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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>A budget also needs to have projected income side
by side with the projected costs. It would be easier to read.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The NSRCA banquet should break approximately
even. It is not a free lunch (sorry about that one !) T</FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=2>he ticket price should closely match the food cost. No argument from
me there.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In Muncie you can get a heck of a good steak for
$25-35. I found it hard to sell banquet tickets at $25, even using
Michelle as my ticket agent, especially when it was a Tuesday night
banquet - [not intending or trying to open that Pandora's box].</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The NSRCA eats (I did it again) the cost of the
hall etc. because it is also an NSRCA annual meeting and that should go in
meeting expenses. In 2005 we grouped the meeting and food costs together.
There were some special recognition awards etc. as well. After the NSRCA
got their piece from the FAI auction the total cost of the 2005 meetings and
meals was within a few dollars of the money that was collected. Basically the
meeting costs were subsidized by the auction. (Most of the auction money went to
the FAI team.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>That was how we did it then. Keep the nominal
account for the banquet in another "bucket!"</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The money from the AMA entrance fees was
used for the competition event only. It is easier if you account for the
"entertainment separately and don't confuse the contest budget. It is almost a
red herring.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><STRONG>Without the Banquet-piece the Nats 2007
total budget requirement is $6750 which translates to 112.5 people needed to
compete in the 2007 Nationals.</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Soooooooooooooooo! - I know, where was I going with
all of this? - here it comes........................ There is a point where we
can't afford to run the Pattern Nationals at these rates and fees at Muncie. but
it still begs the question, "<STRONG>Where could we afford to do it and what
would the fees have to be?".</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>We should be looking at the mission and the
quality of the event, the attractiveness, the feasibility, the goals and
many other issues. You need good figures and spending rationale to get this
stuff right, not just stumble into the next change. Maybe there should be
qualifiers that people can get to? If picked, most people will then go
wherever,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I know this much, it is way more complicated than
a statement of a loss here or a banquet there. It requires real financial
skill and planning awareness to pull something off this big and run it at
and above the level we have been doing.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I am really glad that it's not my
problem.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Regards,</FONT></DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<DIV><BR>Eric.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>P.S. Thanks to you all who wrote to me off-list. I appreciate that you
saw that I was opening up the thinking and not just accepting blanket
number statements. To those of you who got mad at me again. Sorry, my bad!
It was not my intent, but if you don't blow smoke etc. then I won't
try and clear it away - Eric,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=e id=q_1124e811a26ffbe7_2><FONT face=Arial
size=2> </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV>
<DIV>Here is our budget (May K-F):</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV><FONT face=Arial size=1>
<P align=left>NATS Expenses</P>
<P align=left>Awards 800.00</P>
<P align=left>Banquet 3,500.00</P>
<P align=left>Event Director 600.00</P>
<P align=left>Impound Personnel 300.00</P>
<P align=left>Judges 1,000.00</P>
<P align=left>Line Manager Site 1 240.00</P>
<P align=left>Line Manager Site 3 240.00</P>
<P align=left>Line Manager Site 4 240.00</P>
<P align=left>Meeting Expenses 350.00</P>
<P align=left>NSCRA Award BBQ 1,000.00</P>
<P align=left>Planning Meeting 450.00</P>
<P align=left>Postage 80.00</P>
<P align=left>Scoring HQ 300.00</P>
<P align=left>Scoring Site 4 180.00</P>
<P align=left>Site 1 Site Director 240.00</P>
<P align=left>Site 3 Site Director 240.00</P>
<P align=left>Site 4 Site Director 240.00</P>
<P align=left>Supplies 250.00</P>
<P align=left>TOTAL NATS Expenses 10,250.00</P>
<DIV></DIV></FONT>Hopefully we break even on this...
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=gmail_quote>On 5/2/07, <B class=gmail_sendername>Grow
Pattern</B> <<A onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)"
href="mailto:pattern4u@comcast.net" target=_blank>pattern4u@comcast.net
</A>> wrote:</SPAN>
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<DIV bgcolor="#ffffff">
<DIV>What I worry and wonder about the most is how we just accept a
number and then beat the death out of something when there is no
real data, or the data is suspect or even wrong in the
first place. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The first number that I read was that the AMA lost $25K running the
Nat's. Then later on I read that they had not been tracking it very
well. That should immediately raise a doubt about the number of
$25K.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>- Then I began to wonder if the number included the two locations
that are used to run the Nat's. (Not all of te Nat's is run at
Muncie). </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>- Then I thought about the running costs of the AMA site at Muncie.
<STRONG>After all, It runs whether the Nat's are there or
not.</STRONG> So if we extract ONLY the additional Nationals
related costs only, what are they really? </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>- Beyond the field, maintenance what is the EXTRA cost to
the AMA associated with the running all of the events that constitute a
Nationals. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>- Then I asked myself what are the costs related to <STRONG>just
running PATTERN</STRONG>. Do they have contest related equipment
already, or do they buy new stuff such as tents etc. just
for us. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>- I know that they put out the box poles and provide some
PA equipment, but are extra summer workers hired for just us? and
what is the cost for the four days that we are there.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>======================================================================================================================</DIV>
<DIV>In my business life I have seen numbers used to prove many
a point ,but almost every time the numbers did not hold up to close
examination.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In our case (pattern). In 2005 we raised around $10,400 in
pattern entry fees. ( I say "around" because there are a few late-entry
fee entries that are twice the normal fee and are hard to track). Our
important number is that we received $ $6755 from the AMA after they
took their cut. The AMA's important number is that they receive the
balance which as a round number of was in the region of
$3600. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Is that enough to cover what we cost them? The year before the
AMA claimed that they had lost $12,000 running the Nat's. Now it
is a $25,000 loss. The only action that I know of that took
place was to increase the AMA entrance fee portion by $10. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>- What is more important is to ask what; </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>a) Difference did the fee increase make, and </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>b) Why did the costs still go up so much.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>c) Was anything done to reduce costs.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The real problem is that what you are being fed as factual money
data is "roll-up-accounting" at its worst. The devil may be in the
details but so is the answer. You cannot solve a fiscal problem if you
don't know which part is failing or broken. </DIV>
<DIV><BR> </DIV>
<DIV>======================================================================================================================</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Accounting roll-ups are the real emery of all good decision
making. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Let me give you a small example of what I mean. I am familiar
with the Pattern Nat's banquet. I read in the K-factor that the banquet
cost was too high and that another venue, [probably the golf club] would
be used again. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The number used was something like $34 a head and we should not
subsidize the meal. This looked similar to the 2005 number that I
managed. On the surface of it looked like good logic. BUT I happen
to know also that a bunch of other costs were dumped into the "banquet
bucket" in 2005. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The true cost of the banquet meal is the vendor charge minus
the money collected for meal tickets. In short,we collected $2,560
from 112.5 people. (This was comprised of adult meals, kids
meals and 10 comp. tickets for people like the Event director
plus wife, AMA Contest director plus wife, other key AMA officials
and the HQ scoring staff plus guest. The tickets were $25 per
head. The NSRCA subsidized the actual meal by $250. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Now for the hidden costs! the NSRCA holds and hosts a general
meeting at the Banquet so it eats the costs for the hall ($200 and
microphone/podium stuff etc.) reasonable so far. Then you add any
trophies and awards etc. Then the cost for the NSRCA board meeting the
night before, (we feed them way past midnight) was put in there. And
then the costs for the finals "free" meal and awards ceremony. [Note-
NSRCA trophies we pay for. AMA trophies we do not]. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>All of these relatively small items gradually pushed the
"roll-up accounting banquet" number up to nearly $4000. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Now you have a number that you can divide, say by 115 contestants
and you get $34. It is a good number that good people can and
will tie their argument to, but it is just plain WRONG data that
give a wrong conclusion. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Back to the shop.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Regards,</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Eric. <FONT face=Arial
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