Subs for brownies/cubs

[Twistmeandturnme]

Can I please ask how much you pay each term/year for brownies or cubs, and whether this includes annual census payment/any materials/badges/trips etc?
I'm getting mixed feedback from my Brownie parents (I'm a Brown Owl) and although I'm pretty sure we are average locally, I'd like a broader view.
Thanks

Th amounts do vary a lot, mainly down to what the group are being charged in rent.
Currently my dd (Exporers) pays £3 per week - but they only pay when they attend and then we have to pay the census capitation on top. It's really inefficient way of doing it, and a 'per term' or 'per month standing order' works much better for budgeting. Previously Scouts was £12.50 per month.
Excellent value.

MrsGabor: So only £54 a year? That's amazing! It would barely cover rent and census here!

£30 per half term for Beavers here, which includes everything except camp.

Tawny Owl, but LIC here. Our subs are £25 each term - £75 a year. Trips are low cost. Includes census. Trying to not put them up, but fear I might have to in the next couple of years. I charge a joining fee of £10 to go towards books and bag. No way covers the cost.

Dd1's Guides - just gone up from £30 to £36 three times a year. Again, trips are low cost. They also had a joining fee £10/15 for the bits, can't remember how much now ! Uses guide hut.

Dp's beavers /dd2's cubs are £12p/m. Owns own hut, rents the land

Ds scouts (different group, meet on a secure site which has made life interesting!) £10p/m.

Again, scouting trips are low cost, the group dp is with owns a minibus and use that, along with one borrowed from another group to take the kids about - last night 3 minibuses took the cubs to Longridge. Both scout groups include census in their subs.

We pay annually for Cubs/scouts/guides and it's about £110 per year per child. I think they also allow people to pay monthly, but gone are the days of putting your 50p subs around the Brownie toadstool.

what is census capitation?

Guide and beaver thirty five each a term.extra for camp etc.scouts locally better off than guides so generally more subsidised for camps trips etc.worth every penny (but i would say that I'm a leader)

We get a letter at th beginning of each year breaking down the amounts - roughly £100 to the local group and £10 census which is the contribution to the regional and national groups.

We don't pay extra for badges or routine activities, do pay extra for trips away. They also hold coffee mornings and other fundraisers which we support too. All three of mine do Scouts and Guides and I dint grudge a penny - fantastic organisation and I'm so grateful to people like the OP who give up their time for my kids.

what is census capitation?

In Scouts (there is similar in Guiding, but the details are different) every young person pays an annual 'fee' to the Scout Association. I believe most Counties and then Districts put a surplus on top, so the amount varies, wherever you are in the Country, but it is about £38 - £40 here.

This covers HQs costs, (Staff, buildings,etc.), legal support, liability insurances, all training courses for adults, volunteers costs (not many claim, but we don't want anyone not to be a Leader because they can't afford the costs), occasional equipment costs (eg a projector for the training team), things like room hire for County meetings or Regional meetings, and probably a lot of other things I can't think of at the moment.

Well organised groups include that figure in their budget and break it down into the subs everyone pays every month / term, or does a fund raiser, or uses recovered gift aid to subsidise it or whatever, and less organised groups give all parents a bill, in January.

28 a term for rainbows, 30 for brownies, includes badges and meeting activities. Sleepovers/day trips usually about 30

£25 per term for guides, it covers everything apart from camp & trips

Brownies and rainbows £25 a term. Guides £30 a term

£30 per term for my cubs (3 terms per year). No joining fee, uniform is extra.
Covers all activities and trips during meetings, badges (unless they are lost, then they are charged at cost)
Camps and trips outside the usual meeting times are extra, but the cost is kept as possible.

@Twistmeandturnme (fab name btw!) the Brownies don't pay any rent. I'm not LIC and I'd set it higher (not massively so, but I'd like to be able to offer to subsidise Brownie holiday as we scrape by.

My Guides is £45 a term, but rent has gone up to £150 a term, and with £40 a head census this year, that ends up not going particularly far either.

My Brownies pay a one off joining fee of £25 when they first start, subs of £20 per term and usually we subsidise census so they pay about £25.

My Guides pay £2 a week and again we subsidise census so they pay about £20 (no joining fee). If we do something on normal Guide nights we very rarely charge extra, so have done climbing, trampolining, ice skating etc (we also have weeks that cost us nothing or virtually nothing to balance it out).

I think Guiding and Scouting are generally excellent value for money because there's no labour costs and many units benefit from free or very low cost rent

We're currently charging £35 per term, including census, badges, books, all trips in meeting time, one or two smaller outings a year.
Additional; costs for uniform, camp, holidays, bigger organised trips.
Some of the parents would prefer an amount per session I think, but I can't make it work with overheads and census to pay for whether they turn up or not

Those costs sound fine to me. Are some of your parents saying it's too much? Paerhaps you could offer to let them pay in smaller instalments?

But I agree that they shouldn't just pay for the weeks they attend. After all , their 'space' is there whether they use it or not, and the majority of overheads won't change just because they miss a week .

Snowy Owl here (LIC) a we charge £2 a week and this includes badge book, badges etc and census but we do scrape by so thinking of putting it up in September. We cover census but it wipes us out.

DS is in Beavers and that is £3 a week (and is 15 minutes shorter) so I do think I will raise subs. But feel terrible as a lot of my Brownies' parents may struggle.

Scouts here is £10 per month including all trips in meeting time (laser quest, kayaking, beach bbq and cooking have all been done this half term). Camps extra but cracking value. If any family can't afford it then they will be subsidised. Badges are free, as is your necker when you join; rest of uniform is bought through a 3rd party at a reduced rate. We pay each month and the holiday months are used to fund the census payments and to subsidise anyone having difficulties paying.

I'm in awe of the leaders and how they manage to deliver so much.

Ds is in cubs and that's £10.50 per month. Some trips are included, all badges are included. Camp is usually £30, other trips that have entrance fees are extra. They bag pack sometimes to raise funds and that subsidizes some things they do e.g. last year's Christmas camp was only £15 for the weekend.
Dd is in rainbows and that's £3 per week, paid half termly but only due for weeks rainbows is on. Some badges are included some are extra but optional. Trips are extra.
I much prefer paying the set amount per month. Rainbows are cash only too and I much prefer being able to pay into the bank like I can with cubs.

£10 per month plus extra for trips if they are to a paying place, I'm more than happy with that.

About £8 per month here (Beavers) and £10 joining fee. Trips are extra but sometimes subsided.

Our Brownies is £3 a week and includes badges and census, and we charge a £10 joining fee. Trips are extra but we try to subsidise if we can afford it.

Ds1 cub group. £13 a half term (Just risen from £10 last term)
Ds2 (different) cub group. £25 per term.
Both include all weekly activities, extra for big trips and camps.

DD rainbows £8 a half term. £12 (iirc) annually for census. (But they do far less than cubs)

I'm a leader, we charge £100 a year chaos over 3 payments. Our annual subscriptions for our county is £37 next year 😭.

We charge £35/term (3 term year) for Brownies, and £36 for Guides. At Guides we encourage a £9/month standing order, as it means less chasing up payments. That includes everything we do in meetings plus a termly sleepover, but not summer camp and if we sign up to something really big, that we really can't cover from fundraising - Big Gig, that sort of thing. Our gift aid is used for camp equipment and subsidising costs for Jamborees - we do a unit camp every year, but once every 3/4 years we do something bigger, and this helps bring down that cost.

None of our parents have asked about weekly payments (we haven't allowed that for years, so it isn't part of general expectations), but if they did I would just compare Guiding with other extracurricular activities - you don't pay only if you turn up to swimming lessons, or ballet, or drama. I use Excel for my accounts and it is really easy to set up a pie chart to show what categories the money is spent in - hall rent, census, badges/neckers/books etc. from trading, leader training - all these have to be paid for regardless of whether Flossie misses a week here or there. The spend on activity materials is relatively minor - and in any case, you still have to spend it so you have it ready when she does turn up!