Jackdaws Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 14 hours ago, scoutldr said: My Council has announced the following, in addition to the national fee of $60 per youth: $12 insurance, $12 Boys Life and $30 Council Program fee, so $102 per youth member. Add to that the cost of unit dues, uniforms, and summer camp and other outings, you are looking at around $500 per youth per year. All adults also have to pay the program fee and insurance fee in addition to national registration. Scouting is now officially out of reach for a significant number of families with multiple registered members. I think its baloney that they force you to get Boys Life. Why not just call it a $24 insurance fee? Really Boys Life is probably a waste of money. How much money goes into that for each issue? How many staff? Just go digital or send a few to each unit (depending on unit size) for them to share. My local library has copies of them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jameson76 Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 19 minutes ago, Jackdaws said: I think its baloney that they force you to get Boys Life. Why not just call it a $24 insurance fee? Really Boys Life is probably a waste of money. How much money goes into that for each issue? How many staff? Just go digital or send a few to each unit (depending on unit size) for them to share. My local library has copies of them. I think Boys Life is optional. When you recharter, you have to check (or not check) that box. In our unit we used to roll that into annual dues. When the last big increase came along, we kept the dues the same, and then if Scouts wanted BL they could pay extra...very few in fact did. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParkMan Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 17 minutes ago, Jackdaws said: I think its baloney that they force you to get Boys Life. Why not just call it a $24 insurance fee? Really Boys Life is probably a waste of money. How much money goes into that for each issue? How many staff? Just go digital or send a few to each unit (depending on unit size) for them to share. My local library has copies of them. Around here Boys Life is optional. A digital/online version would be the kiss of death for the magazine. As a parent I always encouraged my son to read it. It was a good way to reinforce his involvement in Scouting. I can't say that he always read it, but I was surprised how putting it in his hand did help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackdaws Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 I must have read that incorrectly. The way it was worded, I took it as the council was lumping in a charge of $12 for Boys Life. My son has no interest in reading it so I always skip it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeS72 Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 24 minutes ago, ParkMan said: A digital/online version would be the kiss of death for the magazine There is already a digital version available as part of the subscription. I read it on my tablet, my scout reads the physical copy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagledad Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 Kind of sad. My best friend growing up had two older brothers, so he had a stack of Boys Life magazines that dated back into the 50's. We used to lay on his bedroom floor for hours reading Boys Life and Mad magazines. We almost bought the Hovercraft plans in the back of the magazine. We had a 3.5 horse Briggs and Stratton waiting to be used for the hovercraft or minibike. We ended up getting into scuba and joined a Scuba Explorer Post instead. Scuba had the girls in bikini's that the hovercraft would never had attracted. Barry 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 Boys' Life online: https://boyslife.org/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParkMan Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 51 minutes ago, MikeS72 said: There is already a digital version available as part of the subscription. I read it on my tablet, my scout reads the physical copy. Sorry - I misspoke. Having a digital copy is fine. Doing away with a physical copy in favor of a digital one is the kiss of death for the magazine. 1 hour ago, Jackdaws said: I must have read that incorrectly. The way it was worded, I took it as the council was lumping in a charge of $12 for Boys Life. My son has no interest in reading it so I always skip it. I hear this a lot from parents too. The magazine is a good tool to reinforce a kids involvement in Scouting. Is another way for a scout to have exposure to a Scouting world. If even for an hour a month that he/she looks through it. I never even asked my son if we wanted it - because I knew that it was going to be a way to reinforce his involvement in Scouting. So I'd chip in a $1 month with the idea that I'd have something to put in his hands about Scouting. It would be some mail addressed to him as well - which kids don't get a lot of. My encouragement to people is that if you are already investing the time to have your son/daughter in Scouting, it's worth an extra dollar a month to get Boys Life. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post qwazse Posted October 24, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted October 24, 2019 44 minutes ago, Eagledad said: ... We ended up getting into scuba and joined a Scuba Explorer Post instead. Scuba had the girls in bikini's that the hovercraft would never had attracted. ... Imagining a young @Eagledad and his Flaming Arrows floating up to the boardwalk intersection, idling the engine, and showting: "Hey, ladies! Throw your tanks on this here hover craft of ours, and we'll get you to that dive site in sixty seconds flat! " 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattR Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 16 hours ago, ParkMan said: $60 to national $60 to council $60 to the unit We're now at $60 to national $200 to council $50 to unit (which we haven't changed in about 10 years) I'm hoping the council will be limited to the $60. That would be a big win for us. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ParkMan Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 1 minute ago, MattR said: We're now at $60 to national $200 to council $50 to unit (which we haven't changed in about 10 years) I'm hoping the council will be limited to the $60. That would be a big win for us. Holy cow! $200 to council? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeS72 Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 54 minutes ago, MattR said: We're now at $60 to national $200 to council $50 to unit (which we haven't changed in about 10 years) I'm hoping the council will be limited to the $60. That would be a big win for us. I would have to go back and look at everything that went out, but I thought I saw something that seemed to say that fees to council would be capped, and could not exceed the national fee. Here in Central Florida Council we pay $17 for council insurance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattR Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 23 minutes ago, ParkMan said: Holy cow! $200 to council? Yep. That replaced FOS. I told you my council is broke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mds3d Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 9 hours ago, RememberSchiff said: Maybe. IMHO, nearly all MBC's are already unit leaders/committee members or registered family members in which case they already paid for a background check. I have been unable to recruit anyone outside of scouting to become a MBC. Once they see the paperwork, they immediately are concerned with protecting their privacy. This concern will only worsen with the broader information sharing in the new (2018?) background check form. For my troop's adult leaders, the fee increase in less concerning than the background check form. Our council has a bunch of MBC's that aren't leaders in any other fashion. Mostly they teach weird MBs at universities but some do the traditional thing. It is our primary push for the Alumni association. It is a lot easier to get those of them with unique careers to sign up to teach the occasional merit badge than it is to get them to be commissioners or committee members (that push comes later, 😉 ) 1 hour ago, MattR said: We're now at $60 to national $200 to council $50 to unit (which we haven't changed in about 10 years) I'm hoping the council will be limited to the $60. That would be a big win for us. My understanding from everything I have seen is that they cannot charge more than national (for both adults and scouts). I believe that they can charge separate program and insurance fees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cubmaster Pete Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 Had a conversation today with my DE. Was very nice, we were both in agreement on a lot of things. She has kids in the program too.... I let her know that between our pack and troop, we do not have enough money to recharter. My intention is to complete all recharter paperwork and turn it in with the total that would be for recharter before the increase. When we collect dues in January like we normally do (payments 3 times a year), they will get the balance. That's just how it's gonna be, I have no other choice. She appreciated my honesty. I made it clear I place no blame with her, my council or really anyone else. But we both agreed that my units are not the only ones in our district that don't have enough on hand. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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