[ivfdf-news] Points raised for debate (IVFDF2008, Sheffield)

[Brian Quinion]

Hi,

Once again a late reply but hopefully this will clear up outstanding
points.  I'll reply to Tracy but Alison raised the same points:

On 5/24/07, Tracy Rayment <tracyrayment at hotmail.com> wrote:
> On the negative side, it seems they are relying quite heavily on the local
> ceilidh scene and uni students. However, as Alison said, I don't live in
> Sheffield  either so I cant really say how strong their local ceilidh scene
> is. This, reliance on one group of people I also feel is quite a gamble.

Attendance numbers are based (as shown on the budget) are based on 25%
less people attending in 2008 than attended in 2003 (last Sheffield
IVFDF).  I've attached a second copy of the budget show how the
numbers work out if we get the same attendance as last time (a profit
of nearly 4,000) which hopefully ilustrates how much margin we are
leaving!

In reality the membership of ceilidhsoc during that period has more
than doubled so we should be expecting MORE local attendance rather
than less but the 25% figure gives us a large margin of error.

> Whilst budgetting against previous festivals is as good a set of figures as
> any, some things, such as T-Shirt sales are very fickle, and through no
> fault of anybody, T-Shirts may well just not sell one year. Therefore I dont
> think it is sensible to rely on the same profit levels as previously made in

We are not relying on this, there is more than enough money in the
contingency to swallow the entire cost of t-shirts.  Last time we had
complaints because we ran out of t-shirts, it is a difficult balancing
act!  We will base the final number of T-Shirts orders on the number
of advanced sales.

> guaranteed financial success of the festival at this stage. As Alison said,
> it would be good to see some budgets based on other scenarios and 'what
> ifs'.

You should have been given a spreadsheet of the accounts which can be
played with to model most scenarios (the second sheet included a
number of paramaters that can be tweaked) - if for some reason this
didn't reach you my apologies I can send you a new copy off list (let
me know!)

There are too many possible variations to describe then all here, but
the worst possible case would be a large extremely reduced attendance
(due to public transport strike or fuel crisis) but with bands still
able to make the journey.  In this worst of all possible cases
(basically only advanced ticket sales and limited local attendance) we
would expect to make a loss of around £4000 of which we would be able
to cover £3000 ourselves.  We would hope to receive underwriting from
IVFDF for the remaining £1000 (as proposed in our bid).

Our existing budget is a 'worst expected case' budget.  We fully
expect to make a significant profit!

> on one group of people to make the festival profitable in order to be sure
> that the festival was being run financially 'sensibly' and that any loss was
> 'beyond the organisers control' so to speak!

Break even attendance is only around 305 people (exact number would
depend on the wagged / unwaged split).  This is a very low attendance
for an IVFDF and should be well within reach.


And a couple of other points from Ian Thompson not answered above:

> 1) I'm not aware that you have yet had your loan
> from central IVFDF (I've not received a request
> in writing for this loan which was all that was needed to release it)

My understanding was that we could not receive it until we had been
fully confirmed as running the festival.  If this isn't correct let me
know and I'll send you a request... so far we have been self financing
due to money from other places.

> 3) Can you give an indication of any other places
> you might be looking for funding (grants) from ?
> and How much you might be aiming to get ?

We will continue to look into funding opportunities but are not
currently in a position to require such funding (we have to find a
reason for it within the relevant funding area before we can apply).
The most likely use for funding will be for a late night act - which
can be run as a distinct event, making for an easier bid - exact
amounts are still to be determined.

> 5) What element of contingency is included in
> your budget figures and if not why you have not felt this necessary ?

At the moment our contingency is £750.  This is reduced from the
previous value of £900 now that we have established that additional
insurance is necessary (doesn't contingency disappear easily!)

Cheers,
--
 Brian Quinion
 Treasurer, IVFDF 2008, Sheffield
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