Pack Budget & Parents

[JillKB]

We need to have a serious meeting with our parents to explain to them what our budget is and the fact that most of their registration fee is never seen by the Pack. We definitely need them to get out there and participate in our fundraisers to a much greater extent than they currently are doing. I was wondering if anyone had any handouts, etc. that

I could use to demonstrate the "real cost of scouting" for a pack?? I'm looking for some things that are simple but really motivating...that will set off that lightbulb in their heads and say "Oh, I guess scouting isn't a free ride and we need to pull our weight a little more". Thanks!

[ScoutNut]

Have your Treasurer put together a financial statement showing how much comes in from what (registration, popcorn, etc) & where/how it goes out.

 

Separate the costs of each Pack activity if you can (books, awards, B&G, trip to ball game, etc). That way they can see how much was spent on each one &, in cases where a fee is charged how much is lost on the event.

 

You can either hand these out at the last Pack meeting of the year, or at the first one in September. Sept might work better because everyone (including new families) will have the costs fresh in mind when fundraisers come around.

 

[scoutldr]

The Pack Treasurer should prepare a simple one-page balance sheet type budget for Pack committee approval...Income on the left and outgo on the right. You would show $X registration fee as income and the same amount on the right as being paid to Council...net of -0- to the Pack. Other expenditures to list would be awards, leader training fees, B&G banquet expenses, PW Derby expenses, etc. On the income side, list income expected from planned fundraisers. For every pack activity planned, there needs to be a revenue source to fund it. Make sure every family gets a copy at recharter time. No such thing as a free lunch.

 

There are BSA publications available to assist with unit budgeting.

[SeattlePioneer]

My suggestion would be to make your fundraising program an integral part of the Pack program. If you are doing the popcorn sale, make selling popcorn a theme of the month, and selling popcorn at a store or other location a major outdoor activity for the month.

 

You could have a Pack meeting at a store location, and put together an outdoor "camp" there so that the Scouts can have fun and customers can see them having fun.

 

 

Seattle Pioneer

[SR540Beaver]

Jill,

 

I just posted this same message to you on another scouting board where you raised the same question.

 

Trails End Popcorn and BSA work together to produce the "Ideal Year of Scouting" program. It is a worksheet to plan and calculate how much you need to raise in order to fund your program. Obviously, it's design is to help determine how much popcorn needs to be sold to fund the program. I guess it could aslo be used to determine how much a boy might need to pay in annual or monthly dues if you didn't want to raise all the funds thru fundraisers.

 

My company has a filter on the internet that blocks us from getting to a lot of sites on the internet. I can't see Trails End's site, but from a Google search, it appears to be: www.trails-end.com/TEIYOS/

 

Another site I could see is: http://www.narragansettbsa.org/popco...ner%20Form.pdf

 

I would be very surprised if someone does not promote this program at your district roundtable at popcorn time. Another great reason to go to roundtable. You'd be amazed at the info available!