To ask how much would you be happy to pay

[Littlestgirlguide25]

For Guide camp?

It's a big event for 7 nights in the summer holidays, for Guides from across the UK and some international groups attending.
Lots of exciting and adventurous activities, all food, accommodation and activities included but with parents providing transport to help keep costs low (90 min drive from home).

What would you be happy to pay for that?

[minisoksmakehardwork]

£200 sounds very fair (rainbow leader, rainbow and Brownie daughters so biased) considering wellies and wristbands is £105 for 3 nights.

Given you've a year for fundraising to subsidise it, you can offer for parents to pay in instalments, if my daughter was in your guide unit and wanted to go, even at full price I'd snap your hand off. The event would be such a different experience for them. But I'd also be encouraging the girls to do their own fundraising. There are plenty of challenge badges around and I presume there is a guiding gfi or similar which would fit the fundraising theme. You will always get the girl who cannot participate in fundraising so work round it so they do other things instead - leaflet drops, admin in meetings etc.

Once they're in senior section fundraising is pretty much a given round our way to enable to girls to go on internationals.

[ImaginaryCat]

We're paying £180 for 5 day Cub camp, which is a bloody bargain. I know how hard Akela works to keep costs down, so the activities included in that are amazing.

If people give you shit for £205 for 7 days, remind them what 5 days (not nights!) costs in a local holiday club; round here it's £199 and I've got to supply packed lunches!

[WaxOnFeckOff]

That should be that I wouldn't expect help.

[WaxOnFeckOff]

As I understand it the Scout organisation and presumably guides? Will always try to help disadvantaged children take advantage of opportunities that they'd otherwise be denied through cost. The difficulty is identifying those children as often those in dire need wouldn't ask. Also there is a difference in genuine need and parents who simply choose to prioritise other things and cry poverty. We've given up lots to ensure our children can attend. We probably have average income so are able to afford all our basic needs so are giving up luxuries. I would expect help.

[Changednamejustincase]

Hipster hunter - I haven't made myself clear. I meant £200 is great value. But my kids wouldn't be able to go. I do not mean it should be made cheaper for them. I am saying some will still not be able to afford it but that is not because it is too expensive for what it is. I think your reply rude for what I have written.

[NormaSmuff]

installments of £5 per week, it is a weekly event isnt it?
or £10 - 15 a month sounds reasonble

[ineedaholidaynow]

As a scout group treasurer I can say I give a huge sigh of relief if we actually break even on a camp In the unlikely event we actually make a profit, if it is a small amount I would roll it into the next camp to reduce the cost of that one, and also cover the possibility of any extra costs coming out of the woodwork e.g. Leader making an expense claim 6 months later! If the profit is a reasonable amount we would refund the parents.

As a group we do try and keep the cost to the parents as low as possible, but it is amazing how quickly the costs build up. And as other people have mentioned you have to factor in cost of equipment, both buying new and replacing/repairing existing equipment.

[jmh740]

My ds is currently on a 6 night cub camp it cost £80.
Dd is going to euro Disney with guides for 3 days in Feb that's £350.
It depends on lots of factors dd is only going to Disney as it's the week after her b day so that will be part of her present. Personally I'd be happy to pay 100-150 for a camp any more than that and we would struggle. I'd also need plenty of notice to be able to pay in instalments

[Littlestgirlguide25]

We will give a whole school years notice - 11 months.
When we fundraise it's done as Waxon suggests, there's always one who never turns up to any fundraising events. We've got plenty planned, large and small scale so everyone can get involved.
It's just that some years everyone just smiles and tells us how cheap it is, and other years parents are raising eyebrows over £40.

We - and most Guide and Scout groups - do absolutely everything we can to keep costs low and our activities accessible for all families. But things do cost money, this is the real world, and we aren't able to offer discounts for larger families.

[forgottenusername]

dd3 left for Kent International Jamboree about two hours ago :)

we've paid £250 for camp, £15 for minibus to get her there and back, £20 for the hoodie (optional), £15 for a Saree off eBay (Asia Pacfiic sub camp, festival night!), £30 for pocket money and a cake for eating!

dd1 did a Guides trip to Switzerland a few years ago which was a lot more (£600 from memory) and we had fund raising and monthly instalments.

[lljkk]

£200 is great but ime most the time Guides find a way to get price much much lower than the reasonable price. Which is amazing, well done.

[Mumoftwoyoungkids]

One thought - think carefully about how you split the money earned from fundraisers. Often it is the same kids turning up time after time.

My off-the-cuff suggestion is 50% of the money shared equally between all guides going on the trip, 50% shared equally with all those who turned up and helped. (So £400 raised, 20 guides going, 16 turned up. Those who turned up get £22.50 each, those who didn't get £10 each off their trip)

If you are open about this at the start then people who are struggling but their kids are desperate to go can make sure their kids always turn up for the fundraising.

[gettingbacktoresearch]

We just had a county scout camp and for all beavers/Cubs/scouts/explorers it was £45 to attend and our group charged £20 each for food so a total of £65 for all food and activities etc for Fri-Mon (3 nights)....

[agentdaisy]

Our 2 night group camps cost £25 all in except transport. We use Scout owned campsites which keep the costs down.

I'd expect a trip like that to cost about £200 but we wouldn't be able to afford it.

We've just done a Friday tea time to Sunday tea time district camp which was £50. This covered all food, tents and activities which included canoeing, kayaking, rock climbing, a fairground, bouncy castles, lazer quest, paintballing (for Explorers) plus tonnes of other things. The children were dropped off and picked up by parents.

If you can fundraise to bring the cost down it would be good as the cost can be out of reach of some, it would be for us as I have 3 to pay for.

Paying in instalments is always good as £20 a month is easier than £200 at once.

[WaxOnFeckOff]

For an international trip (abroad 1.5k) we had an 18 month lead in and instalments. Some parents weren't interested in fundraising so just paid the full amount. Other parents were keen to fundraise so all the money they raised came of their bills not the overall cost. A similar scheme might be useful as it focusses attention where it's needed. Obviously particular circumstances may need to be taken into account for fairness. We had one scout who had a single parent with another disabled child. Arrangements were made to ensure the scout could help at appropriate events and take advantage of the fundraising discount.

[cazinge]

We've just charged £100 for a 4 night Guide camp. Sat 11am - Weds 3pm. Guides brought packed lunch for Saturday but included all other food. Activities included pistol shooting, tunnelling, low ropes course, geo caching, grass sledging, trip on a coach to a lido & trampolining park & 3 different crafts. Guides could bring up to £10 spends for on site shop. Parents transported. outs self

So I think £200 for a week at a large scale event is pretty reasonable especially if you will fundraise.

[HipsterHunter]

We could manage it if we only had one child and it was a one off. We have 3 in the guides and scouts and couldn't afford £200 extra especially if that meant we'd have to pay the same for the younger ones in a year or 2.So, whilst it is great value it is still an extra £200 families would have to come up with. £100 would be a lot easier and a bargain

The world can't make things cheaper because you have lots of children!

[SpockEars]

DD's pack gave 12 months notice of the event and offered payment by instalments. How are you planning to fundraise?

[Changednamejustincase]

I think even the full £205 is great value for what you are offering BUT we could not afford it. We could manage it if we only had one child and it was a one off. We have 3 in the guides and scouts and couldn't afford £200 extra especially if that meant we'd have to pay the same for the younger ones in a year or 2. So, whilst it is great value it is still an extra £200 families would have to come up with. £100 would be a lot easier and a bargain. It may make it out of reach for some still but most people would realise it would be very hard to make it any cheaper than £100.

[SpockEars]

DD is off to Poacher today which sounds similar to what you're offering. It's £275 but that includes transport.

[Littlestgirlguide25]

Those saying the price would be a struggle, I hear you as it would be for me too, which is partly the reason for the thread. I was recently given 1 month notice of a Brownie pack holiday for DD which cost £40 - that was a stretch that month.

Does paying in instalments help? As I say we are hoping to bring the price down through fundraising to between £100-150. Paid over ten months that would be £10-15 a month, would that be doable?

[Kitsandkids]

If you can get it down to just over 100 with fundraising that's very reasonable.

I have 2 in Cubs. We got a letter in May to say there would be a 2 night camp in the first weekend of July for £100 each. My 2 were desperate to go but I couldn't justify paying £200 for 2 nights. I suppose if we'd just had 1 child we might have managed but I did think that was very steep for only a weekend trip (though I do appreciate all the work that goes into it).

[christmaseasterbunny]

Hi , my dd is doing KIJ , and we are paying £250 , plus £50 spending money - looking at all the events / activities we are really pleased and surprised at the low cost - this includes all food , tents and activities ( looking online they have food outlets too , so thinking the £50 may be spent on slushies We paid in instalments , and they did some fundraising to pay for some of it .
I think £205 is a really good price - have fun !!

[wildbhoysmama]

My DS is off to scout International Jamboree today for 7 days. The cost was £260. This doesn't include transport as it's here in Scotland. They are camping with scout owned equipment but there are lots of activities that need to be paid for.
We could pay in instalments but I know some people just won't have been able to afford it.
Fundraising is also a bit of a stretch at times- the explorer scouts visited Norway this year and there was huge amounts of fundraising for that all year. It's great, of course, to help with cost but can be pressure for families to constantly give. A tricky one.

[colacolaaddict]

It does sound like a fair price, though we couldn't stretch to it personally, especially with more than one child.