ANST - Event costs

[Lori Campbell]

> Ulf wrote:

> After being RIPPED OFF for site fees at events where the cost to the
> barony putting it on was several dollars less that what was charged at
> the gate.....

In theory, I would agree with your sentiments, however....  I have 
rarely, if ever, heard of a concerned member of the populace actually 
going to a group officer to ask them what they were paying for a 
site.  Everyone just assumes that other groups pay what their 
group pays.  This is *way* wrong.  I know for a fact a site my barony 
uses costs us $5.00 per person, per day.  However, another group that 
uses this site has only been paying @$3.00 per person per weekend.   
You can imagine people from that group felt our $7 site fee was 
too high. They were *really* upset by the $10.00 site fee for our 
3-day event, not realizing that our cost was @$8.00 per person (we 
got a discount from the site that weekend).

> If this yields a site fee of $6.25 and you charge $7.00, I understand.
> But when you charge $10, then you are consciously stiffing us for $3.75
> each to line your group's coffers.....We're not looking for a profit; 
> we're looking to break even.

This "we don't want a profit" mentality is one of the most common 
misconceptions of organizations labeled "not-for-profit."  The truth 
is, if we only "broke even" on our events we wouldn't be able to put 
on the next one.  It takes about $1,000 (at least) to front money for 
an event of any size at all (conservative est. some take more, some 
take less).  If we had no profit margin, and thus, no money in the 
bank, what would we use to buy feast supplies, toilet paper, 
material for site tokens, hay bales for archery, put down site 
deposits, make gate change, etc.?  Unfortunately you can't 
write checks for these things on the assumption that you will make 
enough at the event to cover them.  The money has to be in 
the bank already.  

With this in mind, it's easy to see that fronting money for an event 
can be quite expensive, especially for groups that don't have a lot 
to spare.  They absolutely count on at least breaking even or making 
a profit so they can hold another event in the future (or maybe even 
publish their newsletter for the next year).  The trick is to budget 
your event so that even if you only break even, you still have a 
small cushion to fall back on for future events or expenses.

Also, when you consider paying $2.00 over the cost per person, 
bear in mind that this only means a $400 profit margin if the number 
through the gate is 200.  That's not much if you are counting on this 
money to run your group for a year or if you ever hope to do another 
event.  Consider, for example, the amount of money it takes to buy 
those really cool list poles and ropes, or get cool regalia, or buy 
supplies to make thrones to donate to the kingdom, etc. etc...  

Sure, there are some groups in the kingdom who keep their bank 
account in the thousands of dollars.  There are many more small 
groups who cannot.  Should we discriminate and say "they need 
money, so it's OK for them to charge that much" or "they have way 
too much money, so they shouldn't charge that much."  Who gets to 
decide which group needs how much money to accomplish what 
they want to do?

Sorry, I don't mean to sound so vehement.  But this is one of *my* 
soapbox topics.  Sorry this was so long.

> Ulf Gunnarsson

- Kat MacLochlainn
  lcampbel at ossm.edu
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