24 September 2008
BSA: Labor Pains
Posted by admin under: fundraising; recruitment .
We had our weekly troop meeting last night and just prior we had a fundraising meeting for our big project of the year: tree lot. We’re down about 12 scouts from last year at this time. That was the time when we barely had enough labor to staff our tree lot. We sell Christmas trees in order to raise money for our annual budget. Our budget is fairly lavish. We pay for all registration, insurance, and Boys’ Life for all the boys. We pay for all campsite fees for everything except for summer camp throughout the year and we typically go on at least 4 campouts that require fees. We’ve already done one of those this year. We also pay for gasoline for the cars carpooling boys to outings. We pay for adult enrollment and training as well as half the cost of NYLT for any boys that want to do that. We sock away $1,000 per year for a Jamboree fund that gets split between all of the guys going. Once you add in the cost of advancement which is not inconsiderable you have a pretty penny to save for.
The tree lot is somewhat complex. Besides getting all the city permits for use of an empty lot and arranging for the rental of a bathroom, fencing, and temporary electrical pole we also have to figure out how many trees we think we’ll sell. It used to be easy. Open on the first Friday of December and then stay open until the trees are sold. If we got about 850 trees we’d make enough money to cover all our costs and cover our annual budget as well as share a portion with our Cub feeder pack that helps us run the lot. That was when we had between 40 and 70 boys in the troop. We did a tally last night. 25.
Hoo boy. You have to staff the lot 24 hours per day. Believe it or not, people will break in and steal your trees. That’s why we have to get the fence put up around the lot. People will literally steal trees while you are standing there watching them. Not many people, but enough to make you set up safeguards.
We have 3 hours shifts. That’s 8 shifts per day, minimum. When we’re open for sales we need a cashier and at least two salespeople on the lot. During the weekend we really need 2 cashiers and 3 salespeople. Yes, the boys work the lot. They will put in hundreds of hours of work, in fact. However, it’s just not safe to let them handle chainsaws and it’s faster to have the adults attach tree stands to the trees. The boys are our best salesmen because everyone knows this is a fundraiser.
With our current size we’re thinking we can’t be open 3 weekends as we’d originally hoped. We’re going to be okay if we stay open from 10am to 10pm on the weekends (64 shifts) and Friday nights (16 shifts) with our guard shifts (52). In order to be open on other weekday nights we’ll need to get more labor. In my mind that means recruitment.
We’ve added a couple of boys to our roster this fall, but we’ll need another 10 to make our labor pains easier and allow us to order more trees. I’m bracing to make the walk across the street to the middle school with the bad reputation. We’ll see how it goes.
On an unrelated note my son was elected SPL again so I’m proud of his accomplishment twice over. He’s into his last year, though, so I want him to save some time for his remaining merit badges and an Eagle project. He’s never been that ambitious, but he agrees that he’d regret it later in life if he topped out at Life Scout.
Possibly Related Posts: