I think the wording "girl (or boy) accounts" calls up all kinds of official bookkeeping questions that really don't apply to troops looking to earmark trip money earned by girls. The intention for use of this money is to provide an incentive, and as such can be treated as a troop budget line item whether incentive items are purchased or troops use another way to designate, earmark, or track what girls have earned. As a brief example, our Girl Scout troop faced similar big trip funding dilemmas as those written about in recent newsletters, and our solution was a "Trip Ticket" incentive program patterned after one portion of our Council's cookie incentive program called "Cookie Dough." Essentially this resembled 'play money' and was issued based on the number of boxes sold that girls could spend on anything at the Council office - registration or camp fees, uniforms, books, etc. Our troop - adults and girls - met and agreed on annual goals and an overall troop budget and came up with a rule of halves, - half of our fundraising efforts were budgetted for general troop expenses and activities, and the other half budgetted for specific trips. Our constant goal was for the troop to pay half the cost of each girl to go on any trip or activity regardless of her effort or ability to pay while offering girls opportunities to earn the other half as individuals or as part of troop money-earning activities. Each money making activity had its own budget including a line item for incentives which from the beginning included small 'prizes.' As trips got more expensive, the girls voted more and more to budget for "Trip Tickets" only. This system honored Girl Scout policies and guidelines, did not affect accounting of troop funds or put money in the hands of individual members, and served as a 'leveler' for girls' abilities to participate in money-making activities or to pay directly. Our final travel adventure together was a $300 trip to Seattle last summer. The girls paid a $50 cash deposit so the troop could purchase advance train tickets, but the majority of the balance due was paid by the troop and individual Trip Tickets earned throughout the year. ========================================== I am not sure if this will help but what I do is give each girl a check register. In this register they keep track of their "individual accounts" e.g. the money that they have earned through cookie sales and other fund raisers. They then can see how much of "their own money that they have earned" they have to cover any fees or projects they wish to work on. I keep them abreast of the troop funds so we can gage as a group what we can afford to spend from troop funds. They like the idea of having their own check register and it teaches them a little bit about money management and how to keep a balance. ============================================== I think I understand what you are looking for. I don't think it's to give girl's who earn more a larger share of the pot. My Cadette troop has been saving for a trip to Europe for two years now (began as 2nd year Jrs.) and the way we decided to do the finances for the trip is as follows: Each fund raising opportunity has many meetings before the event actually happens. Each girl gets 1 credit for each meeting she attends as well as the event itself. We then total up the amount of credits you could have earned, divide by number of girls and Exa: craft sale: 5 craft making sessions 1 day to set up sale 1 day to sell crafts Total of 7 credits available for each girl to receive. Take the money earned by the event (say $1000.00). Add up the total credits earned by each girl. (some will only have 1 or 2, some will have all 7). Divide the $1000.00 by the total number of earned credits (say 25), Each credit is worth $45.00. Girls with 2 credits get $90.00, three get $135.00, et cetera. I then keep a tally sheet of our account (only one account for whole troop for trip which is a separate account than our regular meeting account) that states what each girl has towards "her" part of the trip. It's hard for girls who are not so motivated to go but definitely is worth it. Girls know up front that they are responsible for getting to these trip fund raisers and that if they fall short on their personal goal, they are responsible for providing the remainder. They also know that the money belongs to the troop, and that if they don't go on the trip for whatever reason, the money isn't "theirs" to take. They also know if they switch troops, the "trip fund" is not going to be divided so they can take part of that with them to the next troop, only the "regular troop" account is up for dividing. The girls did also vote, though, that if some girls come in way over their personal goal, could they elect to donate the money they are over to another girl who was heavily involved in sports or ill etc. so that they couldn't make some of the fund raisers. This was approved by all my girls and I thought was a wonderful way to say that you have to work your best to earn your own trip but that we are a troop and will continue to support each other no matter what the reason you can't be there. Parents also realize all the above so they know it is going to take a commitment on their part to be sure their daughter is available for these events. Yes, sometimes things happen, but if they realize all this before hand, there is no room for surprises later! ==================================================== Let me explain our "share" system in case you have questions about that. All of our money earning projects (not GS Cookies) are based on a share system. If you donate needed items (like ingredients for cookie mix or sodas that we are going to sell) you get a share, if the parents work a certain event (like a car wash) its an extra share), if the girl works the event its an extra share, if we need help with prep work (like assembling and decorating the jars) its a share and one time requests (like selling the jars at work or printing all the labels for the jars) are an extra share. The girls voted to run all of the money earning events this way and it has been blessed by the finance person at our Council. This system has worked very well for us and I always have parents asking me what they can do to earn extra shares. We anticipate our expenses for our Savannah trip to be around $650 each and at least half of the troop has over $300 in their share accounts. Debbie ========================================== Each girl pays $30month for 12 months=$360 plus we are doing some massive fundraising. We did a bowling lock in last month for $10 which covered the bowling centers cost so no profit there but we sold glonecklaces, Krispy Kreme donuts and juiceboxes as our fundraiser. We have a community yardsale at our church that we are selling spaces for $15-10 to the trip, 5 to the church. Etc. ========================== We did this when we went to Savannah. We set up a news letter listing what the plans were, about how much it would cost, how many fund raisers we were planning, who could come (parent). We decided that since we didn't have the majority of the troop going that cookie money would not be used. This made fund raising a little harder but we did do it. ========================== We (my troop) started car washes in 5th and 6th grade with the understanding that they are there to wash cars, not water fights (though this can happen at any age) we also had parents along and we would set the car wash up as a donation. Sure we would get a few people that would take advantage of us any only give us 2.00 but many would give us 10.00 and a few even 20.00 for a donation. Other fund raisers we have done for trips: Set up with area groups to do babysitting during their meeting for a donation. e.g. The Jaycees meet monthly for 2 hours and we switch off girls to babysit in another room during the meeting. We received a 100.00 donation for babysitting at 10 meetings (averaged 10.00 per girl for 2 hours) Day after Thanksgiving we bagged items at K-mart for donations, the store like this, they didn't have to pay a lot of extra people and we made a couple hundred dollars. Again, we had many adults helping with this. A Christmas we make ornaments and set up at local banks on Friday nights to catch the people coming in. Again we do ornaments for donation only, suggested price 1.00 per ornament. We would average about 40.00 on each Friday night, many people leaving 2.00 for an ornament and many people coming back the next week to buy more to add to gift bags etc... Although out town has a big craft fair every year, they do charge us for a booth so by working a table at the bank we save $$ on booth rental. The problem with making ornaments is paying for your supplies and when you subtract what you bought from what you made, it sometimes is equal. Pick and choose the ornaments and try to use recycled items. Last year we were offered to run the dunk tank at our local 4th of July celebration...We turned it down last year as we didn't have enough time to plan but we are thinking of taking it this year. We have to set up all the local celeb. to sit in the tank and then can charge 2.00 for 3 throws. I am still looking into this as I am unsure of insurance questions ect...do we have to have a release signed by those in the tank etc... but already a couple of the school teachers, police officers, mayor said they would take a half hour shift if we do it?! For the Local parades we do lemon-aid (hot choc. at christmas) for donation (suggested donation 1.00) we have also sold the glow necklaces and choc. covered pretzels for 4th of July fundraiser. Again you have to make enough $$ to pay for your supplies and make it worth your time. Probably our biggest moeny maker is the Brat Fry. One of our local grocery stores has a stand outside and they will supply the food needed for the stand, we run the grill (adults) and the girls take orders for brats, hot dogs and hamburgers. We sell soda and chips with it and after an afternoon we pay for the supplies that we used and keep the profits. We've made several 100 this way and it's nice not having to run around buying supplies etc...what ever we don't use goes back into the store. Now that the girls are older we are trying to think of bigger better things they could make and sell at craft fairs etc...some of the ideas thus far are stepping stones and lawn decorations using scrap wood that we get from local builders. Girls love sewing and really want to make quilts to sell, but I don't see them selling for all the work involved. Wish we could do raffles for a quilt but that is a no-no in GS. =========================== > Is it ok with GS to have requirements for attending an activity, for > example attend >at least 1/2 the meetings during the year to be allowed to go on the >"big" trip? We have two that have only shown up once or twice and both >of those times were fun activities -- once for a party and once for a >trip. Neither girl helped with planning or anything. What do other >troops do in this type of situation, just let them go on the big trip >or what? first - check with your council. each council has their own rules. you need to follow their rules first. my troops require attendence at the planning meetings first. we talked about the situation of girls floating in and out and how sometimes there is a reason (soccer, participation in plays) and how sometimes the girl doesn't seem to have a reason but does (family problems, transporation, school work) and how sometimes the girl may just wish enjoy the fruits of the labor of others. so we made some rules as a troop about how to handle this situation. we require attendence at planning meetings where we cover the rules, explain the sleeping arrangements, plan the menus, explore transporation options, and cover any prerequistes needed for badge/ipa work. if a girl calls ahead and lets me know she can't be there and she calls afterward to pick all the materials she missed and she does any required prep work, we mark her as good to go. the goal is to encourage the girls to be responsible and to realize the amount of planning that goes into any large event/trip. actually i run into more problems with the parents anyday than with the girls. sigh. i have two girls that i am fed up with but i am sure most of my problems are more the parent's fault than the girl's. i absolutely hate it when parents make a girl come to girl scouts. they don't want to be there. they are disruptive, disrespectful, and only waiting until the big trip is done before they bail. i know it and they know it. the big trip is this sat - mon. we are doing a family trip to wisconsin dells. that's where the girls want to go to bridge. some history...the girls were getting bored with the junior program. we had completed 3 of the signs and the leadership award and we were almost finished with the sign of the satellite at the beginning of the year. (we just finished it last meeting! =) ) so my co-leader and i talked it over and after hearing that most of the girls decided to end scouting this year we thought if we bridged them early to cadettes they might be less eager to leave if they had a couple months invested in the program. so we brought it up the planning meeting and the girls ran with it. so to make a long story short we are now going to great wolf lodge with 71 people next weekend and i have become a travel agent...sigh. never underestimate the work these poor travel agents do! ;) don't believe i will ever take families again on a trip like this. it has been difficult at best with planning and i have had to be more flexible than i would like to accomidate some of the families but it will soon be over. we will see - i have been told i do well in the midst of chaos - this will either prove or disprove this statement. =) just remember whatever you decide in regards to requirements - make sure your girls are part of the decision. we had the above conversation in 4th grade when they became juniors and started to take bigger, more expensive trips. now soon those same little girls will be cadettes and they rules they made still hold. i believe the rules worked because they helped to make them and they felt a sense of ownership about the rules. their troop/their rules! ===================