Beavers subs and absences/school holidays

£18 a month, direct debit all year round. It's excellent value. It's not for profit and is run by volunteers so if you feel before joining that they might be ripping you off I'd say don't join as the leaders really don't need the hassle. Scouting leaders put a lot of effort in and are often treated badly by parents who don't appreciate it. (Not a scout leader btw, just a parent of kids in Scouting).

BrieandChilli has given an excellent breakdown. Of the £15/month, my budget is 75p a week per Cub roughly. Camps and trips out bowling, lazertag etc are charged at cost.

@DelurkingAJ worst part of the role is chasing subs. If we had a camp coming up we would tell persistent offenders (not parents suffering hardship) that if their subs weren’t up to date then their child couldn’t attend camp.

In our town, Beavers / Cubs / Scouts (and Brownies are the same): £35 per term, due at the beginning of each term. Typically 10 sessions, roughly following the school term times. No rebate for missed sessions due to illness or holidays. Occasionally asked to pay a bit extra (up to £10) for a special session like Bowling, Clip and Climb or Canoeing etc. (never more than once a term).

We charge £45 a term. We own our hall but it costs a fortune to run, insure, clean etc etc. We had a nursery in but they’ve gone under due to COVID and as a Committee we’re running round desperate to replace that income before we have to strip back what we do with the Scouts to the bone.

As an aside…what do groups do about parents who don’t pay and don’t say ‘help, we can’t afford it’?! I’m still chasing about 25% of subs for this term!

We charge £120 per year and parents have option to pay in monthly/termly instalments. If paying monthly still have to pay over August as the total cost is £120. We have a hut so have premises and maintenance costs. We also have to pay over £50 per young person up to Scout HQ, so that doesn't leave much to play with. We have to rely on donations and fundraising

If we have sufficient funds we might offer reduced subs if a child is off for a long period of time due to illness, but don't offer refunds for the odd missed session. We have to cover our running costs.

An excellent breakdown BrieandChilli and of course many groups pay up to double that for their rent, and have to divide the cost of that rent between fewer than 20 people (say there are only 15 in the Troop / Colony / Pack / Unit).
Some groups are also trying to subsidise the costs to young people where the family are struggling, and then that money has to come from somewhere too.

On the other hand, I also know of some Scout Groups that own their own huts and make a considerable income from hiring it out - I can think of one that has a Nursery in there 5 days a week, 6 hours a day, and another rather posh one that actually hires theirs out for functions such as weddings and other parties every week (I realise most Scout huts aren't like this ) , but it just shows how each Group's circumstances can differ.

No refunds for illness , £12/month x 12 months by DD for Scouts, £15/month for Explorers. That’s for sea scouts and it’s amazing value for money. Waiting list for Beavers is really long and the child really needs to be on the list by age 3 to get a place at age 6. They’d easily run more sections but don’t have enough volunteers.

£180/year, paid as £15/month throughout the year. There is the option of a £180 lump sum annually, but I’ve only known one person ever take that option.

I’m a Cub leader, Subs could have been voluntarily suspended during lockdown, but are due when we are running, our on-costs are higher than you might think. As pp - we will also do all we can to support families who have trouble paying. Also as pp - yes leaders do put in a lot of effort and time, usually around a full time job themselves.!

Run by volunteers who go above and beyond. It's a massive bargain and we're so grateful for the opportunities our children are provided with.

How many operations are your dc having a year? If it's multiple and lots of absence expected I'm sure they would arrange exceptional circumstances payment though.

I was treasurer for our scout group for 5 years.
Our group is £40 a term. So £120 a year. Payable regardless of attendance. Any trips camps etc are extra and only payable if participating

Currently the annual membership fee that is paid higher up the chain is just under £60 a year (this is divided between area/district/scouts cymru/and the main U.K. HQ)
That leaves £60 a year per child. We don’t have our own scout but so pay £20 each night we use the village hall. (But then those with own huts have rates/utilities/upkeep/cleaning etc to pay for)
Then badges costs anything from 20p to over £1 each.
Then we have to have insurance for the equipment that is stored in a shed, and then extra insurance for additional helpers.
Then equipment needs constantly repairing/replacing.
Things like gas when using the stoves, and then supplies used during meetings or paying for an external provider to come and run an activity (or often just a donation eg we have a local bird man come with his owls etc and we donate some money towards food etc for them)
Then the volunteers needs training. Some is provided free of charge by the scouts association but we pay £15 per person for first aid for example.
Then we provide the Neckers free of charge which cost us £3.50 each

So if you pay £4 a session for 37 weeks a year. £1.62 goes towards your child’s annual membership fee, £1 goes towards hall hire, say 38p towards a badge they may have gained,
That leaves £1 a week for all the other things above or the hot chocolate and biscuits served at the end of a hike, or the marshmallows and chocolate biscuits to make s’mores on firefighting night, or the craft materials to make a Mother’s Day card and present, or the plant pots and seeds and soil for another activity etc etc

I think it’s excellent value for money really.

£9 a month for our scout group but we don't have to pay rent so may be a bit cheaper than others. I'd say £10 a month is about average.
I'm the treasurer of the group so understand the finances. When you become a member of the group , the group have to pay "membership fees" to the Scout Organisation for each member on roll at a certain point in the year. This usually comes to thousands a year and is probably the groups biggest expense. So whether you attend or not - those fees need paying. You are not paying for the session - you are paying to be a member and for the other fixed expenses the group has.

Incidentally - our group suspended subs after the first lockdown and they will be suspended to September. Most parents voluntarily carried on paying.
If someone wanted to join the group but were not in the position financially to pay, we would probably subsidise them. We have not had this happen but discussed it and we would not stop a child joining just because their parents couldn't afford it.

Not true Clymene Every group I've ever known anything about will do their utmost to support individual circumstances.

Absolutely, all Leaders (and the treasurer and other trustees) are volunteers, but usually volunteers who are prepared to do what they can to include everyone.

At the end of the day, it’s a voluntary organisation and they can charge as they see fit and you can choose whether you want to pay it and let your child go or not.

They can't possibly give refunds if your child is off sick because it would be an administrative nightmare for the volunteers who aren't paid at all for their time to run it.

If you don't want to pay, give up the place to another child.

Different groups choose to organise their finances slightly differently, as has been shown by this thread - weekly, monthly, termly; some pay for 12 months, others just for term time; some will include things like the necker and badges when they start but others charge a joining fee or get parents to buy them; some have a high rent bill others don't ; the annual membership fee varies a fair bit, as counties and Districts add on different levies; some groups have a big annual fundraiser - say the local community bonfire - that takes care of most of their expenses, or regularly run fundraisers to help funds, so don't have to ask parents for so much in subs.
Some groups charge less weekly, but then ask the parents to pay the annual membership fee.

However, if you have a child that you know is going to be in hospital / recovering from an operation, or operations, then talk to the Group. Every Group I know would suspend the subs if you asked, or at least reduce them to the money that goes towards the annual membership fee in those circumstances.

I know when mine were Beavers / Cubs / Scouts / Explorers, it was by far and away the best value of anything they ever did. Far cheaper than most things.

We try to account for hardship cases (when families can't afford it) and if we know someone will be absent for a significant period we will hold their place without subs (but annual registration/insurance costs still need to be paid).

We had €2/session (90 minutes in winter, 2 hours in boating season) for Cubs, which we weren't strict about so never had money for badges, materials for crafts, prizes etc.

Now we ask for €20/term (3 terms a year), and try to only charge 2 terms or only €10 for the final term if finances allow.

This covers our general runNing costs over the year, including tea/coffee for parents volunteering on shore duty in boating season, various costs for outings, occasional stationary or equipment or materials costs, first necker for each Cub (replacements are charged at cost price of €10 - the other Cub unit and both Scout unit charge for all including 1st), and some reduction to cost of overnight events if we have enough in the kitty.

Last year we only charged once, and we didn't charge 1st term this year, both due to COVID. But we needed to charge this term and will need next term as we had run down to almost nothing and had dropped a number of sets of things to Cubs houses to operate remotely.

I used to run guides and couldn’t offer a discount for illness but if it’s a child having pre-planned long term absence for medical reasons I would look into offering a small discount of the cost of materials (hall costs still have to be paid and everyone who has a place in the group needs to contribute)

£2.50 a week term time only. It was £2 until just before lockdown.

You aren't 'paying' to go. You are contributing to the running costs. Scouting is a voluntary organisation - so all those leading the groups are volunteers. Your group will be a charity. You pay towards rates, water, electricity, rent, insurance, national scout levy etc etc these are the same whether you go or not. So once you join you do have to pay regularly whether or not your child attends that week.

£50 a term (for all scouting groups here). Don't pay over summer or holidays. It's a direct debit to avoid the chasing! It's well worth it though and both my girls have loved beavers, cubs and now scouts.
We didn't pay last year over covid and they still put sessions on over the summer holidays to make up for missing so much. They really are fabulous people and it really upsets me that some parents give them a hard time (without of course volunteering to help on the parent rota etc).

Ours is £40 per term, which works out at less than £4 per session. You can opt to pay by monthly direct debit (spread evenly over the year). The full term subs is payable regardless of how many sessions you attend.

I know to some it might seem unfair to have to pay if your child doesn't attend but the budgets are really tight. Plus all the admin is done by the leaders who are volunteers so having to take payments every week (and then bank them/record them etc) would be even more unpaid work for them.

£8 per month for all 12 months a year. It went up from £6 a few years ago