Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Aug 09, 2011 5:45 am
Tue Aug 09, 2011 7:02 am
Corporate Sponsorship
The topic has come up at group committees, during round-tables, and on Facebook: Are corporate sponsors good or evil, and to what extent should they be limited?
Obviously we will not allow corporate sponsors to put logos on our uniforms, but what about Jamboree shirts and Cub Cars, among other things? My old group accepted sponsorship for Cub Cars, Beaver Boats, and Rover Racers. Most were local businesses and it was a one-time deal. My old group did get some long-term sponsors, generally from businesses that parents worked at/owned. We also got a large financial "thank you" after district did some community service and cleaned up graffiti in the city. We signed no contracts, made no exclusivity agreements. We got other kinds of sponsors too, notably "donations" in exchange for tax rebates. For example, we got a tree chipper plus people to run it in exchange for a rebate PLUS we got to keep the chips for our community project. Given that most of those trees would have ended up in the dump, wrapped in plastic, I would say we were very much keeping the Scouting Spirit. That is something we aspired to do whenever we accept sponsors, keep the Scouting Spirit. We never agree to something we considered to be outside the Scouting Spirit. But what is outside the Scouting Spirit, and what is inside it? We decided on the level of group committee or district round-table. Everybody seems to have their own opinion on what sponsors should be allowed and to what extent. Taking this same question to the national level... well, what do YOU think?
Obviously we will not allow corporate sponsors to put logos on our uniforms, but what about Jamboree shirts and Cub Cars, among other things? My old group accepted sponsorship for Cub Cars, Beaver Boats, and Rover Racers. Most were local businesses and it was a one-time deal. My old group did get some long-term sponsors, generally from businesses that parents worked at/owned. We also got a large financial "thank you" after district did some community service and cleaned up graffiti in the city. We signed no contracts, made no exclusivity agreements. We got other kinds of sponsors too, notably "donations" in exchange for tax rebates. For example, we got a tree chipper plus people to run it in exchange for a rebate PLUS we got to keep the chips for our community project. Given that most of those trees would have ended up in the dump, wrapped in plastic, I would say we were very much keeping the Scouting Spirit. That is something we aspired to do whenever we accept sponsors, keep the Scouting Spirit. We never agree to something we considered to be outside the Scouting Spirit. But what is outside the Scouting Spirit, and what is inside it? We decided on the level of group committee or district round-table. Everybody seems to have their own opinion on what sponsors should be allowed and to what extent. Taking this same question to the national level... well, what do YOU think?
