Finances

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

While this is something that we don't need to decide yesterday, I would like
to address the issue of finances right now, as we move into the next stage
of this project.

If we have 73 completed entries, that works out to $365.00 that we trun over
to the AGA. If any of you still have copies of the Proposal kicking around,
I'd like to point your attention to the proposed Budget that I submitted and
that was approved by the AGA MC. In that document, there was a projected
Income figure of $1,500.00 (300 entries X  $5.00 per). The projected
expenses were $772.50, with of course a potential surplus of $727.50 to
remain with the AGA.

While I'm thrilled that we received 73 entries, this does mean that if we
follow the projected Budget, we will be presenting the AGA with a project
which costs them money, rather than one which either pays for itself or
gives them a bit of gravy for their other endeavours.

To date, expenses have been minimal - $48.58Cdn for stamps from Canada Post
(I have the receipts), that were used to hit up the companies who I was
looking for prizes from (I still have some stamps left over, should I need
to mail out anything else). The major expenses to come are the shipping
costs for the Prizes, which we cannot avoid, and the costs for buying and
mailing out Ribbons for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place winners in each category. We
had budgeted $263.00 US for buying and mailing the ribbons.

Given the generosity of our Prize Donors, we have ended up with a much
larger (and richer) prize pool for the Contest than any of us anticipated
(more than I did, that's for sure). In light of the fact that we are going
to be able to give substantial awards to most of our winners, is there still
any need to give out Ribbons as well??????

I know that in traditional "contests", it is customary for 1st, 2nd and 3rd
place to be signified by a piece of colored cloth. But I suspect that most,
if not all, will end up balled up and stuck in the back of a desk drawer
somewhere. How many people are going to have them mounted and framed and
hang them on the wall next to their pictures of "Aunt May"?

Would it lessen the prestige/impact of the event if we simply announced that
due to the generosity of our prize donors, merchandise prizes will be given
in lieu of "Ribbons" to all win, place and show winners? It would save us
(and by extension, the AGA treasury) $263.00, bringing our potential
projected deficit down to a much more reasonable $144.50 rather than
$407.50. I'd much rather go to the AGA MC cap in hand asking for $150.00
than for $400.00.

I don't anticipate saying that we aren't giving ribbons because we didn't
get enough entries to pay for them, but the value of the merchandise prizes
we have to give away is so much larger than I expected to have that I think
this might be a reasonable cost-saving measure.

What do people think?

James Purchase
Toronto

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