<<>> We've done this with a couple of trips now and have gotten better at keeping track of money, fund raisers etc... First we open a separate checking acct for the trip-that way the girls from a troop that are not going can not state that troop funds were spend on a trip they did not get to go on. We send a letter out to SUM's to copy and hand out, the letter will state that we are planning a trip to "Savannah" on xxx date. We will list how long we will be gone and some activities we would like to do and we also list other possible things to do. We give an estimated price for airfare, lodging, food, program fees etc...according to the price at the momemt. We do say that prices can go up or down. We ask that anyone interested to call/email etc...and then after a few weeks we try to get everyone together to plan what we all would like to do. If majority wants to take a dolphin tour, Low House, Tybee island etc..then we plan that in with cost of those activities. We also them state a deposit must be made - in the past we have as little at 25.00 to 50.00. We try to plan how much the girls will raise out of fundraising and how much will come out of pocket- We plan fund raising like car washes etc...where all the girls can participate. They must understand that this is trip money and if the girl does not end up going she does not get to keep the money, it stays with the trip fund. Non-refundable deposits have to be made and group can and will loose a lot of money if you try to do refunds. The money collected at fund raising is divided by all according to how long they helped and what they attended. Individual cookie money they have to take up with their leader. We have suggested that they go to their leader and ask her to find out the average that the girl has sold the last few years. The girl will then agree that the troop will get $$ according to the average that she has been selling, any boxes over the average can then go to the girls trip. This has worked well, as long as the leaders are still getting the average troop funds they don't mind a girl selling above and beyond. We had one girl that had averaged about 175 boxes and she ended up selling over 600 to help fund her trip, the first 175 box profit stayed with the troop the other 425 box profit went into trip account. We give each girl/adult deposit slips for the account and they can deposit money when ever they like. Deposit slips should then be copied and she keeps one and one goes to the trip organizer so she can keep track of the girls account. We also kept a seperate record of what the girl was depositing from fund raisers and cooking money to what she was depositing from personal money e.g. babysitting, paper route etc... My dd would deposit 1/2 of her paper route money into her trip account every 2 weeks and 1/4 she would save for her own personal spending money for the trip. Organizer kept track of all money and would let everyone know where they were at at every month. There were girls who had raised all their money in 6 months while other girls had to really bust their buns to catch up. But it all depended on if they went to every fund raiser and were depositing personal money. As the trip date becomes closer, deposits and reservations are made, and the trippers are told the actual cost of the airfare, hotel...other expenses are still up in the air, though we do have an idea according to tour fee's etc...and we budget very high for food. We also then plan our room assignments etc... Thus far we have had one trip that went over budget a week before- several had not had their whole amount and were upset that they had to come up with another 100.00 out of pocket. We have also returned from trips with a sizable amount in our accounts, which is kept in the account or transfered to the next trip account, no refunds of any kind are given. We have done 3 trips to savannah this way and are working on our trip to London for 2003. It has worked thus far and works well for those older girls who want to do the bigger trips when the rest of their troop does not. Majority of the time it has ended up as a mother/dd trip with most of the girls having mom along. (though not all) The only problems we have had thus far is personality differences, mostly with adults and the time that we went over budget and a leader was upset that she had to use the spending money that she had saved to finish paying for her trip, and didn't have a ton of money to spend at gift shops etc... (that was the first time we went and we were still working out all the bugs in our saving system) Hope this helps, sorry it's so long. I am trying to create a training for my council on trips, but haven't gotten very far...too many other things on the table. If and when I do complete the training outline and helps I will post it.