Reply to Scoutmaster of Scouts BSA Troop 248 for Girls Answers your Questions

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[quote=cburkhardt]Great additional questions.

The financial arrangements on running a Scout BSA Troop are pretty much up to the people involved in forming and operating it.  They open their own bank account and obtain and spend revenue in a normal manner.  There aren’t many restrictions on how to raise or spend money as long as the adult Troop Committee oversees the process.  Very simple and common sense.

Our Troop Committee carefully added up the many costs involved in running a “best practices” Troop, with the intention that the amount would be recovered on an annual basis through dues.  We are a big and very active Troop that provides a rigorous program year-around.  So, we developed an “all in” budget that includes: equipment acquisition, maintenance and replacement; cost of tours and special projects; annual national re-registration dues; patches and other advancement recognition items; flags, rope, batteries, plastic storage boxes, snacks for meetings, Scout Handbooks and other Scout program literature, and hundreds of other costs we could remember.  Our parents’ thinking is that we do not want to be continuously asking members for small fees and do not want the most involved volunteers (called “Scoutmasters” in Scouts BSA) to be personally paying for things.  The actual cost to operate over the course of a year is about $400 per Scout, so we collect this in two installment (in the fall and spring).  Families with more than one girl get a 50% discount after the first child.

In addition, we charge $40 for our weekend campouts.  This pays for all program, camping fees, and food (Friday snack, Saturday meals and Sunday breakfast).  Some of these campouts cost more than and some cost less, but we keep the fee the same to keep things simple.

In total, if a girls attends six campouts and is a member, her annual out of pocket cost will be $640.  When I share this figure, some people think it is just outrageous, because they compare this to Scout Troops that only charge minimal national dues (“My girl pays only $47 to our Troop!”).  Of course the error in that logic is that they are comparing apples to oranges and not valuing the time not spent doing product sales.  I am perfectly proud of our management of the program and would challenge anyone to show where a girl can get an equal best practices experience for anywhere near this figure.  I sometimes chuckle when I learn that families often spend more than that in a single weekend on a travel team road trip.  So, we are satisfied that we are delivering great value.

As for under-resourced families, all of our families are encouraged to contact either the pastor of our Chartered Organization (sponsor) church or the adult Chair of our Troop Committee if they desire financial assistance with these fees.  The answer is always yes and the amount is often to discount the fees by 50% (more if needed).  Decisions are made in confidence and the only people who know who receives help are the pastor, Troop Committee Chair, our adult Treasurer and me.

Big, special trips like the one our 14 Scouts and six adults took to New Mexico this summer are done on a special stand-alone budget.  These optional, extraordinary opportunities cost upwards of $1,500 each and the participating Scouts involved do special fundraising activities for that specific event.  But, this never involves product sales.  The Scouts earned about half of the New Mexico fees through their efforts, leaving the remainder to be paid by families.  Still, two girls needed financial assistance, which was gladly provided.  The BSA also has scholarship monies (called “camperships”) that help with these fees.
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