Re: 2013 Financial Budget

[Kathy Guidi]

First pass of the budget is attached.  I'm assuming that everyone can open an Excel spreadsheet, yes?

Here's what I did.

REVENUE PROJECTION:
*  The revenue projection is only as good as our forecast of the ticket distribution over the varying price tiers.   There's a second 'sheet' within the spreadsheet called "Stats" (look at the lower left hand corner).  This sheet contains the ticket tier distribution for the last 5 years.  I took the average of the tiers for 5 years and then massaged it a little bit.   Cells E13 through E16 contain the breakdown for ticket sales which then drives how the revenue calculations are done.

*  Under projected revenue -- I've added a new line item called Fundraising and have put in the actual fundraising to date ($2530).  I don't think we should try to 'forecast' how much fundraising we'll do in a year, as this is new territory for us.  So consider this 'bonus' income if it continues to happen.

* This is the last year we will receive TDC sponsorship unless we can convince them otherwise.

* The two projection columns (Columns H&K) assume 0% and 10% growth respectively.    At the Summit meeting, I think we all agreed to try and keep expenses steady at last year's numbers as there is no reasonable expectation at this time to see Kiwiburn grow my much more than that.

* Based on above assumptions,  revenue is projected to be between $60 - $65k  (last year actual was $56k)

EXPENSES:
All following items are up for discussion.  I just went through and put in everything that we'd talked about either at the Summit or in the Afterburn report. 

* Added a new line item called webhosting @$200.   We are still working on the webhosting transfer from Cass and a few of us are looking into the costs for going with a hosting company rather than through friends or friends of friends.  Might save us further headache in the future.

* Per Afterburn report, added $400 for a second Depot freezer.
* Per Summit meeting, added $1500 for a tools budget (either replacement or new purchase).
* Replaced Wranglers with Paddock Pirates/Ambassadorables at $500
* Per Afterburn report, added $500 for Centre Camp infrastructure (white boards, boom box/sound, leads, etc)
* Added $500 for Site Manager budget (this number probably high, need to flesh out what is needed)
* Left in Paddock Lighting but cut budget in half from last year to $500
* Per Summit meeting, added $800 for Communal Art Project (the idea that someone will spearhead a group effort to make an art piece on site)
* Kept Miscellaneous budget but lowered to $1500 (could be used for general schwag, group admin things like the clipboard boxes everyone wants, etc)
* Kept a printing postcards budget in at $800   (need to discuss whether we want to do this every year)
* Added printing budget for Survival Guide (which we agreed should be distributed when tickets are purchased)
* Increased Dam Advertiser budget to $80 (this is how we will communicate how locals are to buy tickets)
* Changed Travel expense to $2500 (from $4500) for annual ExCom Summit
* Increased telephone expenses to reflect 8 conference calls this upcoming year and some money for phone cards.  $300

I've either kept the same or reduced all the department budgets and will need Managers to advise what they think they need for this year.  So can all of you named below have a think about this and see if you can come up with a very quick budget in the next week or so?  Doesn't have to be exact.   If you need to see what was spent last year for the department, I can run you a report from Xero.

Man: - KARL  -   $4300
Gate - HANA -    $800
Greeters - ISA -  $800   (Hana/Pete, can you maybe weigh in on what Greeters needs from a structural/infrastructure standpoint and then we'll need to discuss with Isa what she needs).
Paddock Pirates - PETE - $500
MPW - Poppy -  $1200
Kitchen - EMMA - $2000   (this is ktichen for 30 people; 10 from each MPW, Temple, Man)
Depot - ASH - $800
Artery - TIM - $500
Centre Camp - JAZELLE - $500 
Site Manager - BRUCE - $500

Within the next month, I will be writing to Senjo, the Medics, Hirepool for the Toilets, and SLAM to start getting quotes.  

Karl -- are you going to be able to facilitate radios through your work connection again?  Is this what we want to do?

I will work with Shelley on the list of printing expenditures.

If there is any other 'wish list' item, sing out and we'll put it on the list and see how it looks.


ESTIMATED BOTTOM LINE:
As it stands now, with current expenses and zero growth, we'll just about break even.  If we grow by 10%, we theoretically could net ourselves $5-$6k.   So not a whole lot of room for playing around, but there is some.


Thinking caps on everyone!

[Pete Wyatt]

can somebody please tell me how much greeters needs to allow for the gennie based on previous ?

currently greeters is looking to create a maze mostly using sheets and probably bamboo but it will need lots of rope & pegs to stop the wind blowing it over.

we will possibily get some sheets of ply on the sth & west sides where the worst of the wind comes from, if we do this is it worth combining our order with man build dept to get a good price ??

Hana - does the greeters structure give enough shelter if the rain and wind blow in ?? should we consider allowing for a tarp or similar on the front ??
I will be down in Taupo in a couple of days, I could check the container to see if we still have the bells, if the new paddles I made are still there ? is the key still in the same place on the left ??
is there anything else to think about for greeters ???

Paddock pirates may be looking at teeshirts, Can somebody tell me how much to allow for a simple Tee printed in one side ??
in the past we talked about combining our orders to get a better price
we have talked in the past about doing our own screen printing on site, is this an option ??

[Hana Tuwhare]

can somebody please tell me how much greeters needs to allow for the gennie based on previous ? 

Gate & Greeters usually share the cost at $300 ($150 each). Although i dont know the exact cost of the genny this year.

Hana - does the greeters structure give enough shelter if the rain and wind blow in ??  

It kept all the sound equipment dry, so should be fine, although im sure you could throw in a tarp fpr extra protection.

is there anything else to think about for greeters ??? 

Sound system.

Paddock pirates may be looking at teeshirts, Can somebody tell me how much to allow for a simple Tee printed in one side ??  

Depends on how many shirts you get. I bought 26 shirts with prints on both sides with total cost of $490. So around $19 a shirt. You can cut costs with shopping around for shirts earlier in the year and just having one side printed.

in the past we talked about combining our orders to get a better price 

We would only get a better price if we all ordered the same style, colour and or same printing. T-shirts and printing are alot cheaper in the states....

--
Sent from my iNus

[Hana Tuwhare]

Gate - HANA -    $800 

Yeap, happy with that and everything else. Good job Kathy your a rock star.

[Karl Matthews]

Yes I can do radios again if thats what we want to do.

Man: - KARL  -   $4300 

Thats what I spent this year, would be awesome if I could keep the same budget as this year, $4800. 

[Bruce Scanlon]

awesome work Kathy :-)

[Pete Wyatt]

yes we love our hard working Kathy

[Kathy Guidi]

Would like to keep dialog going on this.   We still need weigh in from several team leads/managers.

So far....
Hana has signed off on her budget.
Karl would like another $500 for Man budget to bring it back to $4800.   Noted.
Pete has asked questions and received answers about Greeters.  Pete -- do you have enough info to work with Isa to develop a budget for Greeters?

FYI... I have attached Xero reports for Greeters, Gate, and Depot.    First, note that these numbers are not inclusive of GST.    I do see gennie rental of $140+GST for Gate but don't see the other half booked under Greeters (oh well).  I am assuming that it does cost about $300 to rent for the week.

Note:
2012 Gate budget was $800 of which $400 went to Tshirts, $140 to gennie, and the rest to misc supplies as there were no major upgrades needed to the structure.   So 2013 Gate should be doable with $800 again and Hana has agreed..

2012 Greeters budget was $950'ish of which $600+GST was for the structure (and no money for T-shirts) and no money for design materials.    This year I've reduce the budget to $800.  Given that we don't need to build the structure, I'm hoping that $800 will be enough to cover design materials, gennie rental, schwag, + anything else that is needed for the infrastructure.   (IE; does Greeters need lighting, stereo, etc?).    Need Pete/Isa to pencil out a budget.

2012 Depot budget was about $1600.   Of which $900+GST was for the structure.   This year I've cut the budget way back to $1000 since I don't think the structure needs anything.  I think it could be cut back even further (and then we can put money back into Man or bump up the Artery).  ASH -- I need you to come up with a list of what you'll need for Depot this year.

Still need the rest of you on the list below to give feedback and/or initial details for your budgets.  Again, let me know if you need me to run any reports out of Xero.

Man: - KARL  -   $4300
Gate - HANA -    $800
Greeters - ISA -  $800   (Hana/Pete, can you maybe weigh in on what Greeters needs from a structural/infrastructure standpoint and then we'll need to discuss with Isa what she needs).
Paddock Pirates - PETE - $500
MPW - Poppy -  $1200
Kitchen - EMMA - $2000   (this is ktichen for 30 people; 10 from each MPW, Temple, Man)

Depot - ASH - $1000

Artery - TIM - $500
Centre Camp - JAZELLE - $500 
Site Manager - BRUCE - $500

Discuss....

On Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 10:35 PM, Kathy Guidi <kag...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Hippie Tim]

Artery budget looks fine to me, I'd also like to see a percentage of the tools budget invested in some cheap tools that we can have at the Artery for artists to use, cheap so we can give them to people and not have to worry too much about them.

[Pete Wyatt]

On Thu, Jun 28, 2012 at 10:21 PM, Kathy Guidi <kag...@gmail.com> wrote:

Would like to keep dialog going on this.   We still need weigh in from several team leads/managers.

So far....
Hana has signed off on her budget.
Karl would like another $500 for Man budget to bring it back to $4800.   Noted.
Pete has asked questions and received answers about Greeters.  Pete -- do you have enough info to work with Isa to develop a budget for Greeters?

 

Hana - do you know if we still have the greeters spotlights and solar fairy lights from 2011 ??

FYI... I have attached Xero reports for Greeters, Gate, and Depot.    First, note that these numbers are not inclusive of GST.    I do see gennie rental of $140+GST for Gate but don't see the other half booked under Greeters (oh well).  I am assuming that it does cost about $300 to rent for the week. -

 

there should also be a cost for fuel for the Gennie ?????

[Hana Tuwhare]

Hana - do you know if we still have the greeters spotlights and solar fairy lights from 2011 ?? 

There was rope light but only half of it lit up. Kayak Bill donated simple lights (light bulbs with plug on the end)  to gate and greeters this year and is happy to do again next year.

[Pete Wyatt]

ok so I now know what greeters has available, Isa and I will make sure we fit inside that budget of $800

[Bruce Scanlon]

$500 should be plenty for site manager.  Cheers :-)

[Ash Easton]

I'm pretty sure $1000 will be sweet providing we decide not to extend the depot for tool storage, but this being my first time I'm just getting some advice from poppy on this so that I can say yes definitely. Kathy, you're amazing!

[Poppy Norman]

I will get the MPW budget sussed in the next week, I need to have a yarn with Kiwi first.

[Ems]

Will give kitchen some more thought and get back to you in next few days sorry for being a bit slow on the uptake ! In uk so bear with me :)

Initial thoughts are that I fed about 17 people for temple last yr... Will look back to be sure 

Sent from my iPod

<2012_Finance_ Gate Transactions.pdf>

<2012_Finance_ Greeters Transactions.pdf>

<2012_FInance_Depot Transactions.pdf>

[Ems]

And also Kathy you really are amazing

Sent from my iPod

[Bruce Scanlon]

Just wanted to talk a bit more about the reduced budget for the Man and the Temple from this year.

This was based, I think, on Kathy taking money from their budgets and adding it to the prospective combined kitchen, which would serve Temple, Man, and MPW crews.

Combined kitchen budget is $2,000 in this provisional budget.

So first, are we still talking about a combined kitchen?  Are we still talking about separate Man crew, separate MPW, separate temple crew?

If one of these crews wants to opt out of the combined kitchen can they have some money back?

Note: 2012 actual expenses for MPW kitchen was $1,754.

On Sat, Jun 23, 2012 at 2:43 PM, Karl Matthews <karldm...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Bruce Scanlon]

how's that MPW budget going, Poppy?

[Hippie Tim]

So how are we going with the budget? Any more additions, subtractions or changes?

We should probably have this delt with sooner rather then latter right?

[Hana Tuwhare]

Would it be possible to throw a little more on gate for a shade extension out the back? We used to have one but the wood got used this year for other things. Not sure how much it would cost in extra wood? Maybe $100?

[Bruce Scanlon]

Well, some years we vote to finalize the budget and some years we just roll with it.

Notable is the $500 we are asking for Paul as head of security.  $100 extra for gate doesn't really signify.

I believe we were promised some kind of MPW budget feedback from Poppy.  Haven't heard that yet...

Also we need to decide about kitchens.  Combined or not.  That's a budget question.

Our zero growth budget has $1500 in "miscellaneous" which is basically the slush fund, and we are projecting a little over $2000 in profit.  My opinion is we could

And the community art project.  Do we want to fund that at budget level, which is $800?

Hmm actually I don't see an entry for the community art project in the budget that says it was written 17 June.  That's sticky if so.  I will check with Kathy on that one.

SO yeah, these are the budget questions I am aware of.

[Bruce Scanlon]

Community art project not presently in budget.

Plus these other questions.

Emma, are you nearer to clarity on the combined kitchen?

Poppy, are you in contact now that you are in the USA?

What is everyone's general feel about attendance this year, what are you hearing in terms of people's plans?

[Pete Wyatt]

during last year I saw lots of interest in noobies attending KB and that is the result we saw from the survey etc, what upset my calculations was the number of people who did not (for various reasons) return this year

I am again seeing good interest in noobies who are our kind of people so if we get this years noobies returning I forsee growth, I will go for 600+ people

:o) Lumos

[Hippie Tim]

 

Poppy, are you in contact now that you are in the USA?

I highly doubt we will hear from her for a while.

 

What is everyone's general feel about attendance this year, what are you hearing in terms of people's plans?

I think we might see an increase but regardless of that think we should budget for 0 growth.

[Bruce Scanlon]

>regardless of that think we should budget for 0 growth

I agree, but there are different ways to budget for 0 ghrowth.

0 growth and zero profit/savings?  0 growth and $2k savings with 1.5k for unbudgeted items safety margin?

About $3500 of expenditure difference between the two.  And the ability to go ahead and do things which are unbudgeted, such as community art project and Paul as HOS, or the need to cut something else if we are going to do those things.

[Poppy Norman]

hi

[Pete Wyatt]

Hi Poppy, how was the big burn ?, did you get a chance to chat to Megs or do a shift with the regional reps ?

[Poppy Norman]

Hahaha i didn't realise that I had actually sent that message saying 'hi'. I was on a terrible cellphone and typed a big long email then accidentally deleted it and some how it just ended up saying 'hi' and I didn't think I had sent it.

Anyway, HI! okay so in the end I didn't going to Burning Man . . . . . its a really long story that I might tell some of you at some point. I am currently in Fortuna, CA and heading further north tomorrow. Will probably have internet for the next two weeks so should be able to contribute to discussions.

Will catch up on emails tomorrow.

--
Sent from Gmail Mobile

[Bruce Scanlon]

>Will probably have internet for the next two weeks so should be able to contribute to discussions.

Hi!  ;-)

Do you have any input into the ongoing kitchen discussion, like, what happens if Emma doesn't run a group kitchen?  As MPW manager can you do whatever you think you need to do for them?  Or something outside the box...

[Kathy Guidi]

Updated budget attached with following changes made:

1)  Added $100 to Gate budget per Hana's request and removed $100 from Miscellaneous slush fund
2)  Added $500 line item "Head of Security" for Paul
3)  Added $300 line item "Patches for Volunteers" -  this was just a guess as waiting for Tim to do pricing
4)  Added $800 line item "Community Art Project"

Effect of this on Zero Growth budget is that we will have close to ZERO net surplus.  

While ticket sales are chugging along, we are still behind from our targeted '177 tickets sold Tier 1' projection, so it is too early to tell how we're going to do.

Probably not a lot of wiggle room just yet, so everyone needs to stay within their budgets.

Note we do have $2000 for community kitchen -->  are we ready to communicate this info to that volunteer yet?

Note -- I have been in touch with mostl vendors for pricing except for Security as we were waiting to see which security company we wanted to go with.  Has decision been reached and should I or should someone else make contact and obtain quote?    Als  Radio Rental -- Karl, you usually book these with your former employer -- are you able to to so again?

Tool budget -- $1500 -- is someone looking into this?

Just out of curiosity, anyone know what the budget is/was for Burning Seed?  I heard there were just under 600 attendees (like us) yet their ticket prices were almost twice ours?  Is that right?

Time to get rockin people!   3 months to go.

-K

[Bruce Scanlon]

>I have been in touch with mostl vendors for pricing except for Security as we were waiting to see which security company we wanted to go with. Has decision been reached and should I or should someone else make contact and obtain quote?

I will write to Senjo. Tim had set a deadline of end of August or
September I think to ID someone else, and we talked offline and it
sounded like he didn't have any other options? Poppy and Debs son
Jasper did not materialize their connections. So I'm not aware of
other options.

>4) Added $800 line item "Community Art Project"

We need to get proposals for this, assuming that we are OK to go ahead
with this amount. Are we committed or do we want to see the proposals
first? Or is that unfair to the artists?

>> Tool budget -- $1500 -- is someone looking into this?

My understanding is that this is to replace stuff that gets broken or
goes missing. I do think we need to replace the cordless drill that
Temple crew broke last year. Kiwi said that buying a whole set would
be better than an individual item, i think? But yeah someone would
need to source that.

>> Just out of curiosity, anyone know what the budget is/was for Burning Seed?

You should talk to Jodi. She and Will are deep in the organization now.


Bruce :-)

[chris hankins]

On Sat, Oct 6, 2012 at 9:57 AM, Bruce Scanlon <bruce....@gmail.com> wrote:

>I have been in touch with mostl vendors for pricing except for Security as we were waiting to see which security company we wanted to go with.  Has decision been reached and should I or should someone else make contact and obtain quote?

I will write to Senjo.  Tim had set a deadline of end of August or
September I think to ID someone else, and we talked offline and it
sounded like he didn't have any other options?  Poppy and Debs son
Jasper did not materialize their connections.  So I'm not aware of
other options.

>4)  Added $800 line item "Community Art Project"

We need to get proposals for this, assuming that we are OK to go ahead
with this amount.  Are we committed or do we want to see the proposals
first?  Or is that unfair to the artists?

>> Tool budget -- $1500 -- is someone looking into this?

My understanding is that this is to replace stuff that gets broken or
goes missing.  I do think we need to replace the cordless drill that
Temple crew broke last year.  Kiwi said that buying a whole set would
be better than an individual item, i think?  But yeah someone would
need to source that.

karl and i had a quick chat a while ago about tools ... i will wait till he is back in NZ to discuss this further

--
http://internationalartsmegacrew.com/

[Hana Tuwhare]

We need to get proposals for this, assuming that we are OK to go ahead
with this amount.  Are we committed or do we want to see the proposals
first?  Or is that unfair to the artists?

I'm happy with $800, but would like to see some proposals for this. I'm unclear as to whether this is an open invitation to the community, or if we have already decided someone is going to do this. Are we having a couple of projects that add up to $800, or one project that will use the all the funds? And also want to clarify that the community project is something that anyone at kiwiburn can work on over the course of the event to create something that feels like the whole community is collaborating.

I know Emma is interested in this, what's your thoughts?

[Bruce Scanlon]

Yes on :

>the community project is something that
> anyone at kiwiburn can work on over the course of the event to create
> something that feels like the whole community is collaborating.

I think we were talking about 3 different parties already being aware
and interested. Your idea of having more than one project and
splitting the money is interesting!

I forget the names, it was Emma, Tim's friend Steph? and someone else...

Yeah maybe we should put it out to the community. We are sort of
competing for the same eyeballs as the art grants, and then doing the
same work as the AGC to evaluate proposals and all that... though this
is different, more restricted criteria.

Maybe we should just let the AGC do the evaluations?

Dunno, what do y'all , especially Hippie Tim, think?

[Hippie Tim]

Looks great Kathy.

 

Should be plenty for the patches, just waiting back on a few quotes right now. Hopefully we Noget an increase in sales and we wont have any budget issues but yep, we still need to keep tight belts.

Burning Seeds financials for 2011 can be found here: http://burningmanaustralia.com/images/2011/financials/rec_financials_2011.pdf

Not sure on numbers this year, it's been oddly a bit hushed and weird with their ticket sales.

Hippie.

[Hippie Tim]

I think it would work for the AGC to decide on this, and think we should get the world out for proposals and see what comes through.

I'd also be happy for you Bruce to make sole decision, what evers easier.

[Kathy Guidi]

>Burning Seeds financials for 2011 can be found here: http://burningmanaustralia.com/images/2011/financials/rec_financials_2011.pdf

Fascinating!  Same number of attendees approximately, right?  500 - 600?
Our revenues $60k to their $63k   (I thought their ticket prices were much higher than ours. What were theirs?)
Our expenses approx $60 to their $52k!    They therefore generate a large surplus!!!

Under expenses:
*  they dole out $11k in grants to Art and theme camps to our $7 to arts only
*  they have a very small printing budget compared ours:   $600 them to our $2500
*  they have a large Man budget .  $7k them to our $4.5k
* they have a very SMALL security budget:  $1.5k to our $10k!
* they have a small medics budget:  $1k, to our $5k
* Kitchen budget in line with ours:  $2600 vs $2000 ours
*  They don't have a temple budget
* They dont seem to have other infrastructure costs for Greeters, Depot, Artery, etc.

I would love to hear further comparisons and contrasts from our ExCom members who attended OzBurn -- perhaps in a different thread.   Always keen to hear what folks think we're doing right or what we could improve on based on observations of other regionals.

On Sun, Oct 7, 2012 at 9:44 PM, Hippie Tim <fuzzy...@gmail.com> wrote:

Looks great Kathy.

 

Should be plenty for the patches, just waiting back on a few quotes right now. Hopefully we Noget an increase in sales and we wont have any budget issues but yep, we still need to keep tight belts.

[Bruce Scanlon]

>Not sure on numbers this year, it's been oddly a bit hushed and weird with their ticket sales.

According to Heidi who did some ranger shifts there were 3 entrances
to the site, only one of them was gated, and gate was often unmanned,
so they had lots of non ticket buyers. The solution was to get
whatever they could from the gate crashers (ie $20) in exchange for a
wristband.

This may have something to do with weird numbers.

Heidi thought 550.

[Karl Matthews]

The had a situation on Saturday night when they realised there were a bunch of unticketed people on site who were mostly locals. A decision was made that they could go to front gate and exchange $50 for a wrist band and avoid trouble which worked out well.

There were 600 wrist bands to start with and none at the end of the event.

They had there first tool budget which was $2500

They are buying a shipping container at $2600 which will be stored on a near by farm.

Temple budget blew out to $2800 I think

I'm pretty sure the effigy (roo man) ended up costing over $9000 a large amount of that was scaffolding. 

Will be interesting to see how much there 4 marquees ended up costing, unfortunately the gate marquee was stolen post festival.

They hired a Ute and a trailer from the 8th of Sep till the 6th of Oct, not to sure of the cost. 

There is a fuel cost for the generators and the ute as well, not sure on that either.

Blah blah any other questions?

Will write more about my time there in a separate thread when I get a little more settled. There is a massive oppertunity to work a lot more closely with those guys, they have an amazing crew.

[Kathy Guidi]

Interesting Karl.  So they definitely upped their spending this year.  It will be interesting then to see how their numbers pan out.   Does anyone know their average ticket price?  One price or do they tier it as well?

[Hippie Tim]

Tiered at $125, $145, $165 and $200 on the gate.

My experience was that their budgets definitely had alot more fat then ours, their costs are a bit different then ours.

They had less toilets then us, about 1 per 45ish people which meant they were more messy/used then ours.

They do seem to generate quite a large surplus, but all good with me, they gave the Temple for Christchurch a donation :)

Hippie.

[Kathy Guidi]

Played around with the budget.  Updated it for $1700 for fire service (went with 10 hours) and added another $400 for the extra use of toilets this week.  This brings our budget to approx $62,000.    

As of 15 minutes ago,  we've sold 553 tickets and have $49k in ticket revenue + $5k TDC grant + $4k in fundraising money for a total of $58,000!

So we're only $4000 or about 40 tickets short of the festival paying for itself this year.     FREAKING FANTASTIC!

Using Lumo's projection of 666 tickets sold (which represents a 25% growth rate and which I think is achievable),  we'd end up with a net profit after tax of about $6k to add to our beginning of year bank balance of $14k.

An enlightening year, eh?

Everyone should be proud!   It's all going........

Think 666.


.