anyone NOT selling popcorn?

[Pack18Alex]

I call BS on the economy......It is an excuse for people not to spend money if they don't want to. Looking at the boys in my troop and the gifts they received this year......the economy is just fine.

 

 

I you want any other fundraising approved you had better sell popcorn first, at least round here, otherwise you other fundraising opportunity will be denied, well that is if you actually apply for it thru council.

 

 

Far as fundraisers go......Last day camp, they charged$85 per, with a budget of $15 per including Tshirt, Then the Tshirts had sponsorship logos all over the back, so they are making $70 per scout, or how about the $15 BS camporee with a $3 patch, donated site and porta johns....

 

They can cry me a river about money and fundraising.

There are a LOT of costs that go into these things. I know we get per-person costs for using BSA facilities or parks. We also have costs for security, etc.

 

If you are curious where the money goes, join the committee that plans the events, you'll see where it goes.

 

I know that our Council and Districts makes money on the Camporees/Cuborees, but they tend to lose money through the year. We did a bowling night for Cubs. It was a good price (10/participant), and the money was split with the bowling ally.

 

But Council takes money to run. They pay our DE who works his tail off. They have people in Council office that process forms, run the scout store, handle insurance, etc. We can all pay dues, or we can over pay for profitable events.

 

I know that for my Unit, we subsidize the camp-outs and activities, which gets us more participation than if we over charged. So we lose $100-$250 on each campout, vs. make $50-$100. Those losses are covered via dues and fundraising.

 

We think that this is a good way to build unit retention, but it's neither right or wrong, it works for us.

 

At the district level, either we fundraise at the district level and subsidize events, or we don't fundraise and we overcharge events to pay into District that way. If the goal is retention, you fundraise. If the goal is fairness, you overcharge.

 

With fundraising, you ask those that are gung-ho to work hard to reward those that don't work hard, but you retain better. Without fundraise, you ask those that benefit to pay to cover the costs.

 

There are about 20 line items on a BSA Event Budget form. Money gets spent.

[Pack18Alex]

Doing Popcorn, the fundraiser is taken care of, and it's easy to plan for. For cubs, where I need family buy in, it's easy to give them an order form, some Show-and-Sell Popcorn, and send them off to sell. For the Troop, where the boys are more autonomous, you can do more advanced fundraisers.

 

That said, if I want to run a business, I'd rather put the time into my business than a low margin "Scout Business" to fund the troop. Popcorn was easy, a volunteer managed spreadsheets to track, the Scouts sold the items, and the money just flowed in. That required less business development time, and each boy put the time he was willing to to get the prize he wanted.

[Basementdweller]

I call BS on the economy......It is an excuse for people not to spend money if they don't want to. Looking at the boys in my troop and the gifts they received this year......the economy is just fine.

 

 

I you want any other fundraising approved you had better sell popcorn first, at least round here, otherwise you other fundraising opportunity will be denied, well that is if you actually apply for it thru council.

 

 

Far as fundraisers go......Last day camp, they charged$85 per, with a budget of $15 per including Tshirt, Then the Tshirts had sponsorship logos all over the back, so they are making $70 per scout, or how about the $15 BS camporee with a $3 patch, donated site and porta johns....

 

They can cry me a river about money and fundraising.

A shame you cannot get your head around this.

 

So exactly where does your unit get the money from to subsidize your campouts????

 

Is it dues???? or out of a leaders pocket.

 

your just playing a shell game with who is paying for what.

 

 

While a $30 camping weekend is not much for some of you, it is nearly a deal breaker for my unit.

 

So you charge me $15 for a camporee, I then need to buy food and fuel which is about $15 a head.

Then I buy the supplies for my station at the camporee.

 

 

All this so the SE can have a house on the golf course or the new corvette. No thanks.

[TX.Aggie.SE]

 

We sell US Flag Subscriptions, 6x a year, we put em out at sunup and take them down at sundown. $30/year per subscription. We raise almost $3k/year for our 20 scouts with only six service dates (1 hr in the morning and one in the evening) plus one construction/maintenance day.

 

There are additional details with "inviting" customers, billing, renewals, routes, scout level credit, parent credit, and flag production (some assembly required).

 

So after you work out the processes it's pretty smooth. We developed some automation to help with the money/routes/credit issues. The flag person spends more time than everyone else - so he (me) doesn't do the actual runs anymore.

 

[packsaddle]

Yes, the council is bloated and some of them way overpaid.

As for popcorn, we don't. I hate popcorn. It takes time away from the program, costs too much, and causes too much interaction with the DE. It smells like urine and doesn't even make good cat litter.

 

We do alternative fund-raising.

Other units still sell the stuff and when they arrive at my door I will buy some from them...but we all know that what they're doing is parasitizing my good will toward a neighbor so they can take my money and give it to worthless executives.

Have a nice day!

[boomerscout]

We don't sell BSA popcorn because it is contra to #5: "All commercial products must sell on their own merits, not the benefit received by the Boy Scouts. The principle of value received is critical in choosing what to sell".

[jc2008]

Somewhere you have to give back to your council and popcorn is really the easiest way to do it. if you do "other" fundraising, yes you seem to make more or as much money as you would with popcorn, but that is usually because you are keeping 100% of the profit, rather than splitting it with council. If you don't do any of the council fundraisers your unit is basically freeloading off council at that point since the registration money you pay a year goes primarily to national for registration.

 

I would prefer to do camp cards over popcorn, and indeed our group does both. The way we motivate our boys is that they get allocated the majority of their profits for fees/things they need for scouting like uniforms, camp fees etc. This makes them actually sell more than if the pack just kept it all and the small percentage the pack does keep for operating expenses turns out to be quite a good chunk of money.

 

It helps our boys, helps our pack and helps our council all at the same time.

 

[Pack18Alex]

Somewhere you have to give back to your council and popcorn is really the easiest way to do it. if you do "other" fundraising, yes you seem to make more or as much money as you would with popcorn, but that is usually because you are keeping 100% of the profit, rather than splitting it with council. If you don't do any of the council fundraisers your unit is basically freeloading off council at that point since the registration money you pay a year goes primarily to national for registration.

 

Bingo. Council may be bloated and inefficient, but if you don't want to be a part of a BSA council, go form an independent outdoor club. BSA units are part of their council, and need to kick something up.

 

Now, if you do your own fundraisers and kick 50% to council for Friends of Scouting, well good for you, but you're a liar.

[boomerscout]

Since Councils are full of high powered executives, they should be doing their own funders and sending each troop some money. Council can sponsor/host a bass fishing tournament, semi-pro or better golf tournament, a marathon, le tour de council bicycle race, clay or trap shooting competition, high dollar sponsor appreciation banquet, sailing tournament, Grand Portage relay race, celebrity auction, polo match, seek donations of boats and vehicles, put on a community wide juried arts & crafts show.

 

Living off the backs of bent and broken children is just too shameful

[Rick_in_CA]

Do a lot of units do Camp Cards? I keep hearing about them but have yet to see one in person myself. Is it a popular fundraiser?

 

Our council uses the camp cards as Scout-O-Rama tickets.

[blw2]

Somewhere you have to give back to your council and popcorn is really the easiest way to do it. if you do "other" fundraising, yes you seem to make more or as much money as you would with popcorn, but that is usually because you are keeping 100% of the profit, rather than splitting it with council. If you don't do any of the council fundraisers your unit is basically freeloading off council at that point since the registration money you pay a year goes primarily to national for registration.

 

I would prefer to do camp cards over popcorn, and indeed our group does both. The way we motivate our boys is that they get allocated the majority of their profits for fees/things they need for scouting like uniforms, camp fees etc. This makes them actually sell more than if the pack just kept it all and the small percentage the pack does keep for operating expenses turns out to be quite a good chunk of money.

 

It helps our boys, helps our pack and helps our council all at the same time.

 

Well... in principle maybe, but really.... why must we? Is it written into our charter someplace that we must support them financially?

 

I personally see very little benefit from council. Granted my view is limited, but I just don't see it.

 

Sure, they process my unit's applications..... but that is really more of a service to the BSA, right?

They operate a store so we can buy all the uniforms and trinkets.... but then we pay for all that stuff, and I'm sure there are profits made there going in some direction other than mine.

They own the camps, but then I pay every time I go to use them.

Any training I get is put on by volunteers.....

It seems like the roundup staff has a small budget for incidental supplies, but that's certainly not much.....

[qwazse]

... I personally see very little benefit from council. ...

 

When you have a vehicle crash on the way to camp leaving one family mourning, and four others trying to get counseling for PTSD for their kids and their health insurance giving them a runaround. Those pro's who seem rather quiet at roundtables or wherever you may see them ... they sure know how to fast-track care for your boys.

 

Or a less dramatic example, maybe not relevant to leaders of packs or troops: when kids from your crew volunteer as officers at a council level. the council pro that comes along side them and helps them put together some unique council-wide programs ... he/she will make connections that you have no clue about.

 

... Granted my view is limited' date=' but I just don't see it. ....[/quote']

Have your COR attend council board meetings, review annual reports and get a grasp of what all is going on. Or, invite the council president to attend your camp and talk about what all the pro's are doing "behind the scenes." Yep, it all looks like it's all-volunteer, but often times those DE's shuttle goods and people around to help those volunteers shine.

 

Maybe you'll find out that your council stinks, and you all are paying in way more than you're getting out. But ignorance not a justification for inaction.

 

Back on topic: our council changed popcorn vendors for this year's sale. I like it if only for that fact that most product comes in tins.

[packsaddle]

"Somewhere you have to give back to your council..."

Let's see now...how many hundreds, maybe thousands of hours, does each of us invest in keeping those units running? And just exactly what is it that we are getting from the council? I get the program stuff from the national organization or online. The whole insurance thing could be run the same way, no need for multiple, redundant offices in every state on the remote probability that that car wreck you describe actually happens. Oops, we've been there already and thank you very much, the BSA attorneys are quick to lay this off on others (gotta keep those premiums low).

I see the camps as a plus. So let them run on their own. There's no need for the council superstructure just for that function.

 

And with regards to this grotesque reasoning: "Council may be bloated and inefficient, but if you don't want to be a part of a BSA council, go form an independent outdoor club. BSA units are part of their council, and need to kick something up."

I'd like to know that you apply that kind of support and camaraderie to your least favorite government agencies as well, when it comes time to pay those taxes.

If an organization is bloated and inefficient, there is little incentive to become anything else as long as we keep 'slopping the hogs'.

When a parasite has infected an organism, there are only two alternatives to death itself, starve the parasite out or continue to live with it. It looks like you guys are perfect hosts: you know you're being parasitized and you want to continue feeding them anyway.

[boomerscout]

Do a lot of units do Camp Cards? I keep hearing about them but have yet to see one in person myself. Is it a popular fundraiser?

Oh, absolutely. Most have a one-time coupon attached to be used at a popular grocery. The coupon's value equals the cost of the card.

[Pack18Alex]

"Somewhere you have to give back to your council..."

And with regards to this grotesque reasoning: "Council may be bloated and inefficient, but if you don't want to be a part of a BSA council, go form an independent outdoor club. BSA units are part of their council, and need to kick something up."

I'd like to know that you apply that kind of support and camaraderie to your least favorite government agencies as well, when it comes time to pay those taxes.

If an organization is bloated and inefficient, there is little incentive to become anything else as long as we keep 'slopping the hogs'.

When a parasite has infected an organism, there are only two alternatives to death itself, starve the parasite out or continue to live with it. It looks like you guys are perfect hosts: you know you're being parasitized and you want to continue feeding them anyway.

 

We voluntarily associate with BSA, part of which is the outdated and outmoded Council model. I agree they should be eliminated, perhaps you need a state level council-equivalent to handle compliance with state laws, but no need for the mess we have. But until BSA national consolidates them, we either help support our council, or we are free loading off the units that do.

 

But yes, I know I'm being a host to the council parasite, but I believe in the program and council does help run that, in their own inept but well meaning way. They handle the legal and logistics for our Council/District events, and I have made those a part of my programming for our unit. They also enable us to fund our program with two easy fundraisers.

 

I'm all for streamlining the program, but I leave that to the board/committee that runs council, and I'm involved in my Unit and District, and that's enough. We all have a role to play.

 

I accept that the good I get from Council out ways the bad, I wish they'd get better at support, and I speak to the management whenever I can, but if we don't all do our part to support the council, the council will implode. Both our council and the next one over are in dire financial straights, and I think that the right thing to do is to consolidate them, but it's not my call. In this case, I think that my obligation is to offer cheerful obedience, even if I shake my head at the silliness.