Ladies and Gentlemen, Arisia is in financial difficulty – the
Corporate Treasurer has stated that, in order for ARISIA, In-
corporated, to meet all of its current obligations, the Snow
Fund will have to be partially liquidated.
To understand the cause of this present difficulty, we must
examine the past four Conventions. Please understand up
front that for the purposes of this discussion, I am focusing on
Registration as the major source of income – I would like to
acknowledge the efforts of those who coordinate income from
sale of dealer’s space, art show hangings, and advertising in
the souvenir book; as well as any other income area I may
have failed to mention.
First, consider Arisia ’00, Paul Selkirk, Chair. This was a
fairly straightforward convention as far as planning for costs
and revenues went. The initial budget, which was amended
several times, planned for a profit of $6445 from income of
$52545 and expenses of $46100 for a planned attendance of
1522 people. According to the History page on the website,
actual registration was 1965. Phi’s Convention Treasury re-
port in February ’00 indicated that the final income for the
Convention was about $57,500, and bottom line for this con-
vention would be about $20,000 – $8,000 of which from a
“nonrecurring event,” that of the hotel waiving lots and lots of
incidental fees to the Convention due to the overbooking of
the Terrace Room – which indicates expenses were approxi-
mately $37,500; and the expense number would be $45,500 if
not for the aforementioned $8,000 in waived hotel charges.
Phi goes on to further say that the Con beat the income budget
by coming in with about $3500 more than planned and beat
the expense budget by spending about $2,000 less than
planned (work in the $8,000 from the hotel concessions, and
that number is now $10,000). So, three things went right with
Paul’s convention: They budgeted income based on a modest
attendance, they got greater attendance than expected, and
they got substantial expenses essentially paid for from a
source other than his budget. This was a windfall year as far
as money going back to the Corporation went.
Next, consider Arisia ’01, Elka Tovah Davidoff (then Men-
kes), Chair. Elka planned a con with total income of $62050
and expenses of $57985, for an expected profit of just over
$4000. According to an email from Phi, the actual numbers
were $49564.34 in income and $41827.66 in expenses. The
plan was to have 1561 people attend the con; 2082 actually
showed up, lending to the increased revenues and profit.
These unplanned for attendees can be attributed to the fabu-
lous dance thrown by Krista Ernewhin (speeling errors mine)
– which was heavily advertised beforehand, and resulted in
people who essentially paid a $20 cover charge to get into a
dance, and didn’t directly draw on the other resources of the
convention.
Now, consider Arisia ’02, Noel Rosenberg, Chair. Noel
planned a con with total income of $66680 and expenses of
$66065, budgeting the smallest profit I’ve seen. With a
planned attendance of 1747 and an actual attendance estimated
at 2375, I’m pretty sure Noel made out better than that – an
email from Phi confirms this with actual income of $68142.72
and actual expenses of $45732.92 – partially due to the people
who, on Saturday night, essentially paid $25 a “ticket” to see
Joelll’s operetta. Again, this is unexpected income due to a
single event that was well advertised and did not otherwise
draw heavily on the other resources of the Convention.
Finally, consider Arisia ’03, Skipper Morris, Chair. Skip saw
a particular trend in increasing attendance at our convention,
and planned accordingly, even going so far as to budget with a
sliding scale of expenses based upon actual attendance. The
Convention was budgeted to bring in about $4500 in profit; I
believe I recently saw a statement saying that the convention
ended with a profit of $1000 – $3500 less than expected.
Arisia ’03 did not have any one single huge draw, as Arisia
’01 and Arisia ’02 did; nor did it have any windfall waivers of
expenses as Arisia ’00 did. Without the well-advertised sin-
gle-draws the previous two conventions had, attendance was
apparently down markedly. However, it is important to note
that attendance would appear to hold steady with respect to the
general population of Fen. So, a convention was planned with
the expectation of actually serving a great number of people,
with appropriate income from the people to be served. It just
didn’t happen.
Now, in order to fulfill the corporate obligations, the corporate
treasurer says we’ll have to partially liquidate the snow fund.
I find this very disappointing; the snow fund exists to bail out,
not a particular convention, but the Corporation in case a
weather disaster hits, preventing the Convention from making
it’s hotel occupancy guarantee. Tapping Snow Fund in this
fashion sets a dangerous precedent. The Snow Fund does not
exist to make up for a poorly planned convention.
Furthermore, at the January ’03 meeting, the Membership
voted to transfer a substantial sum of money to the Grant fund
(where it is possible, but difficult, to return monies to the gen-
eral fund). I objected at that meeting, citing the low atten-
dance and the need to wait to see how the convention would
do financially. While it always looks good to the outside
world for us to transfer monies to our Grant Fund, we have an
obligation to pay our own expenses from the general fund
first; and then transfer any excess to the Grant Fund.
It is my intent, not to bring a motion, but to bring these
thoughts out for general discussion. It is my suggestion to the
membership and my advice to the conchair of A’04:
1) budget modestly – plan high expenses for low attendance,
and be surprised and pleased when you get more attendees
having fun for a lower cost of entertaining them.
2) The Corporation should not make a habit of using the Snow
Fund Self Insurance to haul the Corporation out of a bad con-
vention year.
3) That transfers to the Grant Fund happen annually at the
Annual Meeting, when the corporate books can expect to be
closed for the previous fiscal year, and that all grants for a
year be made at the January Corporate Meeting at the conven-
tion where we can generate the most beneficial publicity for
the Corporation.
Thank you for your time, your indulgence, and your attention.
Tom Murphy
The Marvelous MERV