NEW FEE SYSTEM OF WOSM

Azrul Azwar

Presented at the 5^th APR Scout Leader Summit, Bae-Laguna, Philippines, 19 May 2006

 

1. CRITERIAS OF THE MEMBERSHIP

     First of all, we have to make clear the criteria’s of the membership of the scout movement (Gerakan Pramuka). In Indonesia, there are 2 (two) criterias/groups of the membership, i.e. full member and associate member. By the Indonesian government introduced a new regulation to mandate all school students (start with elementary school) to become member of the scout movement in 1982 (school based scout movement), the number of membership was increased dramatically to more than 2 million member, but the counted number, actually the total number of the elementary and junior high school students at that time. That is why we divided our members to two groups.

 

     The criterias of full members are:

     a. Involve actively in Gerakan Pramuka activities

     b. Registered in our organization

     c.  Paying membership fee regularly

     d. Having membership card.

 

     Meanwhile, the one who not fulfilling all criterias above mentioned are considered as associate member. According to our registration, the active member (full member) in the end of the year 2005 were only 377.849 members.

 

2. THE OBLIGATION TO PAY THE REGISTRATION FEE

     Indonesia up until now has not yet recovered from its 1997 monetary and economic crisis which later turned into the so called multi-dimensional crises. It has undergone a painful and slow path to recovery in almost all aspects of life such as politic, security and trust. Since then the government has been focusing their efforts on the recovery of economy, social-welfare, health, and security of all people besides doing huge work i.e. to reconstruct tsunami stricken areas in Aceh. The gasoline and other oil products price hike which happened only last month sent its further negative impacts to the everyday life of the people, especially those who belong to the middle to low income earners. This development caused additional burdens to the people including members of the Gerakan Pramuka. Aside from that the country also runs its every efforts to contain a huge budget deficit.

 

     For more than four decades Gerakan Pramuka and the Government of the Republic of Indonesia realize that for the sake of the Indonesian nation, we need the Gerakan Pramuka to grow, but on the other hand we also recognize that its members would not be able to pay their registration fee as set out by the WOSM Registration Fee System. As you know before the crisis (1997) our registration fee dues were able to be paid by the Gerakan Pramuka only by the support of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia.

 

     The government at local levels are still able to support scout activities at the districts and provinces, however support of the central government to Gerakan Pramuka at national level remain unresolved for the last seven years. Fund raising efforts made no significant results due to politic-social-economic situation of the country.

     Gerakan Pramuka had also implemented the registration fee system in the year of 2000. Although we knew it consumed a lot of money and efforts to apply it for 8 million scouts, in area larger than the whole European Continent or as large as the US mainland with three time zones and of 13,000 islands.

 

     The outcome was far from satisfactory, due to communication difficulties in the country and inability to pay the fee on the scout’s part since the system applied three in one system (i.e. registration, insurance and scout ID card all covered in one payment).

    

     Now in fact after WOSM Registration Fee system is applied for several years reveals that the system has not met with the real situation for NSO with big membership but low income country such as Gerakan Pramuka Indonesia and some other NSO’s. In Gerakan Pramuka’s case, as we aware that the inclusion of Indonesia to Category B country (Re: Classification of NSO’s in Categories with WOSM fee system list) contains some arguable flawed substances that should bring everyone’s concern.

 

     According to World Bank figure that Indonesia’s GNI per capita US $810 is not reflected  real situation, since more than 80%  Indonesia’s wealth is on the                   hands of only less of 5% of the population. We don’t challenge the validity of                   the of the World Bank figure, but it is a deadly wrong should it be used as a                   determinant component of WOSM Fee System, since most of Gerakan                   Pramuka members are from the low income families. The 2005 report of                   the Central Statistic Agency shows that the number of poor people with                   daily income of less than US$ 1 is approximately 50 million people.                

                                               

     The fact that the Gerakan Pramuka is obliged to pay for 1 million member  only, doesn’t have enough justification, especially for NSO’s who have                   big membership but low in GNI per capita.

 

    For the Gerakan Pramuka, the WOSM Registration Fee System is ANTIGROWTH and not applicable.

 

 

 

 

3. CLASSIFICATION OF NSOs IN CATEGORIES

     According to classification of NSOs in categories which made by WOSM, there are four categories i.e.: A with GNIpc < US$ 766, B with GNIpc < US$ 3,036, C with GNIpc < US$ 9,386 and D with GNIpc > US$ 9,386.

    

     The fact is that the Gerakan Pramuka Indonesia (GNI per capita US$ 810) has to pay its Annual Registration Fee at the same level with NSO from a country whose GNI per capita of US$ 3,035 and twice as much of NSO from a country whose GNI per capita of US$ 765 is really bias and unfair.

     Gerakan Pramuka has to pay 5% of the Total World Annual Registration Fee. If we compare with some other NSO’s belong to Asia-Pacific Region, Gerakan Pramuka has to pay its 2005/2006 Annual Fee 4.32 times more than The Scout’s Australia’s obligation (Australia‘s GNI per capita is US$ 21,950), 1.55 times higher than Scots Association of Japan (Japan’s GNI per capita is US$ 34,180) and 1.52 times higher than Boy Scouts of Korea whose country’s GNI per capita income is US$ 12,030. These comparison shows that there’s imbalance.

 

     In this matter, Gerakan Pramuka proposed to WOSM to added more categories for WOSM fee system to make the system applicable, especially for NSO’s who have big membership number but from low income countries.

 

     To restructure the category system to be more suitable for all NSO’s by creating more categories to accommodate NSO from countries with low GNI per capita (recent category A & B).

 

     And to review the maximum cut off payable member. It should be less than 1 million member, since the average member per NSO is only 150,000 members.

 

4. THE AMOUNT OF FEE PER MEMBERSHIP.

     The amount of fee per Gerakan Pramuka’s membership per year is Rp. 2.000,- 50 % of it will go to the Unit itself, 40% will be allocated for the district headquarters, and the other 10 % will go to the WOSM. The total amount allocated for the WOSM = 10% X Rp.2000,- X 377.849 = Rp. 75,569,800.00 (CHF 9,704.61025 with the the exchange rate CHF 1.- = Rp. 7,787.-).

 

     But, the World Scout Committee (in Tunisia, 2005) proposes to set the new basic fee per member at CHF 1.147 (approximately Rp. 8,931.689).

 

     So, Gerakan Pramuka proposes to reduce the basic fee per member. We believe that the World Scout Committee and WSB understand the real situation in Indonesia and the Gerakan Pramuka.