Expenses for our activities are expected to be covered by the people who participate in them. These include costs of food, camping, and supplies and equipment. (The Troop Committee has also instated a +10% overhead charge [min. $1, max. $5 per activity] to handle unanticipated expenses.) For some of our bigger trips, there may be multiple payments, or payments in advance of the planning meeting. While it is sometimes difficult to predict whether or not you will be able to participate in a given activity well in advance, we have to make reservations for some things very early to ensure that we can go. Therefore, if a Scout or parent signs up for an activity, it is expected that the Scout will be trustworthy– that is, that we can trust that he will follow through on his commitment.
For any trip/event that is scheduled and money owed/paid, a deadline will be established and announced for signing up and paying for the event and for withdrawing from the event if already signed up. We will make every effort to make sure that deadline is well announced. This will generally be the troop meeting before the event but in some cases will be earlier depending upon required reservations/commitments outside the troop. In addition, scouts going on the trip must be at the meeting just before the trip (or occasionally another designated troop meeting) to help with planning.
Anyone who withdraws from the trip after the announced deadline – or doesn’t make the planning meeting – is still required to pay the publicized trip expense since planning has been based on their inclusion. No one – even the trip coordinator for the trip – may excuse someone from that. After the trip is over and finances settled, if there is any money remaining in the trip account, then partial refunds may be made for those portions of the event not affected by that person’s withdrawal.
Payments for Troop activities are non-refundable, but are generally transferable. Once we have bought food, made down payments, paid activities fees, rented equipment, etc., we cannot get this money back. Therefore, except under extreme circumstances (Troop Committee’s discretion), these payments can not be refunded if a Scout decides not to/is not able to participate in the activity. However, if another Scout or parent not originally signed up wants to go, payments may sometimes be transferred.
There are some activities, such as Philmont treks, that do not allow transfer of funds due to long term training/crew building requirements or other concerns. Our larger trips (summer adventures) have a separate payment schedule and specific refund (or non-refund) policies which participants and parents must agree to on signing up.