My 10 year old Webelo 1 has been trying really hard to pay for camp/Scout fees. He’s just passed the mark, but wants to help his pack a little more, as there are a lot of kids that didn’t do well on the fund drive. If you’d like to support him, his pack, just want some Scout products, and/or send some to our military, go to the Trails-End website to do so.
http://www.trails-end.com/estore/scouts/email_referral.jsp?id=3103379
Thanks,
YoS
prices of items
I was stopped at a grocery store by a scout and asked to buy something. I had just bought a box of regular popcorn, but he was a good salesman and I wanted to support him, so I grabbed a bag of carmel corn. This was a good size bag, but you can imagine my surprise when he told me the price…$17.00! I bought it anyway, as the kid was really excited to get a sale, but I don’t think the scouts are doing themselves any good with this pricing. They won’t catch me again.
Popcorn too pricey
My son is a Cub Scout and we just went through the popcorn rigamoral that the OP is doing. I wholeheartedly agree the popcorn is MUCH too expensive, and it isn’t even very good. I can’t tell you the number of sales we lost because people just aren’t willing to shell $18 for crappy popcorn when they can a box of really good popcorn in the store for $3. The Scouts would sell a lot more if they reduced the size and dropped the price to $5.
The only good thing about the popcorn sales is that most of the money really does go to the Pack, much higher percentage than Girl Scout cookies. National does take a small cut, but you have to have the structure to make the program work.
I’m with you.
– Last Updated: Nov-01-11 5:52 PM EST –
For the guy that accused me of being a scam, well, that's just ridiculous. I've been on the site daily for years. Many people know me personally.
On the Scout popcorn program, I see it as basically a donation. Over 70% of the SALE PRICE goes to the local pack. That pays for programs dues, etc. Of the other
Even
Even if it is not a scam what would happen if everyone would be “advertising” their stuff all over on these pages???
UNETHICAL! Plain to see.
right
– Last Updated: Nov-01-11 9:34 AM EST –
It IS a donation. I looked up the data when I read this. 70% is pretty good considering. To me the strategy is getting people who wouldn't voluntary donate without being prompted. I'm sure there are some people who see the price and say, "$17? I'm just going to make a direct donation."
RJH: no one is forcing you to read this (or to buy the popcorn). Just as no one forced us to read your post hawking weight loss miracle drug frauds.
LOL
Yeah, that’s exactly how I rationalized it to the extended family. “Think of it as making an $18 donation and getting a free bag of carmel corn.”
I get it that fund raisers are never going to be “value priced”. But the thing that blows my mind is that they could keep the profit margin the same and still sell smaller quanitities. For instance, the microwave popcorn is $18 for 18 packets. Would it be that hard to have boxes of 5 packets for $5? Bet they’d sell alot more.
Any BSA people, who are also paddlers, reading this forum? Hey, could be. Turns out Cliff Jacobson is an Eagle Scout and wrote a great article on knife sharping in this month’s “Scouting Magazine” - http://scoutingmagazine.org/2011/10/tips-for-sharpening-your-favorite-blade/
It
It wasn’t a fraud and I had no benefit from such weight loss stuff.
How about if I post about our own scout group and see if anyone would like to donate??
go right ahead
Some of us have self-control.
BTW - yes, it was a fraud.
Donations
are nice…But a good portion of the value to the fund raiser like the popcorn sales, are not monetary. It involves the Scouts interaction with the local community of which they are a part. Among the values are the Scouts being able to learn how to approach and speak and explain. This internet sales depletes the value of community interaction for the Scouts and makes it into an entirely monetary gain…especially when the selling is being done by the adults and not the youth.
Best Wishes
Roy
Amen!
Amen Roy! It’s not Dad’s job to go out and sell it online!
Promoting a weight loss supplement is not fraud.
Then ignore it let it go away.
There’s no need to be a prick about it.
YoS
I can concede that point, but it isn’t
– Last Updated: Nov-01-11 9:50 PM EST –
always enough. I know my son worked hard in the neighborhood, and at a show and sell for four hours I set him up with over the weekend. He's ten, and working 4 hours at a show and sell is, imo, above and beyond. That's why he's met his goal. But the pack still needs help. Not all of the kids were as successful, and most did not have a show & sell like my son had to help.
As to RJH's asinine hard-on for criticizing and falsely accusing (hypocritically, no less, apparently) me, most under 10 year olds aren't internet savvy enough to use the internet to help them. Yet the Scout organization set up an online tool as you can clearly see above. So obviously, they expect the parent's to help, making it THEIR JOB, unlike RJH's assertion that it's not Dad's job to etc. . . .
YoS
pricing
I bought the popcorn because of the kid’s enthusiastic sales pitch. But the price is still too high. He wasn’t selling any. $5 boxes would probably sell more. Especially in this economy. Even if you know the bulk of the money goes to the scouts, $17 hits you as a rip off initially, and I didn’t know how much they got when I bought it.
A Cub
Pack actual needs very little. All the leaders are volunteers, the meeting place is in the building of a sponsoring organization and the outings are funded by the participants that choose to partake. The Packs main outlay is for rank badges and most other things are paid for by the families. Like the blue and gold banquet which is generally done as a pot luck. Sometimes the pack will hire a magician or some other entertainment…but the costs of running a pack are generally quite doable.
Even at the Troop level, as long as the Troop believes in the families owing most of the equipment (so as they leave scouts they can still participate in the outdoor fun) Troops don’t need tons of money to survive and produce a stellar program for the Scouts.
Best Wishes
Roy
Ours is a small pack. And not everyone
can afford the dues and fees to fund all of their activities. Camp ain’t all that cheap, and it’s what keeps kids in. And rockets, derby cars, books, uniforms, activities, etc, mostly paid for by the pack to reduce the load on parents, gets costly.
YoS
hcg
hcg is not a scam.
My point is that I was helping people to help themselves with no gain for myself, YoS was trying to benefit his own family by bleeding the rest of ya.
I think it is wrong to “advertise” on this board for selfish benefit.
Is that necessary?
Would you want your son to read that?
This site is called paddling.net not sell popcorn.net
it’s what is commonly called spam. Taking advantage of a data base to sell something that has nothing to do with the intention of the data base.
now that’s a perspective I agree with
I hadn’t thought of that.
yako is
A stand up guy trying to help out his son… he does not deserve a bunch of B.S.for that…It aint like he wants to sell some stinking popcorn …hes just trying to help out his sons troop…Now having said that i have to agree that the boyscouts of america need to use much better judgement, over the allmighty dollar. i once saw a boyscout approach an elderly lady who clearly wanted to help him out and agreed to buy popcorn before asking how much it cost … the look on her face was one of astonishment, when she was told how much she owed the boy…she clearly was on a fixed income and had no idea that the bsa was about to squeeze her by the neck and shake the money out of her purse… hell just last week they helped her cross the street for goodness sakes… ok i embellished a little but it was sort of true… Yako is a good man and a great Dad … the B.S.A. has some work to do i.m.h.o.