I was in a chat room and the topic of training came up, it wasn’t the normal every boy deserves a trained leader vs untrained leader vs how to get people trained. The discussion was how can we afford to get trained? This took me back a bit. It appears that I have a very inexpensive council to train in.
As a Cub Scouter you have access to YPT, Fast Start, and “This is Scouting” for nearly free. You can do this even before you have a BSA ID number. You only need access to a internet connected computer for an hour or so for each course. I say worst case scenario would be having to buy time at a FedEx/Kinko’s store for $12 or $24 an hour in my community. Oddly enough I hear some councils do not have broadband services to their offices, but that may be a resource to you.
The first course that requires in classroom effort would be the Position Specific courses. Where I’m at I believe the cost is $2 council wide for about 2 dozen doughnuts and copies. On occasion at the council sponsored courses they have given out Cub Scout leader book and the how-to book if you get trained in a certain window. If your council or district makes it a practice to provide the Leader book and the How-To book, $20 would be a fair cost in my opinion. If your district or council has to rent facilities for the training expect that cost to also come out of your pocket. I think you should be able to find a church or another community organization that would be willing to give you the space for free.
The course that really threw me was some people were asked for $50 for Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation. I have taken the course twice and taught it once. I paid $7.00 for each time I attended. The first time I took the course, Outdoor Leader skills for Webelos Leaders wasn’t included. The courses are very similar and my council has opted to provide both courses at the same time. The trainers I have had and I were very particular in stating this applies to Pack Overnighters and this applies to Den Camping. We had about 20 pages of handouts. We have two meal plans that our BALOO uses; Foil Packs and Wraps. Both plans keep lunch under $5 a person.
The one exception to my cheap training experience has been Wood Badge. I paid $160 about 1 year ago. We paid extra for WB activity uniform shirts. All the participants were issued hats, though not BSA Supply hats. I heard people say they paid over $200 but not over $300.
I moved on from being just a Cub scouter to also being a Commissioner this year. My Commissioner basic training was free. I also attended our University of Commissioner Science for the paltry sum of $5.00. At either of my Commissioners training sessions I was entitled to the Field book of Commissioner’s Service. One person said their Commissioners University was $150.
Am I bragging about how cheap my training is? Yes. Do you have to pay the fees your council charges? No. Does my council give some things up, because of the cheap training? I believe we do. We do not have a Pow Wow or University of Scouting. Both things that give you training in areas not generally covered in most scouting training. I have four councils near me that I also look at for training. They are 90, 163 or 210 miles away. Some of them a geographically large enough that it is actually closer for some of them to use my district. I have seen people from all four of the other councils at our training sessions. The council that is 90 miles from my home is the one I watch most often for training opportunities as the trip only adds $20 to the cost.
If you think the cost of your training is to high offer to help the district or council to be thrifty and help them find locations that you don’t need to pay for. Help them find local companies that will allow them to run off copies at cheaper rates. Only run off copies that are useful to the training. Above all offer to help give the training once you’re trained. Tell them you’ll pack a lunch rather than get a catered lunch. If you look there are probably a lot of ways that you can lower the cost of training for all or volunteer to help in the offices to reduce your costs. May be you could set out a roundtable and babysit other leader’s kids for donations to send you to training. Just remember to support those that support you.
I have a long story about how roads today are all based on the size of a Roman Hoarse’s posterior. It all boils down to that’s how we’ve always done it, even though there is new technology. Don’t accept that training costs what it costs, maybe there is something you’re overlooking. Rather than hand out $10 of copies why not scan and email them out or burn them to a $.30 CD.
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