DUES

[Guneukitschik]

Our Troop collects $0.50 per week from each scout to help cover costs.

What does your Troop do?

[t305spl]

We charge $65 annually

[hungryman287]

My Troop does the annual fee, I dont know how much it is though

[cubbobwhite]

We collect $5 per month.

[Guneukitschik]

WOW my Troop is sounding like a Bargain at $0.50 per week ($26.00 per year)

[hops_scout]

My troop charges 16 dollars a year.

[ICanCanoeCanU]

Our troop has an annual fee of $40.00 plus fundraisers which get distributed between both - the troop and in scout accounts.

[Chief J]

We charge an annual fee of $50.00, payable in the month we recharter. That fee covers your registration, boy's life, and insurance, and the remainder goes to the Troop general fund. During the rest of the year, we collect a $1.00 per week for regular Troop Meetings (about 25 per year). The balance are Troop Activities, service projects, or Courts of Honor.

Additionally, we do two types of fundraisers. The first are Troop Fundraisers such as Spaghetti Dinner or Car Wash. All proceeds go to the Troop general fund. The second is where individuals sell; i.e., popcorn, hoagies, etc. All profits from thes etypes of fundraisers are credited to the Scout account of the individual who did the selling.

Scout accounts can be used to pay dues, campouts, summer camp, scout related equipment and uniforms; i.e., sleeping bags, flashlights, etc.

Chief J

[evmori]

$5 a month

[dad69]

For the troops that collect fees at each meeting.
What if the scout misses a couple of meetings, are they responsible for the dues for the meetings that they did not attend.

Our troop collects an annual fee $50, which seems pretty simple.
It seems to me that collecting fees at every meeting and the necessary paperwork would be a nightmare. But that is the way that it was done when I was a scout (stone age).

[Chief J]

If the scout misses a meeting, he is still responsible for the payment of the dues.

Our Treasurer prepares an envelope for each Troop Meeting. Col 1 is the Scout's name, Col 2 is the amount of dues that he owes, Col 3 is blank for the Scribe to enter the amount of dues that scout pays and Col 4 is where the Scribe marks if the Scout was there and if he was in the proper uniform.

After the Scribe collects the dues, the Treasurer balances the money on the front of the envelope in Col. 3 with the amount of cash actually in the envelope while the Scribe is present.

Chief J

[Guneukitschik]

The whole point of collecting dues each week is to help teach responsiblity....and yes if the scout misses a week or two or three the amount is combined and then paid at the next meeting that the scout attends.

Also our troop has a policy that all dues must be paid up to date in order to attend outings.

It actually only takes a few minutes to take care of the paperwork during the patrol meeting each week. The patrol leader is responsible for collecting his patrols dues and recording it on the BSA supplied envelope. Our Troop has been doing this for 40+ years and it works very well.

[Lynda J]

Our Troop does $60.00 a year. We would really like to get it all at once from the stand point of budget. But from the point of teaching boys responsibility we like for them to being it each month.

[hops_scout]

I'd like to know why you guys need to charge so much? Like I said above, we have annuel dues of $16 and I dont think we miss very much if anything.

[OldGreyBear]

In response to Hops quesition, maybe some of you with over $20 a year dues can explain how the money is used

[Lynda J]

The money we collect for dues helps cover the cost of badges, and awards. It also covers the replacement and upgrade of troop equipment.
We just replaced the old liquid fuel lanterns with propane ones. We have a couple of our stoves that have cooked about their last meal. So we will be replacing those soon. So all the money that we collect as dues is spent directly on the boys.

[hops_scout]

I'm still confused and here's why:

You talk about replacing camping gear, etc

--- Our troop has a double axle trailer with racks built in.
We have axp. 20 two-burner stoves similar to the Colman types-- Some of them actually are Colman, some arent. We have a couple different types of tents and own about 15. They cost about 250 apiece. I want to say that we have like 6 propane tanks and a lot of other stuff that I'm not sure what all it is.

All of our badges and such are paid for by the troop, etc. I'm still confused.

Oh well.

[Rick Tyler]

I'd like to know why you guys need to charge so much? Like I said above, we have annuel dues of $16 and I dont think we miss very much if anything.

Well, $10 goes to National, so that only leaves you $6 per year, per Scout. Our troop spends way more than that just on merit badges, rank badges, neckerchiefs, and other badges. We also like a small surplus to cover outings that go over budget (so no outing coordinator has to cover mistakes in budgeting), some JLT supplies, summer camp fees for adults, and little odds and ends. Our dues are $35 per year.

Personally, I would have made them $45 and automatically signed up every Scout for "Boy's Life," but that was an unpopular idea with our committee.

I think there is something to be said for the troop in Colorado that charges something like $300 per scout, per year. This includes all camping fees (except food and things like Philmont or Northern Tier), including Summer Camp. If the Scout doesn't go on outings, there are no refunds.

Lest you think $300 is outrageous, let me tell you about what a typical 12-year-old boy in our area spent on Majors Little League last year:

$145 Registration fee
50 New glove (kids get bigger -- my son's was $80)
50 New aluminimum bat (some kids' parents spent $175)
15 Socks
65 Cleats (or up to $100)
40 Team sweatshirt
100 Snacks for 13 boys four times

$465 for the season, not including batting cage fees, balls for home use, private coaching (not me, but for a lot of boys), etc. etc. etc. The absolute minimum cost would be about $200.

<rant>
I get tired of people complaining about the cost of scouting.
</rant>

[dad69]

Just my Opinion,
But I would think the parents that are complaining are not the ones that are involved in Scouting. You know the ones, they drop Junior off in front of the meeting and leave.

[evmori]

Yep. The ones who think BSA stands for "Baby Sitters Anonymous"