A Scoutmaster's Blog

Tonight, the Boy Scouts of Melrose Troop 68 will use their troop meeting time to begin sales of their spring fundraiser, a Dad’s Belgium Waffle Supper to be held on Friday, March 22. The Scouts’ parents will drive them around town as they try to presell as many tickets as they are able in one and a half hours. After the meeting, they will be on their own to sell tickets. The boys not only are raising funds for troop activities and equipment, but they also earn troop credit toward the cost of summer camp, high adventure bases, and other select troop functions.

Here is a quick rundown of what the boys will be told tonight before they begin their ticket sales:

NOTES FOR TROOP MEAL FUNDRAISERS:

Meal Ticket Information:

Each adult meal ticket will be presold for $7.00 each.
Each children’s meal ticket (age 5 to 10) will be sold for $5.00 each.
Children age four and under will eat for free and do not require a ticket.

Ticket Sales Kick-off Night:

Each pouch contains 40 adult tickets and 5 children tickets, in addition to $10.00 in change. Count the tickets and money when receiving a pouch to verify what you receive. Each Boy Scout will be responsible for the contents of the pouch when he leaves to sell tickets.

Scouts shall not mix contents of their ticket pouch with other Scouts. Each Scout’s pouch will be counted and totaled when he returns to the starting point. The amount of money returned should equal tickets sold plus the $10.00 starting cash.

Boy Scouts shall wear their uniform when selling tickets. They shall be polite, courteous, and kind at each household, whether a ticket is sold or not. Always thank the homeowner for their time.

All tickets sold during the kick-off sales event will be added together for the night’s total. This total will be used to give each Scout who participated an equal share of credit toward his Individual credit account with the troop.

Ticket Individual Sales:

After the ticket sales kick-off Boy Scouts are encouraged to take meal tickets home to presell before the evening of the meal fundraiser.

If there are brothers in a family, tickets and moneys must be kept separate for each Boy Scout.

Scouts are responsible for all tickets taken and for the money from their sales. They will be required to pay for lost tickets or lost moneys. Be sure to empty pockets before doing laundry. Destroyed tickets must be paid for.

Individual Scout Credits:

Scouts will receive credit toward their individual troop account based on the number of tickets presold. The credit from the ticket sales kick-off event will be evenly divided among the participants that night. After this kick-off event the Scouts will be on their own selling tickets, earning credit for his own account.

Each adult ticket presold earns (?) account credit. Each children’s ticket earns (?) credit. Keep in mind that this is credit toward summer camp, high adventure bases, and certain other troop events, and is not cash for the Scout to receive. (Credit amounts have been left out for this blog post.)

A credit bonus can be earned if 1) the Scout participates in the ticket sales kick-off event, 2) presells tickets on his own after the kick-off event, and 3) both the Boy Scout and at least one parent works during the entire meal fundraiser. If all three criteria are met his credit earned from individual ticket sales will be doubled. (This does not include the credit earned during the ticket sales kick-off event.)

Any questions?

As active members of the Boy Scouts of America we all do our best do follow the Scout Oath and the Scout Law. I recently received an email from a friend in Europe that listed some other excellent suggestions to live by. See what you think of these…

1. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
2. Marry a someone you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.
3. Don’t believe all you hear, spend all you have, or sleep all you want.
4. When you say, ‘I love you,’ mean it.
5. When you say, ‘I’m sorry,’ look the person in the eye.
6. Be engaged at least six months before you get married.
7. Believe in love at first sight.
8. Never laugh at anyone’s dreams. People who don’t have dreams don’t have much.
9.  Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it’s the only way to live life completely.
10. In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling.
11. Don’t judge people by their relatives.
12. Talk slowly but think quickly.
13. When someone asks you a question you don’t want to answer,  smile and ask, ‘Why do you want to know?’
14. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great  risk.
15. Say ‘bless you’ when you hear someone sneeze.
16. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
17. Remember the three R’s: Respect for self; Respect for others; and Responsibility for all your actions.
18. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
19. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
20. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice.
21. Spend some time alone.