Very detailed rundown on ride
managers' expenses, Angie. Very good.
I have been able to save money by
printing all my own signs with a printing program on my computer and a laser
printer. Also rider cards (on cover stock), rider lists, trail
profiles, etc. on regular paper. I use staples for attaching the
signs to trees. I print labels for ride finish order. I save
flagging from year to year, because it is tied on clothespins. Some of our
flagging is going into its 5th year, at least. A bit faded, but it still
works. I buy thin brown paper envelopes in large quantity at a paper,
restaurant and janitorial supply business. Light sticks are a huge
expense. We use 250-300 or so, at least $1 apiece.
The rider fee has gone up, and that's
no small potatoes. Also, in CA, we are required to pay the state a drug
testing fee of at least $5 per horse, maybe more now, and a drug tester almost
NEVER comes to the ride. I resent that fee, but there's nothing we can do
about it.
Someone mentioned counting
meals. We require riders to indicate how many meals they want and to pay
up front. We pay the caterer for what we order, whether or not the meals
are eaten. No one HAS to order a Friday meal, but the awards
breakfast is included in the entry fee. If someone cancels, we will refund
everything but the cost of the meals, unless they cancel before I have sent in
the order, which is about one week in advance. In that case, we just
destroy the check.
We feed the vets and secretaries
Friday night, Sat. lunch, Sat. dinner, and Sunday breakfast.
We would be paying a hefty special
use fee to the state park, but I convinced them to waive that because we help
keep the trails cleared.
>>>, the purchasing of items to mark the trail; a small
completion award and payments to vets(usually the vets are owners of our
sport, as well, and only charge according to the number of horses) all else is
considered FRILLS.
Again, I am a no frills person, but for my ride there were lots of
incidentals...like having someone come from out of state and driving around
borrowing water tanks and hauling water to remote locations for a couple of
days. Even when he wouldn't accept anything but gas it was a fair amount (but
worth twice that!). Some of our SERA "professional volunteers" come from a
long way off and work their butts off. Gas is about all they charge for
working so hard but that is another ride manager cost that is worth much more
and appreciated *immensely*. I consider those costs as basic as paying
vets.
Here are a few items from my checkbook I wouldn't have thought of in
pre-ride budget:
Stamps (boy have they gone up!)
Copy paper for rider cards
Copying ride flyers & cards
100 Brown envelopes for rider packets
Gas to run around town doing that.
Food & drink for volunteers
Lots of flagging
Paper plates & 4 rolls of colored duct tape to make arrows (that
stuff's expensive!)
Staples for staple gun
Office materials, legal pads, packages of ink pens, staples, paper clips,
etc.
Gas money for those who spent a lot for the "privilage" of volunteering
>ha!<
more gas money to go clear trails (at $25 per trip to my trail I'm afraid
to add it all up!)
cattle markers
electric posts to lay out vet check
Big markers (those are expensive) to make signs.
That's not even getting into T-shirts & awards expenses.
The last time I was ride secretary I believe I paid $1.50 per entry to
AERC (could be wrong...1988 or so). Was a little shocked to see I owed AERC $6
per entry and SERA $2.
Regions could save managers a *lot* of money by making a list of riders
who absolutely know how to use the internet and don't need their flyers mailed
to them. Riders should update their e-mail address with AERC. I wrestled with
that trying to find a way around it, but when one person who bring 3 entries
almost didn't know about the ride if it hadn't been for me mailing it out
by snail mail, I realize that mailing may be worth the expense.
I still did OK financially. There is a profit. I had good weather and
people decided to come despite gas prices. It would be fun to think "Hey, I
made a profit being a ride manager, this is a good deal!" Except...I
realize that if they'd forecast rain for 4 days prior to my ride and if it had
been lightning at the start like this morning I might have suddenly had 45
starters instead of 90 and lost more than I gained this year...so I'm just
shooting for averages. I'm *so* thankful to get to start out ahead or there
would be no "next time" but since I did, the ride can have its own emergency
account for next year rather than risk my family's finances. When Wesley
Crowe can tell me he lost money with 160 entries I know I'm walking on thin
ice.
One thing I won't do is limit entries by raising the price. When I said I
might have to limit the ride someone said, just raise the price and that will
limit it, but I don't care for that route. I'll keep the entry reasonable and
first come first serve.
