Funding

[Guy]

Following conversation on funding on Saturday evening - if we choose not to go down the route of funding coming from members, is there a way in which we could set up a reciprocal deal with any of the key manufacturers we deal with? Especially given the interest generated by Charles / Jo from Fuji etc already.

For example allow BlackJacket to advertise on this site and provide a click through to their web-site via a "Sponsors page." We as members then buy a BlackJacket, quote a promotional number and instead of receiving a discount ourselves for the product, BJ provide the LF-Group with a % of the value of the purchase? Maybe this happens at certain times of year as opposed to all the time - could provide "Sponsors" with a useful boost at a seasonally low point for sales??

Other interested parties could be Fuji (perhaps instead of free film?) Ilford, Robert White, Gnass Gear, Lee Filters, Epson, www.on-linepaper.co.uk, siverprint.co.uk

Or how about if you use a "For Sale" area and if you happen to sell something to another member then you donate say 0.5% to the site?

Other than that, publishing the costs already borne by certain members with a simple formula of costs / members = £. Open and transparent...? Funding then given through paypal..?

[Charles Twist]

Some of your sponsorships idea sound fine, and it would be nice to recover our admin costs. So I am generally in favour. My concern with generating money for the group (as opposed to getting a straight discount), is that we end up with more money than we need. What do we do with the profit? Who decides what it should be spent on? It's the kind of thing that splits groups. Money is the root of all evil. If we go with either of your ideas, or if we become a more official organisation (society?), we are going to need a treasurer. Fancy the job?
From my very personal point of view, I am not keen on ANY paperwork. I am happy for people to bring freebies to the group in exchange for logos on our website. I am happy for the admin folk to present bills to the group and those who feel like participating in the group, can participate to its expenses. If everyone chips in, the costs are minimal. If nobody chips in, the costs are too much to bear and whatever that money buys, is not maintained - a simple reflection of interest levels. Seems a sound principle to me.
A simple, unostentatious but not necessarily unambitious group of like-minded enthusiasts: that's who we are. IMHO.
Over to you.
Charles

[PAUL O]

The subject of funding never figured in the original idea for this group because I never envisaged that the group would develop at the speed it has
I have had to consider the matter and my own opinion on the subject is fairly clear - we, as a group need to generate funds as and when workshops are run in order to meet any costs incurred by those organising the event. However, by "costs" I'm talking about people's expenses - not wishing to make examples of individuals but Jo Carter is a prime case for this!

Jo puts in a great deal of time and effort in arranging "workshops" and incurs legitimate costs - telephone and petrol etc and I feel that, although she doesn't do this for money, it is only fair that we, as a group recompense her for all (hopefully) or the greater part of these costs. Hence the "whip round" at Somerset! But for the record I know for a fact that the money collected did not meet the costs incurred by Jo!

I feel that "sponsorship" from companies is going to take the form of equipment loan or film samples and will not generate income as such.
I think that individual donations at workshops are the way forward? It may even be an idea to "charge" a nominal fee for attending - this charge will cover these costs and is likely to be in the order of (say) £3 per person.

Nobody is going to make a living from arranging our workshops!!

If 20 people take part then the "collection" will make £60. This should be sufficient to cover the expenses of the organiser?

We then have to think of the cost of a "meeting room" for the event - the cost here seems to run at anything from £20 to £40 for 2 evenings.
Despite maths not being my strong subject I reckon that if everyone attending a workshop paid a fiver these costs (organising expenses and room hire) would be met - not much in the world of LF photography!

The subject of running/maintaining the website is another cost incurred by some people.

I propose that in order to meet these costs a subscription to everyone on the email list should be introduced - again this cost is likely to be very minimal? We are possibly talking of as little as £5 per annum.

I support Guy's idea that all monies/transactions be transparent - I wholeheartedly trust the people I have had the privelidge of meeting on these workshops and I am confident that if the group disbanded then any remaining monies would be divided and returned to "members" without hesitation.

Some of you may think that this is a naive point of view? However, the person who failed to return any money would certainly become an outcast and made to wander the LF world without a friend and never able to raise their head, banished to the wilderness etc etc etc all for the sake of a couple of quid! Would you??

So to recap! If you are on the mailing list you subscribe annually to the sum of between (say) £5 and £10.

If you attend a workshop then the basic charge would be £5 for room hire and expenses - if the costs are more (due to location etc) then this will be discussed prior to the event being organised and participants allowed to withdraw or adjust payment.

Enough of my rantings! What do other people think?

[Charles Twist]

I like the idea of being cast out and sent to a wilderness: do I get a plentiful supply of film??
More seriously: if Jo and Marc are out of pocket, could they let us know by how much? I am confident the honest folk on this list will make sure they are not of pocket for long (total debt divided by number of volunteers = individual contribution). More prickly: how do you calculate the contribution in time? Or do we just say these people have kindly given of their time? (I have no opinion on the latter question and am not thereby seeking retribution.)
Charles

[masch]

Personally, I prefer to keep funding arrangements informal but transparent. I will (when I get 'round to it) post a summary of wewbsite expenses on the Anouncements Forum, which will detail costs of registration, etc. and how much it will cost to run per month.

The "Passing the Hat" in Somerset (Is there a song in there somewhere ) resulted in the sum of GBP 24, which I envisage will get us along close to October. I'm happy to donate the running costs up to now, depending on what I can arrange with tho hosting company. I'm not too fussed about meeting the costs exactly, asl on as we are no mor ethan say 10% out or so.

On the sponsorship front, I prefer to actually get reductions and freebies from comanies for the meetings. If we really want, we can put a quid on a box of sheet film to raise small amounts of money needed.

In general, I'm not expecting HUGE amounts of money required. The website can probably in long term future run on GBP 100+ a year, which should be possible to meet easily. I'm happy to put my time into this for free at the moment, since I actually like doing it.

Marc

[Charles Twist]

I agree: I don't need money for my time as the job is its own reward. When it becomes a chore, I'll throw the towel in.
Charles

[Richie Hall]

Being a new member i would have no hesitation in contributing to the funding of this site or society, I would even pay the £100 for the site admin costs, i figure the experience and possible assistance i may glean from all you more experienced people would be recompense enough.

I have just been on a beginners workshop with Joe Cornish where i paid a not too disimiliar sum for one day and worth every penny it was too as it exposed me to LF and has now given my an interest i know will not wane.