Re: GWAPA

[Erik Olson <erik@thekrib.com>]

On Thu, 8 Jan 2004, Cheryl Rogers wrote:

> Erik Olson wrote:
> 
> > As for #1, I think this is a mistake.  I've talked to people about this, 
> > and pretty much everyone has said it is inappropriate for the convention 
> > to be used to prop up TAG.  TAG must stand on its own.
> 
> All due respect, I don't think that's what David meant. I think he was 
> just using the cost of one TAG as a metaphor for annual convention 
> income, and saying that we shouldn't set our expectations too LOW. 
> David, if this *is not* what you meant, then we are both wrong! :-)

Here is David's original quote: "The profits from an annual convention can
become a nice source of AGA's revenues..."  And this is precisely what I
am arguing against.  As long as TAG is running at a deficit, then by
definition, relying on convention income for AGA as a whole means that it
is being used primarily to prop up TAG.  It doesn't matter if that's the
intention or not, that's what it's being used for.  And what I'm saying is
that convention income should NOT be factored into a yearly budget for
keeping TAG on track.  That should be done primarily through memberships
and advertising.

There are two reasons for this.  One is that I don't think we can 
regularly rely on the convention to bring in so much money.  What happens 
if we don't get a bid next year?  Or they don't attract too many people?  
The other reason we shouldn't rely on this as income is that the people 
putting ON the convention won't be happy knowing that all the money 
that's going to the AGA is going right back into publishing TAG.  Larry 
was none too pleased to hear this, for instance.

OK, so what do I think we SHOULD we do with convention income?  It should
be used for projects to help the AGA and its membership grow, i.e. those
4-color membership flyers you want printed, a speaker program to
supplement sending people out to clubs, producing instructional DVDs,
purchasing stock for the bookstore, seeding next year's convention, 
and in general adding some cushion back into the treasury that has 
little buffer.

But we can't do that right now because any convention income is being used 
to prop up TAG, until we get TAG's own budget balanced.  

We're on the path to having this happen. I really think the printer change 
is going to put it within a couple hundred bucks per issue.  And 
increasing membership just a hundred people will put that over the top.  I 
just don't want us to fall back on the convention revenue.

  - Erik

-- 
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com

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