There have been a lot of threads recently about reducing our gear stash. Well, I want to do the same and thought the best place locally to sell (heavily discounted) or donate gear would be to my boy scout troop. However, I am struggling to figure out an efficient way of doing it. In some cases with valuable gear I thought I might sell with me getting half the proceeds and the troop getting half the proceeds. With smaller stuff, I might have all the proceeds go to the troop and some stuff would be donated. But there are also families in the troop whose funds are extremely tight and would not be able to pay for stuff and I would also like to help them. How do I pull this off without a tremendous amount of time and energy spent, helping the most amount of folks who could really benefit, and also help the troop? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Gerry
Ruston, Louisiana

If the gear you have to sell is gear the scouts can use, then offer to sell it to the scouts for the best deal you are comfortable giving them. You can print up a sheet with what you have for sale and the highly discounted prices. Post this at your scout meeting place and let the scouts know the items are available on a first come, first serve basis.

If you have gear for sale that isn't something the scouts can use, then sell it on Gear Swap, Ebay, or somewhere else and donate however much of that money you want to the Troop Gear fund.

Keep it simple.

If your goal is that your gear end up with poorer scouts: Tell the committee chair of your troop that you want to donate gear, but only to families whose financial circumstances keep them from buying high quality gear. If you still have gear left over contact your district commissioner and tell him the same thing. Give them the gear and trust their judgement.

If your goal is that the troop end up with cash: Go to a committee meeting. Keep your mouth shut about wanting to donate gear to raise revenue. If the SPL reports that he thinks the troop needs a fundraiser, donate the gear on conditions that the scouts figure out how to sell it. If the SM or committee raise the issue of fundraising and don't have any good idea, do the above. If nobody brings it up, they don't need your money. Find something else to do with your gear.

Then walk away ... This is most important for your peace of mind!

Good Luck.

The easiest way to do it is to donate the gear to the scout troop.

The gear then belongs to the troop, which can loan it out to scouts who need it.

You take a tax deduction for the value of the gear.

This costs the scouts nothing, the troop nothing, and you get the benefit of the deduction.