# Job Security vs. Revenue...



## paul (Oct 12, 2006)

I'm a Tech Director for a school district in Michigan. Money and budgets have been increasingly tight over the last several years, as I imagine they have for everyone. This year my hours were cut by more than half. I was told that if I can bring in more rentals (a.k.a. more revenue), that I could work more hours. 
So I'm left wondering: 
How am I doing in comparison to other auditoriums, performing arts centers, ect.?
Last fiscal (school) year I generated about $26,000 in revenue.
1) Is anyone willing to share their ballpark figures? 
I know that there are more variables, circumstances, and determining factors between venues than I could ever hope to wrap my head around, but I'm still curious to hear some others' basic figures. 
Also,
I'm hourly, not salary. My budgeted hours are intended to cover the school district's events, as well as outside rentals. I've tried excluding my outside rental hours from the district's hours, but to no avail. The way I see it, the district should budget me hours to spend on their events, period. And any hours I spend towards a rental should be sperate, seeings as such hours are included (covered) in the rental's bill. 
2) Am I off in left field on this?
Thoughts on any of this will be much appreciated!


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## paul (Oct 12, 2006)

I suppose I should have posted that in the _Theater Management and Development_ forum....


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## jwl868 (Oct 12, 2006)

From a renter’s point of view (a dance school), around here, two-days worth of a high school type auditorium costs about $2,000 to $3,000. That includes the venue providing light and sound technical crew, one day for rehearsal, a second day for the performance/recital, a couple dressing rooms, and nominal custodial services.

I’ve also encountered numerous “pricing” formulas. That is, different rental rates for rehearsal compared to day-of-show; sometimes separate tech crew rates, sometimes tech crew rates included with the venue rental; separate rental rates for dressing rooms; separate rates for janitorial/custodial; a few places wanted security; some places had no tech crew for hire. In a few cases, it’s essentially a lump sum. A few places have a rental rate for all facilities and then a separate labor rate for technical crew.


Joe


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## Foxinabox10 (Oct 12, 2006)

One thing to be on the look-out for is if there are any churches that have out-grown their space and need a location to meet until they have the finances to build a new building. A church rented out our HS auditorium and a few classrooms every Sunday, providing their own sound sytem and operating the lighting system themselves and paid over $30,000 a year. It really brings the money in to have a group there every week.


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## Footer (Oct 12, 2006)

Foxinabox10 said:


> One thing to be on the look-out for is if there are any churches that have out-grown their space and need a location to meet until they have the finances to build a new building. A church rented out our HS auditorium and a few classrooms every Sunday, providing their own sound sytem and operating the lighting system themselves and paid over $30,000 a year. It really brings the money in to have a group there every week.




Keep in mind with that... they will be in there EVERY sunday... which means if you have a show up either you have to work around them or they have to work around you....

Also it might be time to re-new that subscription to artsearch..


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## Chris Chapman (Oct 13, 2006)

I''m up in Greenville and with our District event load it's actually hard for us to get rental events to clear a certain threshold. I have a lot of contacts with a bunch of the TD's here in Western Michigan. Shoot me an email or give me a ring and we can talk.

[email protected]

616-225-6108


I'm full time salaried with an hourly assistant. I'd be very interested in talking to you about the situation.

-Chris


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## jwl868 (Oct 13, 2006)

Here’s another thought: policies or rules that are already established by the school district may affect how much money can be brought in. For example, my observations have been that a “community group” [however defined] gets charged one rate, a non-profit non-community group is charged a somewhat higher rate, and any other non-school non-community group gets charged the highest rate. If your renters or potential renters fall into the first two groups, then there is less money to be made. The pricing policy may be established by the school board or the administration. If that’s an issue, it may be difficult to change. And on top of that, the administration may still have discretion as to what rate to charge. 


Joe


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## SHARYNF (Oct 13, 2006)

What some districts do is to have this external use managed and funded by a non profit company (501c3). This non profit then MANAGES this activity rents out the space pays the tech for their time etc. Makes it a lot cleaner, allows for access to grants and also allows for some tax advantages.

Sharyn


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