Ugh, that time of the year again... YW fundraiser

[Parrot Head]

It's Young Women fundraiser time again. (Why do they even need funds? Is it for Girls Camp?)

<In old, curmudgeonly voice> Back in my day... for Scouts fundraisers, we did chicken plate sales or a golf tournament or worked and I have no clue what the YW did. In several recent wards, the YW have held dinner fundraisers where they get the people from the ward to sign up for a spaghetti dinner and auction off cakes or services or whatever crap they can come up with. This year, you can purchase meals and they'll bring them to your house. They do it every other Saturday so you can space it out if you want more than one set of meals and they're varying the meals up each week. And of course, you want more than one weekend, don't you? I was astounded when they passed around the sign up sheet and it said $15 per plate! I was expecting ~$8.

I can't stand this. They're basically just asking the ward members to pay for it in a roundabout way. Granted, my current ward can better handle this, but I've been in some where that isn't true. Last year, they did the spaghetti/auction and had things like a car wash or spray washing a patio or vinyl siding and it seemed like most of the auction items were, "Well, we've got access to this piece of equipment. Let's use it for something and have people give us money!"

I feel like these fundraisers rely way too much on the ward, so it's a redistribution of wealth. And I don't mean as a Limbaugh-esque anti-pinko statement. They aren't forced to go outside the ward except for the one or two neighbors who may have been approached. They rush around and hit up people after church and maybe mention it elsewhere. If they just want a few bucks from each of, just ask it straightforward, let me eat where I want this weekend, and you take my shift to clean the building next month.

Does anyone else's YW do fundraisers that challenge the kids to get out? And do Scouts do anything decent nowadays as fundraisers? I need some ideas to throw in that suggestion envelope outside the bishop's door. Those are just for tips and suggestions, right?

[Mrs. Funk]

It's Young Women fundraiser time again. (Why do they even need funds? Is it for Girls Camp?)

<In old, curmudgeonly voice> Back in my day... for Scouts fundraisers, we did chicken plate sales or a golf tournament or worked and I have no clue what the YW did. In several recent wards, the YW have held dinner fundraisers where they get the people from the ward to sign up for a spaghetti dinner and auction off cakes or services or whatever crap they can come up with. This year, you can purchase meals and they'll bring them to your house. They do it every other Saturday so you can space it out if you want more than one set of meals and they're varying the meals up each week. And of course, you want more than one weekend, don't you? I was astounded when they passed around the sign up sheet and it said $15 per plate! I was expecting ~$8.

I can't stand this. They're basically just asking the ward members to pay for it in a roundabout way. Granted, my current ward can better handle this, but I've been in some where that isn't true. Last year, they did the spaghetti/auction and had things like a car wash or spray washing a patio or vinyl siding and it seemed like most of the auction items were, "Well, we've got access to this piece of equipment. Let's use it for something and have people give us money!"

I feel like these fundraisers rely way too much on the ward, so it's a redistribution of wealth. And I don't mean as a Limbaugh-esque anti-pinko statement. They aren't forced to go outside the ward except for the one or two neighbors who may have been approached. They rush around and hit up people after church and maybe mention it elsewhere. If they just want a few bucks from each of, just ask it straightforward, let me eat where I want this weekend, and you take my shift to clean the building next month.

Does anyone else's YW do fundraisers that challenge the kids to get out? And do Scouts do anything decent nowadays as fundraisers? I need some ideas to throw in that suggestion envelope outside the bishop's door. Those are just for tips and suggestions, right?

Girl's Camp is kind of a joke anyway. It's not really "camping," involves far too much glitter, and a plethora of cutesy skits and songs.

I'd have less of an issue purchasing over-priced dinners if I knew it would actually teach girls something about wilderness survival or some sort of useful skill. I felt Girl's Camp was a waste of time as a youth, didn't get into the feel-goodery or kitschy nature of it, and chose not to participate my last two years.

[LA Ute]

Our YW have made cookie dough and sell it, frozen, rolled up in a long tube-like style so you can just cut off a few slices and bake as many as you want. Oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip. Yum! It's very popular in the ward and we do it every year. $11 for two rolls of dough.

Attitudes about girls' camp vary, as do leaders' views about what should happen. We used to do "rough camping" every year in our stake, but the leaders got sick of that. Now the girls go to a Scout camp for a few days, and it seems popular with the girls. My 13 year-old daughter loves it because the entire stake goes and it is the only chance she gets to hang out with LDS girls for more than a few hours.

[hostile]

Our ward youth place flags on the front yards of every house in the ward on holidays - works out to approximately 10 days/year. Every home in the ward, member or non-member, gets a letter explaining the program and asks for a donation. People are also free to request to not have a flag placed in their yard. This is the only fundraiser that our ward does and it covers the entire YM/YW budget for the whole year. One reason it works well is because the ward boundaries are small and doesn't take much time for the kids/leaders.

[LA Ute]

Mrs. Funk, what would have made girls' camp worthwhile for you? We're always trying to improve ours.

[Mormon Red Death]

In our ward the yw babysit and instead of paying them directly people make a donation to girls camp in their name. That has worked out really well. They even set up special ward temple nights/fundraiser where the girls watch the kids.

[Katy Lied]

Our ward youth place flags on the front yards of every house in the ward on holidays - works out to approximately 10 days/year. Every home in the ward, member or non-member, gets a letter explaining the program and asks for a donation. People are also free to request to not have a flag placed in their yard. This is the only fundraiser that our ward does and it covers the entire YM/YW budget for the whole year. One reason it works well is because the ward boundaries are small and doesn't take much time for the kids/leaders.

This is ours; boys put up, girls take down. They split the profits. By the number of flags up in our neighborhood they make a bundle doing this. I've tried to pay them not to put the flag up in our yard but it never works out. Once you've paid, you get the flag. My husband just heads on over to Home Depot to buy some more sprinkler pipe to replace the pipe they've split with their flag holders.

[TripletDaddy]

I have been in two wards since graduation and in both wards, we did away with the phony fund-raising and simply informed parents that the cost of Girl's Camp is X. It made life so much easier for everyone.

It is an inefficient and poorly thought-out move to rely on in-ward fund-raising for camp. You are relying on the same pool of resources that are going to pay the cost regardless of how you ask for the money, but with fundraisers, you actually decrease the efficacy of the donation because you now have overhead of some sort.....raw material (food, plates, cookie dough, or whatever the girls are selling).

You could argue that the girls receive some sort of life lesson through the fund raising but I would conjecture that any such benefit is minimal, if at all. The girls basically ask their parents and relatives, so it amounts to asking family members for money. Also, I have yet to come across the adult female that credited her experience selling expensive spaghetti dinners for making her the woman she is today.

As for not liking girls camp, the whole thing sounds really fun to me, so apparently I am clueless. I would think that girls camp would be a blast. Disclaimer: I really had fun going to youth conferences, stake dances, etc.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Our wards YW are having a garage sale to raise funds, in our garage next Saturday. I have let it be known that I have an unbreakable appointment with the couch and the NCAA tournament that day.

Our Stake owns the land that girls camp happens on, yet each girl has to pay $150 to go. It makes no sense to me at all.

[Tick's wife]

Girl's Camp is kind of a joke anyway. It's not really "camping," involves far too much glitter, and a plethora of cutesy skits and songs.

I'd have less of an issue purchasing over-priced dinners if I knew it would actually teach girls something about wilderness survival or some sort of useful skill. I felt Girl's Camp was a waste of time as a youth, didn't get into the feel-goodery or kitschy nature of it, and chose not to participate my last two years.

yeah, it is a joke. I go off on this every year since I found out what 'Girls' camp' really meant. It's nothing about camping, just 'getting closer to God and training to be better wives', pisses me off but my oldest seems to have enjoyed it, don't think my youngest will since she is such a tom boy. No fishing, hiking, swimming, horseback riding, biking, fires, so forth.

[Tick's wife]

Our wards YW are having a garage sale to raise funds, in our garage next Saturday. I have let it be known that I have an unbreakable appointment with the couch and the NCAA tournament that day.

Our Stake owns the land that girls camp happens on, yet each girl has to pay $150 to go. It makes no sense to me at all.

yep, that's what we do in our Stake and we have a campground too. Crappy campground but nontheless, one.

[Tick's wife]

Mrs. Funk, what would have made girls' camp worthwhile for you? We're always trying to improve ours.

how about actually doing some Camping and maybe more than once a year. The boys have all the fun in this church.

[LA Ute]

I have been in two wards since graduation and in both wards, we did away with the phony fund-raising and simply informed parents that the cost of Girl's Camp is X. It made life so much easier . . . .

I actually like that approach but it's tough to do in a ward that's not very affluent. Girls (and boys earning money for Scout camp) also have more commitment to going to camp when they have some "skin in the game" -- i.e., they earned some of the money to pay for camp. Same principle applies to mission funds. But I do think the fundraiser has to avoid being a pain for the members. Our ward loves the tradition and loves the cookie dough.

[Mrs. Funk]

Mrs. Funk, what would have made girls' camp worthwhile for you? We're always trying to improve ours.

More or less, I echo what Tick's Wife stated. I was irritated that the whole Girls' Camp felt like a 5-day fireside and that I never really felt like I was camping.

I would like to see more hiking, fishing, rock climbing, horseback-riding, etc. I would have been more willing to put fundraise if we had more activities like that.

I think the disparate amount of money spent on Young Women and the fewer COOL activities offered the Young Women sends the message that they matter less than the boys and that the Church has no interest in teaching them any skills besides crafts.

[Parrot Head]

I agree mostly with what DDD said above (especially the added overhead) and I find La Funk's desire to learn wilderness survival skills at girls' camp entertaining. She's really preparing for the end of the world scenario.

The other complaint I meant to mention is that the biggest workload usually falls on the shoulders of the leaders. It's the YW leaders who are cooking and managing the program but I'm not sure I want 13 year olds preparing my $45 meal either. Of course, I'm also extra picky because my wife is a great cook and while the cookie dough sounds good, NO ONE makes chocolate chip cookies like my wife (except for her mom) so we would just re-gift that, too.