Posts Tagged ‘prizes’


Boy Scout top sellers with their prizes.

The Melrose Scout Troop 68 fall supper fundraiser is now a part of history. The troop did well and the Scouts and parents did a good job during the meal. One of the keys to having a successful fundraiser is to have the Scouts sell tickets for the event ahead of time.

Thanks to a few donations the troop had some prizes for the top ticket sellers. We did have one requirement toward the prizes. In order to qualify, a Scout had to sell at least $200 worth of tickets before the event.

We originally had three items to give away. We had a field bag, a soft sided briefcase/laptop bag, and a Sansbug pop-up mosquito netting. A few days before the supper we had another donation of a book bag to add to the prizes.

The first place seller would get his choice of one of the prizes. The second place seller would get his choice of the three remaining items. Third place would get to choose from the final two items, with forth place seller receiving the final prize. It is fun to watch which prizes are chosen for the first two places.

Six Scouts qualified by selling over $200 of tickets. The photo shows the four top sellers with their prizes. Trevor was the fourth place seller, Hayden took third, Austin was second place, and Ethan took the first place spot. Both Austin and Ethan sold over $300 worth of tickets, with a little help from their parents.

Every year, the Central Minnesota Council seems to offer an incentive to the boys who join the local Scouting pack during the School Night to Join Scouting meeting. This meeting is traditional held the third Thursday of September. A few years ago the new members received a rocket. Last year they were given a frisbee with the B.S.A. logo on it.

This year’s prize was sure to make every teacher in Central Minnesota happy. Yes, you guessed it. This year’s incentive was one of those spinners which was so popular with elementary boys. This fidget spinner was blue in color with the B.S.A. logo in the middle of it.

I have to admit, the boys who came to school night all seemed excited about receiving the spinner. Even the current Pack members who came to the meeting wanted one of their own. The parents did not seem to be quite as excited as the boys. The current Scouts could buy one for $5.00 each.I believe most of them did go home with one. I went home with two. One for my Scouting collection, and one for a friend of mine who lives in Arizona.

Does your council offer an incentive to new Scouts on School Night? What was it this year?

2013 auction prizesI was looking for a way to further excite the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 to attend troop activities and earn their advancement when I came up with the idea of having a troop auction for prizes at the end of the year. I do not remember if I got the idea from another troop or if I came up with it myself. I do know that it has been a part of our program for over twenty years, and that other Scouts leaders have developed their own auction programs after listening to how Troop 68 conducts theirs.

Here is how it works. The Scouts earn “troop bucks” each time they go on an outing and for each merit badge and rank they earn during the year. They earn $25 per troop outing. They earn $50 for each merit badge. They earn $100 for attaining Tenderfoot, Second Class, or First Class; $150 for attaining Star or Life Rank; and $200 for reaching the rank of Eagle Scout. These bucks are then used to bid on prizes during the “troop auction” held after the December court of honor.

When I first began doing the auction I would hand out troop bucks at each court of honor. The bucks were actually Monopoly money with our troop stamp stamped over the top of it so the boys could not use Monopoly money from their own games. The Scouts had to store the money themselves. If they lost it it would not be replaced.

The Monopoly money worked well for a few years, but then Monopoly money disappeared from store shelves. Another problem was that brothers started pooling their money together to bid on the bigger prizes. That was not the way the bucks were meant to be used and was very unfair to those Scouts who did not have brothers in the troop.

I created a troop bucks certificate on the computer to replace the Monopoly money. The certificate contained the Scout’s name. amount earned, and the year earned. Certificates could only be used by the person who’s name appeared on it. The year on the certificate helped to keep things honest for the one prize we auctioned for which only bucks earned that year could be used to bid. I also awarded the certificate once a year, at the December court of honor. That created less work for me and less chance of Scouts losing the bucks before the year’s last court of honor.

Any unused troop bucks could be saved to be used another year on regular prizes. Once a Scout turned 18 years old his troop bucks became non-valid. It was interesting to watch older Scouts try to use up any troop bucks they owned at their last auction before they turned eighteen. Bidding is done in $5 increments.

We I started the troop auction we based the amount spent on prizes by the amount of advancement earned during the year. A certain amount would be added to the kitty for each merit badge and rank. The more the Scouts advanced, the more money was thrown into the kitty, and the more prizes or bigger prizes could be bought. That worked well until the troop started shrinking. Ten Scouts had trouble earning a large fund so we changed the financing to a lump some. I also based the number of prizes on the number of Scouts currently enrolled in the program. We did not need 30 prizes when we only had eight Scouts.

I also wanted to keep the cost of the auction down so I began looking for prizes throughout the year, not just a month before the auction. I started getting pretty good and finding nice items for free or little cost.

Each auction contains some “traditional” items. There is the Boy Scout Handbook, because someone is going to wear theirs out during the year. Boy Scout bolo ties and merit badge sashes have also been used as prizes on a regular basis. I usually try to include some sort of camping gear. And then there are some fun prizes, of course.

Tonight is Troop 68’s final court of honor for the year. The troop auction will immediately follow it. The picture posted with this article shows most of the prizes which will be auctioned. A merit badges sash is missing, as is the $20 cash prize for which only 2013 troop bucks will be allowed to be used to bid. There will be a lot of first time bidders at this auction. It should be a good night.

Has your troop does anything like this as a part of your program?