The Troop Committee met on Saturday morning, June 11 and made the
following changes to troop policies. Changes will become
effective on September 1 (and we'll see how they work).
1) Sign up
for camping trips: We will have an official sign up sheet
attached to a clipboard and hung in a prominent place in the Scout
Hut. Trip sign up will be available starting at the meeting
two weeks before the trip. The official trip roster will be
those who have signed up by the end of the meeting immediately
before the trip. Others are
always welcome but the must fend for themselves for food and
possibly transportation. The official roster includes both
youth and adult members.
2) On long camping trips, the troop will reimburse mileage at the
rate of $0.15 per mile. Of this sum, $0.075 per mile will be
paid by those who go on the trip and $0.075 by the troop treasury.
This is subject to the following conditions. A) long trips are
defined as those over 100 miles each direction. B)
Reimbursement is available only for vehicles sufficient to carry the
people going on the trip and their equipment as determined by the
trip leaders (this means you can't take a driver and son in a
vehicle and ask for reimbursement, unless there is no other
alternative transportation). C) Mileage is determined in advance by
using Mapquest or other similar service. D) Mileage starts with 0.
3) OK, here's the tricky one. This is going to involve
crafting some additional policy (and some computer work) but in the
long run will probably be a good thing. It is happening in
response to difficulties in keeping finances correctly managed in
camping trips. Starting in September, all payments for camping
trips for both youth and adults will be drawn from members Scout
Accounts. This has a series of important practical
implications...and I'm still working them out. Here are some
of them:
A) All payments will go to the Troop
Treasurer and all purchases will be reimbursed from the Troop
Treasurer.
B) All members will now have two Scout
Accounts. One derived from fund raisers (same as always) and
one derived from deposits. The fund raiser account is the
property of the troop and should the member leave, reverts to the
troop treasury (this is the same as always). The second one is
the property of the member. Its use is subject to the same
rules as the first account (only BSA events, no equipment) but is
the property of the member and should the member leave, reverts to
him or her.
C) Members may make deposits to their
accounts at any time by giving checks or cash (preferably checks) to
the Treasurer, or, if that person is not present, the Scoutmaster.
In an ideal world, the way this works is that you figure in
September that you are going to spend about $150 on scout camping
trips over the next year (exclusive of summer camps and such) so you
deposit $150 in your scout account and don't worry about it for a
long time. Of course, we realize that it isn't an ideal world.
D) Members will receive quarterly
statements of their account via email.
E) Fund-raising accounts shall be used
before deposited accounts.
F) All members should be sure to keep
sufficient funds in their scout accounts. No member will be
permitted to re-charter with a negative account balance.
G) While we encourage all youth and
adults to register with us, we will continue to welcome guests on a
pay-as-you-go basis.
If you have any suggestions to make regarding these policy changes,
please don't hesitate. Email me at
r.warms@txstate.edu.
