Mandatory Fundraisers

[BM_Crawford]

Someone in my troop was saying that mandatory fundraisers are illeagle in BSA, I was just wandering if that is true and why or why not if anyone has that information.

[wagionvigil]

There is really nothing Mandatory except the BSA G2SS and the advancement requirements. Mandatory Fund raisers are again a Troop rule. If each scout needs so much money for a trip they can fund raise or make out of pocket payments. Council must approve all fund raisers and any form of gambling IS NOT ALLOWED.
I have been a band director for 33 years and I have never made fund raising mandatory as my school district said I could not. If a trip is 400.00 per person and we offer fund raising to help with that the kid can fund raise or just pay the 400.00. You can say if you raise thjis amount of money all the camporees are free or if you do not take part you pay out of pocket.

[ICanCanoeCanU]

Our troop usually has optional fundraisers but we have several times required every scout to participate. We’ve done a few pancake breakfasts and attendance has been mandatory unless the parent contacted the coordinator and had a very good reason for the scout not to be able to help. The reasons we made these mandatory are because the funds raised either went to supplies for the troop or to earn money for the organization that charters us. We decided to go with making participation required because too many times it’s the same folks volunteering with many boys only completely the minimum requirements for advancement. Some boys end up with tons of hours of community service and some with only 6. No one has ever complained about this and we don’t do it very often.

[wagionvigil]

What if a kid did not take Part?

[ICanCanoeCanU]

Good question, and I really don't know the answer as this has never happened, yet?

[Guneukitschik]

I would assume that non-participation varies from troop to troop and so do the consequences...

Most troops probably don't do anything...unless the funds are for an outing/event...then the scout probably has to pay his share out of pocket!

[t305spl]

I have never heard of the BSA making a fundraiser mandatory but I know some troops make them mandatory.

[wagionvigil]

HA! HA ! Again TROOP RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not BSA Rule. Remember Troop Rules Count For NOTHING! Zero! Nada! ZIP!

[t305spl]

Im not saying they count for anything other than on a troop level. Im just saying the BSA dosent make Mandatory Fundraisers only "some" troops do.

[wagionvigil]

you are exactly correct. ANd to be Frank troops cannot do that.

[teepeeayy]

I sold popcorn as a Cubmaster, we did not require, only encouraged participation. It makes any events paid for through popcorn somewhat unfair, but what can you do? I may implement what my older son's troop does:

My older boy is in a troop that sells Christmas trees as the primary fundraiser. What we do here is assign each family a number of shifts at the tree sale. As its design is to pay for summer camp, we tell each family that a shift is worth "X" dollars. If you can't do the required number of shifts, you pay the troop for the shifts missed if you want to go to summer camp. That keeps it from being required.

[cballman]

we do the popcorn and trash pickup as our major fundraisers. non of which is mandatory but we encourage the use of these to put money into the scouts account which can be used for scouting things. Like backpacks, camp fees and other scouting uses. it helps that our troop is well funded by our church so we dont need to use this money for tents or other things. the money that is earned goes directly to a scouts account. which could be used just like a scout checking account for scouting. it has worked very well when we sent three crews to philmont earlier this year. and also over the last few years for my sons scout camp. another topic but I cant wait to go back for the week again.

[ICanCanoeCanU]

wagionvigil - you are correct! I never thought about the fact that by mandating some of the fund raisers we we're writing our own rules. Funny how no one ever complained about it either. Well, I'll bring this up the next time anyone in the committee wants to mandate participation.

Thanks for pointing this out!

[wagionvigil]

To Advance a scout must be active in the Troop. How they are active is up to them. If they want to pay their way or earn their way that is also up to them. I understand troops try to enforce rules that if push comes to shove the troop will loose. When we have a fund raiser the profit goes in the unit account. If we are fund raising for a special event ie: Philmont then each Boys profit is assigned to him. Again they do not have to participate. I know our council has fund raising activities for the Jamboree it is up to the boy to decide to take part or not.Many are already fund raised out at school.

[Lynda J]

OUr troop recently had a rummage sale. We raised about $900. We took that money and split it evenly amont the boys that helped. This included the night before sorting things and tagging and working the day of the sale. If a boy did not take part in any way at all he did not receive a share of the money.
We felt this was a fair way of handling the funds.

[ASM-142]

I agree that fundraisers should be optional. My troop has a rule in place that if you do not participate in the fundraiser you do not benefit from the money raised.

[freebyrd1964a]

I can agree with this big time. While I don't like when troops(or another group) attempt to make fundraisers mandatory, I can and do agree with not letting non participating scouts benifit from the rewards of the profits. Now I would add exceptions to this in the case of extreme emergencies like sickness or something else that made the scouts participation impossible, if he normally participates.

[wagionvigil]

Even though I am totally against mandatory fund raisers. I do believe that any scout that does not take part gets nothing in return.

[BM_Crawford]

I agree Wagion. One problem I had with my troop was one person on the committee wanted to have mandatory fundraisers with no buy outs. And I really took it home with that one. I felt that was odd.

[cballman]

BM i have a question does this lady on your commitiee have any thing to do with the fundraisers like be in charge of any one of them or does she just sit back and talk about this? in the last 4 years I have had to borrow a truck to haul our popcorn to the dropoff point and have had to listen to parents complain about just coming to pick up a few boxes. not the 7 or 8 PALLETS that I had to move. and yes i still complain because we finally got the rest of the popcorn out of our Kitchen floor.