Recently someone mentioned that they felt the costs of £15 per person would be too high for some people, and I would like to get everyone’s opinion on this. It’s been suggested I offer a lower concessionary rate.
Is £15 too high for you? Are you unable to attend because of this, or is it even a small problem to pay this much money? Even if you are happy paying this, do you think it might be too high for other people? Does anyone feel we would attract more people if I offered a lower rate?
I basically have no profit goals in this meeting, nor did I have any last year. In particular, I am one person with just a personal bank account, not any kind of registered organization. I’m not eager to be seen by tax authorities as making a profit, and since I have no idea what will happen next year I don’t want to keep anyone’s money for a next event that might not even happen.
I also expect, like everyone else attending, to pay my own costs, including transportation and entrance fee.
At the same time, I’m not really eager to put a lot of my own money into this, and I hope to roughly break even. This is about where we stand at the moment financially. This was my goal last year too. If significantly more or fewer people come this could change, but it’s how things look now. Honestly, as much as anything, this is to ensure these meetings can continue in the future if we choose, because if I have to put a lot of my own money into them I’ll be less likely to want to organize them.
Given everything I’ve said here, I can’t really afford to offer a reduction in the entrance fee a lot of people would want to take advantage of, and instead what I’ve focused on is keeping everything as cheap as I could for everyone.
If you look at what’s being asked for Tom Wagner’s workshops elsewhere in Europe, they are mostly all considerably more expensive, and I’m under a little pressure in this way to try to raise more money in order to help fund Tom’s breeding and touring efforts. I feel pretty strongly however, that if I did ask more than £15, some people would really be unable to come and this would significantly change the nature of our meetings, making them much more elite.
Besides making general comments here or in email, please feel free to contact me about your personal situation. If you would like a reduction or would like to attend for free, I’d be glad to hear this and will try to work something out. Likewise, if you would like to make a donation towards paying other people’s costs or to help Tom’s breeding efforts, please let me know this too.
