Ok so popcorn is the BIG money fundraising for the year in South Texas. Many people groan when popcorn time comes up. After all, in the current times how many people are going to but $9.00 of popcorn let alone the big $50 tin. The research supports just about everyone your scouts ask will buy it. Before we get into the sales portion of it. lets talk about who gets what from popcorn. It is my understanding that the money is distributed as such. Your unit gets 30% of the sales and 5% bonus for meeting deadlines, taking training, and selling 10% more this year than last. I was told that 35% stays with the council. and 30% goes to Trail's End. They encourage you to use their prizes but you can opt for the 5% cash instead of prizes. So if all the numbers I have be given are right the popcorn costs $2.25 for the $9.00 tin. The rest is a donation to scouting. Who wouldn't give $6.75 to help scouting?
My leadership team voted to get the 5% cash instead of prizes this year. So This brings me to the slippery slope of scouts accounts in a Pack. I am sooooo against scout accounts in a cub scout pack. I just do not think that it's right. But anyway here's what led me here. I need to figure out prizes for the boys. Gift cards: Check, Camping Gear: Check, Recharter Fees: ?check?, Day camp Fess: ?check? Should the boys be able to delay their gratification for a couple months and get more from scouting? I'm leaving the items as options, but not sure If I put them on the list as a parent or an 8 year old. If I knew I could save the money for an awesome camp in the summer I might go for that as a 9 year old.
Ok back to leadership, Most of our district recharters in Febraury. I like this, because you don't have back to school, popcorn and recharter all at the same time. I'm bald already don't give me help like that. So when do you need to start looking for who will replace those that are leaving? How about as soon as you get new boys in September? So for October, I'm breaking out my copy of Microsoft Visio and we're going to find out who we have and who we won't. You can almost always count the Senior Webelos leader out. We will also lose the Cubmaster, Secretary, and Pack Trainer. We had the Cubmaster covered with an Assistant. So we're looking for a pack trainer, secretary, assistant cubmaster and tiger leader. My feeling is the Pack trainer needs to be someone mid way through the cubscout program who is trained in at least one other position or is a professional trainer. The Wolf leader stepped up to ACM, cool. Blah blah blah.
What do you really need to know about leadership? Who do you pick? What position do you put them in? Ask your den leader's who would they think would be a good fit in the various positions you need. Will your charter org investigate them or rubber stamp your choices. Chances are you'll get the rubber stamp. Will council kick them back? Chances are no...I don't know how the new background checks will effect this. Talk to every parent you shake hands with see if they will fit in anywhere in your leadership and if they want to. Think about assistants for every position. Crack open your Leader's book and bone up on the poistions your unit should have. I will say there seems to be a rule of thumb whenit comes to pack leadership, about 1/3 of the parents will volunteer.
So what do I want my reader's to take away from this.
Always look for leader's
Expect 2 out of 3 to say no.
have depth in your leadership.
Have the XXXXX to ask a leader to move to another position if you think they would fit better elsewhere.
Asta pronto,
Chairman Garry
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1 comment:
Really? No Cub accounts? Why? I found it infinitely helpful in making parents feel comfortable helping out with the popcorn sale. We won't make enough to cover all costs for the Cubs so we'll be asking them to dig into their pocketbooks, but with a Cub account they can choose which events they'd like to take a discount on. It gives the treasurer a small litter of kittens, but other than that it seems like a good idea to me. Why are you opposed?
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