Getting parents to commit to the "Ideal Year of Scouting"

[old toby]

For the past few years, our Pack has had a budget/fundraising plan like this:
1. Sell as much popcorn as you can (no actual goals, no planned budget to set a target).
2. Divide the profit this way: of the 33% that the Pack gets, 2/3 goes to the pack, 1/3 goes to the scout's den.
3. After the Pack recieves it's total (minus the den profits), figure out how to spend it.

We have had really successful popcorn sales this way, but from my perspective it's not a good way to plan. 50% of our sales comes from 2 dens who really go crazy on the sales, and there are about 10% of the scouts who sell nothing. But we all share in the outcome of the fundraising, i.e. lots of great events. The problem is that we 'wing' the budget each year, never knowing how much we'll have to spend. Which leads to much debate over allocating funds.

This year I'm trying to convince my Pack leadership to adopt the "Ideal Year of Scouting" budget/fundraising plan (as found on http://www.scouting.org/cubscouts/resources/packbudget/index.html).

Meaning, we set an annual budget, divide it by the number of scouts, and establish a 'per scout' budget goal ($120 right now, which doesn't include the $40 recharter fee). Our popcorn sale will give each scout the opportunity to fundraise his goal, and any scout's fundraising in excess of his goal can be put towards his Residence Camp, uniform, scout supplies, den dues, etc.

So the concept is that each scout will sell his Pack goal, and then we'll get 100% of our budget covered. With a planned budget, there should be no need for debate on how to spend the money. One side benefit is that making the budget means we won't have to charge a 'per-event' fee, since everything's covered in the budget. Another benefit is that annually, new leadership just needs to take up the annual budget process and continue it, year to year. Not redesign the wheel each year.

My question is: what to do if not all scouts pay in to their share of the goal? Let's say 80% of the scouts sell their goal. And the remaining 20% don't make their goal (either by choice or just poor luck in selling).

Since this means we won't make our budget, how do we handle this? This is where our Committee is at odds. Here are the options I'd like your opinion on:

A. Accept direct payments from parents to make up the difference between their sales and their goal; this way we meet out budget, but then have to worry about collecting from delinquent parents. Some leaders object to forcing parents to pay out of pocket, and that no one should be forced to pay anything for scouting, more than their $40 recharter fee.

B. Don't accept payments from parents. If we don't meet our budget, then we decide what to cut from our plan. Some leaders object to this, as we'll have events that are of 'less quality' than what we've planned. And we're again into the debate about what to keep and what to cut.

C. Don't accept payments from parents. If we don't meet our budget, we decide which events will be under-funded, and charge a small fee for those events, to make up the missing budget. The debate between the leaders here is, do we charge the fee across the board to everyone, including those who already paid their fair share? Or just to those who didn't meet their commitment?
In summary, my goal of adopting the "Official Cub Scout Budget Planning" process (Ideal Year of Scouting) helps the Pack in making the budget process consistent, year-to-year, and helps the scouts by giving them the ability to fundraise for more than just the pack budget. But the leaders can't agree on what to do if we don't make the goal.

I appreciate any and all comments and opinions on this subject -

[WoodBadge06]

I would recommend #2 or #3. From what background information you've provided, trimming back on your program based on your fundraising net seems to me to be really no different than your unit's old way of doing business where you decided on the program after you had money in hand. Either way you are making your program fit your financial resources.

If you know or can find out how much your unit has sold on average in previous years, that may be a good starting point to use in determining what a realistic budget should be for the coming year. You may have to adjust that a bit based on the number of boys you had/have. The popcorn sales support materials that I have seen over the last few years usually include some sort of individual sales goal calculator. You'd just be doing it in reverse (average sales per boy times number of boys).

In either case (#2 or #3), I would recommend briefing your parents on the consequences of failure (if you haven't done so already or didn't plan to do so). Additionally, if you decide to assess a small event fee, I would apply it equally regardless of individual fundraising outcomes. It sounds like you have provided good incentives for the sale, but as the old saw goes, "You can lead a horse to water..." Those families that fail to meet their sales goal are already being penalized, as it were, by not having that extra money set aside to defer the costs of camp, etc..

Hope this helps.

[1st Mate]

Here is what we did in following the Ideal Year in Scouting.

We made a very exciting plan that we felt we coulkd get the most people to get enthused over. Planned a budget to achieve it and then determined how much popcorn each scout would need to sell in order to act on the plan.

For scouts who did not meet the goal we gave the parents two alternatives. Meet the budgeted amounts form thier pocket or we could alter the plan and remove activities that would alter the budget to the amount that the pack had raised.

We had a good sized pack (over 90) I do not remember ever having more than a few scouts that did not reach the goal, and in every case but one the families paid the balance out of pocket. (the one scout had "unusual" parents, and I could not bring myself to leave him out of activities just because he did not get to pick his parents.)

[WB Bear]

Is your $40 recharter fee their dues? Does that include registration and Boys Life and does it cover the Awards and Recognitions? Does it also cover some of the Den’s expenses?

Asking the parents to make up the difference of what your “budgeted” cost for each boy isn’t a good idea. The families might not have the extra funds available. That can be awfully embarrassing to the family and they could pull their son out. It might also keep some from joining. Money should never be an issue if a boy is involved with Scouting. Also hitting the families up to make up the difference might also deter them from any contributions to your Councils FOS campaign. That is important to the Scouting program within your community.

In the promotion of your Popcorn sales let the families know what the goal is and stress the fact that if the goal isn’t made then there will have to be fee accessed on events or activities that the Pack has paid for in the passed.

Also opposed to giving the boys the excess of the “per scout amount” I would make it equal to all and give them a certain percentage of the profit they made for the Pack from the fundraiser. That money could be used to pay for Scout stuff only such as Day Camp, Webelos Resident camps etc. This would enable some who don’t have the extra money. This should also not interfere with the incentive for the boys to do well with the fundraiser.

If you have to charge for events, it needs to be equal across the board.

That’s some of my thoughts on your questions.