boys going to camp if need by, if anything has been approved of course.

 

for instance, In my pack we help pay part of the leader's fees for webelos camps depending on how mcuh we get in donations and fundraisers. that amount would help us to cover 2 leaders going to webelos camp and that the boys can't go without leaders, so that is a direct benefit to the boys.

 

 

[Lizsanch]

We actually don't help with any boys or leaders camp fees. So, technically, that donation which was given to help boys 'go to camp' will not actually help with sendin the boys to camp. Perhaps the donation should be divided evenly among all the boys who are going? Ugh. This is turning into a bigger problem than I wanted right now.