[Noisebridge-discuss] Fundraiser at Cellspace October 9th

[dfine at sonic.net]

I think it's totally fine for a small fundraiser to break even if it
introduces a lot of new people to your cause. It can pay off in
unexpected ways down the road.

To make money on a small fundraiser you can't leave it to chance, enact
a plan for fleecing the appropriate amount of money from each attendee
to make it worth the effort.
--D

> I in fact still have the money with me.
>
> Likely to no one's surprise, we did not do well.
> Simply put, many people saw free bar and actively ignored the donation
> box.  Additionally, there were a select few who definitely consumed
> more than the average guest (and generally donated little or nothing).
>
> At the end of the night, we had $325 in donations. (Don't take this
> number as too much yet, see below)
>
> The amount spent on the items were as follows:
> Keg of beer $130
> Ice $27.79
> Capt. Morgans $22.98
> Salsa $5.49
> Chips $3.95
> Cups $10.94 (there are many of these cups left over, however, and can
> as such be used another time).
>
> Additionally, paper towels and toilet paper were purchased for the
> space at costs of $16.20 and $19.70.  As these two items were somewhat
> separate from the bar, I'll leave them on the side.
>
> In total I fronted $201.15 yesterday for items for the bar.  The
> amount I spent running around town and on parking meters for this,
> along with a bottle of port I randomly donated will also be left out
> of this.
> The initial thought that we walked away with about $125 extra sounds
> good at first (or not terrible, anyway), but that number will get
> dropped quite a bit, sadly.
>
> Firstly, in order to keep the cash in the place safe, we emptied the
> money from the fridge (it seemed like a bad idea to have a stash of
> money that random people could find).  We didn't count this
> (stupidly), and I am very unsure how much was there, but I'd say
> somewhere between $30 and $50.
> Then, there are some costs we incurred that are not included in my own
> expenses.  We went through a bit of the soda that was kindly purchased
> by JSharp -- I'm not sure at all how much off hand, but somewhere in
> the vicinity of ~1.5 cases of soda (approx $20), and perhaps another
> $20 in various other items (vitamin water, hansens, a couple mexican
> cokes [we didn't hand those out really], some candy).  We also were
> lucky enough to have Miloh's latest soda, which he put together
> entirely at his expense, and I have no idea how much it cost.
>
> In the end, I'd say we broke even or made $20-40.
> --
>
> So, do I think it was a good idea to do the bar?
> I'm split.  I've heard of three "incidents" that people saw as
> alcohol-fueled and "not excellent".
>
> The girls with the chairs were the most destructive, and I did
> actually immediately tell aestetix who was near me to go have them
> stop -- which they ended up doing themselves.  I think this was a
> situation where everyone thought it was bad and should stop, but
> somehow no one felt empowered to be able to say anything.  A point I
> actually put on the meeting agenda for earlier this week was that ANY
> member has the right to tell guests to cut shit out, or get the hell
> out of our space, but I sadly was unable to make it.  I think we
> should drive this point home again though, as it applies to anytime
> someone is doing something that is not excellent at Noisebridge.
>
> I also heard of someone spilling a beer and leaving it, and rumour of
> an incident in which a genius decided to pee off the fire escape
> (which I'm still not convinced happened).
> The spilt beer is sadly inevitable at events, and I see as less a
> result of us having an open bar.  I've seen bottles of beer people
> brought themselves spilt over the floor at 83c, and while people are
> then mostly responsible to clean it up themselves, it's sadly not
> always done.  I would encourage members to take the initiative to tell
> someone who spills their drink to clean it up, and then to help them
> do it (at the very least in assisting them get cleaning materials).
> Accidents happen, and let's not stress over this too much.
> With the fire escape, I sadly feared someone might do something
> stupid, although I somehow predicted it would be something a bit
> different than urinating off it (I envisioned worse -- someone
> throwing a bottle or the like).  I might suggest we side-step this
> issue in the future by not allowing people to use the fire escape to
> smoke -- it's going to be one of those things where one stupid asshole
> ruins it for everyone else who is responsible.
>
> I do not think the bar was really a bad influence, however.  There has
> always been a large amount of alcohol at 5mof events, and whether
> people bring it or provide it, it will be a large influence.  In
> providing it, I think we significantly reduced the amount of bottles
> that are often left floating around the space (to the point of almost
> eliminating them), and we didn't even seem to fill up our recycling
> bin.  We had no incidents of broken glass during the event either.
>
> The down sides that the bar introduced was that there were likely some
> people who drank more than they may have otherwise.  There was also an
> increased liability for those who ran the bar (especially me, as I
> purchased the keg).
>
> Before attempting to run a bar at Noisebridge again, I would have more
> organisation involved and look into ways to help reduce the chances of
> problems and increase the chances of donations.  I in fact have a
> number of realistic ideas on this that should also hope to allay the
> complaints some had of having an open bar (especially if we can find a
> way to enforce something like a 3 drink maximum and have a closing
> time for the bar).
> If people think it's a good idea to try and repeat this, let me
> know... with some help, I think we can do it right.
>
> Jeffrey
>
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 12:50 AM, Rubin Abdi <rubin at starset.net> wrote:
>> Christie Dudley wrote, On 2009/09/18 22:52:
>>>
>>> I am curious how much we made on the "donation only" open bar we had
>>> the
>>> other night.
>>
>> Poke Jeffrey as I gave him all the big bills before I left for the
>> night.
>>
>> Last count we made enough to pay for all the booze we bought that
>> night,
>> two ice runs, and some snacks with extra left over.
>>
>> --
>> Rubin Abdi
>> rubin at starset.net
>> _______________________________________________
>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>
>