campout fees

[rangersteve]

Hello, I have been enjoying reading from the forums so much that I just had to ask a question.

What do troops charge, if anything, for a fuel surcharge for camping trips. With the price of fuel this summer being so high, it is starting to become somewhat of a burden. I usually pull our trailer to campouts. The farther campouts end up costing $200-$300 for gas for my truck alone. Summer camp alone cost me over $350 plus the cost of my kids to go. Our troop has around 75 scouts registered. We discussed briefly at a committee meeting having some kind of a fee to help the driving parents to

offset the cost of gas. The SM did not want to place an undo burden on all the parents. Advice?

[Aquila calva]

You are a very generous fellow. Your troop is lucky to have you as part of the leadership.

 

$350 (or a lot more) is probably too much for one family to contribute to the troop's operation on an ongoing basis. Talk with your committee chair and treasurer and let them know what the actual expenses are associated with getting the trailer to the camps. They need to understand the issue and deal with it. Let someone else pull the trailer next time. Maybe the Scoutmaster is willing to do it.

 

Troops handle the travel expenses in different ways. In our troop of 35 scouts many parents are willing to drive, partly because the camps are not too far away. For summer camp the troop gives a reimbursement to the people pulling the trailer. Last year it was $25 each way. This needs to be increased. One person pulled the trailer up and another pulled it back and they were happy to help out.

 

When we plan high adventure trips we include an amount in the total fee that will be used for transportation expenses, including the cost of gas.

 

Also, when you do your taxes, check with your tax preparer about how to handle your fuel expenses for Scouting. Begin by keeping receipts.

 

Have fun Scouting.

[Trevorum]

Hello ranger and welcome to the forums!.

 

Very good question. For our troop, this never used to be an issue (except for summer camps > 200 miles away). Lately, drivers pulling our trailer have been submitting gas reciepts to the troop treasurer for reimbursement. It's a necessary expense for the troop, and we'll fit it into the annual budget.

[eagle90]

We reimburse drivers for gas for Summer outings only. Our Summer Camp is 375 miles from home. We do not reimburse for weekend activities, but try to keep these within reasonable distances, less than 150 miles. We also do not charge the adults for food dor weekend outings.

[scoutmom111]

We work it into the cost of the trip for anything over 50 miles. Of course if a family decides to take their own car and only their own family, we don't compensate them. It just got to be too much of a burden on the same people. If you want the scouts to baby sit your boy... pay the sitter!

[Eamonn]

I know it wasn't that long ago that we discussed the topic of Baby Sitting.

I have to admit that I find it a little upsetting that anyone would view what I do as a adult volunteer as baby sitting.

The Scouts I serve are not babies, they are a really nice group of Scouts.

End of Vent.

Before each event we try and guesstimate the cost.

The cost includes:

Food

Any Fees.

Gas and Tolls.

Vehicle Rental.

Once we have a total we divide it by the number of people attending.

Everyone pays, Scouts and adults.

If anyone (Like me) decides that they want to bring something extra (Kona coffee)that's up to them.

If we have charged too much we hand some money back. If we need more we ask for it.

This summer we drove 750 miles each way, I'd estimated with gas costing $3.00 a gal but at that time it was down so everyone got $15.00 back.

Eamonn.

[SR540Beaver]

We have 60+ scouts on our roster. We started a $1 per scout fuel surcharge for our monthly outings this summer when gas prices shot up so high. It isn't much, but it helps offset the cost to the driver some.

 

Gas dropped a little more than 20 cents a gallon here last week. Amazing how the oil companies are not price gouging, yet the prices drop when vacations are over and school starts. Who wants to bet they shoot back up around Thanksgiving and Christmas. I saw a headline that prices could drop to around $2 per gallon later in the year. Amazing isn't it? It must be all of those new refineries that came on line or all of those people conserving.

[ASM59]

Hello RangerSteve,

 

Most of our leaders do not expect to get reimbursed for gas when we go somewhere local (e.g.; our local Council camp is 15 miles away). Our next outing is the Illini Jamboree. That will take us about 90 miles from home in a couple of large vans that get about 14 mpg. The round-trip fuel cost will be nearly $40 per van. The troop expects to reimburse the drivers for this fuel. After all, without the generous use of the vehicle, there would be no outing. In the past, we did not charge extra to cover fuel, but we have begun to do so. In the case of the Illini Jamboree, fuel cost added $10 to the cost of the outing per Scout. Our Troop does not expect "necessary leadership" to pay for their outing cost, because again without their willingness to go, there would be no outing. In other words, the Troop will pick up the fee for the Leaders when we go to the Illini Jamboree.

 

You are very generous to drive so far in your vehicle for the Scouts. The Troop should either work this into the budget or into the outing costs. They will not keep or attract many volunteers if the do not offset or totally cover the cost of their volunteers.

 

ASM59

[Eamonn]

Do the adults who don't pay declare the cost of the trip when they file their taxes?

Doesn't this free trip amount to a payment in kind?

A Scout is thrifty.

The cost of the whatever is just that. - The cost.

Of course it's unfair that the adult is out of pocket, but it's just as unfair for the Scouts to have to pay the adults way.

There is no free lunch and no free ride.

Eamonn