To be shocked at the price of Beavers?

[12ylnon]

Just had to turn down a place for DS at beavers today because it was just too expensive :( I'd been looking forward to him doing it for such a long time too!
£30 for the term- £180 a year. Well there is only four weeks in this term and next term so thats a whopping £7.50 per session. Uniform is another £30ish quid on top of that and the whole price doesn't include trips.
Am i being a massive cheapskate? I just think thats an insane amount to charge for 45 mins of play and activities!

£30 per term or half term? Ours is £30 per term - £90 per year - it's cheap compared to other clubs

Ours is £30 for the term but there are only three terms in the year. The sessions work out at about £3 each, which I think is very reasonable.

Uniform is normally available second hand, trips are voluntary. It's all pretty good value in my book!

I remember as a kid wanting to go to brownies and being told it was too expensive. Looking back it was the kids with the latest toys and trainers that went and we didn't have those either so probably was out of my mum's reach money wise.

I would expect "term" to mean from now till Easter - so it's about £3 a session - very good value..

You can get away with just buying a jumper - will last him 2 years so not too bad.

That does sound expensive - brownies is £30 a term, but for 3 terms.

I bet a lot of it will be to do with insurances and hall hire etc, I know that our Guides invariably fork out for lots of stuff themselves to keep the prices down.

I'm hoping to get DS into scouts but think it will be money well spent as he will benefit from it so much.

Wowzers, best start saving now - ds is 14 months after all

If it is £30 per term, then it's only £90 for the year, so even with the uniform it' s only a tenner a month.

Seems ok. Trips in cubs (DS didn't do Beavers) were usually free (sledging down the hill behind the scout hut etc) or v cheap (about £15 for a weekend camping inc. the price of sausages

Where do you get £180?

My DD does Brownies - the subs are £25 a term and there is always second hand uniform ... Trips are usually subsidised from the jumble sales.

The fees also go towards the hire of the halls (usually a donation to the church) and the leaders and helpers get a fee.

Compared to the price of swimming or other activity it is quite reasonable ..

There are only 3 terms in a year so £90....not £180!

Pretty much on a par with other activities and I imagine Beavers takes a lot of time/organistion

YABU!

Leaders and helpers get a fee. Are you sure? They've always been voluntary in the groups I've known.

Our Beavers costs £1.50 a week, you only have to buy a jumper, and even the trips they go on are very cheap. And that's in London!

The scout association charges an annual subscription .. in this area its £27 per year (and going up every year)

So if its 3 terms then 1 terms fees more or less are just paid straight back out to the assoc.

This covers insurance in case something happens to your son at beavers

the leaders and helpers get a fee

hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

signed

a cub leader

As an American and having the brain of a 12 year old boy my son won't be a Beaver because the name makes me giggle uncontrollably.

As a Guide leader. I would gently suggest that you check how long their term is - we still plan for the 'old' terms - three a year - as does every unit I know of. We meet on average for 10 meetings each term - 30 a year, so on that basis you are actually paying £3/meeting. To keep the admin down (we're all busy volunteers, so we try to minimise the admin amap) we charge a flat fee each term rather than work out how many weeks and charge differing amounts each time. Parents seem to prefer it as they know what to expect.

That £3 includes rent for the hall, all the materials used for the activities, training costs for the leaders, insurance and 'census' payment to the Scout Association which goes toward programme development, and so on. Looked at in that way, £3/meeting suddenly doesn't seem so bad.

I can asssure you leaders DO NOT get paid ..we VOLUNTEER to leave our kids behind and go look after other people's kids

You know that the 'half term' holidays are in the middle of a term - not separating two terms? There are three terms in a year. So £90, not £180.

Can you call back and accept the place or is it too late now?

To everyone who thinks otherwise - leaders and helpers do not get any kind of fee. It is entirely voluntary. My DH chairs the committee of our local scout group and spends loads of time on this, as do countless other parents and leaders. They get no fee, even for camps and do a brilliant job. Having seen a beaver leader who was organising a sleepover, leaving her newborn baby behind, almost reduced to tears by a parent simply because numbers were limited, I would urge everyone to appreciate their scout leaders and helpers a bit more. It is a fantastic organisation and fantastic value for money compared to other activities.

I'm surprised by this too. It's normally more like 30 pounds a term for 3 terms of about 10 weeks each, like school terms. Second hand uniform may be available and they can normally have a trial session without any uniform to see how they get on. When you consider that it pays for hall hire, insurance and materials it isn't a lot. All the leaders are volunteers, they only get training paid for and expenses when they go on training sessions and then IME they share cars to keep costs down. (Some training is compulsory e.g. first aid and that's expensive). They DONT get a fee.

Obviously trips like camping cost money but if they visit e.g. the local fire station it's free.

Well this is awkward! I just spoke to the woman again. The first time i spoke to her she said it was 30 quid for up until the 11th of Feb, which is half term. She in fact ment up until easter, so thats very reasonable indeed!
THANK YOU for pointing it out to me, i wouldn't have checked otherwise.

Mine is 30 pounds a term, so90 for the whole year. Buy the jumper from eBay. That's all they need... I think its very reasonable. But our sessions are 90 mins long each week.

Fees are charged by the term . . . and there are three terms in the year. Leaders absolutely do not get a fee of any kind. They are the most wonderful people who give up a lot of their spare time to run these organisations. This is David Cameron's Big Society before David Cameron had ever coined the phrase and before he was even born.

The leaders and helpers get a fee

Um, no they DO NOT. Absolutely not. They are volunteers who give up hours and hours of their time planning and carrying out activities, training and setting up, and looking after the children etc etc ALL FOR FREE

Sorry to shout. But they are ALL VOLUNTEERS.