First, I want to say "THANK YOU!" to Cynthia for all of her hard work on the convention. Those of us who go have absolutely NO idea what kind of crap she takes from people and how much of a real headache it can be. And I don't know how much she might have ended up with for all of her countless hours (and her familie's countless hours) of work, but she mentioned to me that two weeks before the convention she was still THOUSANDS of dollars in the hole.
OMG! Can you imagine doing all that work and being in the red?! I can't!!!! I'm hoping she made a LITTLE bit anyway. What a lot of people don't realize is that if you don't make quota for the hotel, the rooms are VERY VERY expensive to rent. And each time you move something, they charge you to take up and redo chairs, etc. In fact, I wanted to do a power point presentation so people could see who won and just to LEAVE the stupid screen up and have a projector there was going to cost $1,000.00!!!! I could have died! So we declined. There was no way that was going to be worth it. Also, what Cynthia didn't mention was that when you put on a convention, you MUST purchase so many meals at $XX and the ones in the evening are MUCH more expensive than the ones during the daytime. In fact, in my area, the evening meals are something like $62 per person!!! Gross, but true. Sometimes I wonder how they get away with charging prices like that. And really nice trophies can run upwards of $40-$60+ each as well.....and no one pays to enter competition to cover that cost. And then there's the entertainment costs....we won't even go there. So, when you pay $XXX amount for a convention, it's not just the instructor costs you are paying for. (In fact, in all the years I've taught, most conventions I didn't get paid other than registration, or it was minimal. There are instructors that are helped with possibly room costs or if they fly from WAY far away, sometimes they are compensated for a flight, etc. But......it all adds up.) My cut is that maybe we should have a convention where there are committees that run the convention with one convention head to coordinate the whole thing. I took a lot of notes during the last convention, thinking that maybe if we could divide the responsibilities and have those responsibilities written down that Cynthia would continue her convention. (Unfortunately, Cynthia has stuck to her guns and said, "No", but that doesn't mean that someone else couldn't run with it.) Only thing is, if you'd do that, then if there is profit, who makes it? We have a convention in Marion, Indiana every year where the costs are kept to a bare minimum and we stay in dorm rooms during the summer when the college kids aren't there. Instructors are not paid or compensated. Coordinators are given a token $50 to run their portion (which you spend every penny,) and the costs for the entire WEEK are something like $150. Cafeteria food is eaten for about $100 for the week, and room costs are about $30 a night. But, this takes coordination and a good talker to get things going. Anyway, I just wanted to put my two cents in to educate some of you who don't know what goes on behind the scenes. If I remember right, Cynthia mentioned that you need to put up about $100,000.00 or so to make it go. I don't know many of us that would even give that figure a second glance. I certainly don't have that much in savings that I could forfeit should it not go well. I'm just thankful that Cynthia and Marcela have done this for years for us so we can learn from each other. Face Painting has come a LONG way over the past 5-6 years. Just go look at those old books and you'll see. (In fact, many of them are almost funny nowadays.) NUFSED. Arla Albers -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kat B. Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2009 8:45 AM To: Face Painting and Body Art Association Subject: [fpba-assn] Re: Diamond / Wolfe/ FPBAC "...that some folks have managed to suck almost all of the JOY, out of producing them..." That's a shame. All the convention producers in our industry are to be commended. I totally understand how much aspirin you all go through. It's a wonder there's not a padded cell reserved for you afterward. LOL "...one wonders about the Wolfe makeup if they can afford to sell at 50% off and still make a good profit..." Or did they do it just to get their product into the end consumer's hands and "stick-it" to their main competition? This is a marketing tactic used by many companies to hook consumers. Sometimes risky, but VERY effective. Marketing strategy or "knee-jerk" reaction? It's kinda like, "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?" The world may never know. "...I need to close the door on this chapter of my life. that my job is done here..." Thank you Cynthia for a wonderful ride. Smooth waters, steady breezes and warm sunny days to you. Kat B. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Face Painting and Body Art Association." This is a PG-13 forum dedicated to the discussion of Face Painting and Body Art. 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