Have a look at www.scoutbase.org.uk to get an idea! Very little of this goes on "overheads"
, as almost everyone in Scouting is an unpaid volunteer - the number of salaried
staff is tiny (about 200) and they only operate at National level, supporting a UK
membership of 378,000 young people and 88,000 adults.
- Payment of "rent" to Badger Hill Group for its use of the HQ with heating, lighting,
water, etc and the use of the group's equipment.
- Essential expenses arising and any special books or manuals, etc required for particular
activities, or anything needed in support of D of E activities. It is also traditional
that the Scout scarf which is presented when joining, and any awards or badges gained
are funded and presented by the unit, rather than by the individual receiving them
having to pay for them.
- A "float" for use when deposits or booking fees are required, which avoids the
time and effort involved in chasing everyone for relatively small amounts of money
in order to get a deposit together.
Any surplus arising will be ploughed back into the unit by using it to offset all
or part of the cost for particular events, or specific purposes agreed by the members.
The accounts are open for all members to look at, and our bank account requires any
two from four signatories to operate.
B. One-off costs.
Initially there is the cost of the basic uniform which consists of stone coloured
uniform shirt (but see the note about shirts on the previous page), activity type
trousers, and a general purpose polo type shirt. The RRP of this from the "Official"
sources is around £50, but there are alternative sources, as there have been for
many years for the Cub and Scout uniforms. See the Equipment Suppliers list in the
Useful addresses page of this website for suppliers.
The other one-off costs are those directly related to activities, events, etc undertaken
by the members. The aim is to keep costs down whilst still meeting the objectives
of the unit and the wishes of it's members by making full use of the considerable
resources available within Scouting, and also any group or other discounts that may
be available from outside sources. We realise that neither Explorers or their parents
have bottomless pockets, and the general idea is to space out the more expensive
events across the calendar, and fill in between with lower cost or zero cost activities,
particularly of a social nature which are essential to an Explorer Unit but don't
have to cost the earth.
Most of the time, the costs incurred for activities will be significantly less than
if it was provided by schools, and a lot less than if it were provided by an outside
agency - for example we’ve run our annual camp for several years, in various places
around the UK, on a budget figure of around £150 all-inclusive - transport, food,
and activities for 7 days. Something similar for 6 days with one of the commercial
youth holiday providers would be around 3 times this figure. An Explorer camp can
be more expensive if it does more activities, maybe up to £200, but still a lot cheaper
than the commercial equivalent. A weekend event away with instructors, etc might
be in the order of £60, an evening out locally £5-10, whilst an evening in the HQ
doesn't cost anything! Similarly, the uniform costs are a lot less than school uniform,
and long term much cheaper than using your own clothes.
