Last time I checked the Scouts (of any kind) did their OWN fundraising and did not put their hand out asking another organization to do what they should be doing. Teaching responsibility and earning your own way is a pretty fundamental theme for most Scouting groups. I.E: cookie sales (almost time for those: yum-yum!, nuts, magazines, etc..)
I would say "no way". Plus you are certainly opening the door up for everyone to have their hand out. The money earned by your organization should be for the common good of the school and it's students.
Do yourself a favor and change your bylaws so that it does not leave any room for any outside giving beyond the school. I do not even think you should be chartering the boy scouts. That opens the door for other groups to want things from you.
All of this scouting nonsense has just caused way too much drama. I have never heard of scouts before asking for all kinds of things from another organization. Tell them to go out and earn it like every other scout troop in the US
WOW. I can't imagine getting into donating to a troop - we have so many we'd never have any money.
Our rule of thumb when organizations ask for money (and I mean within the school - Student Council, Music Department, Sports Teams - NOT Scouts) is to ask if the money will go to help a majority of students. If it is only helping a few, then we will not donate.
Do yourself a favor and change your bylaws so that it does not leave any room for any outside giving beyond the school. I do not even think you should be chartering the boy scouts. That opens the door for other groups to want things from you.
All of this scouting nonsense has just caused way too much drama. I have never heard of scouts before asking for all kinds of things from another organization. Tell them to go out and earn it like every other scout troop in the US.
At the Brownine level they should be collecting dues. Ours are $1.00 per week, and this goes into the troop fund. Right now they are selling Girl Scout cookies, granted the their portion is only .50 a box, but hey, anything is better than nothing. I know that they will not have the money availble right now, but the pins and stuff can wait.
As far as the stolen funds go, they need to contact the police, States Attorney's office and their main council headquarters.
Thank you for all the replies [img]smile.gif[/img]
Our bylaws state "This organization will be operated for educational and charitable purposes and particularly for members of this organization to participate in the development and welfare of children attending (our school name) in all facets of their environment" . . .
With that said, parents (and a few board members) are arueing that this means if the scouts want money and the PTO votes in favor, we have to give it to them??????
See, we have a "fued" going on and between parents in boy scouts/parents in girl scouts and PTO board members who have children in both scouts??? I'm the pres and have a brownie (not in the troop that asked for money), my vice pres has a cub scout and one of our parent reps used to have a cub scout but pulled him out because she's friends with another cub mom who stole $300 in candy fundraiser money last year. . ..
last year, the cub pack asked the PTO to purchase their pine derby cards because this mom stole the $300 profit they made in their fundraiser and they didn't have the funds to purchase them. I was hesitant (I was vicepres at the time) but the general meeting attendees approved it. Girl scouts got wind of it and the very next meeting, the jr girl troop came asking for $50 for their girls badges (the troop coordinator for our school used to be PTO pres and stirred a ton of trouble against the PTO once she was no longer on the board and made the jr troop ask for this money). They only asked for $50 and we repeatedly asked for a receipt but they never provided one. Because I had a brownie at the time, I know that this money DID NOT go to badges, but to the food expense for the girl scout banquet.(now remember this was all last year)
Because I am in the middle of all of this (and some of the parents bring my name into the "gossip" about this ongoing fued) I have to watch what I say. I brought the list of items the brownies wanted us to purchase to the principal and noted that half of these items are supposed to be the parents responsibility, gifts from the troop leader or pins these girls aren't even supposed to receive until the year is completed and the troop would have their cookie profit by then.
the principal mentioned that the leader (who is a single mom) won't have the money to purchase this stuff and there is NO money in their account????? So I proposed, PTO purchasing the earned badges and "fronting" the money for the other items with an agreement that the troop would reimburse us once the cookie money came in. All the board members and the troop leader agreed with this so that is where it stands.
My hesitation in all of this comes from a PTO President point of view as I am basically responsible for all income/expenses for the PTO. But because I'm a brownie mom (and one of the parents who fought for two troops) everyone views my point as a "she just doesn't want the other troop to have the money". . ...IT'S SO CHILDISH!!!!!!
I'm really hesitating on running for Pres again next year, our bylaws state that we can serve 2 years in the same position . . ..I really want to get out of all of this. we have such childish parents, esp the single parents or parents with grudges?????? I'm not ditching single parents but ours seem to always use that as an excuse for their behavior????? Just because I'm married doesn't mean I don't have the same challenges as them?????
I'm going to bring this "scout funding" up at our February meeting. THEY CAN do fundraising themselves and there are forms they can fill out to recoup their "stolen money" and this happened back in November so there was plenty of time to fill them out and turn them in!!!!!!!!
As far as us chartering the boy scouts, my vice pres seems to feel like we (the pto) should fund whatever they need since we charter them????? Now, THEY DO fundraise and last year was the only time they have ever asked PTO for money because of the one mom stealing their profit.
Our parents just see the amount of money on our financial report but they don't READ our budgeted expenses for the rest of the year PLUS we are purchasing half the cost of the Accelerated Math program for our school so they are not taking those expenses into account and think we have way toooo much money right now???? Our most expensive time of the year is May and I don't want us not to have the money for our Spring Picnic.
I'm in a panic because we are already $250 over budget/
Thanks again for your replies . ..glad to see I'm not the only one who feels this was wrong.
