Scouts is largely a voluntary organisation and many people give up much of their time and contribute their expertise to Scouts. As such there are very few paid employees in Scouts as a whole and none at Group level. This does not unfortunately mean that there is no cost involved in having your child at Scouts.
1st Claremont is a traditional community group, as are most groups in the Cape. This means that we are funded entirely through our own resources. Scouts SA does not provide any money to any Groups (in fact we pay money to them). Similarly no institution assists us with our operations (as might be the case in a school sponsored Group).
Group funding comes from three sources
- We charge an annual fee on all scouts at the beginning of each year. Part of this fee is paid to Scout SA as a membership fee and to pay for the facilities provided by Scouts SA (such as Appleton and Hawequas) and the remainder is used for the operations of the Group. If your child joins partway through the year you will be requested to pay a pro-rata share of the fee. Fees are announced at the AGM.
- We use our facilities to generate income for the Group. This has two benefits as organisations and persons using our facilities do so at a low cost. In this way we play a part in providing community activities at a cost that would otherwise be unaffordable for many organisations. There are certain activities that we do not permit such as any activity involving alcohol, parties, nursery schools or traffic/ parking intensive activities.
- Finally, we undertake fund raising activities as necessary. Maintenance and improvement of our facilities can carry a very high cost (the hall is over 75 years old) and many of these costs are beyond our capacity to fund without specific fund raising. Major cost items are the roof, the fence (our border is over 80 metres long), painting, equipment, security and the floor.
As a parent we expect that you will participate in fund raising activities, if and when these occur.
For parents, the costs involved in scouting are essentially 3-fold:
- The annual subscription as outlined above;
- Specific activity costs. Most activities carry a cost, whether it be permits or food. Such costs can vary drastically and are often not under our control
- Equipment costs. These include costs such as sleeping bags, rucksacks and camping equipment. Please refer to our section on Equipment for more information.
