The Clwyd Area team are ultimately responsible for supporting the training and development of adult volunteers within Scouting, as well as promoting Scouting within North East Wales. So what is being done with the Area portion of your membership fee?
The planned Area expenditure for 2014 is £14,103 but the income from membership fees for 2014 was £9493.25 so for this year we will be using £4609.75 from the Area’s reserves to balance the budget.
The major expenditure is:
- Motiv8 (£3,100) – The Area’s conference. The main costs are attributed to the venue buildings and catering. This is a free event for all adults who Scout in Clwyd, and Young Leaders (Max number 250 people – £12 per head if all places are filled).
- Area Training (£3,000) – This covers hire costs, course materials etc. (£5.50 per member).
- New Horizons Fund (£2,921) – The New Horizons Fund is a grant that assists members activities to broaden their horizon; predominantly international activities (£1 per member goes to this fund).
- Communication (£1,500) – The cost of producing Hotliner was starting to approach £3,000. By publishing Hotliner on-line and just posting out a colour synopsis, and having a monthly email Hotliner+ has reduced our costs by half.
- The ‘Programme’ expenditure of £500 is to support the Beaver, Cub, Scout and Explorer programme.
- The ‘Activities’ expenditure (£500) is to support adventurous activities training for leaders.
- Area Team Travel – Thankfully the Area Team (including Training Advisors who cross Districts) rarely claim for travel. If they did then we would need to look to at least doubling this part of the budget. Nobody should be out of pocket if they volunteer with Scouting.
