From: Phil Brown (philbrown@enterinfosys.com)
Date: Thu Dec 26 2002 - 03:20:22 CST
Why would you need to charge a contingency fee every year if it is kept
by the Council? This seems to me that the Council is then using the
Philmont contingent as a revenue source.
Phil Brown
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-philmont@troop47.com [mailto:owner-philmont@troop47.com] On
Behalf Of David Lyons
Sent: Wednesday, December 25, 2002 10:21 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list philmont
Subject: [Philmont]: Council Fees for Contingents
From: owner-philmont@troop47.com [mailto:owner-philmont@troop47.com]On
Behalf Of Dave Edelman
If council were to tack on any administration fee, the arrangement would
be unacceptable. My suspicion is that the new CE described in Jerry's
message is doing what he or she did because the volunteers let it
happen.
From: owner-philmont@troop47.com [mailto:owner-philmont@troop47.com] On
Behalf Of HICKER1@aol.com
A new CE came in and kicked the volunteers out. Now our council tacks on
a substantial administration fee for doing practically nothing. The cost
to the individual scout and scouter has gone out of sight and less than
half of the council's reservations are filled each year.
What is a substantial administration fee by a council?? And why would
"any administration fee" be unacceptable?
Our council sends 70 plus member contingents to council almost annually.
There is an exec who puts in time, there is a clerk who logs in all the
payments, makes copies, helps with mailings, and answers calls, finally,
there is a bookkeeper who maintains the official records and pays the
bills incurred by the event. Charging a small amount of these people's
time to the Philmont account rather than to another account is a more
efficient way to run an organization. It helps the Contingent
Coordinator (a volunteer) set a proper budget that reflects the true
cost of the event. It is the Contingent Coordinator's responsibility to
monitor the charges and he/she can question if excessive time or costs
(postage, paper, copying) are charged.
Let's look at the following example. I work at a large electric
generating station. We contract out major engineering projects. If we
get charged for time or materials spent on another's project, we object,
and the company that did it probably will not get another contract.
They may even become the next Enron or WorldCom, if mischarging time and
materials is a common practice of theirs. If a company has a large
general overhead charge because their accounting is sloppy, they
probably will not be competitive and not get the bid. So, do you agree
that a person's time must be properly charged?
Yet, you want your council to charge the time of council employees that
support the Philmont Contingent to another account. You want those
going to Philmont to get a lower cost at the expense of another Scouting
event having to charge more. Because, believe me, the council must
break even. If there are not enough donations (and there never are)
costs for events will go up.
Now about excessive - here I must agree. The Admin cost added by the
council must not be excessive. They should not use a popular event such
as Philmont to cover losses elsewhere. Just as they should not use
other events to keep the cost pf Philmont down. It is a responsibility
of the volunteer contingent coordinator to make sure this does not
happen.
Our Philmont fee in 2002 was $1250. Included in this fee were a $5 admin
clerical fee and a $25 contingency fee. The contingency was set up to
cover unexpected costs and emergencies with the understanding that if
there were none it would be returned to council. I do not consider this
excessive. The $30 is approximately 2% of the total fee. If you want
details on the budget, write me off list. I'll agree it is a high
number.
After this response my new Christmas Kevlar suit will certainly be put
to good use!!
Dave Lyons
1997 - 722P, 2000 - 729M-6, 2002 - 709D-6, 2004 - 727???
PTC - 1991, 1994, 1999, 2001 (twice), 2003 (June 22, CS Pow Wow)
Friends Of Scouting presenter 1989 - present (Yes, I may be a little
brainwashed)
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