Budget

Haven’t had a chance to open the spreadsheets yet, but great work Emily!! Just wanted to note that we will defo need public liability insurance, and we just got it down to £300/400 at Microburn, but the excess increased from 250ish to £1k

Hey all - so I have compiled two documents:

1. fixed cost budget (pot 1)

2. membership cost predictions under different scenarios (pot 1 + pot 2)

1 - for the fixed cost budget: this document is not really very different to the initial costing forecasts, except we now know we have an option for no cost ticket sales, I have added data protection predicted fee (don't know much about this, took cost from government website), I have added a first aid kit (small cost), and importantly I am unsure about insurance. I am fairly certain we will need some insurance but really don't know much about this -- I have added a trello card to look into it but no bites yet, perhaps we can flag more widely at the meeting? I can help sort it out -- that said, strongly suspect someone in the community already has knowledge about this and could save a lot of time! I have noted that microburn spends c. 1000 on insurance annually.

another cost not noted on the budget is potential for storage - likely not needed for the first year but worth noting

finally the fixed cost budget includes a 20% of total buffer - with hopes of keeping some funds for next year or at the very least avoiding overspend in unforeseen circumstances.

have i missed anything that is a legal etc requirement? any thoughts? what about the size of the buffer - any thoughts?

link to document in drive: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16WOeJLiXPsemB9g8clgA5kSdlo2QibenEz3jjP9FFPY/edit#gid=0

2 - membership cost predictions

note: because we don't know the situation with insurance the costs can be taken as underestimates, expect them to go up by up to 10% to add insurance / anything i may have forgotten. sheet is set up to update automatically so we can change it easily.

i have made 4 scenarios with different numbers of reduced cost ("low-income") tickets, either just different numbers of half-price or one scenario with half-price / quarter-price - and how this affects full price. this is covering the cost of pot 1.

for pot 2 i have calculated how large the pot would be with different average contribution sizes to pot 2 at the point of buying membership - so we can have an idea and also give guidance on how much is hoped for. i have assumed that anyone buying a low-cost ticket will not contribute to pot 2.

finally the total membership costs are predicted based on the fixed cost (pot 1) plus differnet levels of pot 2 contribution.

any thoughts? how do you feel about the % of lower cost tickets? this does mean setting boundaries for total available numbers. also i had a few thoughts about children as noted in the document - i am assuming 10 - 15 children will attend free of charge, but what age range does that include, and never discussed this with anyone

link to document in drive: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1itip-X-xFTNZMAXCSovH4jx3H7Vd-T1x5DYKov3C-Lk/edit#gid=0

hope this all makes sense! i can be reached by text later on today but can't come back to this fully until tomorrow night, sorry!

ye agree with both of you -- not only doesn't feel good to charge differently but would also be a logistical nightmare!! i reckon many with their own set-up may also prefer the privacy of the tent (well, that is my preference so perhaps i am biased there) - but also agree with fran that it may be a good shout to keep some small spaces as warm communal spaces / perhaps cozy spots / workshop / hangout areas (or spaces for people to "take over" / adopt to do things with?). seems there are a small number of beds in extra luxurious/small spots -- these spaces could be saved as workshop/activity etc spaces?

100% agree we shouldn’t have different prices for different comfort levels. I also think considering the weather, we should ‘reserve’ some of the smaller warm spaces for workshops, jam spaces etc etc. It could be that the remaining bedded areas are then allocated via a random lottery between all those who choose to enter it. They could enter by ticking a box when they purchase membership. Anyone who has their own setup (vans and what not) won’t enter. Once all memberships have been sold the lottery will run. Those who don’t have own setup and weren’t allocated beds in the lottery could then hook up with others to sort their own heated accomm (eg hiring extra bell tents) should they so desire. Since the base membership fee would likely be very reasonable (cheap) I don’t think this is asking too much of people...

I was looking into bed spaces, thinking about what could/ would a membership get you, thinking about what process to use to set price. If we think about memberships in their purest form, they could be - a monetary amount that you swap with the Celtic Burn org. to make the event happen. It could be that it doesn't equate to much more than that? (Conditional on the 2 pot theory as outlined above).

At a rough count it looks like we could have a potential 55 matresses in matress spaces (beds). This leaves the only communal space as the roundhouse and the cooking marquee. We could bring in a dome or two for communal spaces. It feels all kinds of wrong to me that people pay different prices for different comfort levels e.g. a tent vs a matress on a floor vs a lux yurt bed. If you can afford to camp/ van (with suitable April equipment) then maybe you should?

If the signup/ membership process works with a questionair/ google sheet 1st come system, it could also haev a questin for accomodation prefrence. Then as we email out for membership payment info we could just stop when we reach 55 indoor prefrences. The remaining memberships could then go to people lower down on the list for camping/ van prefrence. This doesn't take into account hiring additional heated yurts. It could be that once memberships have been exchanged, members become more engaged and there is more community energy to solve this challenge. This is a + for the argument that everyone pays an equal flat fee for a memberships.

I like your budget proposal! I think this is also quite an inclusive and flexible approach. Only possible extra consideration I would add is the size of the buffer in pot 1 - given it is the first year and there is no back-up. I've witnessed people ending up out of pocket in similiar instances. The team establishing the fixed costs could aim to be somewhat conservative about this to cover potential unpredicted costs?