[Fallfest] a little history, and money

[shawn brenneman]

dear committee -

since i can't be at the next meeting, i wanted to pass on a little
information about the fall festival and money which i think we should
keep in mind.

long ago, back when i was on the regular dance board for the cville
contra dance, i remember that rob pointed out that the charlottesville
fall festival and the charlottesville regular dance were two totally
different organizations, and that the regular dance should be able to
stand on it's own and not always depend on the fall festival to bail
it out financially, as it has for many years.

i suspect the regular dance still loses money (does it?).  and
although i agree that it is not the responsibility of the fall
festival to bail out the regular dance, it is a nice thing for the
fall festival to do for our dance community, and, it is not hard to
make money on the fall festival.

but, in order to make money this year, we probably need to raise our price. 

we haven't raised the price in a while.  we've  made decisions in
recent years (like, paying a sound guy) which have caused fall fest
expenses to go up.  and other expenses have gone up, like rental of
the space, and travel expenses.  costs rise over time, it's a fact of
life.

i looked up prices of comparable dance weekends (that is, town
weekends, which don't include room and board).

knoxville this year was $50 early/$60 late
dance trance (lexington) is $55/$60
richmond is $60/$65
pittsburgh, $60/$70
river rendevous, in ohio, is $80 (includes sat breakfast and sat and sun lunch)

so now, we are tied with knoxville for the cheapest.  (knoxville, by
the way, provides NO food at all, no snacks, no breakfast, no
nothing).  all the others are a little more.

so i don't think we'd be out of line at all to raise our price $5 or
even $10 if we wanted.

$60 is a bargain for a great weekend of music and dancing.  i don't
think it would keep anyone from coming, especially since we have so
many volunteer opportunities.

thanks,
shawn