I'm interested in hearing from other packs about how to handle a delicate situation– who pays and doesn't pay for meals at events and banquets.

A little background on my pack– until 2 years ago, our unit never had a budget.  I'm not sure how it was done, but it sounds like the way the pack handled it was under spending and doing everything super-cheap.  Thus, we have a substantial cushion at this point.  However, we now have a budget.

Tonight was our pack committee meeting– I'm taking over as CC in March, so the current CC, Treasurer and I were working on the details of the budget with the DLs and CM.  Our dues are relatively high– $90 a year, so the pack gets $60 a scout, but most boys pay no dues as we have Cub Scout accounts from popcorn money.

I don't want to break everything down in great detail, but the $60 pays for: All achievement/electives (including BL, pins, LNT, World Conservation, etc); $10 a boy in Den costs (i.e., a DL with 9 boys has a budget of $90 a year); Pool Party in August (pizza, drinks, pool rental); Raingutter Regatta in September (boat, trophies, drinks); Halloween Party (decorations, awards); Dessert Cook-off in December (drinks, awards); Pinewood Derby in January (Car, trophies, pizza and drinks); a part of B&G (drinks, paper products, decorations); Cross-Over in March (catered meal, decorations; arrow for each boy); End of Year Picnic (Food).

We actually end up about $10-15 upside down for each boy, but we off-set this by our popcorn earnings with a decent cushion.

The problem is that we have 9 boys crossing over in March, with 8 earning the Arrow of Light.  With it being 2010, we wanted to do something special and upgrade our catering, but our food expenses have been getting out of control.  It's not that the boys are eating that much.  The Tigers and Wolves are generally living on air although our Web II's can eat their fair share.

Our unit is about 60% single parents, and people are bringing significant others, grandparents, cousins, nieces, etc.  i think it's great that boys has so many people their for support, but should we be paying for all of their food?  Also, we don't know who is going to show up, so we can over-estimate when not a lot of siblings, relatives and partners come, or not have enough for the boys if they all show up.

I have been toying with the idea of "tickets" for the catered cross-over.  Each boy automatically gets 1 for himself and 1 for a parent; after that the families need to pre-pay $5 a head.  This way we get a good head count and have the money up front for the budget.  Has anyone done this?

I'd love to hear suggestions and ideas for dealing with these issues.  We are concerned since the dues are high that the families are going to complain about having to pay extra for food. 

Should we show all of the families a budget breakdown to have them better understand?  How do y'all go about getting headcounts for meals?  Who should pay and who shouldn't?

Thanks!  I'm transitioning into this CC role, and trying to sort some things out.  I'm crossing my fingers that Chris might be willing to share his years of experience and wisdome with me.

Our dues are $80 per year…
$15 for registration
$12 for Boy's Life
$12 for advancement
$2 for Leader Awards
$8 for BG dinner (scout covered0
$12 for PWD
$7 for Crossover
$2 for Annual Parade
$5 for Program Materials
$5 for Leader Training

We have had little pushback on this, and little pushback on fees for the BG dinner. We rent a hall with family-style dinner, cost averages about $8.50 per plate. [up until this year, we were very happy where we were going, but poor service and hidden charges cost them our business]….SQUIRREL!…

Anyways, getting back on topic, we didn't pay for the leaders this year, and really, didn't pay for anyone…the scout's BG fees are in the annual dues. The issues that we had are putting "outing" costs into annual dues…it's not fair to say "the dues cover this event and food"…if the scout doesn't want to participate, then they have paid for nothing. In other words, our dues pay for program, not the outings…except for BG…all scouts attend that.

So to answer your question on how to collect, budget the food, charge per plate and go from there…"the pack paying for the food" will kill every budget out there…and in the sense of fairness, Wil paid for the parents and siblings who decided not to sell popcorn or pay their dues. Everyone pays for their own food, but they can pay with their scout accounts…it works for us…so far.

On the same note, I have a Boy in the troop who had 9 relatives at the dinner…$85 was the cost, but it was the greatest night of his young life, and I wouldn't have been able to wipe the smiles off of their faces with a belt sander…so I think they saw the value.