[ivfdf-news] Sheffield IVFDF 2008 Budget

[Richard Mason]

Hi John,

thanks for providing the budget.  I am sure that others will comment as well, but I have taken a quick scan through it and a few things jump out at me.  So could I clarify a few points:

1) Ticket sales.  The figures that you state for weekend sales equate approximately to ticket prices of £24 and £15  - but not exactly to that, so I presume that there are other factors involved.
Have you factored in a lower price for advance sales?  If so, what split have you put for advance sales?  Can you give a bit more detail on your ticket price strategy please?

2) I can't exactly tell without the more detailed numbers, but your number of saturday all day tickets looks rather high in comparison with the evening numbers.  What seems to have been happening over the past few years is that more people come in for the evenings and less for the whole day.

3) T-shirts.  Having been to so many IVFDFs where people are desperately trying to sell off t-shirts at the last minute, it always concerns me to see a profit in the budget for t-shirts.  I am guessing that you are hoping to sell approx 200 t-shirts at the festival itself, which in itself seems rather high (Exeter usually sell 100 - 150).
It is always a balancing act between getting enough t-shirts to cover the free ones given to stewards, and getting too many to sell.  My advice, for what its worth, is to order less and to sell them, rather than over order and be left with them.  Either way, I think that you would be better assuming no profit in the budget, and being pleasantly surprised if you do make a profit, rather than the other way around.

4) Craft fair - how do you propose to make a loss?

5) RSCDS - this amount looks a bit on the low side.

6) Advertising.  This amount looks slightly on the low side to me, especially given the fact that the prime advertising opportunity (ie: this year's IVFDF) was lacking in detail.  There will be a job to be done getting through to all those who are not attached to university groups and not on IVFDF news. If this requires putting adverts in the press, then the £300 will disappear very quickly.

7) Concert. You have put income in for a concert, but are still negotiating over the venue cost.  Is that venue confirmed and just the cost being negotiated, or is the venue not yet confirmed?  When will you know about final venue cost?  Is there still a risk that the concert might not happen?  I am assuming that any potential concert artists would be quite well known, which leads me to wonder why the income for the event is budgeted so low?  Is the cost of the concert act(s) included in the Bands and callers amount?

8) Morris Tour.  Small point, but there has often been debate over what happens to any collection made by the Morris tour.  I think that the usual process is to give that to charity, unless the festival is in danger of making a big loss.  In the past the morris teams have been very uncomfortable about collections going to the festival, so it might be best to remove that from the budget entirely.

Thats all for now.  You are obviously on the right path, and the package that you get with the Union definitely makes life easier!  Oh, one more final point, I don't see any provision for insurance or First aid support in the figures.  Get both, even if just for your own peace of mind!

Well done so far

Richard


-----Original Message-----
From: ivfdf-news-bounces at ivfdf.org
[mailto:ivfdf-news-bounces at ivfdf.org]On Behalf Of john
Sent: 12 May 2007 17:21
To: ivfdf-news at ivfdf.org
Subject: [ivfdf-news] Sheffield IVFDF 2008 Budget


Attached is the accounting report / estimate updated to reflect the
university quote.  Figures are based on:

195 Full Price Weekend Tickets
211 Reduced Weekend Tickets