[MR] Why do events cost as much as they do?

[mchoward at cox.net]

I would add to that, if you are doing a kingdom event the Crown would like half of your profits also.

matt of n
---- Nikulai Ivanovich <nikulai at atlow.org> wrote: 
> Greetings Atlantia.
> 
> I saw the thread on the Merry Rose and skimmed over it, and decided to post
> a long time autocrats perspective on this issue.  Let’s start with the
> understanding that the autocrat and group financial committee placed
> considerable thought on the event budget and did the best they could to
> balance a number of competing concerns to come up with the best pricing they
> could.
> 
> This will be a short Autocrat 101 lesson and so I apologize for the length.
> That said, if you want to understand event financing and some of the
> struggles an autocrat goes through with his budget, please read on.
> 
> So, you have an idea for an event – just the basics of a theme, fighting
> style, feast thoughts, etc. Great. The first thing you need is a place to
> hold it. So, you put together a list of site requirements including (and
> this is a very small sampling):
> 
> ·         How many people am I expecting / need room for?
> 
> ·         How many cars do I expect to need to park?
> 
> ·         Do I need / want cabins? For how many people?
> 
> ·         Do I want a wet site?
> 
> The next step is to find a site that meets your requirements. You go through
> the known sites, and if you are industrious you go searching out other
> potential sites. (My personal record is investigating nine sites – most of
> them never before used by the SCA - for a particular event.)
> 
> You have your site and know what it costs. Great. What else does the site
> require to make it workable? Portajohns? A dumpster rental? Water brought in
> from off site? Lets look at portajohns. For sanitary reasons, there is a
> formula for calculating the number of people in attendance over a period of
> time to tell you how many portajohns you need. (Don’t ask me what it is – I
> let the rental company experts give me their estimate when I call around for
> bids.) And as this is the SCA you need a number of handicapped stalls over
> and above the general recommended proportion as you have to accommodate for
> garb.  Repeat with everything else you need. And remember if reservations
> exceed expectations you may need to order more to meet basic health and
> sanitary requirements.
> 
> Also, campers cost more. Day trippers come, use the site and leave. Campers
> add to the overall expense of the portajohns, etc. As they use the site for
> more hours. Cabins usually cost additional, and that cost is sometimes not
> covered solely by the cabin fee but supplemented by the day trip fee. Some
> sites charge an additional fee for anyone staying overnight.
> 
> Add all of that up and you have your base-line site cost. Then you need to
> figure out everything else you need and/or want. Site tokens? Prizes? Tape
> to hang decorations in the hall? Etc etc etc – it gets to be a long list
> fairly quickly.
> 
> So you have a budget for what this will cost to pull off and you have the
> rough attendance figure that you have been using. Dive and you get the cost
> per person of the event. (Keeping this very simple.) You then take that to
> the financial committee.
> 
> The financial committee has several other things on their mind, such as:
> 
> ·         How much money do we have in the bank?
> 
> ·         How much money can we afford to spend knowing all of our other
> expenses?
> 
> ·         How much money can we afford to loose if this event tanks?
> 
> ·         How much money do we need to make in order to pay the groups
> expenses such as post office box, postage, storage rental, bank fees, etc.?
> 
> They will look at the number you have, and determine if the break even
> attendance you have is reasonable and if your budget will meet the groups
> other requirements. When they are done tweaking the numbers, you have your
> final figures and can go to press with your fliers.
> 
> All of this budgeting is usually done with adult costs. Once you have those,
> you look at what you can discount for kids and generally divide that in
> half. For example, feast food costs the same whether a child is taking the
> seat or an adult is. Cabin space is usually the same.
> 
> In a nutshell, event pricing is not as easy as ‘just make it a five dollar
> event fee any more is too expensive, especially for families’ – there is a
> lot that goes into it.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Master Nikulai Ivanovich, OP
> Or, on a bend cotised sable three fox masks palewise or
> http://www.atlow.org
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