Beavers

[wickedfairy]

DS has not long started Beavers and enjoys going. I am glad that he likes it but.....

Every week - numerous, numerous emails/texts telling me about what is happening this week (usually only a few days before) and I need to do/buy something, which doesn't give me a lot of time to get it sorted, especially as we are working and sometimes the emails come the day before and DS is at the childminders straight away before Beavers the next day. It costs 400 pounds a year (yes, really) and although I think it is expensive, we can/will pay, as DS enjoys it. There is a parents rota, which you are automatically put on and our working hours will make it difficult to ba around for the majority of these times, although they will not be too frequent.

Thing is, for paying a hefty amount - I just want to pay and leave them to it, tbh. I don't want to help, I don't want loads of mails asking me to do things - I just want to pay and for him to turn up and enjoy himself.

So - AIBU and a total grumpy cow? (I am suspecting that I probably am - what do you all think?)

Also YANBU about the last minute stuff. Sometimes it happens with trips when you are relying on someone else to confirm details of a visit that as leaders we simply don't know until the last minute. Bare in mind most Leaders of these things have jobs so are trying to organise these things by email/in the evenings.
But buying stuff and bringing it, I send a letter at the start of term with all this on. If they need to bring anything (maybe once a term) I usually email the weekend before the meeting as a reminder, because there will always be people who do not read the letter. It may be you have missed the agenda and these emails are memory jogs?

itsstillgood A rota works well for us - we send the Group Scout Leader the plans for the term / half-term and she sends it out to parents plus a rota to include one parent per evening in the hut plus extra for trips out, to cover the adult to child ratio.

Yep - 400 pounds a year. The starters letter we got said it is 100 per quarter, so I am definitely not wrong there.

I do understand that parental helpers can make all the difference, but it is just not me at all. Especially when I am paying that amount, I have no interest in helping at all!!! No weekly money is required but when they go "off-site", i.e. swimming, sleepovers, etc then we still have to pay extra for that......

Seems very steep now that you have all said what you pay. How many terms are there a year, so I can compare directly? What do you pay annually?

Re the emails - why can't they send out mails stting what they need a few weeks in advance? Gives everyone more time.

Thanks!

I understand the late emails could be a memory-jog but surely as a new-start, if they did have an agenda, they would have given me/DS one?

how much?

We pay £2 a week. Camps are usually around £10/£15

YANBU. For that price I'd expect it to be all in to be honest

I am amazed that it costs that much! Cubs here is £80 a year. Find another group!

I think yabu to expect the emails earlier as it is all done by volunteers. I always think that if you want volunteers to improve the job they are doing, then you need to be prepared to help.

Our cubs group has a lot of volunteers thankfully, and I'm on the list of parents that helps when they need it. But they asked (or I offered - can't remember) and they don't assume that every parent will help. We aren't asked to provide stuff at all, apart from torches sometimes.

I thought our Beavers were expensive, we pay £144 a year, at lot more than we pay for Rainbows (held in the same hall at the same time but a different day) which is £60 a year.

We pay extra for days out, normally about £15 for the day, and a weeks camp will be £200.

HOW MUCH????
We pay £6 a month. I would be asking the Leader for the accounts. Seriously.

I have no idea if you are BU. I can't get past the £400 bit.

People are saying that they pay £30 - £40 per term, so £90 - £120 annually.
I paid £77 annually for Beavers. Cubs is £96 annually,

We pay £30/year plus extra for camp and any weekend trips out.

We plan any Monday nights out (normal meet night) so they generally don't incur any extra costs - bug hunt in the woods, visit to the police helicopter, den building, visit to Pets at Home. All things that don't cost but we couldn't do without extra help, not only to keep it from descening into chaos (we have 25 on our books) but also to keep the 1 adult to 4 children ratio on trips out.

wickedfairy - you might not want to get involved but bear in mind the volunteers that run the groups are just that, most have jobs and/or other children. If you can help out, even in small ways, it does make a difference.

On the £400 a year front - they will have accounts that the Treasurer maintains - ask to see them as it really does sound very excessive.

I paid £15 per term when DS was in Beavers. £8 per month via standing order now he's in Cubs.

£400 that works out at around a tenner a session!

Anyway, for my £15 termly I would get a 1.25 hr meeting each week of term, which included activities such as raft building, trip to the local park/graveyard/museum/university sports ground/firestation which I volunteered to go on too aswell as cooking or crafts etc.

Extras to pay for were overnight camps or weekend trips out; these were always made as cheap as possible and notified ages in advance.

We did/still do get about a million letters a term too you will never stop the avalanche of communication

hth.

Sorry, I got that wrong, £5 a month so £60 a year.

£400 per year?
Cubs seem to spend every other week, playing football/rounders/ any other kind of sport, in the park = FREE
Bring in something to show you do a hobby = Get the Hobby bage = FREE
Walk along the river = Get the walking / rambling (whatever) badge = FREE

So, where's the £400?

YANBU about what you pay and YABU about not wanting to help.

I pay £10 a month for DS for Beavers, all year round although it doesn't run in the school holidays. I think this is very reasonable for what he gets to do each week.

This term DS's troop have introduced a parent rota, as one of the leaders left and no one volunteered to take over. This is a bit of a ball ache for me, as I'm a LP and have no other childcare on weekdays, however, I think one evening a term is quite a reasonable ask. I have worked it out with another LP in the group, I'll have her other DC when she does it and vice versa.

I think it works out about £70 a year.

Craft stuff is all in, we only pay for extras like camps and special activities - an overnight camp was £10 which included dinner, breakfast lunch and activities

Our Scout group does a parent rota. We are expected to help 1 evening a year, maybe twice (there are 30 Beavers)

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?????

Blimey, when I was a Brownie, it was 20p a week.

YABU not to want to help but you are being overcharged. The whole point of scouts/cubs/beavers is that it is a community effort run by volunteers and they need parents to pitch in or it is almost impossible to continue.

Rather than carping, therefore, why not volunteer to help, get to know the leader and talk to them about how the thing could be run a) cheaper and b) better?

£400 sounds far too much. My guides pay £58 a year and meet about 30 times over three terms (taking school holidays off). I think your colony are charging far too much.

HOWEVER, regardless of what you pay, Beaver leaders are volunteers so there's no relationship between what you pay and the need for adult helpers.

Whereabouts are you? I'm guessung not UK if you don't know theres 3 terms in a year.

YABU not to want to help

The OP said in the OP that she CAN'T help, not that she doesn't want to.

Anyone CAN help. Cub/beaver/scout meetings may not be convenient but there is a ton of stuff that goes on behind the scenes that anyone can help with, even if it's only on a sporadic basis.

OP said she can't do her stint on the rota, she didn't discuss anything else in the OP

Ok - I do have probs with work being able to help but I did say I also would rather not. HOWEVER, I do take your point about the leaders, etc being volunteers and that we should all take our turns, so I agree I am being a bit unreasonable in not wanting to.

I think I am a bit like that because of the cost - if it was smaller, I would probably be more open to it. Even when I am not at work on a Beavers night, DH usually is and we have younger children, so I can't really help anyway.

Embarrasingly I am in the UK but the terms where I live are totally different to where I grew up and I still get a bit confused, as DS only in his second year at school.....

£30 a term or £90 a year here too, plus extra for weekend activities but usually only £1 per event.

Parents rota here too, not everyone can do it but most manage once in a while by getting someone elso to mind younger siblings for a couple of hours, I used to take DD along and she would join in (she was 4 though, I mght not have taken a two year old, although I probably would have done provided it was an indoor activity night).

Not everyone has the time or inclination to help. I don't think anything beyond ensuring your child can get to events (as much as possible) and is supported through their time in the organisation. Yes it's great when parents (or anyone!) wants to help but it shouldn't be forced