how much money

[5yearscouter]

So how much money do you regularly have in your troop checking account?

 

What is a good amount for an emergency fund? or a slush fund (for slushies on a hot summer's day or other silly fun)?

 

after taking out scout account balances I think we are at $26k and that amount wanders slightly upward every year, it never seems to go down, even when they decide to donate a ramada to scout camp and buy an AED, or other pet projects of particular scout families.

 

Where is the falling over smilie,

or the hitting your head against a brick wall smilie?

 

The committee thinks we are a "normal" troop.

help me enlighten them.

 

(This message has been edited by 5yearscouter)

[Spiney Norman]

Holy Moley! $26K as in twenty-six thousand dollars? Is that American money? That sure seems like a lot of money for any troop no matter how large. Our troop of about 50 scouts usually has between $1500 and $3000 of non-scout account money. It fluctuates throughout the year and we will be pretty much on our last nibs when we get back from camp and finish paying for advancement materials, etc.

As a committee we worry that sometimes we have too much money, but then sure enough something breaks or equipment needs to be replaced and we end up thankful that we had a reserve.

[RememberSchiff]

Wow, is your CO a major oil company? I bet your troop does not widely disclose that information to parents who would quickly give the Troop Committee a reality check about budgets and fundraising. Do you disclose the annual budget to parents?

 

My experience, our troop piggy bank for 30-40 scouts had between $1K to $4K - usually enough to make advance payment for trips and routine equipment maintenance.

 

My $0.02

 

 

[Basementdweller]

Wow....we usually have a couple of hundred bucks.....

 

$26,000 sound excessive to me......

 

I guess your luck in that respect........Do you want a sister Troop in the inner city, we are struggling to raise funds to replace some tenting.

 

 

[CCbytrickery]

I can only wish we had $26K in the bank! We are well below that, but maintain a comfortable balance--our minimum is $3K. Anything below the minimum and we don't spend the money (except for an emergency--CM/CC/Treasurer need to agree if it's an emergency). We have approximately 100 scouts.

 

We get our pack dues, the popcorn money, and this year, the camp card sales (which were very good-next year will be even better!). And an occasional donation.

 

 

[moosetracker]

Yeah, about $3,000 is what is our goal is for a slush fund, may dip under or over, but if at the end of the year we find surplus of that, we look for ways to spend it by paying for some parts of the upcomming events.

 

We dipped under to buy a trailer one year, used I think it cost about 1,500.. People were annoyed that the CC expected it to be repaid like a loan until we got up to the $3,000 slush fund. But, it was done.

[The Blancmange]

I'm no tax expert, but my understanding is that a non-profit cannot run too large of a surplus without placing it into an endowment or something similar. Again, I don't know the particulars, but at some point it could jeopardize your CO's non-profit status. It might be a good idea for your CO to review this situation with their accountant.

[Papadaddy]

I would spend it down before your CO wakes up and decides you have too much. Camperships for all. Woodbadge for all adult Scouters. New tents. A high adventure trip. Maybe see if there's a Scoutreach unit and buy them uniforms and camping gear. Do you use the unit budget plan? You should plan for income=expenses with a small reserve fund. Your expenses can be whatever you want...as long as the income covers it.

[qwazse]

It depends. What are your annual expenses? Our rule of thumb is to not have our general fund exceed more than 2x our annual operating budget. Think of it this way: we are collecting money/labor from boys who in all probability on average will be in the troop for only a couple of years.

 

If the boys have a bad year fundraising or we have another expense, that gives us at least another year to adjust by having more fundraisers or cutting the budget.

 

You might want to talk to the CO about a capital expense that would benefit you and the troop, like a new youth room. Or, it may be time to think about an endowment to cover rising energy expenses.

 

Or ... you might want to ask the question "are we big enough?" Do the youth in your community need a Venturing crew that specializes in some specialty equipment (e.g., climbing or whitewater) which will require major capital expense? Does your success mean you should expand your mission?

 

This will be a slow conversation over a number of years. Having too much cash is almost as bad as having not enough.

[moosetracker]

Pappadaddy touched on a problem with this, when he said I would spend it down before your CO wakes up and decides you have too much.

 

Very true, this money is not the Troops, it is the CO's.. So do you want to use the money on the boys for scouting, or do you want to buy your charter Org a new roof?..

 

If your charter Org, needs money for some expense, an you have a wad of untapped cash, they are within their rights to use it.

 

 

Helping with the roof, or the heating expense or what not, may be one thing, because you are benifiting from the facility, but your boys raised that money to do great thing in scouting. You so use it for their benifit, rather then loose it because you were hording and not using it for anything.

 

Use it, or Lose it!

[Nike]

A good cardinal rule is money raised in a budget year should be mostly spent on activities for that calendar year.

 

How old is your troop? Did someone leave you a nice bequest?

[pchadbo]

Wow! That sounds like an awful lot of "on hand" money, our Pack like most here fluctuates between 1 - 7 thousand depending on what point in the program we are at, having just returned from summer camp, we are "broke" until popcorn in the fall.

And if you can't figure out what else to do with it you can make the check payable to Pack 83. . .

[fred8033]

In our troop, we plan that camp outs break even, summer camp too. Adults pay their own way too. We charge $75 annually per scout for membership. Standard fundraisers (wreath, popcorn, special ...).

 

So, we'd want our bank balance (minus scout accounts) to be enough to cover at MINIMUM the next registration cycle and the next year of operating costs (not camping costs).

 

I'd use a rule of thumb. For our troop, I'd want somewhere between $50 to $100 per scout in the troop general fund (unclaimed money). Your asking for trouble if you have more than $150 per scout in the account as unclaimed. For a 40 person troop, I'd want betwee $2000 to $4000 unclaimed in checking. I'd get concerned if it was below $1000 or more than $6000.

 

EASY FIX - Reduce your camping fee so you lose $10 per scout per camp out. Encourages camping and spends down the extra. You can keep it like this for the next ten years!

 

ANOTHER OPTION - Change your fundraiser division of profits. Give 100% to the scouts for the next few years. It would encourage more high adventures and more camping.

[boomerscout]

We are always looking for good fundraisers. How did the troop accumulate their riches?

 

 

[5yearscouter]

Well, um, I probably shouldn't air ALLLLLL the troop dirty laundry on the internet, but hey, that's what you guys are here for, right?

 

This troop has been in existence in a fairly well off part of town for almost 85 years.

The CO used to be a very expensive resort, so yeah, there was always extra cash floating around.

 

The CO actually is going thru bankruptcy internationally, and we are looking for a new CO before the end of the year. Of course, existing CO does own the money in the troop coffers, so we may not have this problem of too much money if the CO decides to keep their money. To change CO's they have to sign off the number, the equipment and the bank balance, so this is going to get interesting.

 

The unit gives the boys 100% of popcorn and scoutorama ticket sales each year. So the troop isn't making money on the council fundraisers.

 

We bring in a lot of money by selling a flag program. Families in the neighborhood of the scout lodge sign up and pay a yearly fee to have a big flag put up in their yard for 8 holidays a year.