It’s pleasing to know that one of my ex Scouts will be representing his Country, County, District, Explorer Unit and Scout Group at next year’s World Scout Jamboree in Sweden (no pressure then!).
To attend this exciting event is going to cost him about £2100 or $3145 or kr24,375. Now this is quite a lot of money to pay to go away for a fortnight or so, especially in the current economic climate.
So he is not just getting his parents to ‘cough up’ the amount, but doing various activities to raise the money. He, along with the other 4 Explorers from my District who are going, have done sponsored walks, held a charity stall on the local charity market and done car washes to name but a few. He is also, in the best traditions of ‘Bob a Job’, going to do work for people in return for a donation to the fund (hmmm, the car needs washing I think!).
A couple of weeks ago, a District colleague of mine was at a meeting and was chatting to someone from another county. This person was apparently quite surprised to learn that our Explorers are fundraising to enable them to go to the Jamboree. He, apparently, just wrote a cheque for the full amount for his son to go and couldn’t understand why our Explorer’s parents don’t do the same!
Now apart from the small matter that they probably cannot afford to just write out a cheque for that much, it gives the wrong impression to the Explorer attending the event. As our Explorers have to work for the money, they will appreciate the actual cost of going to the Jamboree and realise that it’s an honour to go and will be a once in a lifetime event (I am, of course, very jealous as I never had the opportunity to go on one!). The Explorer whose Daddy just wrote the cheque will think that this is the normal way to get money for things they want in life. I think our Explorers will have a better understanding of the value of money and that it doesn’t just grow on trees in the future.
Nick
I agree with your post above, it gets worse than that. When I too the Unit to the Jamboree in 2007, the disparaty between the districts within our county and within Counties I spoke to was amazing.
The normal caculation is 3rd from the District, 3rd from the Young person and 3rd from the Group/Fundraising/other sources. However some districts paid half the young persons free some paid all the fee some paid £100 that was it.
The variation within the counties was in final cost, the UK contingent gave the county a cost and the county had to collect that from the Young people. Some Counties said well it cost £1000 that is all you will pay, some said it costs £1500 and the £500 is for a build up etc.
We fundraised for the event £18,000 to provide kit, training, unit meeting etc for the Jambore unit in 2007 that is above the £1000 raised by the indervidual as a fee.
It is not a cheap experience but one that well change the young person life, it really is a once in a life time experience and faising the money is all part of that.
By working together and fundraising with other people you get to know the people who you are going with, which seems like an essential part of the experience for me. I don’t think you should be able to just write a cheque.
I almost felt sick reading about your experience with the large-walleted parent. HOW can people just assume that money is no issue?
The good thing from, what I understand off the selection process, is that you are chosen to go on your enthusiasm and not on the size of your parents’ wallet. But then of course the District has a bit of a responsability to step in and help, if there are Scouts who are super-representatives of scouting, but who can’t afford to go, by giving a contribution, a stipend or grant and help out with finansing ideas.
Scouting should be open to anyone who would like to share our values, but we have to realise that some people, who could really benefit from the context of scouting, have a problem just paying the membership fee! I remember a conversation with a parent in my group in England, where he asked to be able to pospone payment of the £2.50, as the school uniforms had cost a bit more than expected that month. In our Swedish group we had a couple of members, brothers, who stopped coming as they couldn’t afford paying two memberships (400SEK, appr £35 per annum) and buying the equipment needed for hiking. This raised awareness in our group, and we now have spare equipment for loan, and always give this information to ALL new members. And all leaders have been given information about the aplication to get the membership funded for families of lower means from a national charity, just in case.
Our district is pretty well off and is giving stipends for people who wants to go to international events like Explorer Belt, or Jamborees. If the scouts want to attend leadership training they can apply for a grant, as we then in turn can apply for a grant from the EU. This evens things out a bit, but there is still the problem that scouting is very much a white, middleclass activity….
Actually doing the fundraising is like Adam says, part of the experience!
In my Group we’ve always had a ‘policy’ (don’t want to sound too grand here!) that if parents can’t afford something, then we’ll try to work something out. The whole point of being a Scout is not can you afford to do the activity, but doing the activity. It’s for the experience and doing something different!
My own son is one of two from the District attending the WSJ. The other attendee’s parents don’t want to fundraise as they see it as “begging” ! This is despite raising awareness that the £2k is the charge which enable YP from poorer countries to attend.
I don’t have the money to simply write out cheques like the other family (and not sure I would want to as my son has to put effort into his attendance). This, however, leaves us in an awkward and diluted situation as far as fundraising goes….