[JONAT] Costs and revenue

[Bob]

Mark

You are right on a number of counts, but I disagree on others.  Keep in
mind, I'm an Engineer not an accountant, and forced into putting a budget
together as no-one else would volunteer.  The budget was reviewed by others,
but you can blame me for it 100%.

I did want to clarify one thing though.  The $5000 I mentioned in my e-mail
was seed money for printing the plates, not an out-of-pocket amount for low
participation.  Sorry if I mislead you on this - my better half would kill
me if I dropped $5k on this event!

Also, keep in mind as we move along we are refining the costs.  For example,
we have some legal advice (yesterday) that indicated rather than register as
a non-profit (not a charity) (registering as a charity is about $300 by the
way, this is info from late Tuesday) with participants, we're best to be an
association with members.  Although this is in Canada only, it still is a
pretty darn good saving, which would mean additional $ to charity.

I haven't heard anyone mention charity yet (including me), lets not forget
this aspect.

Bob England


-----Original Message-----
From: jonat-admin@autox.team.net [mailto:jonat-admin@autox.team.net]On
Behalf Of Mark Stephenson
Sent: February 26, 2004 2:41 AM
To: jonat@autox.team.net
Subject: [JONAT] Costs and revenue


"A good portion of our membership monies will come from participants that
are in the local clubs - this may create a situation where we would not
reach the break even number due to all of the "exempt" drivers in this
scenario" - this would tick me off royally as I'm the guy who is likely
going to have to spring the $5,000 to pay for the registration packages
until the money starts rolling (well trickling really) in." -Bob

See:
http://jonat.org/bob/registrationform/registrationbudget.htm
For the numbers I reference below.

Bob,

Oh, pullllleeeaaaaassssse! You are making it look like you are going to be
$5000 out of pocket if we only have 100 entrants. No way!

I started to write you an e-mail off list because I felt we were
overcharging. A number of us requested that you keep the costs down, but in
the end, the EC came up with a cost close to where it was before we started
the discussion. That's fine. It's your decision. I was too irritated at the
time and held the e-mail until I could tone down my rhetoric. This however,
sends me over the top, so I'm cranking up my old-time cash register and
pullin' the shotgun out from under the counter.

First of all, you guys came up with the rule that if there aren't five
entrants in a sector, the SC has to pay. Well, excuse me, but how are you
going to have 90 free SCs with only 14 paid entrants. You would have at
most, two people on a free ride. That means you'd have 102 paid
registrations which would equal, with shipping, $4794Cdn. Given total
expenses of $5369.28, you'd be out less than $600.

Cha-ching.

Let's take a look at some of the expenses. Why do we have to register as a
charity? In two countries? We're not doing any charitable work. We might be
passing money through to a charity, but it doesn't mean that we have to
register as one. All we have to do, if we want to go to the trouble right
now, is form a non-profit corporation. In the U.S. that costs a few hundred
dollars. I can't believe it's much more in Canada. You don't have to do that
in every country just because you're driving there. Just pick one. US?
Canada? But why be out of pocket now? Use some of the extra money after the
tour. There's $2000 in costs eliminated.

Cha-ching.

What are the registration inserts? We can get copies made down here for
5¢/page. If you double that for Cdn$, that's 50 pages per entrant. What are
we printing that's 50 pages? Someone is doing a whole lot of writing. If
it's the JONAT info, maps, and directions, the simple solution is to have
all that on line (as we discussed on this forum), have people download it,
and print it out themselves. If someone who doesn't have Internet access
knows about the tour, a friend had to have told them. The friend would print
out info. For those who have no way of getting the information, the SCs can
bring a copy of the route info to the starting point and have the travelers
make the copies themselves. Add another $565+Cdn.

Cha-ching -- savings subtotal $2565 pops up in curly numbers. At the same
time, we've cut the shipping costs, and reduced the amount of stuff the SCs
have to carry from one sector to the next.

Packaging costs. You have $2.00 + tax for packaging for each entrant. That
would be $20 for a box and filler to send 10 plates to an SC. We don't have
to get fancy to send things to the SC. Instead wrap the license plates in
old newspapers -- they're free. Go to the local grocery or computer store
and get boxes. Cut a piece of corrugated cardboard and wrap it around the
ten plates. Tape the ends and the overlap. The plates will provide the
rigidity. They aren't going to get bent. Packaging costs have now been
reduced to $0. Even if you wanted to buy boxes that were close to the
correct size, they would be at most, $5 with tax. For 100 participants,
that's a savings of $200+Cdn or around $50 if you buy boxes.

Cha-ching -- the little pointy-topped metal plates say savings subtotal
approx. $2700.

Now take a look at shipping costs. I think you are totally off base. If an
SC has ten registrants, there is no way it is going to cost $70 to ship 10
aluminum license plates to a SC (even if you were going to include the ream
of paper which doesn't appear to be necessary). I can't see it costing more
than $20 by UPS ground. Actually, I think something that size and weight
anywhere within the US would be about $10US. If it's a lot more than my
estimate to ship from Canada compared to the US, then ship one box with all
the plates across the border and have someone here send them out to the SCs.
Savings from $70 estimate to $20 estimate - at least $500 for 100 entrants.

Cha-ching, cha-ching -- savings total at least $3200Cdn.

OK, the big concern is what do we do with the late registrants? First off,
don't make an excessive amount of plates in advance. I'm assuming that we
are talking vinyl cut-outs on the aluminum plate. The most time consuming
part is setting up the software to make your image. Once that's done, it
doesn't cost any more to make up ten sets of letters than it does to make
100. Sure, you have to load the vinyl into the machine but that's a 5 minute
job. I know because my brother did it as a sideline for a while. Next, make
the late registrants pay. Make it clear that if they register after a
certain date, the plates will have already been sent to the SC, so they will
have to have theirs made specially and sent directly to them and there's no
guarantee that it will arrive in time for their sector departure. Get a time
frame for an order of a few plates from the vinyl cutter and post it on the
web site. Calculate how much it is to send one plate ground, 3rd day, 2nd
day, and overnig!
ht and have those shipping options available on the web site. Bump up the
registration by an additional $20 for your time and trouble to individually
pack the plate. If 25 of the 100 registrants are late (and if our club is
any indication, that's a conservative figure), you have an additional $500
in revenue..

If they don't get the plates in time, it's no big deal. I don't have a place
to mount it on my car and probably the majority of entrants won't either.
Jags in states with no front plate requirement often don't have the ugly
brackets installed. People in states that require front plates can't put
them on. So most people are just going to be carrying them inside the car
anyway.

With the savings and revenue projections above and with only 100 entrants
(an underestimation I'll bet) not only won't you be out of pocket, you'll
have over $2500 for charity, to form a non-profit, and as seed money next
time. If we eliminated the exorbitant $7.00 shipping cost and just charge
the $40 for the people who are going to pick up their plates at the
beginning of their sector, we'd still have nearly $2000 excess with only 100
registrants.

Keeping that in mind, here is how I'm going to approach it in my sector.
People who want to be JONATers with the plate and everything can pay the $40
or whatever. By the same token, you guys are out of pocket for the website
and the bank charges. If we had only 100 entrants, that would be
$4.50Cdn/person. So, I'm going to get all the people who don't want or need
all the paraphernalia to kick in $10US for you guys and the work you've
done. That would be about $15Cdn. I expect about 25 local cars to take at
least part of my sector, so that's another $375 for the kitty. Keep in mind
that my group is already paying $44 for the Rt. 66 Fun Run. The Phoenix
spur, the Fun Run, and the roads back are the exact same route they'd take
if you, me, and the local club was not involved, so there's not much value
add there. I'll push hard for the folks traveling to the Grand Canyon or
earlier in my sector to pay the $36US, or maybe I'll see if they want to pay
$20 and skip the license plat!
es and 50 pages of stuff.

OK, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'll get my route directions to
you, along with the hotels and eateries, just in time for the 2/29 deadline.
:-)

Mark - AZ


_______________________________________________
JAGUAR OWNER'S NORTH AMERICAN TOUR mailing list
REPLY TO : JONAT@autox.team.net
www.jonat.org
_______________________________________________