What can pack funds be spent on.

[dedkad]

Volunteers give their time, and those who can't volunteer give money. Asking volunteers to give both time and money by incurring out-of-pocket expenses for the privilege of being a volunteer is a little hard to swallow. But rather than having the pack pay for their meals and babysitting, I would look at alternatives you could do to avoid that expense. Why do the meetings have to include dinner? Can't they be short meetings that occur after the dinner hour, like from 7:00 to 8:00? Why do the parents need babysitters? I can't imagine every parent volunteer is a single parent that needs a sitter. Can you work your meeting schedule around those who have childcare needs to avoid the sitter issue? Can you meet somewhere where kids are welcome to play and can entertain themselves like a member's house with lots of toys? Can you teleconference or meet less often? There are so many ways to avoid this big expense to the pack, I'm not sure why they'd even consider it.

[Papadaddy]

"If you get paid to do Scouting, you're a Professional. If you pay to do Scouting, you're a volunteer." I can't tell you how many thousands of dollars I have spent "out of pocket" over the past 40 years...in addition to thousands of hours of personal time and vacation time. It goes with the territory.

[kari_cardi]

Our pack traditionally has a meal as part of the annual pack planning meeting and covers the cost of the entree. The entire pack is invited, too. I think that is reasonable. Meals at every meeting along with paid babysitting? Not reasonable. I'd skip Roundtable before hiring a sitter, too, but maybe other roundtables are more compelling than ours...

 

Ichandler, is it common for churches or sport leagues to provide food and childcare at meetings in your area? I doubt it and I'd make that point along with the others presented here.

[fred johnson]

HOW MUCH? - What are we talking? Two large pizzas and 20 cans of pop? Or a sit down meal at red lobster each month? Also, is this a 100+ person unit that sells $60,000 in popcorn a year and has a $25,000 budget? Or a 30 person unit with a $2000 budget. Reasonable could be $25 to $50 a meeting. I doubt if $10 per person with 10+ people twelve times a year is reasonable.

 

 

TOO MUCH CASH - Sometimes volunteer organizations with too much money start finding ways to spend it and create internal bickering that can tear them apart.

 

 

PERCEPTION - This is huge. Depending on how much money you are talking about, you WILL open yourselves up to personal attacks as many will see this as luxious and potentially unreasonable. What will parents and outsiders think? Most scout "volunteers" do incur significant cost themselves. If they hear about this, it will sound extravagent and there will be jealousy.

 

 

FUNDRAISING - You could also affect fundraising. I myself would have trouble giving money to a unit where I am already incuring cost if it is being spent on other volunteers instead of directly on the program.

 

 

EXAMPLE - Our district chair buys food for everyone out of his own pocket for the district meetings.

 

 

EXAMPLE - None of the leaders in any unit I am in have ever expensed gas or transportation unless the distance is 400 miles or longer round trip.

 

 

THINKING PATTERN - Is it the example you want to set for your scouts?

 

Leaders help units all the time without expensing the cost or thinking twice about it.

 

 

I did not address child care. That one is way out in left field for my experience. Does the scouting unit choose the baby sitter and/or incur risk if something happens? What is reasonable? Minimum wage? $20 per hour? $5 per kid per hour? I just would NOT get into the child care issue for meetings. Work around it or find another volunteer.

[fred johnson]

Also ... I like the idea about making the funds visible. BUDGET IT. The visibility of the budget impact will reflect if it is okay or not.

[Basementdweller]

Volunteers give their time, and those who can't volunteer give money. Asking volunteers to give both time and money by incurring out-of-pocket expenses for the privilege of being a volunteer is a little hard to swallow. But rather than having the pack pay for their meals and babysitting, I would look at alternatives you could do to avoid that expense. Why do the meetings have to include dinner? Can't they be short meetings that occur after the dinner hour, like from 7:00 to 8:00? Why do the parents need babysitters? I can't imagine every parent volunteer is a single parent that needs a sitter. Can you work your meeting schedule around those who have childcare needs to avoid the sitter issue? Can you meet somewhere where kids are welcome to play and can entertain themselves like a member's house with lots of toys? Can you teleconference or meet less often? There are so many ways to avoid this big expense to the pack, I'm not sure why they'd even consider it.

Really?????

 

If it is such a big sacrifice then don't volunteer......I have zero sympathy for a whiney parent......

 

I have no clue how many boys I have bought shirts for, Slushies at the trading post, meals on trips, paid for camp outs and souvenirs......repairs on the church van, gas, oil changes and car washes...........No idea of the dollar amount, because it doesn't matter.

 

It is about giving the boys the best possible scouting experience.

 

 

If your worried about paying for a meal at a meeting or $10 for a babysitter.....Ya need to look in the mirror and ask yourself if your doing it for the right reasons.

[Basementdweller]

Also ... I like the idea about making the funds visible. BUDGET IT. The visibility of the budget impact will reflect if it is okay or not.

Let me see 10 committtee members $10 per meal 8 meetings per year that is $800

Child care for 5 committee member $10 per hour 2 hours per meeting 8 meetings per year. $800

 

So that is $1600 for just perks for the committee.....That Translates to $5,000 in popcorn sales....

 

That is more than our enitre budget for a cub pack of 40 members.

[dedkad]

Volunteers give their time, and those who can't volunteer give money. Asking volunteers to give both time and money by incurring out-of-pocket expenses for the privilege of being a volunteer is a little hard to swallow. But rather than having the pack pay for their meals and babysitting, I would look at alternatives you could do to avoid that expense. Why do the meetings have to include dinner? Can't they be short meetings that occur after the dinner hour, like from 7:00 to 8:00? Why do the parents need babysitters? I can't imagine every parent volunteer is a single parent that needs a sitter. Can you work your meeting schedule around those who have childcare needs to avoid the sitter issue? Can you meet somewhere where kids are welcome to play and can entertain themselves like a member's house with lots of toys? Can you teleconference or meet less often? There are so many ways to avoid this big expense to the pack, I'm not sure why they'd even consider it.

BD, we both agree that they shouldn't be spending pack money for these meeting expenses. I gave some good suggestions on how they might be able to avoid those expenses, you on the other hand just like to argue. You choose to spend your own money to help the boys. Good for you! That is your choice and you apparently have the means to do so. For someone whose troop serves low-income boys, I am surprised that you are so cavalier about spending $10 here for babysitting and $9 there for increased national dues. These expenses add up for those who are just getting by. Sounds to me like you are saying that poor people don't deserve to be leaders because they can't afford to spend that little extra here and there. I am appreciative of anyone who is willing to volunteer, whether they can afford to spend extra money or not.

[DigitalScout]

What is their argument for having the pack spend the money for dinner and childcare? If I had to guess, I would say that the pack has a lot of money and they feel that they can afford this luxury.

 

Our pack financial philosophy is to spend as much money on the kids as the budget allows and leave around $1500 in the account by the end of the year as a cushion for the following year (we have about 35 scouts). When you have a large bank balance, that's when trouble occurs: people get tempted to steal or someone decides to go after the deep pockets.

[acco40]

The Pack - that's the short answer. Now, the committee is part of the pack. Make the pack funds visible - both incoming and outgoing. I know that if the pack committee I was associated with had gone this route I would be lobbying for new committee members.

[Stosh]

What is their argument for having the pack spend the money for dinner and childcare? If I had to guess, I would say that the pack has a lot of money and they feel that they can afford this luxury.

 

Our pack financial philosophy is to spend as much money on the kids as the budget allows and leave around $1500 in the account by the end of the year as a cushion for the following year (we have about 35 scouts). When you have a large bank balance, that's when trouble occurs: people get tempted to steal or someone decides to go after the deep pockets.

A cushion of $1500 in the bank means that $1500 was not spent on the boys. Every dollar taken in should be spent on the boys. There should be no excess profit in the pack that gets stored away for a rainy day. We are not in the business of having money "at hand". Squirreling away money from the boys for some discretionary slush fund is really not something I am even remotely comfortable with.

 

Run a budget on what you have and zero out the bank every year. If an emergency comes up and funds are needed, hold a fundraiser.

 

Stosh

[King Ding Dong]

What is their argument for having the pack spend the money for dinner and childcare? If I had to guess, I would say that the pack has a lot of money and they feel that they can afford this luxury.

 

Our pack financial philosophy is to spend as much money on the kids as the budget allows and leave around $1500 in the account by the end of the year as a cushion for the following year (we have about 35 scouts). When you have a large bank balance, that's when trouble occurs: people get tempted to steal or someone decides to go after the deep pockets.

While I agree the money needs to be spent on the boys, we also try to have about $1-1.5 K in the bank. This is mostly to cover the expenses in the fall until the registration fees come in. We try to be very flexible with the parents and give them until about November 1. We also provide the books, neckers and slides each year. If we zeroed out the bank account on June 1 we would not have anything for summer activities, recruiting or the beginning of fall. Parents are fairly tapped out with clothes and school supplies in aug/sept.

 

To the best of my knowledge we have never spent pack money on adult food and drink. We will pay training fees but not the food. I don't ask for reimbursement but some do.

[frankpalazzi]

What is their argument for having the pack spend the money for dinner and childcare? If I had to guess, I would say that the pack has a lot of money and they feel that they can afford this luxury.

 

Our pack financial philosophy is to spend as much money on the kids as the budget allows and leave around $1500 in the account by the end of the year as a cushion for the following year (we have about 35 scouts). When you have a large bank balance, that's when trouble occurs: people get tempted to steal or someone decides to go after the deep pockets.

Our pack is pretty good with my "Raise what you need--Spend what you raise" dictate. Generally we have enough in the bank for the September pack meeting. Of course, dues start to come in, so that helps, and fundraising begins right after the first Pack meeting.

[dedkad]

What is their argument for having the pack spend the money for dinner and childcare? If I had to guess, I would say that the pack has a lot of money and they feel that they can afford this luxury.

 

Our pack financial philosophy is to spend as much money on the kids as the budget allows and leave around $1500 in the account by the end of the year as a cushion for the following year (we have about 35 scouts). When you have a large bank balance, that's when trouble occurs: people get tempted to steal or someone decides to go after the deep pockets.

We also keep about $1000 to $1500 in the bank each year as reserves. We spend 100% of what we earn on the boys every year. That reserve money has been hanging around for years and years. We have a fundraiser in the spring where we have to front the costs to buy some tickets, then we turn around and sell them at a profit. Without the reserves, we would not have enough money to cover the tickets we need to buy. It would seem silly to hold a fundraiser just to have a fundraiser.

[Nike]

What is their argument for having the pack spend the money for dinner and childcare? If I had to guess, I would say that the pack has a lot of money and they feel that they can afford this luxury.

 

Our pack financial philosophy is to spend as much money on the kids as the budget allows and leave around $1500 in the account by the end of the year as a cushion for the following year (we have about 35 scouts). When you have a large bank balance, that's when trouble occurs: people get tempted to steal or someone decides to go after the deep pockets.

We also kept a year's worth of recharter in the bank as a hedge against not being able to fundraise or some other catastrophe. Also, Council has been wanting recharter money and paperwork turned in earlier and earlier, and not on the last day of the recharter month. However, we also had to turn in a yearly audit to the JAG office.