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AAW Program Management

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Does the AAW use program management to document the cost/benefit of the programs it funds? I know that we have some great ideas, but are the results at all measured against objectives?

For instance, we hold an Annual Symposium. Is there a plan for growth? Is there any objective measure that we employ to call a Symposium successful (or unsuccessful)? Number of attendees, cost per headcount, Return on capital investement...?

I know that a lot of hard work goes into the Symposium- but has Youth Turning resulted in any tangible results, or would we be better off revamping it to cover regional Boy Scout Jamborees?

Finally, am I the only one that doesn't even look at the AAW Resource Directory? It's kind of like a phone book to me- I get one every year, and it goes to recycling immediately. Is it an anachronism in the internet age?

Can someone share the planning activities and how programs are funded?

32979
 
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Steve,

Those are all good questions – my personal observation is that not much, if any, costs-benefit analysis is done in any of these areas. The reason IMHO is that the AAW committees (and BoD) who organize all of these projects and initiatives change all the time. Rarely do we have the same chairperson or other members of the committee stay on the job more than 2 or 3 years. The resulting lack of continuity results in a lot of wheel reinvention with the introduction of new players, loss of lessons-learned, not much thinking outside the box (maintain status quo) and not much quantitative analysis – like – is what we did last year a good thing, and should we keep doing it. Correction of this problem may fall on the shoulders of our new ED – I certainly hope so.

In regard to the membership’s use of the Resource Directory, there was a question on that subject from our last survey. See the image below for a view of this survey question’s results.
 

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john lucas

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I don't use it as much as I use to. When I was traveling I would look up people near where I was and just give them a call. Met some interesting people. I still use it to find people occasionally. That happens more often than it used to because people are starting to use their real names online. Now I can look up where they are.
 
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Steve,

Those are all good questions – my personal observation is that not much, if any, costs-benefit analysis is done in any of these areas. The reason IMHO is that the AAW committees (and BoD) who organize all of these projects and initiatives change all the time. Rarely do we have the same chairperson or other members of the committee stay on the job more than 2 or 3 years. The resulting lack of continuity results in a lot of wheel reinvention with the introduction of new players, loss of lessons-learned, not much thinking outside the box (maintain status quo) and not much quantitative analysis – like – is what we did last year a good thing, and should we keep doing it. Correction of this problem may fall on the shoulders of our new ED – I certainly hope so.

In regard to the membership’s use of the Resource Directory, there was a question on that subject from our last survey. See the image below for a view of this survey question’s results.


Is that the role of the ED or the Board? (I'm not sure?)

In a program management model of governance, the "best" initiatives get funded. Best can be measured. It can mean more dues paying members, symposium attendees, or charitable donations. Projects with ill defined merits get shelved. If we are looking to run the AAW like a business, I'd suggest that EVERY 2011 INITIATIVE gets a sponsor and that sponsor becomes accountable for the measurement of the success or failure of the project.

It is not to hang the sponsors of the failures, but to recognize the failures early on so that funding gets cut and we don't waste money. I'm a big fan of self financing initiatives- such as the symposiums creating content and attracting attendees to mostly offset their own costs. Once all of this is written down in a clear, concise manner- it will be very easy to measure the ED's ability to make certain things happen (or not).

As part of the rewrite of the Bylaws, I'd like to see the inclusion of a published strategic plan for all major initiatives that is minimally visible to the membership, and perhaps even ratified by a vote.

On a project by project basis, I'd love to read a one to two page executive summary that captured (example):

Project: (American Woodturner)
Purpose: Primary communication with membership about the AAW... (expand)
Funded: Budget ($500K, 50% advertising funded, 40% financed from member dues, 10% newsstand sales)
Success criteria: membership approval rating via year end AAW 'how are we doing" survey 70% or greater, growth in outside AAW sales through newstands by 500 sales to non AAW members. (expand)

Project performance would be reported at the end of the year to see how did we do in estimating level of effort, costs, and delivering against a forecast. It gives people a chance up front to negotiate "reasonable results" and budget with targets in mind. If you don't produce results, you just don't get funded next year... that's what happens in the real world every single day!

Unless we get closer to this 'business-like' approach, I'm afraid we'll be failing another ED with another Board in 2-3 years...
 
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Steven,

The AW Journal is run on a contract basis – farmed out to a group of paid contractors…editor, publisher, printer, proofer, advertising coordinator, writers, etc. So that’s a difficult one to put performance metrics on. To start off with – who’s the responsible party? It’s probably the Publications Committee – which is an all volunteer group. Most of the volunteers in that group will not be involved with setting up these contracts – maybe one or two at most. And chances are, by the time some measurable “success” statistics are gathered, the committee members will have moved on. Generally speaking, the ED and St Paul staff, are the only ones who will have long-term continuity.

Additionally, consider that if you take the costs of producing the AW, putting on the annual symposium and running the St Paul office and gallery, that’s probably over 95 percent of the AAW’s annual budget. All of the remaining ongoing projects and new initiatives are generally very low costs, and many are self funded – like POP’s Fellowship Grants and the Educational Opportunity Grant program. Other examples – the online sales venues that was started up last year is totally self-funded. Another example is the online “virtual AW Journal" that kicked off last March – one of the many good ideas behind the online Journal was that it would encourage non-USA based turners to join AAW at the new $38 membership level – avoiding the high mailing costs to Europe and Australia for example - thus increasing AAW gross revenue.

So bottom line, this is a difficult nut to crack...
 
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Does the AAW use program management to document the cost/benefit of the programs it funds? I know that we have some great ideas, but are the results at all measured against objectives?

For instance, we hold an Annual Symposium. Is there a plan for growth? Is there any objective measure that we employ to call a Symposium successful (or unsuccessful)? Number of attendees, cost per headcount, Return on capital investement...?

I know that a lot of hard work goes into the Symposium- but has Youth Turning resulted in any tangible results, or would we be better off revamping it to cover regional Boy Scout Jamborees?



32979

Steve, I read your post and thought "good Questions." Now I have one, and it is not intended to be argumentative. How would it be possible to quantify the effects of the youth program at the annual symposium. These young folks may not become active turners until well after completing all their educations, and well into their career paths. We are familiar with the refrain, "I haven't turned since high school shop class." This may well be the case with our youth program or the Boy/Girl Scouts.

It could be the only real measure is, how many parents or grandparents attend the symposium just to expose the kids to turning.
 
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Steve, I read your post and thought "good Questions." Now I have one, and it is not intended to be argumentative. How would it be possible to quantify the effects of the youth program at the annual symposium. These young folks may not become active turners until well after completing all their educations, and well into their career paths. We are familiar with the refrain, "I haven't turned since high school shop class." This may well be the case with our youth program or the Boy/Girl Scouts.

It could be the only real measure is, how many parents or grandparents attend the symposium just to expose the kids to turning.

I understand your question, and I don't know that I have an answer. My original post is around the simple thought that I don't understand how the AAW makes decisions about which items get funded vs. those that don't. It also seems that there is no ongoing measure stick to see if the projects are producing the results, or if they are just being continued "because".

In corporate America, this doesn't (usually) happen. If an idea is noble, the organization may fund it out because they are a good corporate citizen, but projects usually support business goals (revenue growth, membership growth, etc...) I picked youth turning because it is unclear (to me) what the goal of that program is?

I'm not being critical of the program, but I don't know what it costs. I don't understand what the goals are (to educate the youth- to make them future turners? to make them appreciate wooden art as a medium? to make them appreciate hand made craft? to make them future AAW members?), and without knowing what it costs and what the goals are, it will be impossible to measure whether or not the program is functioning well.

In addition, it is also about the best use of funds. If the membership is 13,000, and 10% attend a symposium, what percent of those attendees bring children to the event that fit the project charter? Is it even the best venue, or are we just using it because it has always been this way? Usually, when new ideas are brought to the funding table, sponsors will have an A plan, and at least a couple of alternatives to present. If the Symposium costs $10,000 to run the youth program, could we touch more young turners by giving 10 local programs @$1000 to go to the vo-tech? (Hypothetical and rhetorical) Would that be a better venue because these kids are already predisposed to working with their hands, and closer in age to "joining' the AAW?

I suspect that a lot of what happens gets funded based upon who presents it, and we probably get a lot of good ideas. If there was some online representation of these ideas, you would probably find a lot of really smart people in the membership "accidentally" contributing ideas of their own...

I want our best and brightest working on the problems that matter.
 

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Steve,

If you have ideas on quantitative measures for the youth program
or any other aspects of AAW I would interested in hearing them.


Does the AAW use program management to document the cost/benefit of the programs it funds? I know that we have some great ideas, but are the results at all measured against objectives?
no not in a formal sense. one of the barriers has been access to financial data that supports such an analysis.

For instance, we hold an Annual Symposium. Is there a plan for growth? Is there any objective measure that we employ to call a Symposium successful (or unsuccessful)? Number of attendees, cost per headcount, Return on capital investement...?
I have done a bit of analysis on attendance numbers an demographics of regions. I have yet to come up with a satisfactory way of tracking attendance. The economy may be a major factor. Attenance at Portland was close to 1600. About 40 percent of the members who lived within 200 miles of Portland came to the symposium. Had 40 percent of the members within 200 miles of Richmond showed up we'd have had 2000 instead of 1600.

I know that a lot of hard work goes into the Symposium- but has Youth Turning resulted in any tangible results, or would we be better off revamping it to cover regional Boy Scout Jamborees?
Cost of youth is basically a room at the symposium site and teachers are given a demonstrator fee (about $3K this year for 5 instructors) Sometimes the wood is purchased sometimes it is donated. All equipment is donated. AAW members support the program through donation of volunteer time.
Read Tania Radda's article in the current journal. Benefits are immediate for the youth, the volunteers, and the member sponsor of the youth. Many youth become AAW members. Many volunteers use what they learn as volunteers to teach youth in their local clubs.
We expect the youth program to have some long range benifit.
I look at teaching kids woodturning like teach kids baseball in little league.
Few little leagers ever play high school ball. almost none play professional ball. The all know the game for life. Maybe our youth will buy a woodturning in 30 years.....

Running a similar program anywhere but the symposium would be most difficult from the standpoint of volunteers. At the symposium there are 12 assistant instructors in each class. A Jamboree held close to a large club might find 12 volunteers.


Finally, am I the only one that doesn't even look at the AAW Resource Directory? It's kind of like a phone book to me- I get one every year, and it goes to recycling immediately. Is it an anachronism in the internet age?
32979
You Don't get one every year!! The Directory is published every two years.
This is a baby step toward going digital. Also it is part of the going to 6 Journal issues a year.

Maybe we could do an "OPT out" on the directory. If there are lots of folks who just don't want one we can use that information to not print or send them one.
Over time when the number sent gets really low...

Projects like going to 6 journal issues do have some project management aspects with scheduling of the transitions, estimates of costs, increase revenue from journal sales. What we don't measure is number of additional membership based on 6 issues, the benefit to members of 6 issues.
From a scientific standpoint it would be nice to know what the effects of going to 2 issues would be. We sort of assumed going to 6 issues was good thing. Member surveys indicated support.

-Al
 
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Jake,

Virtually everything that’s in the hard-copy Resource Directory can be found on the site. And, it’s almost certainly more up to date. BTW, if you haven’t updated your personal records in a while – log into the members area and check to make sure everything is the way you want it.
 
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I use the resource directory all the time. Could be as a full time turner I just need to contact more places and people. And since my wife opened up Dunn gallery she is always asking me for someones contact info. The reasons run the course. A question on texture could get me looking up plenty of folks. It gets used in this house. And I keep the older ones out in the studio to give to prospective AAW members.
 
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Steve,

If you have ideas on quantitative measures for the youth program
or any other aspects of AAW I would interested in hearing them.

I have done a bit of analysis on attendance numbers an demographics of regions. I have yet to come up with a satisfactory way of tracking attendance. The economy may be a major factor. Attenance at Portland was close to 1600. About 40 percent of the members who lived within 200 miles of Portland came to the symposium. Had 40 percent of the members within 200 miles of Richmond showed up we'd have had 2000 instead of 1600.

Cost of youth is basically a room at the symposium site and teachers are given a demonstrator fee (about $3K this year for 5 instructors) Sometimes the wood is purchased sometimes it is donated. All equipment is donated. AAW members support the program through donation of volunteer time.
Read Tania Radda's article in the current journal. Benefits are immediate for the youth, the volunteers, and the member sponsor of the youth. Many youth become AAW members. Many volunteers use what they learn as volunteers to teach youth in their local clubs.
We expect the youth program to have some long range benifit.
I look at teaching kids woodturning like teach kids baseball in little league.
Few little leagers ever play high school ball. almost none play professional ball. The all know the game for life. Maybe our youth will buy a woodturning in 30 years.....

Running a similar program anywhere but the symposium would be most difficult from the standpoint of volunteers. At the symposium there are 12 assistant instructors in each class. A Jamboree held close to a large club might find 12 volunteers.



You Don't get one every year!! The Directory is published every two years.
This is a baby step toward going digital. Also it is part of the going to 6 Journal issues a year.

Maybe we could do an "OPT out" on the directory. If there are lots of folks who just don't want one we can use that information to not print or send them one.
Over time when the number sent gets really low...

Projects like going to 6 journal issues do have some project management aspects with scheduling of the transitions, estimates of costs, increase revenue from journal sales. What we don't measure is number of additional membership based on 6 issues, the benefit to members of 6 issues.
From a scientific standpoint it would be nice to know what the effects of going to 2 issues would be. We sort of assumed going to 6 issues was good thing. Member surveys indicated support.

-Al


Al-

I think the first step is defining as much as we can about the existing programs. If there are holes in some of the definitions, then we work to fill them. Do I know the answers to all of the holes? I doubt it.

What I would do if I was "King of the AAW" (since the King wouldn't be able to be voted out by his court :) ) is account for as much as I know today. I would bet that we have historical costs for lots of these things, and we could forecast the future costs if nothing changed- but things are changing all of the time. How we look at the data and make adjustments to keep the ball rolling is what leadership is all about.

Your analysis of Portland vs. Hartford was what I am after. Did the Hartford venue have less to offer than Portland, or was the drop in attendance due to economy? Perhaps it was disenfranchised AAW membership? If I were King, I'd want to know, and I want to be able to continually measure 'how I was doing' since Kings aren't usually fired, but beheaded by the peasants in a revolution...

Not to belabour the Youth program, but let's say that it costs $5000 for the room and demonstrator fees.. @ $48/year, we need to recover 100 "membership years" to break even. This could mean that we need 20 converted Youth turners to join for 5 years each, or 5 new members to join for the next 20 years. Either case, we recover most of the $5K investment. It is a measurement, not just throwing money into a program with no results.

(I am not suggesting that we kill the Youth Turning program, as I suspect that a lot of the participants use it sort of like day care...and may not attend otherwise)

The hard thing to do is change culture- in the past, I suspect that a lot of ideas were funded with no long range plan. Constantly changing management doesn't help either. Having it written down, and reported on, will allow for continuity and hopefully a more consistent AAW.
 

hockenbery

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Not to belabour the Youth program, but let's say that it costs $5000 for the room and demonstrator fees.. @ $48/year, we need to recover 100 "membership years" to break even. This could mean that we need 20 converted Youth turners to join for 5 years each, or 5 new members to join for the next 20 years. Either case, we recover most of the $5K investment. It is a measurement, not just throwing money into a program with no results.

Steven
Your analysis would be fine if the Youth classes were not part of the symposium.
Youth break even is more accurately 20 Symposium attendees....
$250 x 20 = $5000 Each youth must be sponsored by a registered adult.
(Certainly 100 memberships = 20 symposium registrations and it all goes into the general treasury)
Dues do not pay for the Symposium; it is paid for by vendor booth sales, attendee registrations, and some donations from the POP committee.

The symposium is run sort of like a cost center. It is planned on a break even number of attendees and registrations are priced for a break even.
when we get more registrations than planned we make money.

We get from 60 - 100 youth each year so we have 60 to 100 sponsors who have a registration. Maybe some decide to come for their youth maybe not.
also we have 12 volunteers for each of the 10 classes. that is 120 rotations sessions of volunteer work. Figure AAW members pay about $20 a rotaion period for their symposium registration. People pay $2400 to help teach the youth classes. That is one generous group. Sort of what AAW is all about.

A more meaningful questions is: do we attract more attendees if the Youth teachers did conventional Demonstrations or if we run the Youth program?

Many of the board discussions I was involved in used the membership number to describe a cost. If something cost $5k we would equate that to 100 memberships...

-Al
 
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Resource Directory

I can't say that I use the resource directory all the time, but when I do, I find it quite valuable. The layout can be more convenient than the on line version, especially when my power lines are underneath a tree as they were this afternoon. I mean, sometimes I know the name starts with Ha something and the guy is in Calif. somewhere, the paper page lets me go down the list until something clicks.

Mel Turcanik #7743
 
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Steven
Your analysis would be fine if the Youth classes were not part of the symposium.
Youth break even is more accurately 20 Symposium attendees....
$250 x 20 = $5000 Each youth must be sponsored by a registered adult.
(Certainly 100 memberships = 20 symposium registrations and it all goes into the general treasury)
Dues do not pay for the Symposium; it is paid for by vendor booth sales, attendee registrations, and some donations from the POP committee.

The symposium is run sort of like a cost center. It is planned on a break even number of attendees and registrations are priced for a break even.
when we get more registrations than planned we make money.

We get from 60 - 100 youth each year so we have 60 to 100 sponsors who have a registration. Maybe some decide to come for their youth maybe not.
also we have 12 volunteers for each of the 10 classes. that is 120 rotations sessions of volunteer work. Figure AAW members pay about $20 a rotaion period for their symposium registration. People pay $2400 to help teach the youth classes. That is one generous group. Sort of what AAW is all about.

A more meaningful questions is: do we attract more attendees if the Youth teachers did conventional Demonstrations or if we run the Youth program?

Many of the board discussions I was involved in used the membership number to describe a cost. If something cost $5k we would equate that to 100 memberships...

-Al

Ok- I am very interested in this conversation.

I wasn't picking on the Youth Program, not suggesting that anything in the Youth Program needs to change. I was merely using it to illustrate the mystery of AAW Program Management. I simply don't understand how things are managed.

Starting from scratch: How does the AAW make funding decisions for the programs it sponsors? Let's say that I decided I want to start a program to get more turners of a certain demographic to take up some unfunded activity that the AAW sponsors. What do I do? Do I write a proposal that gets approved by the Board? Does it then transfer to the ED to manage results? or does black magic occur and everything just happens on it's own?

I know that I can apply for EOG and POP Grants, and perhaps those things can be incubators for new ideas. This seems like a good place to fund new ideas, since the funding is limited to smaller amounts, and it limits the AAW's exposure on new ideas. ($1500 loss, max IIRC) Perhaps we could move to an incubator model (or a light-handed VC:) )

No matter what we do, I think it makes sense to clarify the vision of every program with our new business acumen. I always assumed that the Symposiums were run as self funding events (which is the right financial model for the AAW Symposiums), and I assume that the Journal isn't much different. If we had a public repository that the membership could browse that documented what and why, and how much it cost, and how it was funded- I bet we'd find all kinds of smart people in the AAW willing to contribute their ideas to make it run better and more cost effectively.

Do we have an AAW Program Management committee forming?
 
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Starting from scratch: How does the AAW make funding decisions for the programs it sponsors? Let's say that I decided I want to start a program to get more turners of a certain demographic to take up some unfunded activity that the AAW sponsors. What do I do? Do I write a proposal that gets approved by the Board? Does it then transfer to the ED to manage results? or does black magic occur and everything just happens on it's own?
. . .
No matter what we do, I think it makes sense to clarify the vision of every program with our new business acumen. I always assumed that the Symposiums were run as self funding events (which is the right financial model for the AAW Symposiums), and I assume that the Journal isn't much different. If we had a public repository that the membership could browse that documented what and why, and how much it cost, and how it was funded- I bet we'd find all kinds of smart people in the AAW willing to contribute their ideas to make it run better and more cost effectively.

Do we have an AAW Program Management committee forming?

Steve, I'd not assume anything, rather find out for sure. You might be surprised. Or maybe not surprised. I'm not suggesting either, simply saying that it's not a good idea to assume anything, especially right now.

What you are witnessing and what this organization is going through, is one of the major steps that a nonprofit organization experiences, if it is to change and grow over time. The BoD only recently made the first step necessary to transition from a working board to an advisory board -- hiring an executive director to implement the policies voted on by the BoD.

I'm guessing that it might take the BoD awhile to phase out their involvement in management of AAW activities and awhile for the new executive director (who has not even been hired yet) to develop and implement his or her plans for carrying out the directives of the BoD.

Finding out how the AAW made decisions on which programs would give you an idea of how things were done in the past. But change has happened, so it might take awhile to figure out how they and the new ED will manage AAW's affairs in the future. Tom Wirsing's statement at the beginning of the board meeting in Hartford provides a clue, "The BoD will decide policy and the administration will carry out that policy and neither should interfere with the other (I'm paraphrasing)."

The work of BoDs gets done at the committee level (that's the way it's supposed to happen, anyway). Whatever program you are interested in, contact that committee chair. All the committees are listed on the AAW website.

Bottom line . . . you might just have to wait awhile to get your questions answered in a way that reflects the way things will be done in the future. In the meantime, if there's something you are passionate about, contact a committee chair to express your opinions or to submit a proposal. Or email the interim ED, Linda Tacke, lt@woodturner.org.

In my opinion, asking your questions on the Forum is not direct enough to get the answers you are looking for. The Forum can work well for having a discussion, but achieving anything beyond a discussion probably should not be expected. (And that's okay, it might be that you are simply wanting a discussion and discussions can lead to all sort of actions.)


Betty Scarpino, editor, AW
 
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In my opinion, asking your questions on the Forum is not direct enough to get the answers you are looking for. The Forum can work well for having a discussion, but achieving anything beyond a discussion probably should not be expected. (And that's okay, it might be that you are simply wanting a discussion and discussions can lead to all sort of actions.)


Betty Scarpino, editor, AW

Betty-

My question is to encourage conversation around the topic, and to expose how decisions have been made in the past. It is also meant to encourage peopleto contribute their thoughts to the discussion, with a hope that the BoD and the interim ED are taking notes an reviewing the thoughts of the membership on a great many topics.

The conversation has already exposed a few very good tidbits. If we can get all of the bits and pieces together in one forum, we'll find a better AAW at the end of this transformation.

I hope...

steve
 
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Just thinking outloud

This tread is interesting. For some time past I have had some of the same questions floating around in my mind. Perhaps one such question addresses the foregoing in a basic way: What exactly is AAW, the national organization? I believe its basic function is to facilitate the flow of information, to facilitate “group accessâ€to such things as insurance coverage, a national publication providing information of value to those interested in woodturning, provided a “clearing house†through which, for instance,the POP group can function. To charter and recognize AAW chapters, costs something, I suspect-value returned will be more memberships—How many is always unknown except for those reporting 100%
The master insurance provided to the AAW chapters is of significant value, but it is doubtful one can put a cost-return valuation on that particular item. Maintaining the AAW web and this very forum is a service the cost-return valuation would be most difficult to ascertain, except to note that the actual percentage of member participation is only about 10%, I think was noted somewhere by Steve.
The audit report published in the June issue of American Woodturner shows the annual symposium was concluded with an economic short fall of $37,500. (income 339,847., expense $376,847) I suspect one can look at old audits and determine the same information via this web site. We also learn from that report that “publications and products†had a sort fall $170,998. This involves the major information facilitating service of AAW, and I suspect prompts/supports a significant memberships—how does one ascertain the value return—uses about 3500+ members to support.
My point being each activity of a facilitating organization has an intangible which cannot be cost return -valued simply because collecting and circulating information, providing a venue for “adjunct†groups such as POP, segmenting, pen-pencil turning groups, does not have and cannot have a dollar value return, short of the membership fees associated -generated by those groups. That is an intangible impossible to ascertain with any degree of accuracy.
Perhaps I am wrong about all this, but the survey conducted a while back seems to me to support what Ihave said.
 
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This tread is interesting. For some time past I have had some of the same questions floating around in my mind. Perhaps one such question addresses the foregoing in a basic way: What exactly is AAW, the national organization? I believe its basic function is to facilitate the flow of information, to facilitate “group accessâ€to such things as insurance coverage, a national publication providing information of value to those interested in woodturning, provided a “clearing house†through which, for instance,the POP group can function. To charter and recognize AAW chapters, costs something, I suspect-value returned will be more memberships—How many is always unknown except for those reporting 100%
The master insurance provided to the AAW chapters is of significant value, but it is doubtful one can put a cost-return valuation on that particular item. Maintaining the AAW web and this very forum is a service the cost-return valuation would be most difficult to ascertain, except to note that the actual percentage of member participation is only about 10%, I think was noted somewhere by Steve.
The audit report published in the June issue of American Woodturner shows the annual symposium was concluded with an economic short fall of $37,500. (income 339,847., expense $376,847) I suspect one can look at old audits and determine the same information via this web site. We also learn from that report that “publications and products†had a sort fall $170,998. This involves the major information facilitating service of AAW, and I suspect prompts/supports a significant memberships—how does one ascertain the value return—uses about 3500+ members to support.
My point being each activity of a facilitating organization has an intangible which cannot be cost return -valued simply because collecting and circulating information, providing a venue for “adjunct†groups such as POP, segmenting, pen-pencil turning groups, does not have and cannot have a dollar value return, short of the membership fees associated -generated by those groups. That is an intangible impossible to ascertain with any degree of accuracy.
Perhaps I am wrong about all this, but the survey conducted a while back seems to me to support what Ihave said.


Thinking out loud is good :)

I am not suggesting that any of the existing programs get cancelled (yet), but that we evaluate ALL of them to a level of detail. If the Symposiums lose money, they are not self funding- the AAW is paying the shortfall. How do we turn them into a profit center? Raising the cost to attend by $20 would cover most of the shortfall... Or raising exhibitor fees or lowering demonstrators fess... or well, you get the idea...

Just because the AAW is a non-profit doesn't mean that we should lose money on programs. We should break even or better to fund even more programs on our larger programs. We can't have all of the programs with a shortfall or we are losing money...

Based upon your numbers, the Symposium and the Journal lose about $200K annually, or cost 20% above their budgets. If we did something like this for all programs, we'd be able to fix it...

Steve
 
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Thinking out loud is good :)

I am not suggesting that any of the existing programs get cancelled (yet), but that we evaluate ALL of them to a level of detail. If the Symposiums lose money, they are not self funding- the AAW is paying the shortfall. How do we turn them into a profit center? Raising the cost to attend by $20 would cover most of the shortfall... Or raising exhibitor fees or lowering demonstrators fess... or well, you get the idea...

Just because the AAW is a non-profit doesn't mean that we should lose money on programs. We should break even or better to fund even more programs on our larger programs. We can't have all of the programs with a shortfall or we are losing money...

Based upon your numbers, the Symposium and the Journal lose about $200K annually, or cost 20% above their budgets. If we did something like this for all programs, we'd be able to fix it...

Steve

Steve, don't forget to factor in loss of membership and/or attendance once you start raising fees. A whole lot of people are members of AAW just to get the Journal ( and don't care about the rest of it). If you push their cost for 6 issues to more than $10 each, you're likely to start loosing subscribers (members). It's well and good to be concerned with "profit" and the opportunity to enable expansion of some AAW programs, but if members see the net income exceeding the net expenses on the tax returns, they may (but may not) be resistant to fees increases. I can appreciate your business/efficiency approach here, but you're dealing with some intangibles that don't factor well into "good business" formulas.
 
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Steve, don't forget to factor in loss of membership and/or attendance once you start raising fees. A whole lot of people are members of AAW just to get the Journal ( and don't care about the rest of it). If you push their cost for 6 issues to more than $10 each, you're likely to start loosing subscribers (members). It's well and good to be concerned with "profit" and the opportunity to enable expansion of some AAW programs, but if members see the net income exceeding the net expenses on the tax returns, they may (but may not) be resistant to fees increases. I can appreciate your business/efficiency approach here, but you're dealing with some intangibles that don't factor well into "good business" formulas.

In short, the money has to come from somewhere. Dues have to cover costs, or we start in a hole. Symposiums can't bleed cash. if they do, we simply won't have the money available for 'other stuff' (whatever that is...)

It has to be looked at as a closed system, meaning that we cannot spend more money than we have. If the costs are X+Y+Z>AAW funds, something has to be reduced or go away. A good starting point is understanding the real costs, and then setting prices to cover those costs. It also helps to have a model that supports those costs. Dues covering Journal costs, Symposium attendence fees covering Syposium costs, etc...

Without knowing these things, we're just making things up. It doesn't affect me personally (I still get my Journal and go to events and such...), but if we truly want to get "professional", it's a necessary step. At $170K shortfall for the Journal, it means we need about $13 per member more, or to reallocate that $13 from some other program.

Reality isn't always pretty...
 
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In short, the money has to come from somewhere. Dues have to cover costs, or we start in a hole. Symposiums can't bleed cash. if they do, we simply won't have the money available for 'other stuff' (whatever that is...)

It has to be looked at as a closed system, meaning that we cannot spend more money than we have. If the costs are X+Y+Z>AAW funds, something has to be reduced or go away. A good starting point is understanding the real costs, and then setting prices to cover those costs. It also helps to have a model that supports those costs. Dues covering Journal costs, Symposium attendence fees covering Syposium costs, etc...

Without knowing these things, we're just making things up. It doesn't affect me personally (I still get my Journal and go to events and such...), but if we truly want to get "professional", it's a necessary step. At $170K shortfall for the Journal, it means we need about $13 per member more, or to reallocate that $13 from some other program.

Reality isn't always pretty...


So, let's open up the system! I always like the idea of raising more money rather than cutting expenses. I will not go without chocolate or new shoes (well, okay, some of you would prefer a new chuck or gouge).

There are many grants available to organizations such as the AAW. With our amazing record and history of education and programs, we could be first in line for a variety of grants. Yes, there was grant money raised in the past, but compared to the Wood Turning Center for example, we rank pretty low in funding through grants. I have in the past and will continue to suggest to the BoD and the ED that a grant writer be part of the staff in some fashion. A professional, experienced grant writer could fund his or her own salary and raise money for AAW programs. Easily. Or perhaps a volunteer grant writer could be found.

In the past ten years, I have personally received over $16,000 in public grant money, and I've not even tried all that hard. I bought a Oneway lathe with one of the grants :cool2:. (And, I'm not even counting the EOG I got from the AAW in the early 1990s.)

I don't even come close to having the horsepower that the AAW has for applying for grants. Even so, I'm well stocked with chocolate and new shoes and I have a darn nice lathe!


Betty Scarpino, editor, AW
 
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In the past ten years, I have personally received over $16,000 in public grant money, and I've not even tried all that hard. I bought a Oneway lathe with one of the grants :cool2:
Betty Scarpino, editor, AW

Betty, I don't want to start some sort of argument about the right or wrong of how grants are distributed. Here's the but: But, I do find it a bit disturbing that an individual has received over $16,000 personally from public grant money. In my mind public money is tax money paid by all of us and as such no individual should receive it unless an entire group is to receive the same amount without depending on the ability to ask for it in a select way. Heck I'm of the opinion there is absolutely no way public (tax) money should be used to promote woodturning in anyway. Now, the AAW grant is based on something different. This is not public so the powers that are authorized to grant it are the answering body. If the public, in this case the membership, doesn't like the way the grants a handled they can change it. This is not a real choice for tax money.
 
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Betty, I don't want to start some sort of argument about the right or wrong of how grants are distributed. Here's the but: But, I do find it a bit disturbing that an individual has received over $16,000 personally from public grant money. In my mind public money is tax money paid by all of us and as such no individual should receive it unless an entire group is to receive the same amount without depending on the ability to ask for it in a select way. Heck I'm of the opinion there is absolutely no way public (tax) money should be used to promote woodturning in anyway. Now, the AAW grant is based on something different. This is not public so the powers that are authorized to grant it are the answering body. If the public, in this case the membership, doesn't like the way the grants a handled they can change it. This is not a real choice for tax money.



For the sake of clarity and not being defensive: I received $1,000 from the State of Indiana. Public funds for the arts, and any state resident can apply. You are welcome to disagree, of course, and you did. I'm happy to get some of my tax money back, then spend it on the segment of the economy that supports the arts. I am a small business owner who happens to be an artist, as are many of my tax-paying artist friends. (And seriously, I did not buy shoes or chocolate -- well not too much chocolate . . .)

The bulk of the money came from the Indianapolis Arts Council (IAC) -- and the public I'm referring to is that anyone who is a citizen of Marion county, Indiana can apply for the grant. The IAC receives most of their money from Lilly Foundation (as in Lilly drugs, which is headquartered here in Indianapolis, pumping tons of money into our economy). No doubt many AAW members are prescribed drugs from Lilly, so to all who buy Lilly drugs, thanks for your support!! (But, just for the record and to be very clear about my statements on drugs: I'm against drug users . . . :eek: )


Betty Scarpino, editor, AW
 
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Betty, I don't want to start some sort of argument about the right or wrong of how grants are distributed. Here's the but: But, I do find it a bit disturbing that an individual has received over $16,000 personally from public grant money. In my mind public money is tax money ...

As Betty pointed out, your perception is incorrect. Most of the "public" grant money does not come from the public in the form of taxes but is made available to the public by both private and public charities. I have several clients who have established private foundations. Most of those foundations actively encourage grant applications and the AAW would have a good shot at receiving some of their money if a well worded grant request were made. (And, no, before anyone asks, I will not assist the AAW or anyone else make a grant request of one of my clients. I just don't do that.) The USA is the most charitable of all countries in terms of per-capita giving and in terms of the percentage of national income given to charity each year. Much of those donations go to organizations like the AAW. As Betty wrote, a good grant writer would more than cover his or her salary.

The downside to all this is there's no such thing as free money. The charities frequently attach strings to their grants -- they want to know how the money was spent and what results were achieved. Some want some degree of control over the programs that are funded by the grant money. That doesn't mean the AAW shouldn't be actively pursuing grants. It just means the AAW might lose some of it's freedom and would need to be willing to put up with some administrative burden in exchange for the money. I could see some large foundation (or group of smaller foundations) underwriting a tour of the AAW's permanent collection in connection with hands on turning demos at junior and senior high schools in the cities the collection visits.
 
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And on another note, the AAW merchant's discount program is a powerful tool already for attracting membership dues and with a gradual increase in participants it will be even more so.
I have no clue how widely it is used by the membership, or even what percentage of the membership is aware of it.

For myself, this year, counting all the beans, I got the Journal for free and real close to an extra $200 in my pocket.
Won't happen every year like that for sure, but that's a screaming deal.
 
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So, let's open up the system! I always like the idea of raising more money rather than cutting expenses. I will not go without chocolate or new shoes (well, okay, some of you would prefer a new chuck or gouge).

There are many grants available to organizations such as the AAW. With our amazing record and history of education and programs, we could be first in line for a variety of grants. Yes, there was grant money raised in the past, but compared to the Wood Turning Center for example, we rank pretty low in funding through grants. I have in the past and will continue to suggest to the BoD and the ED that a grant writer be part of the staff in some fashion. A professional, experienced grant writer could fund his or her own salary and raise money for AAW programs. Easily. Or perhaps a volunteer grant writer could be found.

In the past ten years, I have personally received over $16,000 in public grant money, and I've not even tried all that hard. I bought a Oneway lathe with one of the grants :cool2:. (And, I'm not even counting the EOG I got from the AAW in the early 1990s.)

I don't even come close to having the horsepower that the AAW has for applying for grants. Even so, I'm well stocked with chocolate and new shoes and I have a darn nice lathe!


Betty Scarpino, editor, AW


See, encouraging people to think and contribute!

I'm merely trying to point out that we need to have money to spend money. Spending money that we don't have is the American way, but it isn't very good business practice. Raising more money via grant writing is a great idea, and could potentially be very lucrative. I don't know what goes into it, but I bet that there's a whole block of text that can be cut and paste into a lot of applications. More at-bats is good.

Now, if that money happens to finance Scharfenburger, so be it!
 
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Only my opinion, but proficiency at grants' writing should be part of the ED's responsibility. And that's in line with the other thread on direction of a non-profit organization, the two go hand-in-hand. When you write grants for an organization, you have to be both broad-minded and yet goal-oriented specific. My personal values are such that priorities are not about 'getting the money' but providing the service and then directing it well and if you do that, deliver, then money is available. But it has to be articulated and followed well for that to happen.
 
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I agree, the grants I wrote (again not at all related to wood turning) covered some of 4 different salaried positions, and then some operating expenses, and only about a quarter of my salary did I put in those. I always put myself last, and the organization first, then the employees and benefits, and again that's just what a good ED does. But I do think far as job descriptions and non-profits, that truly is what the ED should be accountable to do.
 
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