At the SFSS board of directors meeting on Jan. 20, the board voted to approve a budget for a spring concert.
As recommended by Financial and Administrative Services Committee (FASC) on Jan. 15, the board voted to reallocate the remaining amount from special events (e.g. the fall concert) towards the 2014 spring concert. The budget for the spring concert is approximately $39,000.
“We’ve got a really strong team,” said business representative, Brandon Chapman, who brought the motion to board. “We’ve done a lot of our homework in terms of making this thing realistic and achievable.”
Buzz around a potential second concert was generated during Burnaby Clubs Days, as the SFSS volunteers handed out flyers gauging interest, asking, “Do you want a part two?” As it turns out, FASC had already approved a budget for a spring concert that morning.
Chapman reported to the board that many students expressed interest in another concert at Clubs Days, signing the SFSS sheets for more information. He also described to the board the changes that the events committee had in mind for a spring concert, which included new areas for potential revenue. Chapman said the hope is to cover some of the costs of the fall kickoff concert, and at worst break even.
“Our goal is to have a beer garden this time around. Upon conversations with the university, this is achievable, and this will help offset some of our costs,” Chapman said.
However, not everyone was as optimistic as Chapman concerning the finances of the project. External relations officer, Chardaye Bueckert, expressed her reservations about committing the rest of the special events/large scale line item budget — totalling $39,214 — to a spring concert.
Bueckert reported that out of the 1800 people that are estimated to have attended the fall concert, only 977 tickets had been documented as sold. “Regarding the ticket revenue, in the tracking sheet there was $20,367 accounted for.” Bueckert told the board. “According to the financial ledger, the actual ticket revenue was $33,844.10. That means that we have $13,477.10 in ticket revenue which we don’t have a tracking sheet that corresponds to. So that’s obviously a pretty large concern.”
Bueckert was also hesitant to acknowledge the potential for breaking even. “Regarding the projected revenue for this concert, the fall concert was actually projected to have a $6000 revenue. So I’m wondering if there’s anything we can speak to in our plans to avoid that shortfall again.”
She continued, “If you have a loss of approximately $24,000 plus that $6,000 projected revenue, that means we’re actually off from the fall concert about $30,000 in our numbers.”
Board members also discussed the genre of music to be played but seemed split between hosting another electronic dance music concert and featuring a different style of music.
“Down the road it is something that we’ve talked about, in terms of varying up the genres of music, and I really want to see that as well,” Chapman said. “This time around, we are trying to reduce costs and not change too much about this at first. When you’re dealing with a conservative university who is not used to seeing these events run successfully, you don’t want to make too many changes at once, so the main change we’re trying to make for this event is to add a beer garden.”
To mitigate costs, Chapman also suggested hiring domestic headliners instead of the international artists who played at the fall concert.
In summary, Chapman said, “The kickoff concert was a very successful event, and . . . as a service organization, a not for profit here to serve our students, making money is not the goal of these events.”
After almost an hour of discussion, the motion was passed by a vote of seven to three. Bueckert and Clay Gray, at-large representative, asked that their opposition be noted in the minutes.
The SFSS is currently in discussions with the administration surrounding a date for the concert, but students can tentatively expect to party on Apr. 4 or 5.
