Overview

In response to my (Bob's) comment "Who says we have to make as much money as last year?", Marlin said: Another question would be "Who says we have to cost as much as last year?"

I like hearing this; it shows we're thinking creatively about dropping the ticket price while preserving revenue, rather than just idly kvetching.

Granted, we can only reduce costs by so much BUT cost reduction is something we really need to look into, and not in an ad hoc manner. Here are some suggestions

Donations and Sponsors

List the major expenses and see how many of those could be donated. List potential donors, put together a promotional package (how many people will see their name, what context it's in, who the event benefits, past performance, other sponsors.) Approach potential donors in May or June. Specific items I'm thinking of:

The sooner we can put this list together, the more sponsors we can hit up, and the more luck we'll have getting what we need.

Construction

Design stations before any lumber is cut

I missed a lot of construction this year so I didn't see everything come together; some people have mentioned that we used a buttload of lumber not too terribly effectively (this isn't the first year this has happened.) Conveniently, we have a some skilled carpenters on staff and a few engineers; I suggest that before building anything elaborate, someone drafts a plan and someone else reviews it. When we're satisified the set will work as desired, we write up a cut list (list of all the pieces and what standard sized boards are needed) and go from there.

I don't want to add an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy but I want people to think before they use lumber. We've had a number of notable construction disasters over the past few years and we don't seem to be getting much better at preventing them. Also, with a plan, you can see roughly how many people will be needed to assemble something and you can distribute the work to others. I had some success with this on the Bunker (Hilton Mk I) and Rat Room (Hilton Mk II); it's much easier if you can tell an unskilled volunteer "I need four 39-inch 2x4s" vs "I need a window frame here and here." Also, if you give someone a copy of the plan, they can finish it if you come down with cholera or get sucked into a jet engine. Duh.

Summary:

Build for reuse

Somehow the promise of modular reusable off-site construction hasn't been fully realized. I know there's some resistance to the idea ("But I want to build something new!") but overall, I think that the people pushing for this a few years ago didn't clearly state their expectations (this includes, but is not limited to, me.) We need to revisit this. Again, it won't save us money this year but should pay off in the future. We did a good job with flats a few years back.

We also need to make sure whatever we build for reuse isn't destroyed by ignorant people at the end of the event. I've seen this happen and it makes me sad. Another benefit of reusable pieces is that they're easier to break down and store than custom construction. This should reduce the time it takes to clean up and leave us with a smaller dumpster bill.

Use Wild Basin's trees!

While I'm flogging construction, I want to point out that we do have a large source of natural decorative wood right there at the Basin. No, I'm not suggesting we run our own lumber mill 1? I do think we need more stations like Crystal's. If we could combine WB trail maintenance with construction and use some of the brush or trees they've cleared, I think we'd get better looking stations for free and subtly reinforce a nature theme. Obviously we can't use cleared trees for major construction, but we have a surprisingly small amount of structural construction compared to decorative work, sound, and visual blocks.

I have some heretical thoughts on construction.

Bring your own makeup

I suggest that people buy their own makeup and learn to put it on themselves. It's really not that expensive, it lasts if you store it properly, it's easy and fast and it frees up the makeup team to focus on elaborate work. Robin did a wonderful job with the zombie makeup class back in '97 and Jen did too this year (especially with everything else she had going on.) A bottle of rigid colloidon, a bruise kit, a tin of cadaver gray, and a black grease pencil ran me about $25 from The Bazaar and will last a couple years; add $5-15 for mousse, baby powder, cold cream, foam wedges, and cotton balls. Or make friends and share.

Footnotes:

1? Cue Monty Burns: "Excellent..."