Costs & Entrace Fees

["James Purchase" <jpurch@interlog.com>]

Dave was worried last night about entrance fees. I've pointed out that
should a fee actually be levied, it would pose no real problem for
international entrants to obtain some way to get the money to the AGA in the
proper currency (AGA also can accept VISA I believe).

However, as I've pointed out - the main "cost" for this event, as far as I
can see, is going to be postage and printing costs.

COSTS:

1. CD-ROM's for the Judges. Erik had mentioned that the cost of CD-ROM's to
the contest is going to be minimal ($1.20 per disk + mailing cost).
2. A nice three fold brochure to send out to interested parties would be
really nice but could be moderately expensive to produce - especially if we
do it in color. I've suggested that perhaps the AGA DTP specialist be
consulted on this, as he might be able to offer suggestions. I have done
such things, but only produced a "master" which was then photocopied. Larger
runs would be cheaper actually being printed but I have no idea of exactly
how much (espeically as Canadian pricing and American pricing can differ a
lot). I also don't know how many we might need.
3. Entrance Forms and supporting materials for non-Internet hobbyists. We
are going to HAVE to have a way to send out little "kits" to people who do
not have Internet access (this would be required by the AGA). These kits
would consist of an Entrance Form, a copy of the entrance guidelines,
judging guidelines, etc. These things could be photocopied on demand, and
shouldn't be much of a burden. Mailing them out would cost more.
4. Hosting fees - Erik has said that the AGA already pays for web hosting
and it won't cost them any more for this event.
5. Contacting potential prize donors - say, thrity or forty letters -
mailing costs alone (I can't imaging requiring the contest to pay me for my
ink and paper for forty letters.
6. Certificates/Ribbons - Again, I'm at a loss here. I have done Award
Certificates for organizations in the past - I've used a DTP program and
printed out the individual Certificates using a high quality color Inkjet
printer and the best quality coated paper I could obtain (about $30.00/500
sheets). A set of new ink cartridges costs between $75.00 - $120.00 Cdn.,
depending upon the printer you are using. Late model inkjet printers can
produce some amazing results and the Certificates look good. For one group I
had the Certificates laminated onto plaques at a cost of $20.00Cdn each and
they looked terrific (also waterproof, so someone could hang it close to
their tank without worry.) They even came back from the laminator in boxes
suitable for mailing! Again, mailing costs would be incurred.
I don't have any idea how much "satin ribbons" cost - but if we are going to
hand them out, they are going to be nice ones.
7. Mailing of prizes. This could be expensive - but I don't envision loads
of prizes and as I've mentioned, for really large items, it should be
possible for the donor company to ship directly.
8. Mailing of prize winners list out to all entrants - this would be nice,
but I don't know if it is necessary. It would also be time consuming if
there were hundreds of non-internet capable entries received. We could avoid
this by just publishing the list in TAG. (and informing everyone how to
obtain a copy).

INCOME:

1. CD-ROM sales - Again, I have no idea how many of these will be sold. But
any income would go directly to the AGA and would off-set their outlay. What
do people think would be a reasonable amount to charge for these?
---------

As this is the first time around for this - any figure I could give for
"total cost" would only be a guess. I know that the AGA is probably going to
want a concrete figure but I'm at a loss until we have been thru this once.
I think that surely it should cost under $1,000.00 - and that would cover
EVERYTHING.

Given the exposure that the AGA will get out of this, and the increased
interest in planted tanks which we hope to generate, I have a definate
preference to suggest to the AGA MC that they agree to eat the costs
entirely and that we not be required to charge any entrance fee. If an
entrance fee IS required by the MC, it would only be applicable to non-AGA
members and would be a deterrant to entrants (and I don't think it should be
more that $5.00US per entry).

Thoughts???

James Purchase
Toronto



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